A major function of BA 47 is language processing and comprehension. Although Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are often the major foci of neuroanatomical studies related to language, research has discovered that these two areas are not as integral to language comprehension than originally thought; other structures like BA 47 play a major role. Specifically, BA 47 is active in tasks regarding semantics, or identifying the meaning of words and sentences. To understand language semantics, consider Dapretto and Bookheimer’s study where participants needed to identify that there was a difference between the sentences, “The man was attacked by the Doberman,” and “The man was attacked by the Pitbull.” While sentence form was similar, the words Doberman and Pitbull had different meanings, specifically dog breeds. This is indicative of a change in semantics. Having defined what semantics are, it is important to identify the functional limitations of individuals with damage to BA 47. Patients with lesions to BA 47 reported difficulty engaging in tasks that required one to process words as well as tasks that required one to be familiar with grammatical rules. Recently, studies have determined that BA 47 is involved in processing more than just spoken language. Considering BA 47’s role in language semantics, it is essential to note that this function is not related only to oral communication; BA 47 is also important for identifying semantics in sign language. Specifically, BA 47 plays a role in helping us determine what spoken words mean as well as what signed words mean. This finding that similar areas of the brain are active when processing different types of linguistic information is especially interesting considering the fact that the sensory modalities involved in spoken and sign language are different, the former involves audition and the latter involves vision. Furthermore, in addition to language processing, BA 47 helps us process music. Levitin and Menon found that BA 47 showed greater activation when individuals were presented with “scrambled” sounds that violated their expectations versus sounds that went together and confirmed their expectations. That is, with disrupted musical structure, participants required more brain processing for musical comprehension, and that happened in BA 47.
Emotional Recognition
BA47 is thought to be related to the recognition of emotions. The emotions thought to be recognized by BA47 are fear, disgust, and anger. In a study conducted by R. Sprengelmeyer, M. Rausch, U.T. Eysel, and H. Pruzentek this hypothesis was tested be using an fMRI experiment on six healthy individuals with no prior neurological problems. The individuals were shown 8 faces showing the emotions of fear, disgust, anger, or neutral. The fMRI image was taken after the subjects were shown the face for 3 seconds. BA 47 showed increased activity when the subject was shown the emotions of fear, disgust, and anger.
