Benn, Yael;
Ivanova, Anna A;
Clark, Oliver;
Mineroff, Zachary;
Seikus, Chloe;
Silva, Jack Santos;
Varley, Rosemary;
(2023)
The language network is not engaged in object categorization.
Cerebral Cortex
10.1093/cercor/bhad289.
(In press).
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Abstract
The relationship between language and thought is the subject of long-standing debate. One claim states that language facilitates categorization of objects based on a certain feature (e.g. color) through the use of category labels that reduce interference from other, irrelevant features. Therefore, language impairment is expected to affect categorization of items grouped by a single feature (low-dimensional categories, e.g. "Yellow Things") more than categorization of items that share many features (high-dimensional categories, e.g. "Animals"). To test this account, we conducted two behavioral studies with individuals with aphasia and an fMRI experiment with healthy adults. The aphasia studies showed that selective low-dimensional categorization impairment was present in some, but not all, individuals with severe anomia and was not characteristic of aphasia in general. fMRI results revealed little activity in language-responsive brain regions during both low- and high-dimensional categorization; instead, categorization recruited the domain-general multiple-demand network (involved in wide-ranging cognitive tasks). Combined, results demonstrate that the language system is not implicated in object categorization. Instead, selective low-dimensional categorization impairment might be caused by damage to brain regions responsible for cognitive control. Our work adds to the growing evidence of the dissociation between the language system and many cognitive tasks in adults.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The language network is not engaged in object categorization |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/cercor/bhad289 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhad289 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Neurosciences, Neurosciences & Neurology, aphasia, categorization, fMRI, language, DIRECT-CURRENT STIMULATION, COGNITIVE-NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION, CONVERGING EVIDENCE, SEMANTIC KNOWLEDGE, FLUID INTELLIGENCE, ATTENTION SYSTEM, NORMATIVE DATA, BRAIN-LESIONS, REGIONS |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Language and Cognition |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10175870 |
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