Broca's area in the human brain is involved in the selection of grammatical gender for language production: evidence from event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging

The neural correlates of the selection of grammatical gender during overt picture naming were investigated by event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging in the left hemisphere. Relative to simply naming a picture, the production of the definite determiner of the picture name (requiring gend...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience letters 2002-08, Vol.328 (2), p.101-104
Main Authors: Heim, St, Opitz, B, Friederici, A.D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Brain Mapping
Broca's area
Female
Frontal Lobe - anatomy & histology
Frontal Lobe - physiology
Functional Laterality - physiology
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender selection
Humans
Inferior frontal gyrus
Language
Language production
Language Tests
Lexical access
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Nerve Net - physiology
Neural Pathways - physiology
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Production and perception of spoken language
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rolandic operculum
Sex
Speech - physiology
Syntax
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Summary:The neural correlates of the selection of grammatical gender during overt picture naming were investigated by event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging in the left hemisphere. Relative to simply naming a picture, the production of the definite determiner of the picture name (requiring gender selection) resulted exclusively in pronounced activation of a single region in the superior portion of Broca's area. This activation was not present in contrasts reflecting lexical access (naming a picture vs. saying “jaja” to a smiley) or articulation (saying “jaja” vs. rest). Rather, lexical access activated other inferior frontal regions, insula, fusiform and inferior temporal gyrus. Articulation involved insula, Rolandic operculum, motor and premotor cortex and superior temporal gyrus. The results are discussed with respect to data from studies investigating gender processing during language comprehension.
ISSN:0304-3940
1872-7972
DOI:10.1016/S0304-3940(02)00494-9