Somatotopic Identification of Language-sma in Language Processing via Fmri

This report describes a new finding regarding language-Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) in language processing using robust clinical protocols i.e. word generation (WG) and sentence generation (SG). This is a retrospective study on 7 patients referred for fMRI for preoperative language mapping. Subjects ranged in age from 20 40 years (28.8 ± 7.3), mean ± SD. We quantified the dimensions of language-SMA and motor-SMA and presented their mutual location somatotopically. Compared with SMA associated with motor (hand) function, coined M-SMA, the L-SMA is located anterior to M-SMA. It is estimated from the transverse images that the whole strip extends approx.18.75 mm in the sagittal plane, which is similar to that of M-SMA. Distance between L-SMA and M-SMA ranges from 9.8 to 19.8 mm. In conjunction with the commonly observed localization and lateralization of Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, the identification of LSMA activation may help confirm the adequacy of the fMRI language mapping.