Effects of the syntax-related network dysfunction on language function

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K01978
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Basic / Social brain science
• Research Institution: Showa University
• Principal Investigator: KINNO Ryuta 昭和大学, 医学部, 講師 (70439397)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 統語処理 / fMRI / SBM / 脳内ネットワーク

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We examined the cerebral blood flows of patients with the nonfluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia (naPPA) , and found that these patients showed the decreased CBF not only in the left frontal gyrus but also in the brain regions within the syntax-related networks. Moreover, we examined the relationships between cortical structure of patients with dementia and the linguistic memory function, and found that the preserved brain structure of the left insula cortex is important for the linguistic memory function. Furthermore, we examined the cortical structures of the patients with the left frontal glioma, and demonstrated that the global cortical structural changes among both hemispheres are occurred by a focal glioma.
These findings suggested that disfunction of the syntax-related networks causes the asyntactic comprehension.

Free Research Field

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Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の成果は、神経変性疾患の患者では、統語構造の理解障害が、局所の障害ではなく、大脳ネットワーク全体の機能低下に起因することが分かった。また、左前頭葉の局所脳損傷で生じると思われていた統語処理の障害が、実は大脳全体の脳構造の変化によるものの可能性が示唆された。以上の結果は、局所の脳損傷が脳全体の機能的結合性のみならず、解剖学的結合性の変化も惹起し、その結果、統語構造の理解障害が生じることを示唆するものである。