Journal

The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

[Vol.19 No.2 contents]
Japanese/English

Full Text of this Article
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ArticleTitle Dynamism of word Production
Language J
AuthorList Mika Otsuki1), Yoshiaki Soma2), Hiroaki Naritomi3)
Affiliation 1) School of Psychological Science Health Sciences University of Hokkaido
2) Soma Neurology Clinic
3) Cerebrovascular Medicine, National Cardiocascular Center
Publication Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 19 (2), 64-74, 2003
Received
Accepted
Abstract We studied the ability of word production in order to reveal dynamism of language.
First, we revealed that the difference between the abilities of confrontation naming and word retrieval by a first mora (phoneme) of the word is based on the different mechanisms. The former is based on the ability of word retrieval by the visual input and is related to the left dorsal frontal region. The latter is based on the ability of word retrieval by stored information and is related to the left medial frontal region.
Further, we investigated that the ability of word retrieval differs depending on the strategies by the clinical data and by fMRI. We concluded that the word retrieval by a first mora (phoneme) of the word is related to the regions of left temporal-parietal-frontal lobes and the word retrieval by a certain category is related to the regions of the left temporal-frontal lobes.
We also investigated which regions should be involved in word retrieval after brain damage using PET activation method. We examined 6 patients: three had the left frontal lobe lesions, the other three had the left posterior (parietal and/or occipital) lesions, and we examined activated sites twice (first in one month after onset, and the second in the six months after onset). The patients with frontal lobe lesions showed activation sites in the left frontal regions, and in particular, two of them who showed relatively good improvement had activation of Broca's area. The patients with posterior lesions varied activation sites. Only one of the patients who relatively showed good improvement had some activation in the frontal lobe.
Keywords Confrontation naming, Word generation, Recovery of aphasia, Positron emission tomography, Functional MRI

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