A PET study of word finding

doi:10.1016/0028-3932(91)90029-8

Neuropsychologia

Volume 29, Issue 12, December 1991, Pages 1137-1148

https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(91)90029-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

We have used PET in conjunction with psychological activations to identify cortical areas involved in the intrinsic activation of word representations. In four normal subjects intrinsic generation of a word (verbal fluency) was associated with an increase in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortical activity (BA 46) and a bilateral decrease in activity in auditory and superior temporal cortices. Conversely, when subjects made lexical decisions about words that were heard, there was an increase in superior temporal activity with no change in area 46.

We suggest that the superior temporal regions are the site of stored word representations and that inhibitory modulation of these areas by the left prefrontal cortex is the basis of intrinsic word generation.

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View full text

A PET study of word finding

Abstract

Neuropsychologia

Trans. Nucl. Sci.

Neuroscience

TINS

Neuropsychologia

The central executive and its malfunction

What is the role of the general activating systems in cortical function?

Willed action and the prefrontal cortex in man: a study with PET

Proc. R. Soc. Lond.

Localization in PET images: Direct fitting of the intercommissural (AC–PC) line

J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab.

The relationship between local and global changes in PET scans

J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab.

Investigating a network model of word generation with positron emission tomography

Proc. R. Soc. Lond.

Organization of the human brain

Science

Circuitry of primate frontal cortex and the regulation of behaviour by representational memory

Wisconsin card sort test performance in patients with complex partial seizures of temporal lobe origin

J. Clin. exp. Neuropsychol.

Design fluency: the invention of nonsense drawings after focal cortical lesions

Neuropsychologia

Combination of dynamic and integral methods for generating reproducible functional CBF images

J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab.