Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA 19027, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 May 17;108(20):8520-4. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1014935108. Epub 2011 May 3.
It is thought that semantic memory represents taxonomic information differently from thematic information. This study investigated the neural basis for the taxonomic-thematic distinction in a unique way. We gathered picture-naming errors from 86 individuals with poststroke language impairment (aphasia). Error rates were determined separately for taxonomic errors ("pear" in response to apple) and thematic errors ("worm" in response to apple), and their shared variance was regressed out of each measure. With the segmented lesions normalized to a common template, we carried out voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping on each error type separately. We found that taxonomic errors localized to the left anterior temporal lobe and thematic errors localized to the left temporoparietal junction. This is an indication that the contribution of these regions to semantic memory cleaves along taxonomic-thematic lines. Our findings show that a distinction long recognized in the psychological sciences is grounded in the structure and function of the human brain.
人们认为语义记忆在表示分类信息和主题信息时有所不同。本研究以一种独特的方式探讨了分类-主题区别的神经基础。我们从 86 名患有中风后语言障碍（失语症）的个体中收集了图片命名错误。分别确定了分类错误（“梨”对应苹果）和主题错误（“虫子”对应苹果）的错误率，并从每个测量值中回归出它们的共同方差。对分段病变进行归一化到共同模板后，我们对每种错误类型分别进行基于体素的病变-症状映射。我们发现，分类错误定位于左前颞叶，主题错误定位于左颞顶交界处。这表明这些区域对语义记忆的贡献沿着分类-主题的界限划分。我们的研究结果表明，心理学科学中早已认识到的区别是基于人类大脑的结构和功能。
