The angular gyrus serves as an interface between the non-lexical reading network and the semantic system: evidence from dynamic causal modeling

• Published in: Brain Structure and Function Vol. 229; no. 3; pp. 561 - 575
• Main Authors: Junker, Frederick Benjamin, Schlaffke, Lara, Lange, Joachim, Schmidt-Wilcke, Tobias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain; Brain Mapping; Cell Biology; Cognitive ability; Computational neuroscience; Cortex (frontal); Humans; Language; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Neuroimaging; Neurology; Neurosciences; Original Article; Parietal Lobe; Semantics; Phonological lexicon; Semantic system; Dynamic causal modeling; Angular gyrus; Reading model; Non-lexical processing
• ISSN: 1863-2661; 1863-2653; 1863-2661; 0340-2061
• DOI: 10.1007/s00429-023-02624-z

Understanding encoded language, such as written words, requires multiple cognitive processes that act in a parallel and interactive fashion. These processes and their interactions, however, are not fully understood. Various conceptual and methodical approaches including computational modeling and neuroimaging have been applied to better understand the neural underpinnings of these complex processes in the human brain. In this study, we tested different predictions of cortical interactions that derived from computational models for reading using dynamic causal modeling. Morse code was used as a model for non-lexical decoding followed by a lexical-decision during a functional magnetic resonance examination. Our results suggest that individual letters are first converted into phonemes within the left supramarginal gyrus, followed by a phoneme assembly to reconstruct word phonology, involving the left inferior frontal cortex. To allow the identification and comprehension of known words, the inferior frontal cortex then interacts with the semantic system via the left angular gyrus. As such, the left angular gyrus is likely to host phonological and semantic representations and serves as a bidirectional interface between the networks involved in language perception and word comprehension.