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Correlating Behavioral Responses to fMRI Signals from Human Prefrontal Cortex: Examining Cognitive Processes Using Task Analysis
Published on: June 20, 2012
A comparison of five fMRI protocols for mapping speech comprehension systems.
Jeffrey R Binder1, Sara J Swanson, Thomas A Hammeke
1Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226, USA. jbinder@mcw.edu
Epilepsia
|June 3, 2008
Summary
Comparing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) protocols for speech comprehension reveals significant differences in activation patterns. Optimal localization of semantic processing networks requires active, nonlinguistic tasks as baselines.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Speech Perception
Background:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is crucial for mapping brain functions like speech comprehension.
- Existing fMRI protocols for speech localization lack standardized quantitative comparisons.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantitatively compare five fMRI protocols for localizing speech comprehension.
- To assess differences in activated brain areas, extent, and lateralization across protocols.
Main Methods:
- fMRI BOLD signals were acquired from 26 healthy adults during passive and active listening tasks (words and tones).
- Contrasts were designed to isolate speech perception and semantic processing.
- Activation extent and lateralization were quantified by counting activated voxels per hemisphere.
Main Results:
- Passive word listening yielded bilateral superior temporal activation; selective speech response was limited to the left superior temporal sulcus after auditory baseline correction.
- Active tasks engaged extensive bilateral attention and executive networks.
- An active semantic decision task contrasted with a tone decision task provided optimal, lateralized activation patterns, revealing similarities with task-induced deactivation networks.
Conclusions:
- fMRI protocols for speech comprehension mapping vary significantly in activation pattern, extent, and lateralization.
- Active, nonlinguistic tasks as baselines are essential for identifying semantic processing regions, suggesting semantic processing occurs during resting states when attention is not controlled.
- Accurate identification of lexical-semantic regions is vital for predicting language outcomes in patients, particularly those undergoing temporal lobe surgery.
