Developing Language Abilities by a Non-verbal Training : A fMRI Study

Abstract

The language ability is a critical aspect of experimental design in functional imaging studies. Today, it is commonly accepted that the brain structures underlying the language are more distributed than the traditional Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas. Currently, some other areas as the premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, the cerebellum or subcortical structures, notably, are recognised. However, a lesser studied question is to define if it is possible to observe a reorganisation of the activation observed during language tasks when the subjects have been trained to develop non-verbal abilities. Particularly, Bates and Ellman (1996) claim that probabilistic regularities are the basis of the language acquisition processing.