No other primate species develops a language competency approaching that of humans. Thus in some way, human brains are distinct from the brains of other primates. Further, language capacity is not a generic function of cerebral cortex, but of functionally specialized regions. By coordinated study of function by functional MRI and histological study of cortical structure, this project addresses the question, What distinguishes """"""""language"""""""" cortex from other cerebral cortex? Support for preliminary studies is provided by a UAB Health Services Foundation Grant. An NIH R01 grant has been applied for. From a population of terminally ill subjects, characterized neuropsychologically and with functional MRI, we will obtain cortical specimens for histological study. Functional MRI will be used to identify cerebral cortical areas involved in semantic processing and those involved in processing auditory stimuli. Preliminary results in three volunteers have established the ability of the visually presented and auditorily presented stimuli to elicit activation observable by fMRI. As a result of these comparisons it will be possible to state what are the neuroanatomical structural features specific for cortical regions functionally specialized for language. The ultimate goal is to determine how the operations of these cerebral cortical areas, with their specific structural features, yields the cognitive product: language.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 19 publications
