Article

The basal ganglia (BG) are involved in executive language functions
(i.e., verbal fluency) through their connections with cortical structures. The
caudate and putamen receive separate inputs from prefrontal and premotor
cortices, and may differentially contribute to verbal fluency performance. We
examined BG integrity in relation to lexico-semantic verbal fluency performance
among older HIV infected adults. METHOD: 20 older (50+ years) HIV+ adults
underwent MRI and were administered measures of semantic and phonemic fluency. BG
(caudate, putamen) regions of interest were extracted. RESULTS: Performance on
phonemic word generation significantly predicted caudate volume, whereas
performance on phonemic switching predicted putamen volume. CONCLUSIONS: These
findings suggest a double dissociation of BG involvement in verbal fluency tasks
with the caudate subserving word generation and the putamen associated with
switching. As such, verbal fluency tasks appear to be selective to BG function.
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Langue : ANGLAIS