Where (in the brain) do semantic errors come from?

Cloutman, Lauren; Gottesman, Rebecca; Chaudhry, Priyanka; Davis, Cameron; Kleinman, Jonathan T.; Pawlak, Mikolaj; Herskovits, Edward H.; Kannan, Vijay; Lee, Andrew; Newhart, Melissa; Heidler-Gary, Jennifer; Hillis, Argye E.

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2008.05.013

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Volume 45, Issue 5 , Pages 641-649, May 2009

Where (in the brain) do semantic errors come from?

Lauren Cloutman
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Rebecca Gottesman
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Priyanka Chaudhry
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Cameron Davis
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Jonathan T. Kleinman
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Mikolaj Pawlak
- University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Edward H. Herskovits
- University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Vijay Kannan
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Andrew Lee
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Melissa Newhart
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Jennifer Heidler-Gary
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Argye E. Hillis
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Corresponding author. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Meyer 6-113, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.

Received 5 April 2007; received in revised form 2 July 2007 and 11 February 2008; accepted 22 May 2008. published online 12 December 2008.

Action Editor Naama Friedmann

Abstract

Background

Semantic errors result from the disruption of access either to semantics or to lexical representations. One way to determine the origins of these errors is to evaluate comprehension of words that elicit semantic errors in naming. We hypothesized that in acute stroke there are different brain regions where dysfunction results in semantic errors in both naming and comprehension versus those with semantic errors in oral naming alone.

Methods

A consecutive series of 196 patients with acute left hemispheric stroke who met inclusion criteria were evaluated with oral naming and spoken word/picture verification tasks and magnetic resonance imaging within 48h of stroke onset. We evaluated the relationship between tissue dysfunction in 10 pre-specified Brodmann's areas (BA) and the production of coordinate semantic errors resulting from (1) semantic deficits or (2) lexical access deficits.

Results

Semantic errors arising from semantic deficits were most associated with tissue dysfunction/infarct of left BA 22. Semantic errors resulting from lexical access deficits were associated with hypoperfusion/infarct of left BA 37.