publications
Preprints
Wolna, A., Wright, A., Casto, C., Lipkin, B., & Fedorenko, E. (2025). The extended language network: Language selective brain areas whose contributions to language remain to be discovered. bioRxiv.
ABS | DOI | PDF | OSF
Although language neuroscience has largely focused on ‘core’ left frontal and temporal brain areas and their right-hemisphere homotopes, numerous other areas—cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar—have been implicated in linguistic processing. However, these areas’ contributions to language remain unclear given that the evidence for their recruitment comes from diverse paradigms, many of which conflate language processing with perceptual, motor, or task-related cognitive processes. Using fMRI data from 772 participants performing an extensively-validated language ‘localizer’ paradigm that isolates language processing from other processes, we a) delineate a comprehensive set of areas that respond reliably to language across written and auditory modalities, and b) evaluate these areas’ selectivity for language relative to a demanding non-linguistic task. In line with prior claims, many areas outside the core fronto-temporal network respond during language processing, and most of them show selectivity for language relative to general task demands. These language-selective areas of the extended language network include areas around the temporal poles, in the medial frontal cortex, in the hippocampus, and in the cerebellum, among others. Although distributed across many parts of the brain, the extended language-selective network still only comprises ∼1.2% of the brain’s volume and is about the size of a strawberry, challenging the view that language processing is broadly distributed across the cortical surface. These newly identified language-selective areas can now be systematically characterized to decipher their contributions to language processing, including testing whether these contributions differ from those of the core language areas.
Papers
Iltis, P. W., Frahm, J., Voit, D., Wright, A., & Dever, A. (2024). A descriptive comparison of oral cavity movements between brass instrumentalists performing large interval slurs. Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 39(4), 169–176.
ABS | DOI
OBJECTIVE: We have previously described patterns of oral cavity movement in advanced French horn players during the performance of large interval slurs. The current study expands upon that work by reporting comparisons between horn, trumpet, and trombone players performing similar large interval exercises. METHODS: Real-time MRI (RT-MRI) films at 20 msec resolution were simultaneously obtained in the sagittal and coronal planes in 10 trumpet players, 9 horn players, and 10 trombone players as they performed 2 repetitions each of slur sequences spanning 1 octave and 1 octave + 3rd (interval of a tenth) at a mezzo forte dynamic level. Nine profile lines were overlaid on the sagittal images allowing the measurement of dorsal tongue edge movement using a customized MATLAB toolkit. Image J (FIJI) was utilized to measure the cross-sectional area formed between the dorsal edge of the tongue and the hard palate as depicted in coronal images. RESULTS: In horn and trumpet players, but not in trombone players, sagittal and coronal views demonstrate patterned tongue movements that narrow and widen the air channel during ascending and descending slurs, respectively. The magnitude of these movements is greater during larger intervals, though not perfectly consistent within each slur sequence. The sagittal views revealed these patterns to be most prominent in the anterior oral cavity rather than the middle and posterior oral cavity across all instruments. CONCLUSION: Conformational changes of the oral cavity (vocal-tract tuning) during large interval slurs in the upper register may assist performance in trumpet and horn players. Trombone players may also employ these strategies when the extreme upper register is involved, but future study must verify this.
Posters & Presentations
Wolna, A., Wright, A., Casto, C., Lipkin, B., & Fedorenko, E. (2025, March). The extended language network: Language selective brain areas whose contributions to language remain to be discovered. McGovern Travel & Technology Awards Poster Session, Cambridge, MA.
Wolna, A., Wright, A., Wodniecka, Z., & Fedorenko. (2025, April). From Words to Stories: Engagement of language-specific and domain-general neural mechanisms in native and second language comprehension. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Boston, MA.