Network for Biomedical Applications of High-field MR

- Training, Education, Science, Lectures, Applications (TESLA)

Activities autumn 2011

TESLA lecture on December 7:

Subcortical structures and pathways involved in the earliest stages of language acquisition

Ruth de Diego-Balaguer

ICREA researcher, University of Barcelona and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris

Date: Wednesday, December 7 dec 15.15 - approx. 16.15

Venue: Lecture hall F3, Skåne University Hospital (“Blocket”), Ground Floor

Abstract:

The language network recruits frontal, parietal and temporal areas classically connected through a dorsal pathway involving the arcuate and the superior longitudinal fasciculus. Frontal and temporal areas are also connected through a subcortical ventral pathway system running through the extreme capsule that is developed earlier in infancy than the dorsal pathway. In addition, there is growing evidence that the subcortical structures per se are important for language processing. It has been proposed that the striatum in particular is related to controlled non-automatized processing of rules in language (Friederici and Kotz, 2003). This is the case of rules during learning. Thus, subcortical structures and pathways may be important in language learning particularly for rule acquisition. We explored this hypothesis with different methodologies comparing word and rule acquisition using simplified artificial languages. Data from patients with degeneration in the striatum (Huntington’s disease) indicated that the striatum is important for language learning specially for rule acquisition (de Diego-Balaguer et al 2008). In a second fMRI experiment we looked at changes in activation through learning in healthy volunteers. The striatum showed increased activation in the initial part of the learning session for rule acquisition. In addition, activations along the dorsal pathway including the inferior parietal and premotor cortices where those displaying greater activation for rule extraction than word memorisation. In a third study (Lopez-Barroso et al 2011) we blocked the use of the dorsal path with an articulatory suppression task and showed with Diffusion Tensor Imaging that, in this condition, the integrity of the ventral subcortical pathway was correlated with language learning performance. These studies underscore the importance of subcortical structures and pathways in the earliest stages of language acquisition. The functional implication of these results will be discussed in light of the proposed role of the ventral pathway in language comprehension and the role of the striatum as a structure in a privileged situation to coordinate different cognitive functions important in the course of language acquisition.

This seminar is co-hosted by the Medical Humanities program at the Faculties of Humanities and Theology and the TESLA program at the Faculty of Medicine.

For a brief overview of one of the major TESLA activities during 2008-2010, the establishment of Lund University Bioimaging Center, please use the following link: 

Lund University Bioimaging Center 

Summary of activites 2006-2008: See enclosed file