Paper Info
Title
The structure and connectivity of semantic memory in the healthy older adult brain.
Abstract
The anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) have been proposed to serve as a “hub” linking amodal or domain general information about the meaning of words, objects, facts and people distributed throughout the brain in semantic memory. The two primary sources of evidence supporting this proposal, viz. structural imaging studies in semantic dementia (SD) patients and functional imaging investigations, are not without problems. Similarly, knowledge about the anatomo-functional connectivity of semantic memory is limited to a handful of intra-operative electrocortical stimulation (IES) investigations in patients. Here, using principal components analyses (PCA) of a battery of conceptual and non-conceptual tests coupled with voxel based morphometry (VBM) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in a sample of healthy older adults aged 55–85years, we show that amodal semantic memory relies on a predominantly left lateralised network of grey matter regions involving the ATL, posterior temporal and posterior inferior parietal lobes, with prominent involvement of the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) and uncinate fasciculus fibre pathways. These results demonstrate relationships between semantic memory, brain structure and connectivity essential for human communication and cognition.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.08.058
NeuroImage
Keywords
Field
DocType
Semantic memory,Anterior temporal lobe,Magnetic resonance imaging,Diffusion tensor imaging,Small world networks
Brain mapping,Semantic memory,Developmental psychology,Grey matter,Functional imaging,Cognitive psychology,Psychology,Voxel-based morphometry,Semantic dementia,Uncinate fasciculus,Cognition
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
54
2
1053-8119
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
8
0.95
12
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Greig I. de Zubicaray1162.84
Stephen E. Rose281.28
katie l mcmahon3365.26