Left inferior frontal cortex and syntax: function, structure and behaviour in patients with left hemisphere damage.

ABSTRACT: For the past 150 years, neurobiological models of language have debated the role of key brain regions in language function. One consistently debated set of issues concern the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus in syntactic processing. Here we combine measures of functional activity, grey matter integrity and performance in patients with left hemisphere damage and healthy participants to ask whether the left inferior frontal gyrus is essential for syntactic processing. In a functional neuroimaging study, participants listened to spoken sentences that either contained a syntactically ambiguous or matched unambiguous phrase. Behavioural data on three tests of syntactic processing were subsequently collected. In controls, syntactic processing co-activated left hemisphere Brodmann areas 45

SUBMITTER: Tyler LK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3030769 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature