Although areas 44 and 45 share a similar pattern of cortico-cortical connectivity that sets them apart from the caudally adjacent premotor area 6, they have some Selleck GKT137831 subtle but important differences in connectivity. The recent experimental anatomical

tracer study (Petrides & Pandya, 2009) examining perisylvian parietal and temporal connections with the ventrolateral frontal region noted that connections from area PG (especially its dorsal part close to the intraparietal sulcus) were stronger with area 45. The same anatomical tracing study also noted that, although both areas 44 and 45 receive inputs from the cortex in the superior temporal sulcus, they differ in that area 45 (but not area 44) had strong connections with the ventrally adjacent temporal cortex. Although the RSFC of areas 44 and 45 were very similar (see Fig. 2, BA 44 and BA 45, and the results of the clustering analyses, Fig. 4), the direct comparison between areas 44 and 45 demonstrated greater RSFC of BA 45 in the dorsal part of the angular gyrus close to the intraparietal sulcus (see Fig. 2, BA 45 > BA 44, 3-D brain surface and coronal section). However, these whole-brain comparisons Tacrolimus mouse did not reveal significantly greater RSFC in any part of the temporal lobe for BA 45 relative to BA 44. Given our a priori hypotheses concerning such a difference,

we restricted our comparison to the superolateral temporal cortex (i.e. the cortex on the superior temporal gyrus, the superior temporal sulcus and the middle temporal gyrus), which is the zone known to connect to the ventrolateral frontal region. This directed analysis did indeed demonstrate stronger RSFC between BA 45 and the middle portion of the middle temporal gyrus, relative to BA 44 (Fig. 2). The present results provide a more complete picture of language-related cortico-cortical connections than the traditional view of a posterior superior temporal language zone that interacts with an anterior frontal speech zone via the arcuate fasciculus (Geschwind, 1970). Consistent with results from macaque tracer studies, the present findings show that the inferior

part of the parietal lobe also interacts with the anterior language zone. eltoprazine Specifically, we demonstrated linkage between rostral supramarginal gyrus and ventral BA 6, and between the caudal supramarginal and angular gyri and BAs 44 and 45 in the human brain. Furthermore, we demonstrated greater linkage of the middle section of the middle temporal gyrus with BA 45 than BA 44, consistent with experimental findings in the macaque monkey (Petrides & Pandya, 1988). The richer view of the cortico-cortical pathways linking language-related regions demonstrated here agrees with recent diffusion tensor imaging studies of the complexity of the white matter connectivity between these regions (Saur et al., 2008; Makris & Pandya, 2009).