Organization of Regional Interactions of the Brain Cortical Activity during the Common-root Word Derivation Task

Abstract

This study analyzed specificities in the activity of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the organization of active word-derivation processes. The regularities in the reorganization of the spatial structure for the systemic interaction of bioelectrical activity between different cortical areas of the cerebral hemispheres were studied in adult subjects during the test for mental derivation of common root words (i.е., using the modern methods of the so-called “functional connectome” investigations). Сross-correlation and coherent analysis of EEG has shown that the ipsilateral statistical EEG interactions in the left hemisphere, including Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, were significantly increased in adults during mental derivation of common root words and, simultaneously, the interhemispheric connectivity and the EEG interactions in the right hemisphere were reduced. Comparison of our results with the previous data of verbal activity associated with speech perception and production has revealed significant differences in the degree of involvement of the left and right hemisphere cortical activity in verbal processing. For example, unlike the data of current study, an equal involvement of both hemispheres cortical activity was recorded during the phoneme recognition in auditory perceived words, grammatical and semantic errors in sentences, as well as during mental formation of words from a set of phonemes and sentences from a set of words, which was particularly manifested in the increased of hemispheric interactions, predominantly, in the inferior frontal and temporal areas and the overlapped areas of the temporal, parietal, and occipital cortical zones (TPO) of both hemispheres. Thus, the data obtained in this study indicate the presence of expressed specificities in the lateralization of activity in the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the processes of active word derivation and inflexion.