Abstract
Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS) is used to understand the cortical organization of language in preparation for the surgical removal of a brain tumor. Action naming with finite verbs can be employed for that purpose, providing additional information to object naming. However, little research has focused on the properties of the verbs that are used in action naming tasks, such as their status as transitive (taking an object; e.g., to read) or intransitive (not taking an object; e.g., to wink). Previous neuroimaging data show higher activation for transitive compared to intransitive verbs in posterior perisylvian regions bilaterally. In the present study, we employed nTMS and production of finite verbs to investigate the cortical underpinnings of transitivity. Twenty neurologically healthy native speakers of German participated in the study. They underwent language mapping in both hemispheres with nTMS. The action naming task with finite verbs consisted of transitive (e.g., The man reads the book) and intransitive verbs (e.g., The woman winks) and was controlled for relevant psycholinguistic variables. Errors were classified in four different error categories (i.e., non-linguistic errors, grammatical errors, lexico-semantic errors and, errors at the sound level) and were analyzed quantitatively. We found more nTMS-positive points in the left hemisphere, particularly in the left parietal lobe for the production of transitive compared to intransitive verbs. These positive points most commonly corresponded to lexico-semantic errors. Our findings are in line with previous aphasia and neuroimaging studies, suggesting that a more widespread network is used for the production of verbs with a larger number of arguments (i.e., transitives). The higher number of lexico-semantic errors with transitive compared to intransitive verbs in the left parietal lobe supports previous claims for the role of left posterior areas in the retrieval of argument structure information.
Highlights
Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is used to delimit the cortical representation of language in preparation for the removal of a brain tumor in the context of an awake surgery (Tarapore et al, 2013; Babajani-Feremi et al, 2016; Freyschlag et al, 2018)
We analyzed previously reported data by focusing solely on the comparison between transitive and intransitive verbs during action naming under Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS) (Ohlerth et al, submitted)
Errors were elicited in both hemispheres, with 429 errors occurring in the left hemisphere (3.9%) and 489 in the right (4.4%)
Summary
Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS) is used to delimit (i.e., map) the cortical representation of language in preparation for the removal of a brain tumor in the context of an awake surgery (Tarapore et al, 2013; Babajani-Feremi et al, 2016; Freyschlag et al, 2018). Unlike functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), the nTMS methodology mimics intraoperative mapping with Direct Electrical Stimulation (DES) by inducing errors during word production tasks. Areas that induce errors when stimulated (i.e., nTMS-positive areas) are considered to support functions necessary to perform the given language task (Pascual-Leone, 2000; Hartwigsen et al, 2013; Genon et al, 2018)
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