Phase coupling in a cerebro-cerebellar network at 8-13 hz during reading

Jan Kujala, Kristen Pammer, Piers Cornelissen, Alard Roebroeck, Elia Formisano, Riitta Salmelin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

123 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Words forming a continuous story were presented to 9 subjects at frequencies ranging from 5 to 30 Hz, determined individually to render comprehension easy, effortful, or practically impossible. We identified a left-hemisphere neural network sensitive to reading performance directly from the time courses of activation in the brain, derived from magnetoencephalography data. Regardless of the stimulus rate, communication within the long-range neural network occurred at a frequency of 8–13 Hz. Our coherence-based detection of interconnected nodes reproduced several brain regions that have been previously reported as active in reading tasks, based on traditional contrast estimates. Intriguingly, the face motor cortex and the cerebellum, typically associated with speech production, and the orbitofrontal cortex, linked to visual recognition and working memory, additionally emerged as densely connected components of the network. The left inferior occipitotemporal cortex, involved in early letter-string or word-specific processing, and the cerebellum turned out to be the main forward driving nodes of the network. Synchronization within a subset of nodes formed by the left occipitotemporal, the left superior temporal, and orbitofrontal cortex was increased with the subjects' effort to comprehend the text. Our results link long-range neural synchronization and directionality with cognitive performance.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1476-1485
Number of pages10
JournalCerebral Cortex
Volume17
Issue number6
Early online date22 Aug 2006
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2007
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • causality
  • coherence
  • connectivity
  • language
  • magnetoencephalography
  • synchronization

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