The neural correlates of grammatical gender: an fMRI investigation.

Full Abstract

In an fMRI experiment, subjects saw a written noun and made three distinct decisions in separate sessions:
Is its grammatical gender masculine or feminine (grammatical feature task)? Is it an animal or an artifact (semantic task)? Does it contain a /tch/ or a /k/ sound (phonological task)? Relative to the other experimental conditions, the grammatical feature task activated areas of the left middle and inferior frontal gyrus and of the left middle and inferior temporal gyrus. These activations fit in well with neuropsychological studies that document the correlation between left frontal lesions and damage to morphological processes in agrammatism, and the correlation between left temporal lesions and failure to access lexical representations in anomia. Taken together, these data suggest that grammatical gender is processed in a left frontotemporal network. In addition, the observation that the grammatical feature task and the phonology task activated neighboring but distinct regions of the left frontal lobe provides a plausible neuroanatomical basis for the systematic occurrence of phonological errors in aphasic subjects with morphological deficits.

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Author information

Author/s: Miceli, Gabriele (G); Turriziani, Patrizia (P); Caltagirone, Carlo (C); Capasso, Rita (R); Tomaiuolo, Francesco (F); Caramazza, Alfonso (A);

Affiliation: Università Cattolica, Rome, Italy and Istituto di Psicologia, CNR, Rome, Italy. g.miceli(-atsign-)mclink .it

Grants: DC04542 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Journal of cognitive neuroscience (J Cogn Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-May; vol 14 (issue 4) : pp 618-28

Dates: Created 2002/07/19; Completed 2002/09/03; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12126502, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Female
Humans
Language
Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Male
Mental Processes - physiology
Phonetics
Semantics
Sex
Speech - physiology
Verbal Behavior - physiology

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