Reproducibility of Activations in Broca Area with Two Language Tasks: A Functional MR Imaging Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Functional MR imaging (fMRI) is rapidly evolving and claims to complement or even substitute intraoperative mapping (IOM) of language functions. However, little is known about the reproducibility of imaging data in the language domain. The aim of our study was to assess the reproducibility of activations for 2 widely used paradigms: naming and word generation. Individual analysis was focused on the Broca area and the left insula.

Sensitivity and reliability of language laterality assessment with a free reversed association task—a fMRI study

“…Functional MRI results have been shown to agree with the invasive reference of the Wada test (e.g., [1,2]), suggesting that neuroimaging can be used to assess language lateralization in a clinical context. However, only a few reports exist on the reliability of functional imaging results with respect to language processes (e.g., [3,4]) and with respect to the investigation of hemispheric language dominance (e.g., [5,6]). Before fMRI can be routinely used in this context, more data on the sensitivity and reliability should be acquired.…”

Bad Mood—Bad Activation?

“…This is clearly supported by several reliability studies, where considerable differences between the results of repeated measurements are reported [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Many factors such as magnetic field inhomogeneities, involuntary movements, respiration, cyclic heart function, and so on do have substantial influence on fMRI results [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

A Technique for Mapping Cortical Areas Associated with Speech Arrest

“…Aphemia results from a defect in motor control independent of buccofacial coordination and language processing, and is described as an impaired sound production motor system [21] . Although fMRI paradigms are designed to differentiate motor activation of the face and pharynx from Broca's area (specifically by object naming tasks), the reproducibility of fMRI for identifying Broca's area is known to be limited [22] . Thus the possibility exists that the concordance observed between cortical stimulation and vocal cord movement is in fact identifying another phenomenon, such as aphemia.…”