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Published on: August 12, 2019
Neural correlates of object and action naming practice
Ekaterina Delikishkina1, Angelika Lingnau2, Gabriele Miceli3
1Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Rovereto, TN, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; International Doctorate for Experimental Approaches to Language and Brain (IDEALAB), Italy.
This study investigated how naming practice affects brain activity in healthy individuals. Training reduced activation in language areas and altered parietal/temporal cortex activity, suggesting memory retrieval and phonological access improvements.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Speech and Language Pathology
Background:
- Word retrieval deficits are common after stroke, impacting language recovery.
- Speech therapy can improve naming ability in aphasia patients.
- Understanding naming mechanisms in healthy brains is vital for distinguishing them from brain damage recovery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying naming practice in healthy individuals.
- To identify brain changes associated with learning to name objects and actions.
- To differentiate training-induced changes from functional reorganization after brain damage.
Main Methods:
- Healthy monolingual Italian speakers underwent naming training for ten days.
- Brain activity was scanned using neuroimaging (fMRI) before and after training.
- Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was used to examine activation changes.
Main Results:
- Object and action naming dissociated in specific brain regions, including frontal, parietal, and occipitotemporal cortices.
- Training led to decreased activation in left hemisphere language areas (inferior frontal gyrus, insula).
- MVPA showed training-related changes in parietal and temporal cortices linked to memory retrieval and phonological access.
Conclusions:
- Naming practice in healthy individuals leads to reduced demands on lexical selection in classical language regions.
- Training enhances access to episodic memory and phonological word forms.
- These findings provide a baseline for understanding neural changes in stroke patients undergoing naming therapy.
