Brain regions responsible for word retrieval, speech production and deficient word-fluency in elderly people: A PET activation study

摘要

A PET (positron emission tomography) activation study using word-fluency tasks was administered to identify the network for word retrieval and speech production, and to explore mechanisms for word finding difficulty observed in elderly people. It was foudn that the left anterior insula, as opposed to Broca's area, left premotor area, the anterior cingulate gyrus, thalamus, basal ganglia, midbrain and cerebellum constitute the network fro speech production. In semantic processing for word retrieval of proper names, the left anterior temproal lobe and frontal pole (BA 10) were activated. As for the animate and inanimate name retrieval, and the syllable fluency the same areas, viz., the left inferoposterior temporal lobe (Ba 37) and left inferior frontal lobe (Broca's area), were activated.