Identification of language-specific brain activity using magnetoencephalography

J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 1998 Oct;20(5):706-22. doi: 10.1076/jcen.20.5.706.1127.

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the ability of magnetoencephalography (MEG) to identify brain areas involved in language comprehension. Event-related magnetic fields (ERFs) were recorded from 7 right-handed adults with no history of neurological disorder or learning disability as they engaged in an auditory and a visual word-recognition task. A face-recognition task served as control. During the later portion of the ERFs, activity sources from both language tasks tended to overlap in temporal and temporo-parietal cortices. There was a clear preponderance of such sources in the left compared to the right hemisphere in all participants. These findings demonstrate that MEG is a promising tool for identifying brain regions involved in the analysis of linguistic stimuli, in addition to the initial encoding of stimulus features.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Brain / anatomy & histology
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping
  • Cognition / physiology
  • Electroencephalography
  • Electrooculography
  • Evoked Potentials / physiology
  • Functional Laterality / physiology
  • Humans
  • Language*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Magnetoencephalography*
  • Memory / physiology
  • Speech Perception / physiology
  • Visual Perception / physiology