Cortical sites critical to language function act as connectors between language subnetworks

Abstract Historically, eloquent functions have been viewed as localized to focal areas of human cerebral cortex, while more recent studies suggest they are encoded by distributed networks. We examined the network properties of cortical sites defined by stimulation to be critical for speech and language, using electrocorticography from sixteen participants during word-reading. We discovered distinct network signatures for sites where stimulation caused speech arrest and language errors. Both demonstrated lower local and global connectivity, whereas sites causing language errors exhibited higher inter-community connectivity, identifying them as connectors between modules in the language network. We used machine learning to classify these site types with reasonably high accuracy, even across participants, suggesting that a site’s pattern of connections within the task-activated language network helps determine its importance to function. These findings help to bridge the gap in our understanding of how focal cortical stimulation interacts with complex brain networks to elicit language deficits.