Sequential processing of lexical, grammatical, and phonological information within Broca's area.

Full Abstract

Words, grammar, and phonology are linguistically distinct, yet their neural substrates are difficult to distinguish in macroscopic brain regions. We investigated whether they can be separated in time and space at the circuit level using intracranial electrophysiology (ICE), namely by recording local field potentials from populations of neurons using electrodes implanted in language-related brain regions while people read words verbatim or grammatically inflected them (present/past or singular/plural). Neighboring probes within Broca's area revealed distinct neuronal activity for lexical (approximately 200 milliseconds), grammatical (approximately 320 milliseconds), and phonological (approximately 450 milliseconds) processing, identically for nouns and verbs, in a region activated in the same patients and task in functional magnetic resonance imaging. This suggests that a linguistic processing sequence predicted on computational grounds is implemented in the brain in fine-grained spatiotemporally patterned activity.

Author information

Author/s: Sahin, Ned T (NT); Pinker, Steven (S); Cash, Sydney S (SS); Schomer, Donald (D); Halgren, Eric (E);

Affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. sahin(-atsign-)post.harvard.edu

Grants: HD18381 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS) ; NS18741 (Agency:NINDS NIH HHS) ; NS44623 (Agency:NINDS NIH HHS) ; P41-RR14075 (Agency:NCRR NIH HHS) ; T32-MH070328 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.) (Science), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Oct; vol 326 (issue 5951) : pp 445-9

Dates: Created 2009/10/16; Completed 2009/10/26;

PMID: 19833971, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/26/2009, IMS Date: )

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

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Science. 2009 Oct 16;326(5951):372-3. (PMID: 19833945)

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.