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American Journal of Neuroradiology 28:1346-1353, August 2007
DOI 10.3174/ajnr.A0581
© 2007 American Society of Neuroradiology

FUNCTIONAL

Reproducibility of Activations in Broca Area with Two Language Tasks: A Functional MR Imaging Study

S. Raua, G. Feslb, P. Bruhnsb, P. Havelc, B. Braunb, J.-C. Tonnc and J. Ilmbergera

a Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University Clinics of Munich, Munich, Germany
b Department of Neuroradiology, University Clinics of Munich, Munich, Germany
c Department of Neurosurgery, University Clinics of Munich, Munich, Germany

Address correspondence to Josef Ilmberger, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University Clinics of Munich, Marchioninistr 15, 81377 Munich, Germany; e-mail: Josef.Ilmberger{at}med.uni-muenchen.de

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Functional MR imaging (fMRI) is rapidly evolving and claims to complement or even substitute intraoperative mapping (IOM) of language functions. However, little is known about the reproducibility of imaging data in the language domain. The aim of our study was to assess the reproducibility of activations for 2 widely used paradigms: naming and word generation. Individual analysis was focused on the Broca area and the left insula.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined 13 healthy right-handed subjects in 3 sessions with fMRI. Two conditions were assessed: overt naming and overt naming plus noun generation. The same stimuli were used in all of the sessions. A random-effects analysis was performed to analyze whole-brain activation on a group level. For the regions of interest, the number of voxels classified as active were counted for each subject, and individual reproducibility coefficients were calculated over sessions.

RESULTS: For the naming condition, the random-effects analysis did not reveal significant activations in the specified regions; small individual activations were not reproducible. For the combined task, all of the subjects showed activations in the Broca area that were more extensive and reproducible than in the naming task. Activations in the insula were only poorly reproducible.

CONCLUSION: Naming is an approved task in IOM but does not identify the Broca area with fMRI in a reproducible way. Priming may have affected our results, but the use of a combined task, in which naming is paired with noun generation, improves the reproducibility of activations and is also suitable for IOM.






Copyright © 2008 by the American Society of Neuroradiology. Print ISSN: 0195-6108 Online ISSN: 1936-959X