Research article summary (published 3 Jan 2008):

Neural correlates of locative prepositions.

Full Abstract

Locative prepositions might be special linguistic modifiers because they form a natural link between verbal and visual-spatial information. In the present fMRI study we found evidence that understanding categorical spatial relations expressed in language with locative prepositions such as "to the left of" and "to the right of" were reliably associated with cerebral activity in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) located in the left inferior parietal lobe. The higher activity associated with spatial as compared to non-spatial sentences in this region was not dependent on the context (verbal or visual-spatial) in which the sentence was read. Therefore, the function of this activity appears to be to create a general, amodal representation of locative prepositions that allow for flexible comparisons to either verbal or visual-spatial material.

Author information

Author/s: Noordzij, Matthijs L (ML); Neggers, Sebastiaan F W (SF); Ramsey, Nick F (NF); Postma, Albert (A);

Affiliation: F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9101, NL-6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. matthijs.noordzij(-atsign-)fcdonders.ru.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neuropsychologia (Neuropsychologia), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Apr; vol 46 (issue 5) : pp 1576-80

Dates: Created 2008/05/12; Completed 2008/07/22;

PMID: 18249423, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult Brain - anatomy & histology; physiology Data Interpretation, Statistical Female Functional Laterality - physiology Humans Image Processing, Computer-Assisted Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Male Oxygen - blood Psycholinguistics Psychomotor Performance - physiology Reaction Time - physiology Reading Space Perception - physiology Visual Perception - physiology

Associated Chemicals: Oxygen (7782-44-7)

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