Argument structure effects in action verb naming in static and dynamic conditions

Abstract

Argument structure, as in the participant roles entailed within the lexical representation of verbs, affects verb processing. Recent neuroimaging studies show that when verbs are heard or read, the posterior temporoparietal region shows increased activation for verbs with greater versus lesser argument structure complexity, usually bilaterally. In addition, patients with agrammatic aphasia show verb production deficits, graded based on argument structure complexity. In the present study, we used fMRI to examine the neural correlates of verb production in overt action naming conditions. In addition, we tested the differential effects of naming when verbs were presented dynamically in video segments versus statically in line drawings. Results showed increased neuronal activity associated with production of transitive as compared to intransitive verbs not only in posterior regions, but also in left inferior frontal cortex. We also found significantly greater activation for transitive versus intransitive action naming for videos compared to pictures in the right inferior and superior parietal cortices, areas associated with object manipulation. These findings indicate that verbs with greater argument structure density engender graded activation of both anterior and posterior portions of the language network and support verb naming deficit patterns reported in lesion studies. In addition, the similar findings derived under video and static picture naming conditions provide validity for using videos in neuroimaging studies, which are more naturalistic and perhaps ecologically valid than using static pictures to investigate action naming.

Predication Drives Verb Cortical Signatures

“…This hypothesis is silent on the specific direction of the effect: It does not speak to why neural activity increased for intransitive relative to transitive verbs (see also Assadollahi et al, 2009;den Ouden et al, 2009;Assadollahi & Rockstroh, 2008). Nonetheless, as argued in the Introduction, the correlation between transitivity and neural activity may be tentatively interpreted in terms of verb prototypicality.…”

“…In a different study, Meltzer-Asscher, Schuchard, den Ouden, and Thomphon (2013) observed greater neural activity in the bilateral angular and supramarginal gyri, as well as in the right posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG), the right MTG, and the right middle and superior frontal gyri for verbs that can act as transitive or intransitive versus verbs that must exclusively act as intransitive. However, in an fMRI study using an overt action picture naming task (den Ouden et al, 2009), they found a wide range of regions that respond differentially to intransitive and transitive verbs, in both directions: transitive > intransitive and intransitive > transitive. Larger intransitive relative to transitive verb effects were reported for the right hemisphere in the thalamus, precentral gyrus, and STS (encompassing Heschlʼs gyrus and insula) and for left hemisphere in STG extending into Heschlʼs gyrus; larger transitive relative to intransitive verbs were reported in bilateral fusiform gyrus, middle occipital gyrus (extending into inferior occipital gyrus in the left hemisphere), pMTG and angular and supramarginal gyri, and the precuneus, as well as left hemisphere activation in the postcentral and precentral gyri, middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and infIFG.…”

“…In a later study using fMRI (Assadollahi et al, 2009), they found greater activation for intransitive than transitive verbs in the left inferior temporal fusiform gyrus and in the right infIFG. An equally complicated picture emerges from the fMRI studies by Thompson and colleagues (Thompson, Bonakdarpour, & Fix, 2010;den Ouden, Fix, Parrish, & Thompson, 2009;Thompson et al, 2007), who report predication effects in both directions (intransitive > transitive and transitive > intransitive) in a wide range of brain regions. In one study (Thompson et al, 2007), they observed greater neural activity in the left supramarginal and angular gyri for transitive relative to intransitive verbs.…”

A neuropsychological perspective on the link between language and praxis in modern humans

“…Brain imaging investigations of the neural network underlying the processing of verb argument structure have highlighted not only the role of anterior language areas (i.e. the inferior frontal gyrus), but have also put forward the decisive role played by the parietal cortex, and especially the angular gyrus [115,116].…”

Desarrollo del uso y la fluidez de verbos, su importancia para la neuropsicología

“…20 Asimismo, diversos estudios con pacientes adultos con afasia de Broca han mostrado que la producción de verbos se dificulta en relación con el número de argumentos que requiere cada verbo. 49 Baron, Erickson, Ahronovich, Baker y Litman 50 encontraron que en niños de tres años de edad nacidos con bajo peso y pretérmino (<26 semanas de gestación), el desempeño de la fluidez verbal se ubicó por debajo del grupo control (nacidos a término y con un peso "normal"); en otros estudios con grupos similares se ha encontrado replicación de estos resultados, por lo que se ha sugerido que la fluidez de verbos puede ser un predictor temprano de disfunción ejecutiva/dificultades de fluidez de lenguaje durante la infancia.…”