Hierarchical processing in the prefrontal cortex in a variety of cognitive domains

This review scrutinizes several findings on human hierarchical processing within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in diverse cognitive domains. Converging evidence from previous studies has shown that the PFC, specifically, BA44, may function as the essential region for hierarchical processing across the domains. In language fMRI studies, BA 44 was significantly activated for the hierarchical processing of center-embedded sentences and this pattern of activations was also observed in artificial grammar. The same pattern was observed in the visuo-spatial domain where BA44 was actively involved in the processing of hierarchy for the visual symbol. Musical syntax, which is the rule-based arrangement of musical sets, has also been construed as hierarchical processing as in the language domain such that the activation in BA44 was observed in a chord sequence paradigm. P600 ERP was also engendered during the processing of musical hierarchy. Along with a longstanding idea that a human’s number faculty is developed as a “by-product of language faculty”, BA44 was closely involved in hierarchical processing in mental arithmetic. This review extended its discussion of hierarchical “processing” to hierarchical “behavior”, that is, human action which has been referred to as being hierarchically composed. Several lesion and TMS studies supported the involvement of BA44 for hierarchical processing in the action domain. Lastly, the hierarchical organization of cognitive controls was discussed within the PFC, forming a cascade of top-down hierarchical processes operating along a posterior-to-anterior axis of the lateral PFC including BA44 within the network. It is proposed that PFC is actively involved in different forms of hierarchical processing and specifically BA44 may play an integral role in the process. Taking levels of proficiency and subcortical areas into consideration may provide further insight into the functional role of BA44 for hierarchical processing.

[1]  Aniruddh D. Patel.  Music, Language, and the Brain , 2007 .

[2]  David Badre,et al.  Cognitive control, hierarchy, and the rostro–caudal organization of the frontal lobes , 2008, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[3]  Skill and age : an experimental approach , 1953 .

[4]  J. Gee,et al.  Why are patients with progressive nonfluent aphasia nonfluent? , 2010, Neurology.

[5]  D. Broadbent.  Levels, Hierarchies, and the Locus of Control* , 1977 .

[6]  David Caplan,et al.  Localization of Syntactic Comprehension by Positron Emission Tomography , 1998, NeuroImage.

[7]  C. Summerfield,et al.  An information theoretical approach to prefrontal executive function , 2007, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[8]  Aniruddh D. Patel,et al.  Language, music, syntax and the brain , 2003, Nature Neuroscience.

[9]  L. Shah,et al.  Functional magnetic resonance imaging. , 2010, Seminars in roentgenology.

[10]  J. Fuster.  The Prefrontal Cortex—An Update Time Is of the Essence , 2001, Neuron.

[11]  E. Koechlin,et al.  Broca's Area and the Hierarchical Organization of Human Behavior , 2006, Neuron.

[12]  Stanislas Dehaene,et al.  Cerebral Pathways for Calculation: Double Dissociation between Rote Verbal and Quantitative Knowledge of Arithmetic , 1997, Cortex.

[13]  E. Koechlin,et al.  The Architecture of Cognitive Control in the Human Prefrontal Cortex , 2003, Science.

[14]  P. Janata,et al.  Activation of the inferior frontal cortex in musical priming. , 2003, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[15]  W. Fitch,et al.  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Hierarchical Processing in Music, Language, and Action: Lashley Revisited , 2022 .

[16]  A. Battersby.  Plans and the Structure of Behavior , 1968 .

[17]  Jessica A. Grahn,et al.  The cognitive functions of the caudate nucleus , 2008, Progress in Neurobiology.

[18]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  The evolution of the language faculty: Clarifications and implications , 2005, Cognition.

[19]  Yosef Grodzinsky,et al.  Neuroimaging of syntax and syntactic processing , 2006, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[20]  M. Botvinick.  Hierarchical models of behavior and prefrontal function , 2008, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[21]  Jörg Bahlmann,et al.  An approach to separating the levels of hierarchical structure building in language and mathematics , 2012, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[22]  B. Miller,et al.  Neural Correlates of Syntactic Processing in the Nonfluent Variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia , 2010, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[23]  A. Friederici,et al.  Musical syntax is processed in Broca's area: an MEG study , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[24]  F Lucchelli,et al.  Primary dyscalculia after a medial frontal lesion of the left hemisphere. , 1993, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[25]  Functional magnetic resonance imaging. , 2012 .

[26]  D. Perani,et al.  Syntax without language: Neurobiological evidence for cross-domain syntactic computations , 2009, Cortex.

[27]  Richard Reviewer-Granger.  Unified Theories of Cognition , 1991, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[28]  Alice C. Roy,et al.  Encoding of human action in Broca's area. , 2009, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[29]  M. Gorno-Tempini,et al.  Elicitation of specific syntactic structures in primary progressive aphasia , 2012, Brain and Language.

[30]  Stefan Koelsch,et al.  Adults and children processing music: An fMRI study , 2005, NeuroImage.

[31]  P. Hagoort.  On Broca, brain, and binding: a new framework , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[32]  J. Jaspars,et al.  Cognitive functions. , 1966, Annual review of psychology.

[33]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Language and problems of knowledge : the Managua lectures , 1990 .

[34]  Alfred Anwander,et al.  Functional Network Mirrored in the Prefrontal Cortex, Caudate Nucleus, and Thalamus: High-Resolution Functional Imaging and Structural Connectivity , 2014, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[35]  Stefan Koelsch,et al.  Bach Speaks: A Cortical “Language-Network” Serves the Processing of Music , 2002, NeuroImage.

[36]  Mark Steedman,et al.  Multiple levels of structure in language and music , 2013 .

[37]  E. Koechlin,et al.  The role of the anterior prefrontal cortex in human cognition , 1999, Nature.

[38]  David Caplan,et al.  Task-dependent and task-independent neurovascular responses to syntactic processing , 2008, Cortex.

[39]  George A. Miller,et al.  Free Recall of Self-Embedded English Sentences , 1964, Inf. Control..

[40]  Angela D. Friederici,et al.  Neural circuits of hierarchical visuo-spatial sequence processing , 2009, Brain Research.

[41]  S. Koelsch.  Toward a Neural Basis of Music Perception – A Review and Updated Model , 2011, Front. Psychology.

[42]  Stefan Koelsch,et al.  Processing of hierarchical syntactic structure in music , 2013, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[43]  Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini,et al.  Connected speech production in three variants of primary progressive aphasia. , 2010, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[44]  Noam Chomsky.  Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures , 1993 .

[45]  Alfred Anwander,et al.  Segregating the core computational faculty of human language from working memory , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[46]  A. Friederici.  Towards a neural basis of auditory sentence processing , 2002, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[47]  W. Strange.  Evolution of language. , 1984, JAMA.

[48]  J. Fuster.  The Prefrontal Cortex , 1997 .

[49]  Etienne Koechlin.  The cognitive architecture of the human lateral prefrontal cortex , 1993 .

[50]  Gregory Hickok,et al.  The Role of Broca's Area in Sentence Comprehension , 2011, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[51]  Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini,et al.  The neural basis of syntactic deficits in primary progressive aphasia , 2012, Brain and Language.

[52]  D. Adger,et al.  Syntax , 2014, Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science.

[53]  Cedric Boeckx,et al.  The functional neuroanatomy of serial order in language , 2014, Journal of Neurolinguistics.

[54]  Richard P. Cooper,et al.  The Goal Circuit Model: A Hierarchical Multi-Route Model of the Acquisition and Control of Routine Sequential Action in Humans , 2014, Cogn. Sci..

[55]  Martin Rohrmeier,et al.  Towards a generative syntax of tonal harmony , 2011 .

[56]  Angela D Friederici,et al.  Two principles of organization in the prefrontal cortex are cognitive hierarchy and degree of automaticity , 2013, Nature Communications.

[57]  Michael Siegal,et al.  Agrammatic but numerate. , 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[58]  Marinella Cappelletti,et al.  Spared numerical abilities in a case of semantic dementia , 2001, Neuropsychologia.

[59]  Walter A. Siebel,et al.  Opinion TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences Vol.9 No.12 December 2005 Towards , 2022 .

[60]  Denise Brandão de Oliveira e Britto,et al.  The faculty of language , 2007 .

[61]  S. Koelsch.  Neural Correlates of Music Perception , 2013 .

[62]  Muriel Saville-Troike,et al.  Introducing Second Language Acquisition: Glossary , 2012 .

[63]  A. Friederici.  The brain basis of language processing: from structure to function. , 2011, Physiological reviews.

[64]  S. Bookheimer.  Functional MRI of language: new approaches to understanding the cortical organization of semantic processing. , 2002, Annual review of neuroscience.

[65]  G. Miller,et al.  Plans and the structure of behavior , 1960 .

[66]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? , 2002, Science.

[67]  G. Novembre,et al.  Syntax in a pianist's hand: ERP signatures of “embodied” syntax processing in music , 2013, Cortex.

[68]  Mariano Sigman,et al.  The cortical representation of simple mathematical expressions , 2012, NeuroImage.

[69]  Luciano Fadiga,et al.  Role of Broca's area in encoding sequential human actions: a virtual lesion study , 2009, Neuroreport.

[70]  Angela D. Friederici,et al.  Mapping sentence form onto meaning: The syntax–semantic interface , 2007, Brain Research.

[71]  Aniruddh D. Patel,et al.  Processing Syntactic Relations in Language and Music: An Event-Related Potential Study , 1998, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[72]  Sharlene D. Newman,et al.  The effect of semantic relatedness on syntactic analysis: An fMRI study , 2010, Brain and Language.

[73]  吴一安,et al.  Introducing Second Language Acquisition 评介 , 2009 .

[74]  Scott T. Grafton,et al.  Evidence for a distributed hierarchy of action representation in the brain. , 2007, Human movement science.

[75]  A. Anwander,et al.  The brain differentiates human and non-human grammars: Functional localization and structural connectivity , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[76]  G. E. Alexander,et al.  Parallel organization of functionally segregated circuits linking basal ganglia and cortex. , 1986, Annual review of neuroscience.

[77]  Angela D. Friederici,et al.  Hierarchical artificial grammar processing engages Broca's area , 2008, NeuroImage.

[78]  K. Lashley.  The problem of serial order in behavior , 1951 .

[79]  Y. Grodzinsky.  The neurology of syntax: Language use without Broca's area , 2000, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[80]  Masumi Wakita,et al.  Broca's area processes the hierarchical organization of observed action , 2014, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[81]  Yosef Grodzinsky,et al.  fMRI adaptation dissociates syntactic complexity dimensions , 2010, NeuroImage.

[82]  David Badre,et al.  Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence for a Hierarchical Organization of the Prefrontal Cortex , 2007, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[83]  Angela D. Friederici,et al.  The Neural Basis of Recursion and Complex Syntactic Hierarchy , 2011, Biolinguistics.

[84]  Cynthia K Thompson,et al.  Anatomy of Language Impairments in Primary Progressive Aphasia , 2011, The Journal of Neuroscience.