Functional specificity for high-level linguistic processing in the human brain
Functional specificity for high-level linguistic processing in the human brain
复制标题
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1112937108
复制
发表时间：
2011-09-27
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Kanwisher, Nancy
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fedorenko, Evelina;Behr, Michael K.;Kanwisher, Nancy
几个世纪以来，神经科学家一直在争论人类大脑的某些区域是否选择性地参与特定的高级心理功能，或者认知是否在多功能大脑区域中实现。对于语言这个关键的例子，神经心理学的文献给出了相互矛盾的答案。神经心理学的文献把语言和非语言能力的缺陷区分开来，而神经影像学的文献则认为语言和非语言过程的激活是重叠的，包括算术、认知控制和音乐等领域的一般能力。在这里，我们使用功能性磁共振成像来定义经典的语言区域功能在每个科目单独，然后检查这些区域的非语言功能的反应，最常争论从事这些地区：算术，工作记忆，认知控制，和音乐。我们发现语言区域对这些非语言功能几乎没有反应。这些数据支持语言和其他认知过程之间的明确区别，解决了神经心理学和神经影像学文献之间的冲突。
Neuroscientists have debated for centuries whether some regions of the human brain are selectively engaged in specific high-level mental functions or whether, instead, cognition is implemented in multifunctional brain regions. For the critical case of language, conflicting answers arise from the neuropsychological literature, which features striking dissociations between deficits in linguistic and nonlinguistic abilities, vs. the neuroimaging literature, which has argued for overlap between activations for linguistic and nonlinguistic processes, including arithmetic, domain general abilities like cognitive control, and music. Here, we use functional MRI to define classic language regions functionally in each subject individually and then examine the response of these regions to the nonlinguistic functions most commonly argued to engage these regions: arithmetic, working memory, cognitive control, and music. We find little or no response in language regions to these nonlinguistic functions. These data support a clear distinction between language and other cognitive processes, resolving the prior conflict between the neuropsychological and neuroimaging literatures.