title: Functional segregation of the inferior frontal gyrus for syntactic processes: a functional magnetic-resonance imaging study.
abstract: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging in 18 normal volunteers to determine whether there is separate representation of syntactic, semantic, and verbal working memory processing in the left inferior frontal gyrus (GFi). We compared a sentence comprehension task with a short-term memory maintenance task to identify syntactic and semantic processing regions. To investigate the effects of syntactic and verbal working memory load while minimizing the differences in semantic processes, we used comprehension tasks with garden-path (GP) sentences, which require re-parsing, and non-garden-path (NGP) sentences. Compared with the short-term memory task, sentence comprehension activated the left GFi, including Brodmann areas (BAs) 44, 45, and 47, and the left superior temporal gyrus. In GP versus NGP sentences, there was greater activity in the left BAs 44, 45, and 46 extending to the left anterior insula, the pre-supplementary motor area, and the right cerebellum. In the left GFi, verbal working memory activity was located more dorsally (BA 44/45), semantic processing was located more ventrally (BA 47), and syntactic processing was located in between (BA 45). These findings indicate a close relationship between semantic and syntactic processes, and suggest that BA 45 might link verbal working memory and semantic processing via syntactic unification processes.
authors.affiliation: Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc., Nagakute, Aichi 480-1192, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uchiyama
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toyoda
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.forename: Haruyo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Takanori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kochiyama
authors.forename: Kazutoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ebe
authors.forename: Norihiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sadato
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen