Yunqing Li1,2, Prasanna Karunanayaka1,
Jianli Wang1, Paul J. Eslinger3, Dana M. Lochman1,
1Radiology, The
Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, United States; 2Radiology,
Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China, People's Republic of; 3Neural
& Behavioral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA,
United States; 4Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, PA, United States; 5Neurosurgery, The
Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, United States
Lexical-semantic knowledge undergoes prolonged developmental changes throughout childhood and provides an ideal case for developmental research. Both neuropsychological and fMRI investigations of verbal fluency have been widely used to evaluate language and executive control processes in the human cortex. Our findings show that both the location and amount of cortical activity associated with Lexical-semantic tasks can be modulated by varying the task demands of the verbal fluency paradigm. These results provide convincing evidence for brain connectivity differences in neural networks subserving verbal fluency, depending upon efficient task initiation, planning, organization, and flexibility.