An imaging study reveals that different brain regions are involved in learning nouns and verbs. Nouns activate the left fusiform gyrus, while learning verbs activates instead the left inferior frontal gyrus and part of the left posterior medial temporal gyrus. The latter two regions are associated with grammatical and semantic information, respectively, while the former is associated with visual and object processing. The finding is consistent with several findings that distinguish nouns and verbs: children learn nouns before verbs; adults process nouns faster; brain damage can differentially affect nouns and verbs.
Nouns and verbs are learned in different parts of the brain
Reference
Mestres-Missé, A., Rodriguez-Fornells, A., & Münte, T. F. (2010). Neural differences in the mapping of verb and noun concepts onto novel words. NeuroImage, 49(3), 2826-2835. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6WNP-4XFY0GF-1/2/f83c2ef4a7b3c0caebec5d4748f98a46
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