Schroën JAM, Gunter TC, Numssen O, Kroczek LOH, Hartwigsen G, Friederici AD. Causal evidence for a coordinated temporal interplay within the language network.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023;
120:e2306279120. [PMID:
37963247 PMCID:
PMC10666120 DOI:
10.1073/pnas.2306279120]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 10/06/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent neurobiological models on language suggest that auditory sentence comprehension is supported by a coordinated temporal interplay within a left-dominant brain network, including the posterior inferior frontal gyrus (pIFG), posterior superior temporal gyrus and sulcus (pSTG/STS), and angular gyrus (AG). Here, we probed the timing and causal relevance of the interplay between these regions by means of concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS-EEG). Our TMS-EEG experiments reveal region- and time-specific causal evidence for a bidirectional information flow from left pSTG/STS to left pIFG and back during auditory sentence processing. Adapting a condition-and-perturb approach, our findings further suggest that the left pSTG/STS can be supported by the left AG in a state-dependent manner.
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