Papathanassiou D, Etard O, Mellet E, Zago L, Mazoyer B, Tzourio-Mazoyer N
Groupe d'Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle (GIN), UPRES EA 2127 Université de Caen & CEA LRC 13V, GIP Cyceron, Bld Henri Becquerel, 14074 Caen Cedex, France.
Neuroimage. 2000 Apr;11(4):347-57. doi: 10.1006/nimg.2000.0546.
In this paper, we report on a PET activation study designed to assess whether functional neuroimaging would help to uncover essential language areas in normal volunteers and to provide a more accurate definition of their localization. Regional cerebral blood flow was repeatedly monitored in eight right-handed male volunteers, while performing a language comprehension task (listening to factual stories) and a language production task (covert generation of verbs semantically related to heard nouns), using silent resting as a control condition. The conjunction analysis, conducted with SPM, was used to uncover the network of activations common to both task that included three left hemisphere areas, namely (1) the pars opercularis and triangularis of the inferior frontal gyrus, (2) the posterior part of the superior temporal cortex centered around the superior temporal sulcus, extending to the planum temporale posterior part but sparing the supramarginalis and angular gyri, and (3) the most anterior part of the left inferior temporal gyrus at the junction with the anterior fusiform gyrus. The inferior and lateral parts of the right cerebellar cortex were also included in the conjunction network. Each of the three cortical areas, when they are site of lesion or electrical stimulation, elicit impairment in both language comprehension and production and can thus be considered as essential to language. Accordingly, the present results provide conservative anatomofunctional definitions of the Broca, Wernicke, and basal language areas. Interestingly, contralateral homologues of Broca's and Wernicke's areas also lighted up in the conjunction analysis that could be related to the interindividual variability of hemispheric language dominance.
在本文中，我们报告了一项正电子发射断层扫描（PET）激活研究，该研究旨在评估功能神经影像学是否有助于揭示正常志愿者的关键语言区域，并对其定位提供更准确的定义。在八名右利手男性志愿者执行语言理解任务（听真实故事）和语言生成任务（暗中生成与听到的名词语义相关的动词）时，以静息状态作为对照条件，反复监测其局部脑血流量。使用统计参数映射（SPM）进行的联合分析，用于揭示两个任务共有的激活网络，该网络包括三个左半球区域，即：（1）额下回的眶部和三角部；（2）围绕颞上沟的颞上皮质后部，延伸至颞平面后部，但不包括缘上回和角回；（3）左颞下回与前梭状回交界处的最前部。联合网络还包括右小脑皮质的下部和外侧部分。这三个皮质区域中的每一个，当其为病变部位或电刺激部位时，都会导致语言理解和生成障碍，因此可被视为语言的关键区域。因此，本研究结果为布洛卡区、韦尼克区和基础语言区域提供了保守的解剖功能定义。有趣的是，在联合分析中，布洛卡区和韦尼克区的对侧同源区域也被激活，这可能与半球语言优势的个体间差异有关。
