This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Michael P. Alexander, MD; Beat Hiltbrunner, MD; Richard S. Fischer, PhD

Arch Neurol. 1989;46(8):885-892.

Abstract
• We examined four patients with transcortical sensory aphasia and eight with milder language disturbances but with similar thalamic and/or temporo-occipital lesions. Specific attention was paid to differentiation of the computed tomographic lesion site of the milder cases from the transcortical sensory aphasia cases. The critical lesion for transcortical sensory aphasia in these patients involved pathways in the posterior periventricular white matter adjacent to the posterior temporal isthmus, pathways that are probably converging on the inferolateral temporo-occipital cortex. Analysis of the language function of these patients, of the influence of sensory modalities on language function, and of the interaction between semantic memory and semantic lexical functions suggests the existence of a specific brain system for semantic functions. This semantic system has a particular distributed anatomy. We propose that damage to this system may have a variety of clinical manifestations in language and in memory, depending on the exact lesion configuration.

Author Affiliations
From the Aphasia Program (Drs Alexander, Hiltbrunner, and Fischer) and the Department of Neuropsychology (Dr Fischer), Braintree (Mass) Hospital; and the Department of Neurology, Boston (Mass) University School of Medicine (Drs Alexander, Hiltbrunner, and Fischer).

Footnotes
Accepted for publication February 15, 1989.

Read in part before the Academy of Aphasia, Phoenix, Ariz, October 26, 1987.

Reprint requests to Braintree Hospital, 250 Pond St, Braintree, MA 02184 (Dr Alexander).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Where Is the Semantic System? A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis of 120 Functional Neuroimaging Studies
Binder et al.
Cereb Cortex 2009;19:2767-2796.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

DTI Tractography of the Human Brain's Language Pathways
Glasser and Rilling
Cereb Cortex 2008;18:2471-2482.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Effect of Prior Visual Information on Recognition of Speech and Sounds
Noppeney et al.
Cereb Cortex 2008;18:598-609.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

A Common System for the Comprehension and Production of Narrative Speech
Awad et al.
J. Neurosci. 2007;27:11455-11464.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Aphasia: Progress in the last quarter of a century
Hillis
Neurology 2007;69:200-213.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Converging language streams in the human temporal lobe.
Spitsyna et al.
J. Neurosci. 2006;26:7328-7336.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Right anterior superior temporal activation predicts auditory sentence comprehension following aphasic stroke
Crinion and Price
Brain 2005;128:2858-2871.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Renewal of the Neurophysiology of Language: Functional Neuroimaging
Demonet et al.
Physiol. Rev. 2005;85:49-95.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The role of left posterior inferior temporal cortex in spelling
Rapcsak and Beeson
Neurology 2004;62:2221-2229.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Temporal lobe regions engaged during normal speech comprehension
Crinion et al.
Brain 2003;126:1193-1201.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Transcortical sensory aphasia: revisited and revised
Boatman et al.
Brain 2000;123:1634-1642.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Differential recruitment of the speech processing system in healthy subjects and rehabilitated cochlear implant patients
Giraud et al.
Brain 2000;123:1391-1402.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Mechanisms of recovery from aphasia: evidence from positron emission tomography studies
Warburton et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 1999;66:155-161.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Human Brain Language Areas Identified by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Binder et al.
J. Neurosci. 1997;17:353-362.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Lateralized Human Brain Language Systems Demonstrated by Task Subtraction Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Binder et al.
Arch Neurol 1995;52:593-601.
ABSTRACT  

Thalamic Hemorrhage : A Prospective Study of 100 Patients
Kumral et al.
Stroke 1995;26:964-970.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Thalamic Stroke: Presentation and Prognosis of Infarcts and Hemorrhages
Steinke et al.
Arch Neurol 1992;49:703-710.
ABSTRACT