Broca's area, sentence comprehension, and working memory: an fMRI study

“…reduced digit and sentence working memory spans, and their sentence comprehension in high load situations has been correlated with verbal working memory capacity more broadly defi ned (Daneman and Carpenter, 1980; De Renzi and Nichelli, 1975; Just and Carpenter, 1992; Swinney and Taylor, 1971).”

“…reduced digit and sentence working memory spans, and their sentence comprehension in high load situations has been correlated with verbal working memory capacity more broadly defi ned (Daneman and Carpenter, 1980; De Renzi and Nichelli, 1975; Just and Carpenter, 1992; Swinney and Taylor, 1971).”

“MRIcro (Rorden and Brett, 2000) was used to reconstruct the highresolution structural image, and an in-house Matlab program was used to reconstruct the echo-planar images.”

“Some of the evidence supporting the involvement of the phonological loop in sentence comprehension has emerged from reading comprehension and short-term memory studies involving concurrent task paradigms (e.g. Baddeley, 1981; Baddeley et al., 1975; Besner and Davelaar, 1982; Coltheart, 1993).”

“Imaging studies of verbal working memory have regularly implicated Broca’s area as part of the phonological loop, particularly in the articulatory rehearsal component (Smith et al., 1998; Zatorre et al., 1992).”

“…gyrus, i.e. the pars triangularis and pars opercularis) has been implicated in syntactic processing (Bradley et al., 1980; Caramazza and Zurif, 1976; Grodzinsky, 1984, 2000), but also has been proposed as a verbal working memory resource for sentence comprehension (Caplan and Waters, 1999; Just…”

“…including Broca’s area: some patients with inferior frontal damage have more diffi culty comprehending semantically reversible objectrelative clause sentences than semantically reversible subjectrelative clause sentences or active-voice sentences (Bradley et al., 1980; Caramazza and Zurif, 1976).”

“…processing implicated Broca’s area, particularly in the comprehension of complex structures (Caplan et al., 1998, 1999; Dapretto and Bookheimer, 1999; Just et al., 1996; Stromswold et al., 1996), other studies found a lack of correspondence between sentence processing and activity in Broca’s area.”

“We then calculated corresponding a′ statistics, which provide an estimate of proportion correct corrected for response bias (Grier, 1971).”

“Also, this result provides indirect evidence that Broca’s area is contributing to sentence processing via articulatory rehearsal as previous studies have found that portions of Broca’s area support both speech articulation (including during articulatory rehearsal) (Buchsbaum et al., 2001; Hickok et al., 2003; Jonides…”

“The neural basis of the comprehension pattern often found in Broca’s aphasia is less than clear (Dronkers et al., 2004).”

“In contrast, another region, the anterior temporal lobe, does appear to track with the presence of syntactic structure, and consequently has emerged as a candidate for supporting syntactic and/or compositional semantic processing (Humphries et al., 2001, 2005; Mazoyer et al., 1993; Rogalsky and Hickok, 2008; Vandenber…”

“…processing implicated Broca’s area, particularly in the comprehension of complex structures (Caplan et al., 1998, 1999; Dapretto and Bookheimer, 1999; Just et al., 1996; Stromswold et al., 1996), other studies found a lack of correspondence between sentence processing and activity in Broca’s area.”

“Also, this result provides indirect evidence that Broca’s area is contributing to sentence processing via articulatory rehearsal as previous studies have found that portions of Broca’s area support both speech articulation (including during articulatory rehearsal) (Buchsbaum et al., 2001; Hickok et al., 2003; Jonides…”

“…pars triangularis) for processing syntactically grammaticality judgments of sentences, even if they are unable to comprehend these same sentences (Linebarger et al., 1983; Wulfeck, 1988), suggesting that these patients have signifi - cant syntactic knowledge available to them (Linebarger, 1990;…”

“Also, this result provides indirect evidence that Broca’s area is contributing to sentence processing via articulatory rehearsal as previous studies have found that portions of Broca’s area support both speech articulation (including during articulatory rehearsal) (Buchsbaum et al., 2001; Hickok et al., 2003; Jonides…”

“These authors further point out that evaluating various thematic role possibilities is similar to another proposed function of the inferior frontal gyrus, namely selecting a response from a set of alternatives (Kan and ThompsonSchill, 2004; Novick et al., 2005).”

“…imaging studies of sentence processing implicated Broca’s area, particularly in the comprehension of complex structures (Caplan et al., 1998, 1999; Dapretto and Bookheimer, 1999; Just et al., 1996; Stromswold et al., 1996), other studies found a lack of correspondence between sentence processing…”

“…that inferior frontal regions, including the pars triangularis, demonstrate an increase in activity when subjects observe or imagine performing goal-directed movement sequences, detect musical sequences, or process sequences of events (Koelsch et al., 2002; Schubotz and von Cramon, 2002, 2004).”

“Also, this result provides indirect evidence that Broca’s area is contributing to sentence processing via articulatory rehearsal as previous studies have found that portions of Broca’s area support both speech articulation (including during articulatory rehearsal) (Buchsbaum et al., 2001; Hickok et al., 2003; Jonides…”

“In contrast, another region, the anterior temporal lobe, does appear to track with the presence of syntactic structure, and consequently has emerged as a candidate for supporting syntactic and/or compositional semantic processing (Humphries et al., 2001, 2005; Mazoyer et al., 1993; Rogalsky and Hickok, 2008; Vandenber…”

“…reduced digit and sentence working memory spans, and their sentence comprehension in high load situations has been correlated with verbal working memory capacity more broadly defi ned (Daneman and Carpenter, 1980; De Renzi and Nichelli, 1975; Just and Carpenter, 1992; Swinney and Taylor, 1971).”

“Consistent with previous research (e.g. Caplan et al., 2000, 2008; Fiebach et al., 2005; Stromswold et al., 1996), in the baseline condition, we found a “sentence complexity effect” (greater activation for sentences with object relatives than subject relatives) in Broca’s area (pars opercularis and…”

“…temporal lobe, does appear to track with the presence of syntactic structure, and consequently has emerged as a candidate for supporting syntactic and/or compositional semantic processing (Humphries et al., 2001, 2005; Mazoyer et al., 1993; Rogalsky and Hickok, 2008; Vandenberge et al., 2002).”

“…of the earliest functional imaging studies of sentence processing implicated Broca’s area, particularly in the comprehension of complex structures (Caplan et al., 1998, 1999; Dapretto and Bookheimer, 1999; Just et al., 1996; Stromswold et al., 1996), other studies found a lack of correspondence…”

“…of the earliest functional imaging studies of sentence processing implicated Broca’s area, particularly in the comprehension of complex structures (Caplan et al., 1998, 1999; Dapretto and Bookheimer, 1999; Just et al., 1996; Stromswold et al., 1996), other studies found a lack of correspondence…”

“…lack of an interference effect for passive voice sentences in our study is consistent with lesion data suggesting that performance on passive sentences is often better than that for object relative clauses sentences, despite the fact that both involve non-canonical word order (Berndt et al., 1996).”

“…of the earliest functional imaging studies of sentence processing implicated Broca’s area, particularly in the comprehension of complex structures (Caplan et al., 1998, 1999; Dapretto and Bookheimer, 1999; Just et al., 1996; Stromswold et al., 1996), other studies found a lack of correspondence…”

“Broca’s area was fi rst thought to support syntactic processing because Broca’s aphasics were found to have agrammatic production (Gleason et al., 1975; Goodglass, 1968, 1976; Goodglass and Berko, 1960; Kean, 1977).”

“…gyrus, i.e. the pars triangularis and pars opercularis) has been implicated in syntactic processing (Bradley et al., 1980; Caramazza and Zurif, 1976; Grodzinsky, 1984, 2000), but also has been proposed as a verbal working memory resource for sentence comprehension (Caplan and Waters, 1999; Just…”

“In contrast, another region, the anterior temporal lobe, does appear to track with the presence of syntactic structure, and consequently has emerged as a candidate for supporting syntactic and/or compositional semantic processing (Humphries et al., 2001, 2005; Mazoyer et al., 1993; Rogalsky and Hickok, 2008; Vandenber…”

“…temporal lobe, does appear to track with the presence of syntactic structure, and consequently has emerged as a candidate for supporting syntactic and/or compositional semantic processing (Humphries et al., 2001, 2005; Mazoyer et al., 1993; Rogalsky and Hickok, 2008; Vandenberge et al., 2002).”

“Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | October 2008 | Volume 2 | Article 14 2 in reading comprehension during concurrent articulation compared to concurrent tapping (De Beni et al., 2005; Slowiaczek and Clifton, 1980; Takahashi, 2007).”

“, 1980; Caramazza and Zurif, 1976; Grodzinsky, 1984, 2000), but also has been proposed as a verbal working memory resource for sentence comprehension (Caplan and Waters, 1999; Just and Carpenter, 1992; Martin, 2003).”

“Some of the evidence supporting the involvement of the phonological loop in sentence comprehension has emerged from reading comprehension and short-term memory studies involving concurrent task paradigms (e.g. Baddeley, 1981; Baddeley et al., 1975; Besner and Davelaar, 1982; Coltheart, 1993).”

“Some of the evidence supporting the involvement of the phonological loop in sentence comprehension has emerged from reading comprehension and short-term memory studies involving concurrent task paradigms (e.g. Baddeley, 1981; Baddeley et al., 1975; Besner and Davelaar, 1982; Coltheart, 1993).”

“For example, some patients demonstrate normal comprehension of complex sentences, despite signifi cantly restricted working memory capacities (Caplan and Waters, 1999; Hanten and Martin, 2000; Waters et al., 1991).”

“Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | October 2008 | Volume 2 | Article 14 2 in reading comprehension during concurrent articulation compared to concurrent tapping (De Beni et al., 2005; Slowiaczek and Clifton, 1980; Takahashi, 2007).”

“For example, some patients demonstrate normal comprehension of complex sentences, despite signifi cantly restricted working memory capacities (Caplan and Waters, 1999; Hanten and Martin, 2000; Waters et al., 1991).”

“Broca’s area was fi rst thought to support syntactic processing because Broca’s aphasics were found to have agrammatic production(1) (Gleason et al., 1975; Goodglass, 1968, 1976; Goodglass and Berko, 1960; Kean, 1977).”

“Caplan et al. (2008) suggest that the left IFG, generally, supports sentence processing via two possible functions: rehearsal and thematic role checking (i.e. evaluating various thematic role assignment possibilities).”

“Some of the evidence supporting the involvement of the phonological loop in sentence comprehension has emerged from reading comprehension and short-term memory studies involving concurrent task paradigms (e.g. Baddeley, 1981; Baddeley et al., 1975; Besner and Davelaar, 1982; Coltheart, 1993).”

“…processing syntactically grammaticality judgments of sentences, even if they are unable to comprehend these same sentences (Linebarger et al., 1983; Wulfeck, 1988), suggesting that these patients have signifi - cant syntactic knowledge available to them (Linebarger, 1990; Linebarger et al., 1983;…”

“Figure 1 | Schematic of behavioral task paradigm with SOAP stimuli (Love and Oster, 2002).”

“In addition, irrelevant sounds and speech presented during reading comprehension tasks do not impair reading comprehension as concurrent articulation does (Boyle and Coltheart, 1996).”

“…area support both speech articulation (including during articulatory rehearsal) (Buchsbaum et al., 2001; Hickok et al., 2003; Jonides et al., 1997; Postle et al., 2001; Smith and Jonides, 1997; Smith et al., 1998) and the processing of high-load sentences relative to lower-load sentences…”

“…reduced digit and sentence working memory spans, and their sentence comprehension in high load situations has been correlated with verbal working memory capacity more broadly defi ned (Daneman and Carpenter, 1980; De Renzi and Nichelli, 1975; Just and Carpenter, 1992; Swinney and Taylor, 1971).”

“In addition, patients with lesions to this region have signifi cant defi cits in sequence prediction tasks compared to identifi cation tasks, and compared to patients with prefrontal or parietal lesions (Schubotz et al., 2004).”

“Broca’s area was fi rst thought to support syntactic processing because Broca’s aphasics were found to have agrammatic production1 (Gleason et al., 1975; Goodglass, 1968, 1976; Goodglass and Berko, 1960; Kean, 1977).”

“Such patients typically produce syntactically simple sentences that lack function words and infl ections (Kean, 1995), suggesting that they are lacking the ability to form syntactic structures.”

“…is greater for implausible sentences include the following: (a) activation in the left premotor cortex reflects covert articulatory processing (Rogalsky et al., 2008; Iacoboni, 2008; Callan et al., 2010; Osnes et al., 2011; Adank and Devlin, 2010; Meister et al., 2007; Scott et al., 2009a;…”

“At the next level, the claim is that Broca’s region supports verbal working memory (235) and that this is why this region shows activation when processing syntactically complex sentences (37, 220).”

“In this study, the previously observed sentence complexity effect (greater activation for syntactically more complex sentences relative to less complex sentences) was eliminated in the posterior portion of Broca’s region (pars opercularis, ∼BA 44) when subjects comprehended sentences while they concurrently rehearsed…”