Putting Broca's region into context: fMRI evidence for a role in predictive language processing

TY - CHAP

T1 - Putting Broca's region into context

T2 - fMRI evidence for a role in predictive language processing

AU - Kristensen, Line Burholt

AU - Wallentin, Mikkel

PY - 2015/1/1

Y1 - 2015/1/1

N2 - Broca’s region is known to play a key role in speech production as well as in the processing of language input. Still, the exact function (or functions) of Broca’s region remains highly disputed. Within the generativist framework it has been argued that part of Broca’s region is dedicated to syntactical analysis. Others, however, have related Broca’s region activity to more domain-general processes, e.g. working memory load and argument hierarchy demands. We here present results that show how contextual cues completely alter the effects of syntax in behaviour and in Broca’s region, and suggest that activation in this area reflects general linguistic processing costs or prediction error. We review the fMRI literature in the light of this theory. Introduction: the controversy over Broca's region In 1861 Paul Broca presented the brain of one of his patients to the anthropological society in Paris. Before his death, this patient had displayed a severe speech deficit, being unable to say more than a single word, Tan', while apparently maintaining many of his other mental faculties (Broca, 1861). Broca found that the patient had a large lesion in the brain's left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). Since then, this area, now often referred to as Broca's region, has been considered a key speech/language brain region. With the advent of cell-staining techniques, Korbinian Brodmann (Brodmann, 1909) found that the LIFG, based on the cytoarchitecture, could be subdivided into distinct regions: Brodmann areas 44, 45 and 47 (BA 44/45/47). The subregions are depicted in Plate 8.1 (see colour plate section). Agrammatical speech was already early considered to be a specific symptom in aphasiology (e.g. Kussmaul, 1877), and it has subsequently been argued that Broca's region plays a significant role in the processing of syntax, both in comprehension and production of language (Friedmann, 2006; Grodzinsky & Santi, 2008).

AB - Broca’s region is known to play a key role in speech production as well as in the processing of language input. Still, the exact function (or functions) of Broca’s region remains highly disputed. Within the generativist framework it has been argued that part of Broca’s region is dedicated to syntactical analysis. Others, however, have related Broca’s region activity to more domain-general processes, e.g. working memory load and argument hierarchy demands. We here present results that show how contextual cues completely alter the effects of syntax in behaviour and in Broca’s region, and suggest that activation in this area reflects general linguistic processing costs or prediction error. We review the fMRI literature in the light of this theory. Introduction: the controversy over Broca's region In 1861 Paul Broca presented the brain of one of his patients to the anthropological society in Paris. Before his death, this patient had displayed a severe speech deficit, being unable to say more than a single word, Tan', while apparently maintaining many of his other mental faculties (Broca, 1861). Broca found that the patient had a large lesion in the brain's left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). Since then, this area, now often referred to as Broca's region, has been considered a key speech/language brain region. With the advent of cell-staining techniques, Korbinian Brodmann (Brodmann, 1909) found that the LIFG, based on the cytoarchitecture, could be subdivided into distinct regions: Brodmann areas 44, 45 and 47 (BA 44/45/47). The subregions are depicted in Plate 8.1 (see colour plate section). Agrammatical speech was already early considered to be a specific symptom in aphasiology (e.g. Kussmaul, 1877), and it has subsequently been argued that Broca's region plays a significant role in the processing of syntax, both in comprehension and production of language (Friedmann, 2006; Grodzinsky & Santi, 2008).

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-1-107-04201-8

SP - 160

EP - 181

BT - Cognitive Neuroscience of Natural Language Use

A2 - Willems, Roel M.

PB - Cambridge University Press

ER -