title: Modulation of cortical activity during comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar text topics in speed reading and speed listening.
abstract: Brain activation associated with normal and speeded comprehension of expository texts on familiar and unfamiliar topics was investigated in reading and listening. The goal was to determine how brain activation and the comprehension processes it reflects are modulated by comprehension speed and topic familiarity. Passages on more familiar topics differentially activated a set of areas in the anterior temporal lobe and medial frontal gyrus, areas often associated with text-level integration processes, which we interpret to reflect integration of previous knowledge with the passage content. Passages presented at the faster presentation resulted in more activation of a network of frontal areas associated with strategic and working-memory processes (as well as visual or auditory sensory-related regions), which we interpret to reflect maintenance of local coherence among briefly available passage segments. The implications of this research is that the brain system for text comprehension adapts to varying perceptual and knowledge conditions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; Graduate School of Language - Linguistics, Graduate School of Medicine - Neurosciences, Brain Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (InsCer), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Electronic address: augusto.buchweitz@pucrs.br.
authors.forename: Augusto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buchweitz
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Gayane
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Meschyan
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Timothy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Marcel Adam
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Just
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Comprehension; Speed listening; Speed reading; Topic familiarity; Working memory; fMRI