Together, the results predominantly support the hypothesis of deeper language processing in individuals with higher language ability. Evidence for decreased activity with higher language ability was less consistent and restricted to verbal fluency. Higher language ability was associated with increased activity in the left temporal lobe during auditory sentence processing and with increased activity in the left frontal lobe during phonological processing, reflected in both, higher intensity and greater extent of activations. As expected, sentence comprehension activated the left anterior temporal lobe while phonological processing activated the left inferior frontal gyrus. Outside the MRI scanner, language ability was assessed with the verbal scale of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI-II) and a verbal fluency task. fMRI data were collected from 22 healthy adults performing a sentence listening task, a sentence reading task and a phonological production task.
In contrast to previous studies, the current study investigated the relationship between language ability and neural activity across different language processes and modalities while keeping non-linguistic cognitive task demands to a minimum. On the other hand, decreased activity with higher language ability has been interpreted as more efficient language processing. Existing neuroimaging studies on the relationship between language ability and brain activity have found contradictory evidence: On the one hand, increased activity with higher language ability has been interpreted as deeper or more adaptive language processing.
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