Spitsyna Galina, Warren Jane E, Scott Sophie K, Turkheimer Federico E, Wise Richard J S
University Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London NW3 2PF, United Kingdom.
J Neurosci. 2006 Jul 12;26(28):7328-36. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0559-06.2006.
There is general agreement that, after initial processing in unimodal sensory cortex, the processing pathways for spoken and written language converge to access verbal meaning. However, the existing literature provides conflicting accounts of the cortical location of this convergence. Most aphasic stroke studies localize verbal comprehension to posterior temporal and inferior parietal cortex (Wernicke's area), whereas evidence from focal cortical neurodegenerative syndromes instead implicates anterior temporal cortex. Previous functional imaging studies in normal subjects have failed to reconcile these opposing positions. Using a functional imaging paradigm in normal subjects that used spoken and written narratives and multiple baselines, we demonstrated common activation during implicit comprehension of spoken and written language in inferior and lateral regions of the left anterior temporal cortex and at the junction of temporal, occipital, and parietal cortex. These results indicate that verbal comprehension uses unimodal processing streams that converge in both anterior and posterior heteromodal cortical regions in the left temporal lobe.
人们普遍认为，在单峰感觉皮层进行初始处理后，口语和书面语言的处理路径会汇聚以获取语言意义。然而，现有文献对这种汇聚在皮层中的位置给出了相互矛盾的描述。大多数失语症中风研究将语言理解定位在颞叶后部和顶叶下部皮层（韦尼克区），而局灶性皮层神经退行性综合征的证据则表明是颞叶前部皮层。以往对正常受试者的功能成像研究未能调和这些对立观点。我们在正常受试者中使用了一种功能成像范式，该范式采用了口语和书面叙述以及多个基线，结果表明在对口语和书面语言进行隐性理解时，左前颞叶皮层的下部和外侧区域以及颞叶、枕叶和顶叶交界处会出现共同激活。这些结果表明，语言理解使用的单峰处理流在左颞叶的前部和后部异模态皮层区域汇聚。
