Neurology · 1981 · 192 citations · 0 references
MedicineNeurologyNeuroscienceCognitive NeuroscienceNeuroanatomyNeurophysiologyAuditory ProcessingBasal GangliaBrain ImagingCerebral PhysiologyFunctional NeuroimagingMental ImageryAudio-visual PerceptionBasal Ganglia FunctionBrain Functional ImagingGlucose Metabolism ImagingMetabolic Brain ImagingRegional Brain MetabolismSubcortical StructuresTomographic Imaging
Clinical evidence implicates subcortical structures such as the thalamus and basal ganglia in language and auditory processing. Cerebral glucose metabolism was quantified by PET during audio‑visual stimulation across 42 studies of 21 subjects, with metabolic activations and stimulus‑induced asymmetries examined in subcortical regions including the thalamus, caudate, and lenticular nuclei. The results revealed bilateral thalamic activation with verbal stimuli, left‑caudate activation during visual‑imagery tone‑sequence identification, and dominant left‑hemisphere cortical activations, directly demonstrating the functional role of subcortical structures in normal subjects.
We measured cerebral glucose metabolism with positron computed tomography during audio-visual stimulation in 42 studies of 21 subjects. Metabolic activations and stimulus-induced asymmetries were examined in subcortical structures (thalamus, caudate, lenticular nuclei). Bilateral activations of the thalamus occurred with verbal stimuli. The head of the left caudate was activated when subjects used visual imagery as a strategy to identify sequences of tones. These two types of stimuli produced dominant (left) hemisphere cortical activations in this same group of subjects. Clinical evidence has implicated the participation of subcortical(thalamus and basal ganglia) structures in the processing of language and auditory information. The present results demonstrate this functional role directly in normal subjects.