TY - JOUR T1 - Conscious and Unconscious Processing of Nonverbal Predictability in Wernicke's Area JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 1975 LP - 1981 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.20-05-01975.2000 VL - 20 IS - 5 AU - Amanda Bischoff-Grethe AU - Shawnette M. Proper AU - Hui Mao AU - Karen A. Daniels AU - Gregory S. Berns Y1 - 2000/03/01 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/20/5/1975.abstract N2 - The association of nonverbal predictability and brain activation was examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans. Participants regarded four squares displayed horizontally across a screen and counted the incidence of a particular color. A repeating spatial sequence with varying levels of predictability was embedded within a random color presentation. Both Wernicke's area and its right homolog displayed a negative correlation with temporal predictability, and this effect was independent of individuals' conscious awareness of the sequence. When individuals were made aware of the underlying sequential predictability, a widespread network of cortical regions displayed activity that correlated with the predictability. Conscious processing of predictability resulted in a positive correlation to activity in right prefrontal cortex but a negative correlation in posterior parietal cortex. These results suggest that conscious processing of predictability invokes a large-scale cortical network, but independently of awareness, Wernicke's area processes predictive events in time and may not be exclusively associated with language. ER -