fMRI Language Mapping Studies

Please follow the links below to learn more about Language Mapping.


Auditory Verbal Activation

Passive listening to a story

graphic of experiment

Activation

brain scan

Left supramarginal gyrus

brain scan

Left > Right  Heschl's gyri


Auditory Non-Verbal Activation

Passive hearing of plain music (Same technical settings)

brain scan

Activation

Right > left Heschl's gyri


Phonological Fluency

Subject Right handed, 37 year-old woman
Paradigm ON: Retrieving words starting with a given letter
OFF: Think of a dark sky
Statistics
Statistical method P Value Z score
Correlation coeficient 0.0001 N/A
Images brain scanbrain scan
Activation This paradigm elicits activation of the superior aspect of Broca's and Brodman's 37 areas. Some activation appears in parasagital parietal areas. The color in the left pterional fossa is due to vascular inflow.

Semantic Fluency

Subject Right handed, 25 year-old woman
Paradigm ON: Retrieving words within a given category
OFF: Think of a dark sky
Statistics
Statistical method P Value Z score
T-Test 0.00005 4.2
Images brain scan.
Activation The left hemisphere shows predominant activation. The following areas were activated: Broca's, left posterior portion of middle and inferior temporal gyri (Brodman's 37), left parietal and left premotor strip. Wide activation is seen in the inferior aspect of the occipital lobes. The main activation on the right is located in the inferior aspect of the frontal lobe (Brodman's 11), a finding consistently seen in this paradigm.

Fluency of Verbs

Subject Right handed, 24 year-old woman
Paradigm ON: Generate verbs related to nouns (objects)
OFF: Count the letters of presented words
Statistics
Statistical method P Value Z score
T-Test 0.0001 3.8
Images brain scan
Activation

Broca's area and left SMA are depicted. Some activation appears in the left hippocampal formation and visual areas. This last activation could be explained as the effect of picturing the objects given during the "ON" condition. There is also activation in the right cerebellum and left inferior temporal gyrus.


Automatic Speech

Subject 25 year-old woman. Right-handed Volunteer
Paradigm ON: Saying mentally the pledge of allegiance
OFF: Think of a dark sky
Statistics
Statistical method P Value Z score
T-Test 0.0002 3.7
Images brain scan
Activation Oral and facial motor strip, greater on the right. Right parietal lobe. No activation is seen in Broca's area

Verbal Comprehension

Subject Right-handed volunteer, 32 year-old-man
Paradigm ON: Listening to a story
OFF: Concentrate on the back ground noise
Statistics
Statistical method P Value Z score
T-Test 0.0001 3.8
Images brain scan
Activation Left hemisphere activation is clearly greater. The activation is in the following areas: Broca's (image 5), Wernike's (images 4 and 5), left supramarginal gyrus (heteromodal associative area, in image 5), left motor and premotor strip. The primary auditory areas are also activated predominantly on the left.

Studies in Late Bilinguals

Subject

Right handed 34 year-old-woman. Native language: Spanish

Paradigm Type: Verbal fluency task
ON: Retrieve verbs related to presented nouns
OFF Spell given words
Statistics
Statistical method P Value Z score
T-Test 0.0001 3.8
Images
Spanish
brain scan
English
brain scan
Activation There is activation of Broca's area in both languages. The right thalamic activation is noted only in the second language. There is also greater activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus in the second language than in the mother language. SMA is more pronounced on the right in both languages.