Spatiotemporal maps of brain activity underlying word generation and their modification during repetition priming

Abstract

Spatiotemporal maps of brain activity based on magnetoencephalography were used to observe sequential stages in language processing and their modification during repetition priming. Subjects performed word-stem completion and produced either novel or repeated (primed) words across trials. Activation passes from primary visual cortex (activated at ∼100 msec after word presentation), to left anteroventral occipital (∼180 msec), to cortex in and near Wernicke's (∼210 msec) and then Broca's (∼370 msec) areas. In addition, a posteroventral temporal area is activated simultaneously with posterosuperior temporal cortex. This area shows an early (∼200-245 msec) increase in activation to repeated word stems. In contrast, prefrontal and anterior temporal regions showed activity reductions to repeated word stems late (∼365-500 msec) in processing. These results tend to support classical models of language and suggest that an effect of direct item repetition is to allow word-form processing to increase its contribution to task performance while concurrently allowing reductions in time-consuming frontal temporal processing.