Functional roles of the thalamus for language capacities

Abstract

Early biological concepts of language were predominantly corticocentric, but over the last decades biolinguistic research, equipped with new technical possibilities, has drastically changed this view. To date, connectionist models, conceiving linguistic skills as corticobasal network activities, dominate our understanding of the neural basis of language. However, beyond the notion of an involvement of the thalamus and, in most cases also, the basal ganglia (BG) in linguistic operations, specific functions of the respective depth structures mostly remain rather controversial. In this review, some of these issues shall be discussed, particularly the functional configuration of basal network components and the language specificity of subcortical supporting activity. Arguments will be provided for a primarily cortico-thalamic language network. In this view, the thalamus does not engage in proper linguistic operations, but rather acts as a central monitor for language-specific cortical activities, supported by the BG in both perceptual and productive language execution.

A New Paradigm for Individual Subject Language Mapping: Movie‐Watching fMRI

“…Subcortical activation of the movie‐watching fMRI was in the right thalamus and basal ganglia (putamen and pallidum), while that of the task‐based fMRI was in the left thalamus and basal ganglia (putamen and caudate nucleus). The thalamus and basal ganglia have been hypothesized to play a role in the control and adaptation of corticocortical connectivity, and support for the composition of cortically provided information, respectively . The corticothalamic language processing network in the left hemisphere has recently been supported by structural connectivity analyses among Broca's area, basal ganglia, and thalamus using diffusion‐weighted imaging fiber tracking technique .…”

Multiple thalamo-cortical disconnections in anterior thalamic infarction: Implications for thalamic mechanisms of memory and language

“…Although, to the best of our knowledge, no human studies have addressed the connection between the thalamus and anterior temporal lobe, a recent tractography study demonstrated connections between the left frontal operculum (Broca's area) and the anterior ventral thalamus (Ford et al, 2013). Previous clinical and functional neuroimaging studies have suggested that various thalamic and cortical structures cooperate flexibly in a variety of language processing tasks (Klostermann, Krugel, & Ehlen, 2013;Llano, 2013). However, empirical evidence for the roles of individual thalamic nuclei in specific language functions, e.g., articulation, phonological processing and lexicosemantic processing, is scarce at present.…”

Multistimulation Group Therapy in Alzheimer’s Disease Promotes Changes in Brain Functioning

“…It is known that thalamus and basal ganglia play an important role in word generation, and recent data suggest that the thalamus acts as a central monitor for language-specific cortical activities, supported by the basal ganglia in both perceptual and productive language execution. 47 Moreover, the insular cortex plays an important role in speech and emotional experience, and it has been demonstrated that hypometabolism of the anterior insula is associated with progressive nonfluent aphasia. 48 Furthermore, MRI studies have shown that the insula is interconnected with the temporal and orbitofrontal cortices and inferior frontal gyrus.…”