TY - JOUR
T1 - The neural correlates of grammatical gender
T2 - An fMRI investigation
AU - Miceli, Gabriele
AU - Turriziani, Patrizia
AU - Caltagirone, Carlo
AU - Capasso, Rita
AU - Tomaiuolo, Francesco
AU - Caramazza, Alfonso
PY - 2002/5/15
Y1 - 2002/5/15
N2 - 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 fronto-temporal 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.
AB - 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 fronto-temporal 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037093443&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0037093443&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1162/08989290260045855
DO - 10.1162/08989290260045855
M3 - Article
C2 - 12126502
AN - SCOPUS:0037093443
VL - 14
SP - 618
EP - 628
JO - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
SN - 0898-929X
IS - 4
ER -