Idiom Comprehension: A Prefrontal Task?

We investigated the neural correlates of idiomatic sentence processing using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Twenty-two healthy subjects were presented with 62 literal sentences and 62 idiomatic sentences, each followed by a picture and were required to judge whether the sentenc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991) N.Y. 1991), 2008-01, Vol.18 (1), p.162-170
Main Authors: Lauro, Leonor J. Romero, Tettamanti, Marco, Cappa, Stefano F., Papagno, Costanza
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
anterior prefrontal cortex
Brain Mapping
Comprehension - physiology
Female
Humans
idiom comprehension
Language
Male
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Reading
RH hypothesis
Semantics
Task Performance and Analysis
Vocabulary
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Summary:We investigated the neural correlates of idiomatic sentence processing using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Twenty-two healthy subjects were presented with 62 literal sentences and 62 idiomatic sentences, each followed by a picture and were required to judge whether the sentence matched the picture or not. A common network of cortical activity was engaged by both conditions, with the nonliteral task eliciting overall greater activation, both in terms of magnitude and spatial extent. The network that was specifically activated by the nonliteral condition involved the left temporal cortex, the left superior medial frontal gyrus (Brodmann area 9), and the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Activations were also present in the right superior and middle temporal gyri and temporal pole and in the right IFG. In contrast, literal sentences selectively activated the left inferior parietal lobule and the right supramarginal gyrus. An analysis of effective connectivity indicated that the medial prefrontal area significantly increased the connection between frontotemporal areas bilaterally during idiomatic processing. Overall, the present findings indicate a crucial role of the prefrontal cortex in idiom comprehension, which could reflect the selection between alternative sentence meanings.
ISSN:1047-3211
1460-2199
DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhm042