Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 May 22:6:687.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00687. eCollection 2015.

Broca's area network in language function: a pooling-data connectivity study

Byron Bernal  1 , Alfredo Ardila  2 , Monica Rosselli  3
Affiliations

Broca's area network in language function: a pooling-data connectivity study

Byron Bernal et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Background and objective: Modern neuroimaging developments have demonstrated that cognitive functions correlate with brain networks rather than specific areas. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the connectivity of Broca's area based on language tasks.

Methods: A connectivity modeling study was performed by pooling data of Broca's activation in language tasks. Fifty-seven papers that included 883 subjects in 84 experiments were analyzed. Analysis of Likelihood Estimates of pooled data was utilized to generate the map; thresholds at p < 0.01 were corrected for multiple comparisons and false discovery rate. Resulting images were co-registered into MNI standard space.

Results: A network consisting of 16 clusters of activation was obtained. Main clusters were located in the frontal operculum, left posterior temporal region, supplementary motor area, and the parietal lobe. Less common clusters were seen in the sub-cortical structures including the left thalamus, left putamen, secondary visual areas, and the right cerebellum.

Conclusion: Broca's area-44-related networks involved in language processing were demonstrated utilizing a pooling-data connectivity study. Significance, interpretation, and limitations of the results are discussed.

Keywords: ALE; BA44; Broca; MACM; connectivity; fMRI; functional connectivity; language.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Functional connectivity map of BA44 by Meta-analytic connectivity modeling. (Left) Transversal descending cuts of the brain MRI template. Left hemisphere appears on the right side (Radiological convention). Clusters of activation are color coded for statistical significance from dark blue (lowest) to red (highest). Cluster numbers of the automatic activation likelihood estimate (ALE) report are associated with the main clusters of image. Arrows point approximately to their isocenters. Within the yellow oval, cluster 7 corresponds to the left thalamus, with medial localization, and cluster 8, lenticular nucleus, with lateral and rostral position. The cerebellar activation shown in the middle inset of the lower row is part of cluster 5. It is most likely explained by the smoothing effect of the adjacent activation of the left fusiform gyrus. (Right) 3D volumetric rendition of the brain showing activation on the left hemisphere surface. Red color zone identifies BA44. Deep and midline activations are not shown.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alwin D. F., McCammon R. J. (2001). Aging, cohorts, and verbal ability. J. Gerontol. B Psychol. Sci. Soc. Sci. 56 S151–S161. 10.1093/geronb/56.3.s151 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Amunts K., Lenzen M., Friederici A. D., Schleicher A., Morosan P., Palomero-Gallagher N., et al. (2010). Broca’s region: novel organizational principles and multiple receptor mapping. PLoS Biol. 8:e1000489 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000489 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Amunts K., Weiss P. H., Mohlberg H., Pieperhoff P., Eickhoff S., Gurd J. M., et al. (2004). Analysis of neural mechanisms underlying verbal fluency in cytoarchitectonically defined stereotaxic space–the roles of Brodmann areas 44 and 45. Neuroimage 22 42–56. 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.12.031 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Anwander A., Tittgemeyer M., von Cramon D. Y., Friederici A. D., Knösche T. R. (2007). Connectivity-based parcellation of Broca’s area. Cereb. Cortex N. Y. 17 816–825. 10.1093/cercor/bhk034 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ardila A. (2007). Normal aging increases cognitive heterogeneity: analysis of dispersion in WAIS-III scores across age. Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. 22 1003–1011. 10.1016/j.acn.2007.08.004 - DOI - PubMed