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Updated: Aug 25, 2026

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Are nonlinguistic functions in "Broca's area" prerequisites for language acquisition? FMRI findings from an
Ralph-Axel Müller1, Surina Basho
1Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, 6363 Alvarado Ct., #225 E, San Diego, CA 92120-1863, USA. amueller@sciences.sdsu.edu
Abstract:
There is incomplete consensus on the anatomical demarcation of Broca's area in the left inferior frontal gyrus and its functional characterization remains a matter of debate. Exclusive syntactic specialization has been proposed, but is overall inconsistent with the neuroimaging literature. We examined three functional MRI (fMRI) datasets on lexicosemantic decision, tone discrimination, and visuomotor coordination for potential overlap of activation. A single site of convergent activation across all three paradigms was found in the left inferior frontal lobe (area 44/45). This result is discussed in the context of animal and human studies showing inferior frontal participation in visuomotor and audiomotor functions as well as working memory. We propose that Broca's area involvement in lexical semantics and syntax emerges from these nonlinguistic functions, which are prerequisites for language acquisition.
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