A new lexical card-sorting task for studying fronto-striatal contribution to processing language rules

The role of fronto-striatal regions in processing different language rules such as semantic and (grapho) phonological ones is still under debate. We have recently developed a lexical analog of the Wisconsin card sorting task which measures set-shifting abilities where the visual rules color, number, shape were replaced by three language ones: semantic, rhyme and syllable onset (attack). In the present study we aimed to compare fronto-striatal activations between the different lexical rules that are required for matching the test words to the response ones. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), fourteen healthy, native French-speaking participants were scanned. The results showed that some regions within the brain language network are differentially involved in semantic and phonological processes. Semantic decisions activated significantly the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the fusiform gyrus, the ventral temporal lobe and the caudate nucleus, while phonological decisions produced significant activation in posterior Broca’s area (area 44), the temporoparietal junction and motor cortical regions. These findings provide critical support for the existence of a ventral subcortical semantic pathway and a more dorsal phonological stream as proposed by Duffau, Leroy, and Gatignol (2008). Furthermore, we propose that the strong involvement of area 47/12 of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and caudate nucleus observed in semantic processing, is not specific to language, but to the fact that a category or a rule has to be retrieved amongst competing ones in memory, similarly to what is observed when planning a set-shift in the original (non-lexical) version of the Wisconsin card sorting task.

► The role of fronto-striatal regions in language processing is unclear.
► fMRI was used while healthy adults performed a new lexical matching task.
► Ventrolateral frontal cortex and caudate nucleus are involved in semantics but not phonology.
► This involvement may not be specific to semantics but to the retrieval of competing information.