Abstract
PurposeThe aim of this study is to use functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) to analyse the cortical presentation of selected language functions in patients after a total laryngectomy.MethodsEighteen patients after total laryngectomy treated with electrolarynx speech and 18 volunteers were included. The mean number of patients’ post-operative speech rehabilitation sessions was five (range of 3–8 sessions). Four paradigms were used, including noun generation, pseudoword reading, reading phrases with pseudowords, and nonliteral sign reproduction.ResultsIn noun, the most significant difference between the groups was the stronger activation of both lingual gyri in the volunteers. Pseudoword reading resulted in stronger activations in patients than in volunteers in the lingual gyri, the right cerebellum, the right Broca’s area, and the right parietal operculum. Reading phrases with pseudowords involved different parts of the Brodmann area 40. During nonliteral sign reproduction, there was a stronger activation of the left Broca’s area in volunteers and a stronger activation of the left premotor cortex in patients.ConclusionThis study provides evidence of altered cortical activation in response to language tasks in patients after a laryngectomy compared with healthy volunteers, which may be considered brain plasticity in response to a laryngectomy.
Highlights
The ability to speak is one of the sophisticated features that make a distinction between humans and other animals
The aim of this study was to use fMRI to analyse the cortical presentation of selected language functions in patients after a total laryngectomy
Tasks resulted in activations at different levels of the visual cortex but no clear pattern could be defined in both volunteers and patients
Summary
The ability to speak is one of the sophisticated features that make a distinction between humans and other animals. Grammatical rules arise from the human brain so that language must be considered a subsystem of the mind, with the language system being a distinct module, which in turn possesses its own modularity or subsystems such as phonology, semantics, and syntax, which interact systematically with each other through the information flow between them [3]
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