Activation of human language processing brain regions after the presentation of random letter strings demonstrated with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging
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Abstract
This study addresses the question, to what extent the processing of meaningless random
letter strings involves classical language related brain regions. Using event-related
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which allows random stimulus presentation,
we could demonstrate activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left superior
temporal gyrus, left parietal and occipital regions after the presentation of random
letter strings compared to real words. The activation in these classical language
related brain areas reflects an intense lexical evaluation process of the meaningless
stimuli. Real words contrasted with random letter strings activated the left angular
gyrus, bilateral precuneus and the left posterior cingulate gyrus, which may reflect
the access of higher semantic associations.