PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Bertram Opitz
AU  - Angela D. Friederici
TI  - Brain Correlates of Language Learning: The Neuronal Dissociation of Rule-Based versus Similarity-Based Learning
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2220-04.2004
DP  - 2004 Sep 29
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 8436--8440
VI  - 24
IP  - 39
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/24/39/8436.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/24/39/8436.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2004 Sep 29; 24
AB  - 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.