Price C J
Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, London, UK.
J Anat. 2000 Oct;197 Pt 3(Pt 3):335-59. doi: 10.1046/j.1469-7580.2000.19730335.x.
This article illustrates how functional neuroimaging can be used to test the validity of neurological and cognitive models of language. Three models of language are described: the 19th Century neurological model which describes both the anatomy and cognitive components of auditory and visual word processing, and 2 20th Century cognitive models that are not constrained by anatomy but emphasise 2 different routes to reading that are not present in the neurological model. A series of functional imaging studies are then presented which show that, as predicted by the 19th Century neurologists, auditory and visual word repetition engage the left posterior superior temporal and posterior inferior frontal cortices. More specifically, the roles Wernicke and Broca assigned to these regions lie respectively in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and the anterior insula. In addition, a region in the left posterior inferior temporal cortex is activated for word retrieval, thereby providing a second route to reading, as predicted by the 20th Century cognitive models. This region and its function may have been missed by the 19th Century neurologists because selective damage is rare. The angular gyrus, previously linked to the visual word form system, is shown to be part of a distributed semantic system that can be accessed by objects and faces as well as speech. Other components of the semantic system include several regions in the inferior and middle temporal lobes. From these functional imaging results, a new anatomically constrained model of word processing is proposed which reconciles the anatomical ambitions of the 19th Century neurologists and the cognitive finesse of the 20th Century cognitive models. The review focuses on single word processing and does not attempt to discuss how words are combined to generate sentences or how several languages are learned and interchanged. Progress in unravelling these and other related issues will depend on the integration of behavioural, computational and neurophysiological approaches, including neuroimaging.
本文阐述了功能神经影像学如何用于检验语言的神经学和认知模型的有效性。文中描述了三种语言模型：19世纪的神经学模型，它描述了听觉和视觉单词处理的解剖学和认知成分；以及20世纪的两种认知模型，它们不受解剖学限制，但强调了神经学模型中不存在的两种不同的阅读途径。接着介绍了一系列功能成像研究，这些研究表明，正如19世纪神经学家所预测的那样，听觉和视觉单词重复会激活左后颞上回和额下回后部皮质。更具体地说，韦尼克区和布洛卡区在这些区域所起的作用分别位于颞上沟后部和脑岛前部。此外，正如20世纪认知模型所预测的那样，左后颞下皮质的一个区域在单词检索时被激活，从而提供了第二条阅读途径。19世纪的神经学家可能忽略了这个区域及其功能，因为选择性损伤很少见。以前与视觉单词形式系统相关的角回，被证明是一个分布式语义系统的一部分，该系统可以通过物体、面孔以及言语来访问。语义系统的其他组成部分包括颞叶下部和中部的几个区域。基于这些功能成像结果，提出了一种新的受解剖学约束的单词处理模型，该模型调和了19世纪神经学家的解剖学目标和20世纪认知模型的认知精妙之处。这篇综述聚焦于单个单词的处理，并未试图讨论单词如何组合成句子，或者几种语言是如何学习和相互转换的。在阐明这些及其他相关问题上取得的进展将取决于行为、计算和神经生理学方法（包括神经影像学）的整合。
