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Broca's area and the language instinct

Nature Neuroscience volume 6, pages 774–781 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Language acquisition in humans relies on abilities like abstraction and use of syntactic rules, which are absent in other animals. The neural correlate of acquiring new linguistic competence was investigated with two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. German native speakers learned a sample of 'real' grammatical rules of different languages (Italian or Japanese), which, although parametrically different, follow the universal principles of grammar (UG). Activity during this task was compared with that during a task that involved learning 'unreal' rules of language. 'Unreal' rules were obtained manipulating the original two languages; they used the same lexicon as Italian or Japanese, but were linguistically illegal, as they violated the principles of UG. Increase of activation over time in Broca's area was specific for 'real' language acquisition only, independent of the kind of language. Thus, in Broca's area, biological constraints and language experience interact to enable linguistic competence for a new language.

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Figure 1: Behavioral measurements.
Figure 2: Result of the interaction between performance and type of rule learning (real versus unreal Italian).
Figure 3: Results of the conjunction analysis of the real and unreal Italian learning experiment.
Figure 4: Results of the interaction between performance and type of rule learning (real Italian versus unreal Italian in yellow; real versus unreal Japanese in red) resulting from the random effects analysis are shown on selected slices of the T1 template, thresholded at P < 0.001 (uncorrected) for visualization.
Figure 5: Conjunction analysis of the real-unreal Japanese (red) and Italian (yellow) learning experiment.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the medical technical assistants of the Radiology Department of the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena as well as all the volunteers and the colleagues of the NeuroImage Nord in Hamburg. Special thanks to S. Michels, C. Donati, I. Mazur, S. Barkowsky, S. Kameyama and L. Wolfram for help with trial design, T. Wolbers and M. Rose for help with statistical analysis, and A. Baumgärtner and D. Gonzalo for proof-reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by a European Union grant (QLRT-1999-2140). C. Büchel is supported by the Volkswagen-Stiftung.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, NeuroImage Nord, University of Hamburg, Martinistr. 52, Hamburg, 20246, Germany

    Mariacristina Musso, Volkmar Glauche, Michel Rijntjes, Christian Büchel & Cornelius Weiller

  2. University “Vita salute” San Raffaele, Via Olgettina 5, Milano, Italy

    Andrea Moro

  3. Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, 1807740, Germany

    Jürgen Reichenbach

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1.

Result of the interaction between performance and type of rule learning (real versus unreal Italian). On the left, the activation specific to real language acquisition resulting from the random effects analysis is displayed on selected slices of the MRI template available in SPM99. The threshold was set at p<0.05 (corrected for multiple comparisons). On the right, plots of changes of BOLD signal in the left inferior frontal gyrus [Brodmann Area (BA) -45, 21 6] (black open squares) and of the individual accuracy within sessions containing "real grammatical" trials (black filled circles) or "unreal grammatical" trials (black open circles) are shown as a function of time. BOLD signal is expressed with arbitrary units; the accuracy of performance as normalised values. The distance between the voxels where each subject showed the nearest activation to the cluster maximum and the voxel maxima derived from the group analysis using a random model is: 28 mm (subject 1), 23 mm (subject 2), 3 mm (subject 3), 24 mm (subject 4), 13 mm (subject 5), 11 mm (subject 6), 23 mm (subjects 7) and 15 mm (subject 8). (JPG 46 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2.

Results of the conjunction analysis of the "real" and the "unreal" Italian learning experiment. On the left, the common patterns of activation are displayed on slices from the MRI template used for the normalisation. The threshold was set at p<0.05 (corrected for multiple comparisons). On the right, plots of changes in BOLD signal in the right inferior frontal gyrus [BA 51, 6, 30] (black open squares) and of the individual accuracy within sessions containing "real grammatical" trials (black filled circles) or "unreal grammatical" trials (black open circles) are shown as a function of time. BOLD signal is expressed with arbitrary units; the accuracy of performance as normalized values. The distance between single subject activation and main group activation in the conjunction analysis was about: 11 mm (subject 1), 5 mm (subject 2), 8 mm (subject 3), 6 mm (subject 4), 3 mm (subject 5), 7 mm (subjects 6 and 7) and 21 mm (subject 8). (JPG 56 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3.

Results of the interaction between performance and type of rule learning (real Italian versus unreal Italian, in yellow, and real versus unreal Japanese, in red) resulting from the random effects analysis are displayed on selected slices of the T1 template, thresholded at p< 0.001 (uncorrected) for visualisation. On the right, plots of individual changes in BOLD signal in the left inferior frontal gyrus (black open squares) and of the individual accuracy within sessions containing "real grammatical" trials (black filled circles) or "unreal grammatical" trials (black open circles) are shown as a function of time. BOLD signal is expressed with arbitrary units; the accuracy of performance as normalized values. The distance between individual voxel closest to the cluster maximum and the voxel maxima derived from the group analysis using a random model is: 12 mm (subjects 1), 21 mm (subject 2), 25 mm (subject 3), 9 mm (subjects 4 and 5 and 6), 6 mm (subjects 7) and 11 mm (subject 8). (JPG 52 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 4.

Results of the conjunction analysis of the real-unreal Japanese (in red) and Italian (in yellow) learning experiment. On the left, common patterns of activation are displayed on slices of the MRI template. The threshold was set at p<0.05 (corrected for multiple comparisons). On the right, plots of changes of BOLD signal in the right inferior frontal gyrus (black open squares) and of the individual accuracy within sessions containing "real grammatical" trials (black filled circles) or "unreal grammatical" trials (black open circles) are shown as a function of time. BOLD signal is expressed with arbitrary units; the accuracy of performance as normalized values. The distance between single subject activation and main group activation in the conjunction analysis was about: 15 mm (subjects 1 and 2), 5 mm (subject 3), 0 mm (subjects 4, 5 and 8), 7 mm (subject 6), 4 mm (subject 7). (JPG 51 kb)

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Musso, M., Moro, A., Glauche, V. et al. Broca's area and the language instinct. Nat Neurosci 6, 774–781 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1077

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