NEURAL SYSTEMS UNDERLYING RETRIEVAL OF WORDS FOR CONCRETE ENTITIES IN ENGLISH

对患有脑损伤的神经科患者的研究表明， 检索表示具体实体的单词的正常过程依赖于 部分位于左侧大脑半球的多个区域，位于 在经典语言区域之外，在更高阶的联想皮层中。这个 研究结果还表明，在大规模系统的层面上， 似乎是一种耐人寻味的原则性关系 解剖区域和要命名的物品的种类。这些发现是公开的 进一步研究词汇表的性质及其意义的可能性 神经基础，这就是这个项目的目标，重点是 与具体实体有关的词汇检索问题。我们将测试 一系列[150]H2O PET实验中的三个主要假设 对60名以英语为母语的正常成年人进行了调查。我们将从 测试表示具体实体的单词的检索的想法 与不同的概念类别有关的，在解剖学上 可分离的区域。然后我们将测试这样的区域是 无论感觉模式如何(例如，视觉[图片]与 听觉[相关声音])将具体实体呈现给 被点名了。最后，我们将测试相同区域运行的想法 不仅用于检索给定概念的单词，而且还用于 在给定单词的情况下检索概念。除了对 更好地理解语言处理的神经基础， 这些发现也可能有助于对神经的理解 在大型系统级别上辅助认知的体系结构，以及 将在诊断和管理方面有直接的应用 沟通和记忆障碍。

Studies in neurological patients with brain lesions suggest that the normal process of retrieving words which denote concrete entities depends in part on multiple regions of the left cerebral hemisphere, located outside classic language areas, in higher-order association cortices. The findings also indicate that, at the level of large-scale systems, there appears to be an intriguing and principled relationship between the anatomical region and the kind of item being named. These findings open the possibility of investigating further the nature of the lexicon and its neural underpinnings, and that is the aim of this project, focused on the issue of lexical retrieval pertaining to concrete entities. We will test three principal hypotheses in a series of [150]H2O PET experiments conducted in 60 normal native English speaking adults. We will begin by testing the idea that the retrieval of words denoting concrete entities pertaining to diverse conceptual categories depends on anatomically separable regions. We will then test the idea that such regions are the same regardless of the sensory mode (e.g., visual [pictures] versus auditory [associated sounds]) of presentation of the concrete entities to be named. Finally, we will test the idea that the same regions operate not only for, retrieval of words, given the concepts, but also for the retrieval of concepts, given the words. In addition to contributing to a better understanding of the neural basis of language processing, the findings are also likely to contribute to the understanding of the neural architectures which subserve cognition, at large-scale systems level, and will have a direct application in the diagnosis and management of disorders of communication and memory.