Conscious and Unconscious Processing of Nonverbal Predictability in Wernicke's Area

The association of nonverbal predictability and brain activation was examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans. Participants regarded four squares displayed horizontally across a screen and counted the incidence of a particular color. A repeating spatial sequence with varying levels of predictability was embedded within a random color presentation. Both Wernicke's area and its right homolog displayed a negative correlation with temporal predictability, and this effect was independent of individuals' conscious awareness of the sequence. When individuals were made aware of the underlying sequential predictability, a widespread network of cortical regions displayed activity that correlated with the predictability. Conscious processing of predictability resulted in a positive correlation to activity in right prefrontal cortex but a negative correlation in posterior parietal cortex. These results suggest that conscious processing of predictability invokes a large-scale cortical network, but independently of awareness, Wernicke's area processes predictive events in time and may not be exclusively associated with language.

[1]  A. Reber.  Implicit learning of artificial grammars , 1967 .

[2]  C. Whitty.  The Prefrontal Cortex. Anatomy, Physiology and Neuropsychology of the Frontal Lobe . By J. M. Fuster. (Pp. 232; illustrated; $29.92.) Raven Press: New York. 1980. , 1981, Psychological Medicine.

[3]  H. Heffner,et al.  Temporal lobe lesions and perception of species-specific vocalizations by macaques. , 1984, Science.

[4]  R. Wagner,et al.  The nature of phonological processing and its causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. , 1987 .

[5]  K. Stanovich.  Explaining the Differences Between the Dyslexic and the Garden-Variety Poor Reader , 1988, Journal of learning disabilities.

[6]  P. T. Fox,et al.  Positron emission tomographic studies of the cortical anatomy of single-word processing , 1988, Nature.

[7]  M. A. Stadler,et al.  On learning complex procedural knowledge. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[8]  M. Posner,et al.  The attention system of the human brain. , 1990, Annual review of neuroscience.

[9]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Learning the structure of event sequences. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[10]  Thomas M. Cover,et al.  Elements of Information Theory , 2005 .

[11]  M. Raichle,et al.  Localization of a human system for sustained attention by positron emission tomography , 1991, Nature.

[12]  R. Turner,et al.  Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity during primary sensory stimulation. , 1992, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[13]  Ravi S. Menon,et al.  Intrinsic signal changes accompanying sensory stimulation: functional brain mapping with magnetic resonance imaging. , 1992, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[14]  A. Reber.  Implicit learning and tacit knowledge , 1993 .

[15]  M. Corbetta,et al.  A PET study of visuospatial attention , 1993, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[16]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Functional activation of the human frontal cortex during the performance of verbal working memory tasks. , 1993, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[17]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Spatial working memory in humans as revealed by PET , 1993, Nature.

[18]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Functional magnetic resonance imaging of human prefrontal cortex activation during a spatial working memory task. , 1994, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[19]  C. Schroeder,et al.  Detection of stimulus deviance within primate primary auditory cortex: intracortical mechanisms of mismatch negativity (MMN) generation , 1994, Brain Research.

[20]  S. Pinker.  The Language Instinct , 1994 .

[21]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Statistical parametric maps in functional imaging: A general linear approach , 1994 .

[22]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  ‘What’ and ‘where’ in the human brain , 1994, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[23]  J. Rauschecker,et al.  Processing of complex sounds in the macaque nonprimary auditory cortex. , 1995, Science.

[24]  Scott T. Grafton,et al.  Functional Mapping of Sequence Learning in Normal Humans , 1995, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[25]  J W Belliveau,et al.  Borders of multiple visual areas in humans revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. , 1995, Science.

[26]  D. Shanks.  IMPLICIT LEARNING AND TACIT KNOWLEDGE - AN ESSAY ON THE COGNITIVE UNCONSCIOUS - REBER,A , 1995 .

[27]  M. Corbetta,et al.  Superior Parietal Cortex Activation During Spatial Attention Shifts and Visual Feature Conjunction , 1995, Science.

[28]  E. Halgren,et al.  Cortical metabolic activation in humans during a visual memory task. , 1995, Cerebral cortex.

[29]  S. Petersen,et al.  PET activation of posterior temporal regions during auditory word presentation and verb generation. , 1996, Cerebral cortex.

[30]  R N Aslin,et al.  Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants , 1996, Science.

[31]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Object and spatial visual working memory activate separate neural systems in human cortex. , 1996, Cerebral cortex.

[32]  M. Just,et al.  Brain Activation Modulated by Sentence Comprehension , 1996, Science.

[33]  J. Elman,et al.  Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development , 1996 .

[34]  C. Gross,et al.  The Effects of Superior Temporal Cortex Lesions on the Processing and Retention of Auditory Information in Monkeys (Cebus apella) , 1996, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[35]  J. Jonides,et al.  Dissociating verbal and spatial working memory using PET. , 1996, Cerebral cortex.

[36]  R. Woods,et al.  Abnormal processing of visual motion in dyslexia revealed by functional brain imaging , 1996, Nature.

[37]  R. Desimone,et al.  Neural Mechanisms of Visual Working Memory in Prefrontal Cortex of the Macaque , 1996, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[38]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Cognitive Conjunction: A New Approach to Brain Activation Experiments , 1997, NeuroImage.

[39]  Mark S. Seidenberg,et al.  Language Acquisition and Use: Learning and Applying Probabilistic Constraints , 1997, Science.

[40]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Temporal dynamics of brain activation during a working memory task , 1997, Nature.

[41]  Scott T. Grafton,et al.  Attention and stimulus characteristics determine the locus of motor-sequence encoding. A PET study. , 1997, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[42]  A. Liberman,et al.  Functional disruption in the organization of the brain for reading in dyslexia. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[43]  X. Hu,et al.  4 T-fMRI study of nonspatial shifting of selective attention: cerebellar and parietal contributions. , 1998, Journal of neurophysiology.

[44]  S. Petersen,et al.  Neuroimaging studies of word reading. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[45]  Peter M. Vishton,et al.  Rule learning by seven-month-old infants. , 1999, Science.

[46]  J. Ashburner,et al.  Nonlinear spatial normalization using basis functions , 1999, Human brain mapping.

[47]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  How Many Subjects Constitute a Study? , 1999, NeuroImage.

[48]  Stephen M. Rao,et al.  Neural Basis of Endogenous and Exogenous Spatial Orienting: A Functional MRI Study , 1999, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[49]  M. Just,et al.  Graded Functional Activation in the Visuospatial System with the Amount of Task Demand , 1999, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[50]  F. Chollet,et al.  Differential fMRI Responses in the Left Posterior Superior Temporal Gyrus and Left Supramarginal Gyrus to Habituation and Change Detection in Syllables and Tones , 1999, NeuroImage.

[51]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Learning-related neuronal responses in prefrontal cortex studied with functional neuroimaging. , 1999, Cerebral cortex.

[52]  L. T. Robertson.  Memory and the brain. , 2002, Journal of dental education.