Valentin E. Sinitsyn MD, PhD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Roza M. Vlasova, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Ekaterina Pechenkova PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Maria Sinitsyna, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Substantial interindividual and even interlinguistic variability in speech areas of the brain which are activated by various linguistic tasks causes a substantial problem for presurgical brain mapping. The purpose of this work is to compare two popular fMRI tasks (noun generation and object naming) regarding their effectiveness in activating Broca’s area in native speakers of Russian.

Both structural T1-weighted and functional T2*-weighted volumes (EPI sequence parameters: TR/TE/FA – 3560 ms / 50 ms / 90º; 36 slices oriented parallel to AC/PC plane, slice interval 0.75 mm; voxel size 3.6х3.6х3 mm) were obtained using Siemens 1.5 T Magnetom Avanto scanner. 15 healthy right-handed native speakers of Russian completed one run of each task. 120 volumes per run were acquired. Each run lasted about 7 minutes and included 10 blocks of activation task alternating with 10 blocks of baseline. For the noun generation task, the subject reported aloud as many nouns starting from the indicated letter, as possible. At the beginning of each activation block, a new letter was presented to the subject on the screen. For the object naming activation blocks, a new object from Tarrlab stimuli collection was shown to a subject every 2 sec. The task was to name objects overtly. Imaging data was processed using SPM8.

Either IFG or insula activation (p<0.001, no correction for multiple comparisons) was revealed in 11 subjects for noun generation and in 9 for object naming. For object naming, more activation was obtained in insula, while noun generation produced more IFG activation. Random-effects analysis of the whole-brain activation revealed no significant group activation for object naming, but some group activation in left IFG (Broca’s area) for noun generation task (MNI coordinates of peak activation x=-36, y=11, z=13).

The results of this study have shown that noun generation elicits Broca’s area activation in speakers of Russian more effectively than object naming task, which is consistent with results for other languages reported in the literature. Noun generation may be effective even for very short periods of fMRI scanning.

Noun generation is more effective than object naming as fMRI activation task and may be recommended for Broca’s area localization in presurgical planning.

Sinitsyn, V, Vlasova, R, Pechenkova, E, Sinitsyna, M, Activation of Broca Area in Speakers of Russian: A Comparison of Two Tasks.  Radiological Society of North America 2011 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 26 - December 2, 2011 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2011/11034588.html