Neural basis for sentence comprehension: Grammatical and short‐term memory components

Cooke, Ayanna; Zurif, Edgar; DeVita, Christian; Alsop, David C.; Koenig, Phyllis; Detre, John A.; Gee, James C.; Piñango, Maria Mercedes; Balogh, Jennifer; Grossman, Murray

doi:10.1002/hbm.10006

Cited by 227 publications

(218 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…. Other studies have also suggested that the left IFG activation reflects short-term memory demands [Cooke et al, 2002;Fiebach et al, 2005]. In our previous study, however, we directly compared the cortical activations in syntactic decision tasks with those in verbal short-term memory tasks and observed that the left dF3t showed selective activation for syntactic decisions in sentences, and that this activation was much greater than would be expected merely due to task difficulty and verbal shortterm memory demands [Hashimoto and Sakai, 2002].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

Neural correlates of noncanonical syntactic processing revealed by a picture‐sentence matching task

Kinno¹,

Kawamura²,

Shioda³

et al. 2007

Human Brain Mapping

107

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It remains controversial whether the left inferior frontal gyrus subserves syntactic processing or short-term memory demands. Here we devised a novel picture-sentence matching task involving Japanese sentences with different structures to clearly contrast syntactic reanalysis processes. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), activations under three main conditions were directly compared: a canonical/subject-initial active sentence (AS), a noncanonical/subject-initial passive sentence (PS), and a noncanonical/object-initial scrambled sentence (SS). We found that activation in the dorsal region of the left inferior frontal gyrus (dF3t) was enhanced more by the noncanonical processing under the PS and SS conditions than by the canonical processing under the AS condition, and this enhancement was independent of domain-general factors, such as general memory demands and task difficulty. Moreover, the left posterior superior/middle temporal gyrus (pSTG/ MTG) showed more enhanced responses to object-initial sentences under the SS condition than to subject-initial sentences under the AS and PS conditions, which were not significantly affected by task difficulty. Furthermore, activation in the left lateral premotor cortex (LPMC) increased under the AS, PS, and SS conditions, in that order. It is possible that task difficulty affects the left LPMC, but the three distinct activations patterns suggest that these frontal and temporal regions work in concert to process syntactic structures, with their respective contributions dynamically regulated by linguistic requirements. Hum Brain Mapp 29: [1015][1016][1017][1018][1019][1020][1021][1022][1023][1024][1025][1026][1027] 2008. V V C 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

Neural correlates of noncanonical syntactic processing revealed by a picture‐sentence matching task

Kinno¹,

Kawamura²,

Shioda³

et al. 2007

Human Brain Mapping

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In comparison to the anterior regions, we did not observe any activation related to syntactic surprisal in the left posterior STS/STG. This region has historically been less associated with syntactic processing compared to anterior regions, though fMRI activation related to syntax is sometimes observed (Constable et al, 2004;Cooke et al, 2002;Hasson et al, 2006;Tyler et al, 2011). Constable et al (2004) and Cooke et al (2002) both used an object-versus subject-relative clause comparison in their studies, and Hasson et al (2006) compared subordinate-clause sentences (many of which included relative clauses) to controls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) has often been linked to computations related to the manipulation of syntactic structure (Brennan et al, 2010;Dronkers et al, 2004;Friederici et al, 2000a;Friederici et al, 2000b;Humphries et al, 2005;Humphries et al, 2006;Mazoyer et al, 1993;Noppeney and Price, 2004;Rogalsky and Hickok, 2009;Tyler et al, 2011;Vandenberghe et al, 2002). Finally, several studies suggest a potential role for left posterior superior temporal sulcus and gyrus (STS/STG) in syntactic processing (Constable et al, 2004;Cooke et al, 2002;Hasson et al, 2006;Tyler et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language structure in the brain: A fixation-related fMRI study of syntactic surprisal in reading

et al. 2016

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How is syntactic analysis implemented by the human brain during language comprehension? The current study combined methods from computational linguistics, eyetracking, and fMRI to address this question. Subjects read passages of text presented as paragraphs while their eye movements were recorded in an MRI scanner. We parsed the text using a probabilistic context-free grammar to isolate syntactic difficulty. Syntactic difficulty was quantified as syntactic surprisal, which is related to the expectedness of a given word's syntactic category given its preceding context. We compared words with high and low syntactic surprisal values that were equated for length, frequency, and lexical surprisal, and used fixation-related (FIRE) fMRI to measure neural activity associated with syntactic surprisal for each fixated word. We observed greater neural activity for high than low syntactic surprisal in two predicted cortical regions previously identified with syntax: left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and less robustly, left anterior superior temporal lobe (ATL). These results support the hypothesis that left IFG and ATL play a central role in syntactic analysis during language comprehension. More generally, the results suggest a broader cortical network associated with syntactic prediction that includes increased activity in bilateral IFG and insula, as well as fusiform and right lingual gyri.© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords:Language Syntax Surprisal Reading Eye movements fMRI IntroductionA complete theory of the human brain must include a description of the neural networks responsible for language processing. Comprehension of connected sentences requires the ability to retrieve words from the lexicon and relate those words to each other, as the input is encountered in real time. The system for creating these groupings is known as syntax, and is generally thought of as a set of computations specifying syntactic categories such as noun and verb, and stating how those categories combine into increasingly larger constituents such as noun phrases, verb phrases, and clauses. The constituent structure of a sentence is the frame on which interpretations are built; the same words will have radically different meanings depending on that structure (e.g., the dog bit the man vs. the man bit the dog). Thus, the human ability to understand language is based both on lexical knowledge and syntactic computations.In this study, we focused on understanding how the human brain implements the syntactic component of the human language faculty. Specifically, we were interested in the nature of the cortical systems that compute syntactic representations during online language comprehension. Three regions have traditionally been identified as candidates for syntactic processing (Fedorenko et al., 2012;Friederici and Kotz, 2003;Grodzinsky and Friederici, 2006;Kaan and Swaab, 2002). Historically, Broca's area or left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) has been most associated with syntax (Ben-Shachar et al., 2003;Ben-Shachar et al., 2004;...

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“…(Caplan et al, 2000;Inui et al, 1998;Just et al, 1996;Stromswold et al, 1996)), more recent studies have postulated that this area may be related more to syntactic working memory rather than syntactic complexity (Fiebach et al, 2001;Fiebach et al, 2005); during the processing of a syntactically complex sentence the displaced element must be maintained in working memory over a prolonged distance (Friederici et al, 2003). While it has previously been proposed that dislocated elements in sentence processing are maintained as semantic representations (Cooke et al, 2002) without a phonologic element, that study displayed activation in BA 47, associated with semantic processing (Bookheimer, 2002), as opposed to the BA 44/45 seen in the current study. The region of Broca's area (Figure 1c) recruited in the current study is the more posterior aspect, thought to be involved with phonological/syntactic, rather than semantic, processing (Cannestra et al, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive modules utilized for narrative comprehension in children: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

2006

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The ability to comprehend narratives constitutes an important component of human development and experience. The neural correlates of auditory narrative comprehension in children were investigated in a large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study involving 313 subjects ages 5-18. Using group Independent Component Analysis (ICA), bilateral task-related components were found comprising the primary auditory cortex, the mid-superior temporal gyrus, the hippocampus, the angular gyrus and medial aspect of the parietal lobule (precuneus/posterior cingulate). In addition, a right-lateralized component was found involving the most posterior aspect of the superior temporal gyrus, and a left-lateralized component was found comprising the inferior frontal gyrus (including Broca's area), the inferior parietal lobule, and the medial temporal gyrus. Using a novel data-driven analysis technique, increased task-related activity related to age was found in the components comprising the mid-superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke's area) and the posterior aspect of the superior temporal gyrus, while decreased activity related to age was found in the component comprising the angular gyrus. The results are discussed in light of recent hypotheses involving the functional segregation of Wernicke's area and the specific role of the mid-superior temporal gyrus in speech comprehension.

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Neural basis for sentence comprehension: Grammatical and short‐term memory components

Cited by 227 publications

References 63 publications

Neural correlates of noncanonical syntactic processing revealed by a picture‐sentence matching task

Neural correlates of noncanonical syntactic processing revealed by a picture‐sentence matching task

Language structure in the brain: A fixation-related fMRI study of syntactic surprisal in reading

Cognitive modules utilized for narrative comprehension in children: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

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