Age-related differences in the brain areas outside the classical language areas among adults using category decision task.
Older adults perform much like younger adults on language. This similar level of performance, however, may come about through different underlying brain processes. In the present study, we evaluated age-related differences in the brain areas outside the typical language areas among adults using a category decision task. Our results showed that similar activation patterns were found in classical language processing areas across the three age groups although regional lateralization indices in Broca's and Wernicke's areas decreased with age. The greatest differences, however, among the three groups were found primarily in the brain areas not associated with core language functioning including the hippocampus, middle frontal gyrus, ventromedial frontal cortex, medial superior parietal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. Therefore, the non-classical language areas may exhibit an age-related difference between three age groups while the subjects show a similar activation pattern in the core, primary language processing during a semantic decision task.
Department of Neurology, Keimyung University, Dongsan Medical Center, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
Yong Won
YW
Cho
Hui-Jin
HJ
Song
Jae Jun
JJ
Lee
Joo Hwa
JH
Lee
Hui Joong
HJ
Lee
Sang Doe
SD
Yi
Hyuk Won
HW
Chang
Madison M
MM
Berl
William D
WD
Gaillard
Yongmin
Y
Chang
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult