Probing the Functional Role of Broca’s Area during Chinese Picture Naming: A TMS Study

Abstract

Although previous studies have shown that Broca's area is closely related with word production, there is still a lack of consensus about the specific function of Broca's area and in particular of its subparts, especially in Chinese Language. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to interfere with Broca's area at different time window following picture onset to investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics of Broca's area in the process of picture naming in Mandarin language. Performance was evaluated at baseline (sham TMS) and on line TMS. RTs were prolonged when TMS was applied over Broca's area at 225ms time window, whereas sham stimulation and real stimulation at other time windows did not result in such changes in reaction time (RT). Taken together these findings is line with previous study that Broca's area may be involved in the process of syllabification, but the exact time period might be somehow different due to ideographic feature in Chinese language.