Hikaru Sugimoto, Postdoctoral Researcher of the Cognitive Behavioral Assistive Technology Team at RIKEN AIP has published a research paper titled “Word-producing brain: Contribution of the left anterior middle temporal gyrus to word production patterns in spoken language” in Brain and Language, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Authors:
Hikaru Sugimoto (Postdoctoral Researcher, Cognitive Behavioral Assistive Technology Team)
Masato S. Abe (Visiting Scientist, Cognitive Behavioral Assistive Technology Team)
Mihoko Otake-Matsuura (Team Leader, Cognitive Behavioral Assistive Technology Team)
The present study identified brain states associated with vocabulary richness in spoken language. In this study, β, an exponent of a scaling law called Heaps’ law, was used as an index of vocabulary richness. Individual β values were calculated based on recorded data of group conversations among older adults, and the relationship between β and various brain indices measured by MRI scans was examined. The results showed that individuals with higher values of β had greater volume in the left anterior middle temporal gyrus, which is associated with semantic processing, and weaker resting-state functional connectivity between this region and the precuneus, a core region of the default mode network.
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Brain and Language
