Neural correlates of processing sentences and compound words in Chinese

Abstract

Sentence reading involves multiple linguistic operations including processing of lexical and compositional semantics, and determining structural and grammatical relationships among words. Previous studies on Indo-European languages have associated left anterior temporal lobe (aTL) and left interior frontal gyrus (IFG) with reading sentences compared to reading unstructured word lists. To examine whether these brain regions are also involved in reading a typologically distinct language with limited morphosyntax and lack of agreement between sentential arguments, an FMRI study was conducted to compare passive reading of Chinese sentences, unstructured word lists and disconnected character lists that are created by only changing the order of an identical set of characters. Similar to previous findings from other languages, stronger activation was found in mainly left-lateralized anterior temporal regions (including aTL) for reading sentences compared to unstructured word and character lists. On the other hand, stronger activation was identified in left posterior temporal sulcus for reading unstructured words compared to unstructured characters. Furthermore, reading unstructured word lists compared to sentences evoked stronger activation in left IFG and left inferior parietal lobule. Consistent with the literature on Indo-European languages, the present results suggest that left anterior temporal regions subserve sentence-level integration, while left IFG supports restoration of sentence structure. In addition, left posterior temporal sulcus is associated with morphological compounding. Taken together, reading Chinese sentences engages a common network as reading other languages, with particular reliance on integration of semantic constituents.

Delta-band neural tracking primarily reflects rule-based chunking instead of semantic relatedness between words

“…Functional MRI and stereo-EEG studies show that the mental construction of speech chunks is represented in bilateral temporal and frontal lobes ( Ding et al. 2016 ; Bulut et al. 2017 ; Nelson et al.…”

Functional connectivity of the inferior frontal gyrus: A meta-analytic connectivity modeling study

“…Another region where significant functional connectivity was found is the anterior middle temporal gyrus, which significantly coactivated with only LBA45. The anterior temporal lobe has been associated with sentence comprehension in an ALE meta-analysis (Walenski et al, 2019), and several neuroimaging studies implicated this region in combinatorial processing at the sentence level (higher syntactic and compositional semantic processing), usually identified through sentence versus word list contrasts, (Brennan et al, 2012; Brennan & Pylkkänen, 2012; Bulut, Hung, Tzeng, & Wu, 2017; Humphries, Willard, Buchsbaum, & Hickok, 2001; Colin Humphries, Love, Swinney, & Hickok, 2005; Rogalsky & Hickok, 2009). In light of these previous studies and of the behavioral analysis which revealed significant functional specificity in LBA45 only for semantics, it could be argued that functional connectivity between LBA45 and anterior MTG underlies semantic processing, possibly at the sentence level.…”

Low-frequency Neural Activity Reflects Rule-based Chunking during Speech Listening

“…Furthermore, if a click is presented during speech, the perceived timing of the click is attracted towards major syntactic boundaries (Fodor and Bever, 1965;Garrett et al, 1966). In terms of the neural basis, fMRI studies have demonstrated that distributed brain areas are involved in grouping words into chunks (Friederici et al, 2000;Lerner et al, 2011;Pallier et al, 2011;Bulut et al, 2017). MEG and EEG studies have suggested that low-frequency neural activity tracks linguistic structures (Ding et al, 2016;Meyer et al, 2016;Martin and Doumas, 2017;Meyer and Gumbert, 2018).…”