Enhanced left inferior frontal to left superior temporal effective connectivity for complex sentence comprehension: fMRI evidence from Chinese relative clause processing

Xu, Kunyu; Wu, Dazhong; Duann, Jeng Ren

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104712

Cited by 15 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…The LIFG is even suggested to be the driving input to support word order analysis during complex sentence processing [27]. In our previous study [28], we also found that the processing of more difficult Chinese SRCs rather than the ORCs was supported by the connection from the LIFG to the LSTG. Because in Chinese SRCs (e.g., [renshi zhangsan de siji] weifanle guiding), the relative clause (RC) did not follow canonical word order (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…A mixed-trial fMRI design was employed in the present study, as reported in Xu et al [28]. Simply, the main task was sentence comprehension, in which the stimuli were presented frame by frame at a steady rate to avoid possible eye movement during sentence reading.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In each list, all 64 sentences (32 in each type) were evenly divided into four sub-lists, each of which was employed in one fMRI run. Besides, as noted in the introduction, the data from our previous study [28] was also adopted for further comparison. The corresponding examples were also shown in Table 1C and 1D.…”

Section: Materials and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on accumulating evidence, it appeared that complex sentence processing was probably driven by word-order analysis, supported by the LIFG [27,28]. However, some concerns may challenge this assumption because increased brain activation in Chinese RC processing may be partially due to the temporal ambiguity between a complement clause analysis and a head-final RC analysis for Chinese SRC construction, rather than the word order effect between Chinese SRCs and ORCs [29,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, the processing of the OM-RC sentences might be driven by the LSTG rather than the LIFG for the storage function. Besides, we would conduct a 2 × 2 factorial analysis by using the newly-collected data from the OM-RC sentences, as well as our previously-published data from the subject-modifying relative clause (SM-RC) sentences [28]. The 2 × 2 factorial analysis involved the modifying position (subject-versus object-modifying) and the extraction position (subject-extracted versus object-extracted) to see whether and how these two factors influence regional brain activation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Brain connectivity in the left frontotemporal network dynamically modulated by processing difficulty: Evidence from Chinese relative clauses

Duann

2020

PLoS ONE

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Although the connection between the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left superior temporal gyrus (LSTG) has been found to be essential for the comprehension of relative clause (RC) sentences, it remains unclear how the LIFG and the LSTG interact with each other, especially during the processing of Chinese RC sentences with different processing difficulty. This study thus conducted a 2 × 2 (modifying position × extraction position) factorial analyses to examine how these two factors influences regional brain activation. The results showed that, regardless of the modifying position, greater activation in the LIFG was consistently elicited in Chinese subject-extracted relative clauses (SRCs) with non-canonical word order than object-extracted relative clauses (ORCs) with canonical word order, implying that the LIFG subserving the ordering process primarily contributes to the processing of information with increased integration demands due to the non-canonical sequence. Moreover, the directional connection between the LIFG and the LSTG appeared to be modulated by different modifying positions. When the RC was at the subject-modifying position, the effective connectivity from the LIFG to the LSTG was dominantly activated for sentence comprehension; whereas when the RC was at the object-modifying position thus being more difficult, it might be the feedback mechanism from the LSTG back to the LIFG that took place in sentence processing. These findings reveal that brain activation in between the LIFG and the LSTG may be dynamically modulated by different processing difficulty and suggest the relative specialization but extensive collaboration involved in the LIFG and the LSTG for sentence comprehension.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Materials and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%