Biomedical subjects

Jane E Warren

Publications and source records attributed to Jane E Warren.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Positive emotions preferentially engage an auditory-motor "mirror" system.

Social interaction relies on the ability to react to communication signals. Although cortical sensory-motor "mirror" networks are thought to play a key role in visual aspects of primate communication, evidence for a similar generic role for auditory-motor interaction in primate nonverbal communication is lacking. We demonstrate that a network of human premotor cortical regions activated during facial movement is also involved in auditory processing of affective nonverbal vocalizations. Within this auditory-motor mirror network, distinct functional subsystems respond preferentially to emotional valence and arousal properties of heard vocalizations. Positive emotional valence enhanced activation in a left posterior inferior frontal region involved in representation of prototypic actions, whereas increasing arousal enhanced activation in presupplementary motor area cortex involved in higher-order motor control. Our findings demonstrate that listening to nonverbal vocalizations can automatically engage preparation of responsive orofacial gestures, an effect that is greatest for positive-valence and high-arousal emotions. The automatic engagement of responsive orofacial gestures by emotional vocalizations suggests that auditory-motor interactions provide a fundamental mechanism for mirroring the emotional states of others during primate social behavior. Motor facilitation by positive vocal emotions suggests a basic neural mechanism for establishing cohesive bonds within primate social groups.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2006

Converging language streams in the human temporal lobe.

There is general agreement that, after initial processing in unimodal sensory cortex, the processing pathways for spoken and written language converge to access verbal meaning. However, the existing literature provides conflicting accounts of the cortical location of this convergence. Most aphasic stroke studies localize verbal comprehension to posterior temporal and inferior parietal cortex (Wernicke's area), whereas evidence from focal cortical neurodegenerative syndromes instead implicates anterior temporal cortex. Previous functional imaging studies in normal subjects have failed to reconcile these opposing positions. Using a functional imaging paradigm in normal subjects that used spoken and written narratives and multiple baselines, we demonstrated common activation during implicit comprehension of spoken and written language in inferior and lateral regions of the left anterior temporal cortex and at the junction of temporal, occipital, and parietal cortex. These results indicate that verbal comprehension uses unimodal processing streams that converge in both anterior and posterior heteromodal cortical regions in the left temporal lobe.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Sounds do-able: auditory-motor transformations and the posterior temporal plane.

Accumulating evidence in humans and non-human primates implicates the posterior superior temporal plane (STP) in the processing of both auditory spatial information and vocal sounds. Such evidence is difficult to reconcile with existing accounts of the primate auditory brain. We propose that the posteromedial STP generates sequenced auditory representations by matching incoming auditory information with stored templates. These sequenced auditory representations are subsequently used to constrain motor responses. We argue for a re-assessment of the much-debated dorsal auditory pathway in terms of its generic behavioral role as an auditory "do" pathway.

Animal Communication↗

PubMed2003

Myoclonus in spinal dysraphism.

Two cases of segmental myoclonus occurring in association with spinal dysraphism are described. In one, myoclonus of paralysed legs arose below a region of spinal cord lacking any normal function, illustrating the capacity of the isolated spinal cord to generate and maintain rhythmic activity independent of supraspinal influences.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Nothing to say, something to sing: primary progressive dynamic aphasia.

We describe a 76-year-old man (ADY) with dynamic aphasia in the setting of a degenerative frontal lobe dementia: primary progressive dynamic aphasia. He displayed a striking paucity of propositional speech despite intact speech production, and preserved singing and prosody. Vocal expression in the verbal and musical domains was investigated in a series of neuropsychological experiments based on novel language and musical tasks that were designed to establish the nature and specificity of the verbal output deficit. The features of the language disorder indicated that the speech output pathway was disrupted at the early stage of generation of a new pre-verbal message. In contrast, tests of musical output demonstrated that the generation of new musical ideas was unimpaired. The domain-specificity of dynamic aphasia may result from the disruption of specific cognitive processes necessary for the creation of verbal messages, as well as selective damage of brain regions involved in language production.

Aged↗