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. 2011 Sep 29;27(5):307. doi: 10.1007/s12264-011-1046-0

Functional MRI mapping of category-specific sites associated with naming of famous faces, animals and man-made objects

名人面孔、 动物和人造物类别特异性命名区脑定位的功能磁共振研究

Hong-Min Bai 1,2, Tao Jiang 3, Wei-Min Wang 2, Tian-Dong Li 2, Yan Liu 2, Yi-Cheng Lu 1,✉
PMCID: PMC5560313  PMID: 21934726

Abstract

Objective

Category-specific recognition and naming deficits have been observed in a variety of patient populations. However, the category-specific cortices for naming famous faces, animals and man-made objects remain controversial. The present study aimed to study the specific areas involved in naming pictures of these 3 categories using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Methods

Functional images were analyzed using statistical parametric mapping and the 3 different contrasts were evaluated using t statistics by comparing the naming tasks to their baselines. The contrast images were entered into a random-effects group level analysis. The results were reported in Montreal Neurological Institute coordinates, and anatomical regions were identified using an automated anatomical labeling method with XJview 8.

Results

Naming famous faces caused more activation in the bilateral head of the hippocampus and amygdala with significant left dominance. Bilateral activation of pars triangularis and pars opercularis in the naming of famous faces was also revealed. Naming animals evoked greater responses in the left supplementary motor area, while naming man-made objects evoked more in the left premotor area, left pars orbitalis and right supplementary motor area. The extent of bilateral fusiform gyri activation by naming man-made objects was much larger than that by naming of famous faces or animals. Even in the overlapping sites of activation, some differences among the categories were found for activation in the fusiform gyri.

Conclusion

The cortices involved in the naming process vary with the naming of famous faces, animals and man-made objects. This finding suggests that different categories of pictures should be used during intra-operative language mapping to generate a broader map of language function, in order to minimize the incidence of false-negative stimulation and permanent post-operative deficits.

Keywords: brain mapping, category-specific naming, famous face, animal, man-made object

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