2004 | Nina F. Dronkers, David P. Wilkins, Robert D. Van Valin Jr., Brenda B. Redfern, Jeri J. Jaeger
This study investigates the brain areas involved in language comprehension by analyzing lesions in 64 chronic left hemisphere stroke patients using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM). The patients were evaluated on 11 subtests of the Curtiss–Yamada Comprehensive Language Evaluation – Receptive (CYCLE-R), and their lesions were reconstructed onto templates for VLSM analysis. The results indicate that lesions to five left hemisphere brain regions—posterior middle temporal gyrus, anterior superior temporal gyrus, superior temporal sulcus, angular gyrus, and mid-frontal cortex (BA46 and BA47)—affect performance on the CYCLE-R. Lesions to Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas did not significantly alter language comprehension. Further analysis suggests that the middle temporal gyrus may be more important for word-level comprehension, while other regions play a greater role at the sentence level. These findings are consistent with recent functional neuroimaging studies and provide complementary data to understand the brain areas underlying language comprehension.This study investigates the brain areas involved in language comprehension by analyzing lesions in 64 chronic left hemisphere stroke patients using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM). The patients were evaluated on 11 subtests of the Curtiss–Yamada Comprehensive Language Evaluation – Receptive (CYCLE-R), and their lesions were reconstructed onto templates for VLSM analysis. The results indicate that lesions to five left hemisphere brain regions—posterior middle temporal gyrus, anterior superior temporal gyrus, superior temporal sulcus, angular gyrus, and mid-frontal cortex (BA46 and BA47)—affect performance on the CYCLE-R. Lesions to Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas did not significantly alter language comprehension. Further analysis suggests that the middle temporal gyrus may be more important for word-level comprehension, while other regions play a greater role at the sentence level. These findings are consistent with recent functional neuroimaging studies and provide complementary data to understand the brain areas underlying language comprehension.