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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on October 26, 2005
Cerebral Cortex 2006 16(8):1193-1201; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhj060
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Category-specific Conceptual Processing of Color and Form in Left Fronto-temporal Cortex

Friedemann Pulvermüller and Olaf Hauk

Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 2EF, UK

Address correspondence to Friedemann Pulvermüller, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 2EF, UK. Email: friedemann.pulvermuller{at}mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk.

To investigate the cortical basis of color and form concepts, we examined event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses to matched words related to abstract color and form information. Silent word reading elicited activity in left temporal and frontal cortex, where category-specific activity differences were also observed. Whereas color words preferentially activated anterior parahippocampal gyrus, form words evoked category-specific activity in fusiform and middle temporal gyrus as well as premotor and dorsolateral prefrontal areas in inferior and middle frontal gyri. These results demonstrate that word meanings and concepts are not processed by a unique cortical area, but by different sets of areas, each of which may contribute differentially to conceptual semantic processing. We hypothesize that the anterior parahippocampal activation to color words indexes computation of the visual feature conjunctions and disjunctions necessary for classifying visual stimuli under a color concept. The predominant premotor and prefrontal activation to form words suggests action-related information processing and may reflect the involvement of neuronal elements responding in an either-or fashion to mirror neurons related to adumbrating shapes.

Key Words: abstract concepts • fMRI • language • prefrontal cortex • reading


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