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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 29, 2004, 24(39):8436-8440; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2220-04.2004

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Brain Correlates of Language Learning: The Neuronal Dissociation of Rule-Based versus Similarity-Based Learning

Bertram Opitz¹ and Angela D. Friederici²

¹Experimental Neuropsychology Unit, Saarland University, 66041 Saarbrücken, Germany, and ²Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04303 Leipzig, Germany

Language learning is one of the mysteries of human cognition. One of the crucial questions is the following: Does acquisition of grammatical knowledge depend primarily on abstract rules or on item-specific information? Although there is evidence that both mechanisms contribute to language acquisition, their relative importance during the process of language learning is unknown. Using an artificial grammar paradigm, we show by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging that the brain dissociates the two mechanisms: the left anterior hippocampus supports similarity-based learning, whereas the left ventral premotor cortex is selectively engaged by abstract rule processing. Moreover, data analysis over time on learning suggests that similarity-based learning plays a nonobligatory role during the initial phase, and that rule-based abstraction plays a crucial role during later learning.

Key words: hippocampus; rule learning; grammar; premotor cortex; fMRI; similarity

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Received March 18, 2004; revised July 23, 2004; accepted July 23, 2004.

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