Brain, Vol. 126, No. 5, 1193-1201,
May 2003
© 2003 Guarantors of Brain
doi: 10.1093/brain/awg104
Temporal lobe regions engaged during normal speech comprehension
1 MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Cyclotron Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, London, 2 Department of Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, 3 Department of Medicine, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge and 4 Department of Speech, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Correspondence to: Jennifer Crinion, MRC Clinical Sciences Center, Cyclotron Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, London W12 0NN, UK E-mail: j.crinion{at}ion.ucl.ac.uk
Processing of speech is obligatory. Thus, during normal speech comprehension, the listener is aware of the overall meaning of the speaker’s utterance without the need to direct attention to individual linguistic and paralinguistic (intonational, prosodic, etc.) features contained within the speech signal. However, most functional neuroimaging studies of speech perception have used metalinguistic tasks that required the subjects to attend to specific features of the stimuli. Such tasks have demanded a forced-choice decision and a motor response from the subjects, which will engage frontal systems and may include unpredictable top-down modulation of the signals observed in one or more of the temporal lobe neural systems engaged during speech perception. This study contrasted the implicit comprehension of simple narrative speech with listening to reversed versions of the narratives: the latter are as acoustically complex as speech but are unintelligible in terms of both linguistic and paralinguistic information. The result demonstrated that normal comprehension, free of task demands that do not form part of everyday discourse, engages regions distributed between the two temporal lobes, more widely on the left. In particular, comprehension is dependent on anterolateral and ventral left temporal regions, as suggested by observations on patients with semantic dementia, as well as posterior regions described in studies on aphasic stroke patients. The only frontal contribution was confined to the ventrolateral left prefrontal cortex, compatible with observations that comprehension of simple speech is preserved in patients with left posterior frontal infarction.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  J. E. Warren, J. T. Crinion, M. A. Lambon Ralph, and R. J. S. Wise Anterior temporal lobe connectivity correlates with functional outcome after aphasic stroke Brain, November 10, 2009; (2009) awp270v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. P. Leff, T. M. Schofield, J. T. Crinion, M. L. Seghier, A. Grogan, D. W. Green, and C. J. Price The left superior temporal gyrus is a shared substrate for auditory short-term memory and speech comprehension: evidence from 210 patients with stroke Brain, November 5, 2009; (2009) awp273v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. E. Peelle, V. Troiani, A. Wingfield, and M. Grossman Neural Processing during Older Adults' Comprehension of Spoken Sentences: Age Differences in Resource Allocation and Connectivity Cereb Cortex, August 7, 2009; (2009) bhp142v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. Vartiainen, T. Parviainen, and R. Salmelin Spatiotemporal Convergence of Semantic Processing in Reading and Speech Perception J. Neurosci., July 22, 2009; 29(29): 9271 - 9280. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
W. K. Simmons, M. Reddish, P. S. F. Bellgowan, and A. Martin The Selectivity and Functional Connectivity of the Anterior Temporal Lobes Cereb Cortex, July 20, 2009; (2009) bhp149v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. K. Tyler, M. A. Shafto, B. Randall, P. Wright, W. D. Marslen-Wilson, and E. A. Stamatakis Preserving Syntactic Processing across the Adult Life Span: The Modulation of the Frontotemporal Language System in the Context of Age-Related Atrophy Cereb Cortex, June 8, 2009; (2009) bhp105v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 D. Ben Shalom and D. Poeppel Functional Anatomic Models of Language: Assembling the Pieces Neuroscientist, February 1, 2008; 14(1): 119 - 127. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. M. Wilson, I. Molnar-Szakacs, and M. Iacoboni Beyond Superior Temporal Cortex: Intersubject Correlations in Narrative Speech Comprehension Cereb Cortex, January 1, 2008; 18(1): 230 - 242. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Abutalebi, S. M. Brambati, J.-M. Annoni, A. Moro, S. F. Cappa, and D. Perani The Neural Cost of the Auditory Perception of Language Switches: An Event-Related Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study in Bilinguals J. Neurosci., December 12, 2007; 27(50): 13762 - 13769. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Awad, J. E. Warren, S. K. Scott, F. E. Turkheimer, and R. J. S. Wise A Common System for the Comprehension and Production of Narrative Speech J. Neurosci., October 24, 2007; 27(43): 11455 - 11464. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. E. Hillis Aphasia: Progress in the last quarter of a century Neurology, July 10, 2007; 69(2): 200 - 213. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. DeLeon, R. F. Gottesman, J. T. Kleinman, M. Newhart, C. Davis, J. Heidler-Gary, A. Lee, and A. E. Hillis Neural regions essential for distinct cognitive processes underlying picture naming Brain, May 1, 2007; 130(5): 1408 - 1422. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 P. Belin Voice processing in human and non-human primates Phil Trans R Soc B, December 29, 2006; 361(1476): 2091 - 2107. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. T. Crinion, E. A. Warburton, M. A. Lambon-Ralph, D. Howard, and R. J.S. Wise Listening to Narrative Speech after Aphasic Stroke: the Role of the Left Anterior Temporal Lobe Cereb Cortex, August 1, 2006; 16(8): 1116 - 1125. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
E. Jefferies and M. A. Lambon Ralph Semantic impairment in stroke aphasia versus semantic dementia: a case-series comparison Brain, August 1, 2006; 129(8): 2132 - 2147. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
G. Spitsyna, J. E. Warren, S. K. Scott, F. E. Turkheimer, and R. J. S. Wise Converging language streams in the human temporal lobe. J. Neurosci., July 12, 2006; 26(28): 7328 - 7336. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. Saur, R. Lange, A. Baumgaertner, V. Schraknepper, K. Willmes, M. Rijntjes, and C. Weiller Dynamics of language reorganization after stroke Brain, June 1, 2006; 129(6): 1371 - 1384. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Crinion and C. J. Price Right anterior superior temporal activation predicts auditory sentence comprehension following aphasic stroke Brain, December 1, 2005; 128(12): 2858 - 2871. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. M. Rodd, M. H. Davis, and I. S. Johnsrude The Neural Mechanisms of Speech Comprehension: fMRI studies of Semantic Ambiguity Cereb Cortex, August 1, 2005; 15(8): 1261 - 1269. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
H. Duffau, P. Gatignol, E. Mandonnet, P. Peruzzi, N. Tzourio-Mazoyer, and L. Capelle New insights into the anatomo-functional connectivity of the semantic system: a study using cortico-subcortical electrostimulations Brain, April 1, 2005; 128(4): 797 - 810. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|