Dataset Information

Your verbal questions beginning with 'what' will rapidly deactivate the left prefrontal cortex of listeners.

ABSTRACT: The left prefrontal cortex is essential for verbal communication. It remains uncertain at what timing, to what extent, and what type of phrase initiates left-hemispheric dominant prefrontal activation during comprehension of spoken sentences. We clarified this issue by measuring event-related high-gamma activity during a task to respond to three-phrase questions configured in different orders. Questions beginning with a wh-interrogative deactivated the left posterior prefrontal cortex right after the 1st phrase offset and the anterior prefrontal cortex after the 2nd phrase offset. Left prefrontal high-gamma activity augmented subsequently and maximized around the 3rd phrase offset. Conversely, questions starting with a concrete phrase deactivated the right orbitofrontal region and then activated the left posterior prefrontal cortex after the 1st phrase offset. Regardless of sentence types, high-gamma activity emerged earlier, by one phrase, in the left posterior prefrontal than anterior prefrontal region. Sentences beginning with a wh-interrogative may initially deactivate the left prefrontal cortex to prioritize the bottom-up processing of upcoming auditory information. A concrete phrase may obliterate the inhibitory function of the right orbitofrontal region and facilitate top-down lexical prediction by the left prefrontal cortex. The left anterior prefrontal regions may be recruited for semantic integration of multiple concrete phrases.

SUBMITTER: Iwaki H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7933162 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Your verbal questions beginning with 'what' will rapidly deactivate the left prefrontal cortex of listeners.

Iwaki Hirotaka H Sonoda Masaki M Osawa Shin-Ichiro SI Silverstein Brian H BH Mitsuhashi Takumi T Ukishiro Kazushi K Takayama Yutaro Y Kambara Toshimune T Kakinuma Kazuo K Suzuki Kyoko K Tominaga Teiji T Nakasato Nobukazu N Iwasaki Masaki M Asano Eishi E

Scientific reports 20210304 1

The left prefrontal cortex is essential for verbal communication. It remains uncertain at what timing, to what extent, and what type of phrase initiates left-hemispheric dominant prefrontal activation during comprehension of spoken sentences. We clarified this issue by measuring event-related high-gamma activity during a task to respond to three-phrase questions configured in different orders. Questions beginning with a wh-interrogative deactivated the left posterior prefrontal cortex right afte ...[more]

PMID: 33664359

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Project description:BackgroundTreating memory and cognitive deficits requires knowledge about anatomical sites and neural activities to be targeted with particular therapies. Emerging technologies for local brain stimulation offer attractive therapeutic options but need to be applied to target specific neural activities, at distinct times, and in specific brain regions that are critical for memory formation.MethodsThe areas that are critical for successful encoding of verbal memory as well as the underlying neural activities were determined directly in the human brain with intracranial electrophysiological recordings in epilepsy patients. We recorded a broad range of spectral activities across the cortex of 135 patients as they memorised word lists for subsequent free recall.FindingsThe greatest differences in the spectral power between encoding subsequently recalled and forgotten words were found in low theta frequency (3-5 Hz) activities of the left anterior prefrontal cortex. This subsequent memory effect was proportionally greater in the lower frequency bands and in the more anterior cortical regions. We found the peak of this memory signal in a distinct part of the prefrontal cortex at the junction between the Broca's area and the frontal pole. The memory effect in this confined area was significantly higher (Tukey-Kramer test, p<0.05) than in other anatomically distinct areas.InterpretationOur results suggest a focal hotspot of human verbal memory encoding located in the higher-order processing region of the prefrontal cortex, which presents a prospective target for modulating cognitive functions in the human patients. The memory effect provides an electrophysiological biomarker of low frequency neural activities, at distinct times of memory encoding, and in one hotspot location in the human brain.FundingOpen-access datasets were originally collected as part of a BRAIN Initiative project called Restoring Active Memory (RAM) funded by the Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). CT, ML, MTK and this research were supported from the First Team grant of the Foundation for Polish Science co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund.

Dataset Information

Your verbal questions beginning with 'what' will rapidly deactivate the left prefrontal cortex of listeners.

Publications

Your verbal questions beginning with 'what' will rapidly deactivate the left prefrontal cortex of listeners.

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