Elsevier

Brain and Language

Volume 77, Issue 1, April 2001, Pages 119-131
Brain and Language

Regular Article
The Anatomy of Auditory Word Processing: Individual Variability

https://doi.org/10.1006/brln.2000.2444Get rights and content

Abstract

This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural substrate underlying the processing of single words, comparing activation patterns across subjects and within individuals. In a word repetition task, subjects repeated single words aloud with instructions not to move their jaws. In a control condition involving reverse speech, subjects heard a digitally reversed speech token and said aloud the word “crime.” The averaged fMRI results showed activation in the left posterior temporal and inferior frontal regions and in the supplementary motor area, similar to previous PET studies. However, the individual subject data revealed variability in the location of the temporal and frontal activation. Although these results support previous imaging studies, demonstrating an averaged localization of auditory word processing in the posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG), they are more consistent with traditional neuropsychological data, which suggest both a typical posterior STG localization and substantial individual variability. By using careful head restraint and movement analysis and correction methods, the present study further demonstrates the feasibility of using overt articulation in fMRI experiments.

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    The support of the National Institutes of Health under Grant NIH DC R01-3378 is gratefully acknowledged. We are grateful to Karalyn Patterson for providing word lists. We further appreciate the help of a number of people who contributed to this project and manuscript: Darren Emge, Robert Cox, Petr Hlustik, Craig Mullins, Ana Solodkin, and Greg Zaorski. Data from this article were presented at the 5th annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, California, in April, 1998. Steven L. Small is now at the University of Chicago Department of Neurology.

    Address correspondence and reprint requests to Martha W. Burton, Department of neurology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 12-011 Bressler Research Building, 655 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-1559. Fax: (410) 706-0324. E-mail: [email protected].

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