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Non-invasive Imaging and Analysis of Cerebral Ischemia in Living Rats Using Positron Emission Tomography with 18F-FDG
Published on: December 28, 2014
Asyntactic comprehension, working memory, and acute ischemia in Broca's area versus angular gyrus
Melissa Newhart1, Lydia A Trupe, Yessenia Gomez
1Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
Summary
Stroke patients with "asyntactic comprehension" showed deficits linked to the left angular gyrus, not Broca's area. Working memory components depend on a network including frontal cortex and angular gyrus.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neurolinguistics
Background:
- Broca's area is traditionally associated with language production and comprehension.
- Previous hypotheses suggested Broca's area is crucial for processing complex sentence structures.
- The role of specific brain regions in sentence comprehension and short-term memory (STM) following stroke requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate sentence comprehension and short-term memory (STM) components in acute ischemic stroke patients.
- To test hypotheses regarding the involvement of Broca's area in these cognitive functions.
- To identify specific brain regions associated with distinct patterns of comprehension and memory deficits.
Main Methods:
- Assessed sentence comprehension and STM/verbal working memory (VWM) in 53 acute ischemic stroke patients.
- Utilized various sentence constructions, including passive reversible and cleft sentences.
- Correlated lesion locations (dysfunctional tissue) with performance on comprehension and memory tasks using dichotomous and continuous analyses.
Main Results:
- A pattern of "asyntactic comprehension" (impaired processing of passive reversible, object-cleft sentences) was associated with left angular gyrus dysfunction, contradicting Broca's area involvement.
- Broca's area (BA 44) dysfunction correlated with phonological STM impairment (forward digit span ≤4).
- Dysfunction in premotor cortex (BA 6) and BA 45 was linked to impaired STM, VWM, and comprehension of passive reversible sentences; BA 39 (angular gyrus) dysfunction showed broader deficits including object-cleft sentences.
Conclusions:
- Sentence comprehension deficits in stroke patients are not solely dependent on Broca's area but involve regions like the left angular gyrus.
- Working memory components are supported by a network including the left angular gyrus and posterior frontal cortex (BA 6, 44, 45).
- Specific roles for BA 45 and BA 39 (angular gyrus) in syntactic processing, such as thematic role checking, are suggested.
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