title: Anatomical correlates for category-specific naming of living and non-living things.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Selective naming categories impairments for living and non-living things are widely reported in brain damaged patients. Electrostimulation mapping was used to study the possible anatomical segregation of living/non-living categories in a prospective series of patients operated on for tumor removal.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty brain mappings (patients with no language impairment; range: 14-80 years; mean: 48 years; 26 males; 5 left handed) were performed in 46 left and 4 right hemispheres using two linguistically controlled tasks (naming for living and non-living things) during an awake surgery procedure. Fifteen regions and four macro cortical areas were designed to analyze the distribution of the interference sites.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over 761 sites stimulated in the lateral hemispheres, 130 naming interferences sites were detected in small cortical areas (<1cm(2)). High individual variability was observed for living/non-living word retrieval localization and organization with a majority (62%) of shared living/non-living interferences. Specific living (12%) or non-living (26%) interferences were found too. In group analysis, no statistical significant anatomical localization was observed for living items in left lateral hemispheric cortex. A statistical significant representation of interference sites for non-living objects was found (Generalized Estimating Equation methodology, z-test=2.28, p=0.027) in the left posterolateral temporoparietal cortex. No influence of histopathology, gender and age on anatomical localization of naming categories was detected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The existence of dedicated neural structures for naming non-living things in the left posterolateral temporoparietal cortex is supported by this study although high individual differences exist in the organization of word categories retrieval.
authors.affiliation: Centres Hospitalo-Universitaires, F-31059 Toulouse, France. carlo.giussani@libero.it
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Giussani
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Riva
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gallucci
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Boukhatem
authors.forename: Erik P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Sganzerla
authors.forename: Jean-Francois
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Demonet
authors.forename: Franck-Emmanuel
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Roux
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009275:Names; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult