Elsevier

Brain and Language

Volume 64, Issue 2, September 1998, Pages 231-256
Brain and Language

Regular Article
Brain Activation During Silent Word Generation Evaluated with Functional MRI,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1006/brln.1998.1953Get rights and content

Abstract

This is a study of word generation during functional MRI (fMRI). Eleven normal healthy subjects were instructed to generate words covertly, (i.e., silently) that began with particular letters. Images were acquired on a conventional 1.5T scanner at three contiguous axial planes encompassing language-related areas of the temporal and frontal lobe. The data were analyzed at the level of a Talairach box, after individually fitting the proportional Talairach grid system to each slice. The main variable of interest was the number of activated pixels within a Talairach box. Boxes with a significant increase in the proportion of activated pixels were located in three regions of the left neocortex: (1) Brodmann areas 44 and 45 in the dorsolateral frontal cortex (Broca's area), (2) areas 21 and 37 in the temporal cortex, (3) and the striate/extrastriate cortex (areas 17 & 18). The results are discussed in terms of a cognitive model of word generation and are compared, in detail, with the results of prior relevant imaging studies.

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    The authors acknowledge the financial support of this project by Herbert Meltzer, M.D., through his grants from the U.S. Public Health Service (MH 411684 and MH 415494), the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression, and the Prentiss Foundation, and support of Dr. Friedman through the Scottish Rite Foundation. We also acknowledge that it was Dr. Meltzer who originally suggested that we employ the COWAT as an activation paradigm for an fMRI study. We also thank Tim Curran, Ph.D., and Milton Strauss, Ph.D., for their helpful comments on this manuscript.

    Address correspondence and reprint requests to Lee Friedman, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Hanna Pavilion, 1st Floor Mail Room, 11100 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106. Fax: 216-844-7484. E-mail:[email protected].

    ☆☆

    H. WhitakerH. A. Whitaker

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