Positron emission tomographic studies of the processing of single words

Abstract

PET images of blood flow change that were averaged across individuals were used to identify brain areas related to lexical (single-word) processing. A small number of discrete areas were activated during several task conditions including: modality-specific (auditory or visual) areas activated by passive word input, primary motor and premotor areas during speech output, and yet further areas during tasks making semantic or attentional demands.