Li Mingyang, Zhang Yumei, Song Luping, Huang Ruiwang, Ding Junhua, Fang Yuxing, Xu Yangwen, Han Zaizhu
National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Neuropsychologia. 2017 Jul 1;101:85-96. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.05.008. Epub 2017 May 8.
Tests of verbal fluency have been widely used to assess the cognitive functioning of persons, and are typically classified into two categories (semantic and phonological fluency). While widely-distributed divergent and convergent brain regions have been found to be involved in semantic and phonological fluency, the anatomical connectivity underlying the fluency is not well understood. The present study aims to construct a comprehensive white-matter network associated with semantic and phonological fluency by investigating the relationship between the integrity of 22 major tracts in the whole brain and semantic fluency (measured by 3 cues) and phonological fluency (measured by 2 cues) in a group of 51 stroke patients. We found five left-lateralized tracts including the anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), uncinate fasciculus (UF), superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and frontal aslant tract (FAT) were significantly correlated with the scores of both semantic and phonological fluencies. These effects persisted even when we ruled out the influence of potential confounding factors (e.g., total lesion volume). Moreover, the damage to the first three tracts caused additional impairments in the semantic compared to the phonological fluency. These findings reveal the white-matter neuroanatomical connectivity underlying semantic and phonological fluency, and deepen the understanding of the neural network of verbal fluency.
言语流畅性测试已被广泛用于评估人的认知功能，通常分为两类（语义流畅性和语音流畅性）。虽然已发现广泛分布的发散和汇聚脑区参与语义和语音流畅性，但流畅性背后的解剖学连接尚不清楚。本研究旨在通过调查51名中风患者全脑22条主要神经束的完整性与语义流畅性（由3个线索测量）和语音流畅性（由2个线索测量）之间的关系，构建一个与语义和语音流畅性相关的综合白质网络。我们发现五条左侧神经束，包括丘脑前辐射（ATR）、额枕下束（IFOF）、钩束（UF）、上纵束（SLF）和额斜束（FAT），与语义和语音流畅性得分均显著相关。即使我们排除了潜在混杂因素（如总病变体积）的影响，这些效应仍然存在。此外，与语音流畅性相比，前三条神经束的损伤在语义方面造成了额外的损害。这些发现揭示了语义和语音流畅性背后的白质神经解剖学连接，并加深了对言语流畅性神经网络的理解。
