The role of dominant striatum in language: a study using intraoperative electrical stimulations

Abstract

Background: The role of the striatum in language remains poorly understood. Intraoperative electrical stimulation during surgery for tumours involving the caudate nucleus or putamen in the dominant hemisphere might be illuminating. Objectives: To study the role of these structures in language, with the aim of avoiding postoperative definitive aphasia. Methods: 11 patients with cortico-subcortical low grade gliomas were operated on while awake, and striatal functional mapping was done. Intraoperative direct electrical stimulation was used while the patients carried out motor and naming tasks during the resection. Results: In five cases of glioma involving the dominant putamen, stimulations induced anarthria, while in six cases of glioma involving the dominant caudate, stimulations elicited perseveration. There was no motor effect. The striatum was systematically preserved. Postoperatively, all patients except one had transient dysphasia which resolved within three months. Conclusions: There appear to be two separate basal ganglia systems in language, one mediated by the putamen which might have a motor role, and one by the caudate which might have a role in cognitive control. These findings could have implications for surgical strategy in lesions involving the dominant striatum.

Brain functional plasticity associated with the emergence of expertise in extreme language control

“…One possible explanation for the apparent lateralization of the effect in the present study is that the left striatum is more directly involved in motor aspects of speech control (as suggested by the evidence from direct electrical stimulation by Gil Robles et al, 2005), which may leave less scope for training-related reductions in its engagement compared to the right striatum. Further careful investigation of the activity in the striatum during monolingual and bilingual speech production tasks is needed to test this notion.…”

Bilingualism at the core of the brain. Structural differences between bilinguals and monolinguals revealed by subcortical shape analysis

“…Nevertheless, our greater sample size, the fact that we focused on simultaneous (instead of early) bilinguals, and the use of a more sensitive technique for the analysis of subcortical morphology, likely explain the larger extent and bilaterality of our results. The role of this striatal structure in language production and perception is well documented (Bohland and Guenther 2006;Gil Robles et al 2005;Murdoch 2001;Oberhuber et al 2013;Riecker et al 2005;Seghier and Price 2010;Tettamanti et al 2005), including the monitoring and programming of speech articulations (Chan et al 2008;Dodel et al 2005;Garbin et al 2010;Klein et al 1994Klein et al , 1995Riecker et al 2002;Simmonds, Wise, Leech 2011) and the processing of phonological errors (Tettamanti et al 2005; see also Bitan et al 2005;Booth et al 2002Booth et al , 2007Houk 2005). Given the wider range of speech sounds managed by Catalan-Spanish bilinguals compared to Spanish monolinguals, it is reasonable to expect that the putamen will be more strongly recruited by the former group, which might have an effect at the structural level.…”

Differential brain glucose metabolic patterns in antipsychotic-naive first-episode schizophrenia with and without auditory verbal hallucinations

“…The dominant caudate nucleus has a central role in cognitive and motor functions, including certain linguistic processes, 48 and has been implicated in regulating the language switch in proficiently bilingual individuals. 49,50 Interestingly, most of our patients with AVHs were proficient in both Spanish and Catalan, and a considerable proportion of them reported alternating hallucinatory voices in more than 1 language.…”