fMRI studies of language comprehension: from activation to connectivity in the brain
By: Ana Raposo
From: Univ. Lisboa
At: Instituto de Investigação Interdisciplinar, Anfiteatro
[2011-02-10]
In the last two decades, we have witnessed an extraordinary increase in the number of fMRI studies that elucidate the relationship between brain activity and human cognition. So far, most studies have looked at the activation of isolated brain regions while people perform a specific cognitive task. The recent development of functional connectivity methods opens a new window to explore the correlation and inter-dependence of a network of regions. In this seminar, I will present a set of fMRI studies of spoken language comprehension, showing that our ability to understand the meaning of words depends on the co-modulation of fronto-temporal regions. I will discuss how fMRI signals reflect neuronal activity associated with cognitive functions, and how connectivity methods help us investigate the brain as a dynamic, flexible system.