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How language-specific is the role of the basal ganglia ?| old_uid | 3033 |
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| title | How language-specific is the role of the basal ganglia ? |
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| start_date | 2007/06/14 |
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| schedule | 12h |
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| online | no |
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| location_info | grande salle IM3 |
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| summary | So far, the functional role of the basal ganglia (BG) in language perception has been rather controversially discussed. However, both patient and functional imaging data describe BG involvement in language production, attention, memory, and timing. Naturally, the question arises whether the BG functionally play a domain specific or a domain general role. My recent event-related potential (ERP) work with BG patients of diverse aetiology shows that in particular syntactic correction processes are affected during auditory language processing and that this deficit is not attention specific. Interestingly, the deficit can be compensated by external rhythmic stimulation. This evidence is comparable with the compensation hypothesis put forward in the motor domain. If a sensory stimulus is predictive (serially or isochronously) compensation of the BG can occur via premotor areas. We followed up this hypothesis with patient and fMRI work integrating the idea of 'prosodic bootstrapping' from developmental science which proposes that infants build grammatical knowledge via rhythmic aspects of a given language. By using predictable rhythmic patterns such as metrical stress (the alternation of strong and weak syllables) during auditory sentence presentation we investigated a possible interaction of metric and syntactic processes. The data reveal that (i) metric and syntactic processes interact, (ii) BG patients can compensate syntactic correction by means of predictable metrical stress, but (iii) can not detect metrical deviations, and (iv) the functional brain network supporting both syntactic and metric processing overlaps. Moreover, activation extends further than the predicted fronto-striatal loop into insular as well as anterior and posterior temporal brain areas. Results will be discussed in relation to the functional nature of the BG in language processing and beyond. |
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| responsibles | <not specified> |
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