Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39214956›Full record

SynthesisNeuropsychology review2025

The Neurofunctional Correlates of Morphosyntactic and Thematic Impairments in Aphasia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Sabrina Beber, Giorgia Bontempi, Gabriele Miceli, Marco Tettamanti

Abstract readSystematic ReviewMeta-Analysis
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Neuropsychology review, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Sabrina BeberCenter for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Rovereto, TN, 38122, Italy. sabrina.beber@unitn.it.ORCID 0009-0001-2258-6845
Giorgia BontempiCenter for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Rovereto, TN, 38122, Italy.
Gabriele MiceliCenter for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Rovereto, TN, 38122, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-8835-094X
Marco TettamantiUniversity of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, MI, 20126, Italy.ORCID 0000-0003-3039-1500

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Lesion-symptom studies in persons with aphasia showed that left temporoparietal damage, but surprisingly not prefrontal damage, correlates with impaired ability to process thematic roles in the comprehension of semantically reversible sentences (The child is hugged by the mother). This result has led to challenge the time-honored view that left prefrontal regions are critical for sentence comprehension. However, most studies focused on thematic role assignment and failed to consider morphosyntactic processes that are also critical for sentence processing. We reviewed and meta-analyzed lesion-symptom studies on the neurofunctional correlates of thematic role assignment and morphosyntactic processing in comprehension and production in persons with aphasia. Following the PRISMA checklist, we selected 43 papers for the review and 27 for the meta-analysis, identifying a set of potential bias risks. Both the review and the meta-analysis confirmed the correlation between thematic role processing and temporoparietal regions but also clearly showed the involvement of prefrontal regions in sentence processing. Exploratory meta-analyses suggested that both thematic role and morphosyntactic processing correlate with left prefrontal and temporoparietal regions, that morphosyntactic processing correlates with prefrontal structures more than with temporoparietal regions, and that thematic role assignment displays the opposite trend. We discuss current limitations in the literature and propose a set of recommendations for clarifying unresolved issues.

Indexed as

AphasiaComprehensionPrefrontal CortexHumansSemanticsAphasiaLesion-symptom mappingMorphosyntactic processingNeuropsychological assessment of language abilitiesSentence processingThematic role assignment

Identifiers

PMID39214956
PMCPMC12602653

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.