Abstract
Short-term maintenance of verbal information is a core factor of language repetition, especially when reproducing multiple or unfamiliar stimuli. Many models of language processing locate the verbal short-term maintenance function in the left posterior superior temporo-parietal area and its connections with the inferior frontal gyrus. However, research in the field of short-term memory has implicated bilateral fronto-parietal networks, involved in attention and serial order processing, as being critical for the maintenance and reproduction of verbal sequences. We present here an integrative framework aimed at bridging research in the language processing and short-term memory fields. This framework considers verbal short-term maintenance as an emergent function resulting from synchronized and integrated activation in dorsal and ventral language processing networks as well as fronto-parietal attention and serial order processing networks. To-be-maintained item representations are temporarily activated in the dorsal and ventral language processing networks, novel phoneme and word serial order information is proposed to be maintained via a right fronto-parietal serial order processing network, and activation in these different networks is proposed to be coordinated and maintained via a left fronto-parietal attention processing network. This framework provides new perspectives for our understanding of information maintenance at the non-word-, word- and sentence-level as well as of verbal maintenance deficits in case of brain injury.
Highlights
Short-term maintenance processes are a core ingredient of language repetition due to the inevitable temporal separation of input and output processes, implicating a delay period during which the input has to be temporarily maintained, even if often for a very brief time period such as during repetition of short, single word stimuli
A further argument often invoked for localizing phonological maintenance processes in the posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG)/inferior parietal area is the documentation of patients with specific phonological short-term memory (STM) deficits: these patients typically show relatively spared single word repetition, but a severe reduction of multi-word repetition abilities, in association with lesions in the posterior superior temporal area extending to the supramarginal gyrus and the arcuate fasciculus, i.e., the dorsal repetition pathway (e.g., Warrington et al, 1971; Vallar et al, 1990; Basso et al, 1982; Majerus et al, 2004a; Takayama et al, 2004)
TOWARD AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR MAINTENANCE PROCESSES DURING LANGUAGE REPETITION In this review, aiming at elucidating the cognitive processes and neural networks involved in the maintenance of verbal information during language repetition, we have shown that research in the language and STM dosmains converge on one important factor: the importance of language knowledge supported by the dorsal and ventral pathways and its temporary activation during maintenance of verbal information
Summary
Short-term maintenance processes are a core ingredient of language repetition due to the inevitable temporal separation of input and output processes, implicating a delay period during which the input has to be temporarily maintained, even if often for a very brief time period such as during repetition of short, single word stimuli.
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