ABSTRACT
Objective To observe brain areas activated during verb generation in Uyghur and Chinese,and thus to explore the neural mechanism of speech formation and understanding and the language barriers after brain injury and during recovery.Methods The blood oxygen level dependent contrast functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) was used to scan activated brain areas of 31 cases of Uyghur and 28 cases of Chinese speakers as they completed a verb generation task.Results The mainareas activated in the brains of the Chinese group were the left caudate nucleus,the left inferior occipital gyrus,the left fusiformgyrus,bilateral supplementary motor areas (BA8/6),the left BA32 area,the left precuneus,the left superior parietal lobe (BA7),the left inferior parietal lobe,the left angular gyrus,the right precentral area (BA9),the pars triangularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus,the pars opercularis of the right inferior frontal gyrus and the bilateral cerebellum.The main activated areas of the Uyghur group were the left precentral area (BA9),the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus,the pars triangularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left cerebellum.Moreover,the Chinese group showed significantlygreater activation in left caudate body,the left orbital part of the middle frontal gyrus,the right caudate head and the bilateral anterior cingulate gyrus (BA32) compared to the Uyghur group.The Uyghur group,on the other hand,did not show activation significantly greater than that of the Chinese group in any area.Conclusions The brain areas activated when generating verbs in Uyghur and Chinese are not exactly the same-the processing of Uyghur mainly occursin the left hemisphere,while that of Chinese may need the participation of more brain areas in the right hemisphere.
ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the difference in activated brain regions when speaking Mandarin and Uyghur.Methods Blood oxygenation level dependent magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) was used to scan the brains of 30 healthy,right handed volunteers-15 native Uyghur speakers and 15 native Mandarin speakers-while they performed semantic identification and verb generation tasks.The fMRI data were used to generate statistical parametric maps of the brain areas activated by each task.Results In the semantic identification task the left anterior cingulate gyrus (BA23) and the midline mesophyll wedge were activated significantly more strongly in the Uyghur group compared with the Mandarin speakers.In the verb generation task the left inferior temporal gyrus (BA37),the inferior parietal lobule,the fusiform gyrus and the parahippocampal gyrus in the Uyghur group were all significantly more active.The right superior temporal gyrus (BA38) in the Mandarin group was significantly more active during verb generation than among the Uyghur speakers.Conclusions The brain regions activated during semantic processing and verb generation differ when speaking Uyghur and Mandarin.The cingulate gyrus and the praecuneus are more involved in Uyghur-language semantic processing,especially the left anterior cingulate gyrus.The right hemisphere is more important in Mandarin processing than in Uyghur.
ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the activation of premotor area (PMA) in verb generation task, and to discuss the possible function of PMA in language expression. Methods Block-designed fMRI with verb generation task was performed on 23 subjects with GE 1.5T MR Scanner. During the test, the subjects were asked to generate a verb based on a given noun word. The white + appeared on the center of the black screen was used as control. The fMRI data were processed with SPM 2. Group analysis was performed with single sample t-test. Average mapping was obtained and overlapped onto standard MNI template. Activation of the PMA was analyzed. Results The fMRI data of eleven subjects were selected for group analysis after head motion effect was ruled out. Average mapping showed activation in the Broca's area, posterior part of the right inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral PMA and supplemental areas (SMA), left posterior parietal cortex, right thalamus, left basal ganglions, right cerebellum, and posterior part of the right temporal lobe. The area with the greatest activated intensity in the brain was the left PMA. Conclusion PMC is important in verb generation and may be responsible for voice processing, motor imagery, word extracting as well as advanced regulation of information.