Autonomy of syntactic processing and the role of Broca's area

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 634-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Cell Level ◽  
Cell Assemblies ◽  
Brain System ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractBoth autonomy and local specificity are compatible with observed interconnectivity at the cell level when considering two different levels: cell assemblies and brain systems. Early syntactic structuring processes in particular are likely to representan autonomous module in the language/brain system.

Role of Broca’s area in motor sequence programming

Neuroreport ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (18) ◽  
pp. 965-969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emeline Clerget ◽  
Arnaud Badets ◽  
Julie Duqué ◽  
Etienne Olivier
Keyword(s):  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Motor Sequence

scholarly journals Some Regions within Broca's Area Do Respond More Strongly to Sentences than to Linguistically Degraded Stimuli: A Comment on Rogalsky and Hickok ()

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 2632-2635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelina Fedorenko ◽  
Nancy Kanwisher
Keyword(s):  
Random Effects ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Review Of The Literature

On the basis of their review of the literature, Rogalsky and Hickok [Rogalsky, C., & Hickok, G. The role of Broca's area in sentence comprehension. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 1664–1680, 2011] conclude that there is currently no strong evidence for the existence of “sentence-specific processing regions within Broca's area” (p. 1664). Their argument is based, in part, on the observation that many previous studies have failed to detect an effect in the left inferior frontal regions for contrasts between sentences and linguistically degraded control conditions (e.g., lists of unconnected words, lists of nonwords, or acoustically degraded sentence stimuli). Our data largely replicate this lack of activation in inferior frontal regions when traditional random-effects group analyses are conducted but crucially show robust activations in the same data for the same contrasts in almost every subject individually. Thus, it is the use of group analyses in studies of language processing, not the idea that sentences robustly activate frontal regions, that needs to be reconsidered. This reconsideration has important methodological and theoretical implications.

scholarly journals From Phonemes to Articulatory Codes: An fMRI Study of the Role of Broca's Area in Speech Production

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 2156-2165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Papoutsi ◽  
Jacco A. de Zwart ◽  
J. Martijn Jansma ◽  
Martin J. Pickering ◽  
James A. Bednar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Fmri Study

Understanding words in context: The role of Broca's area in word comprehension

2007 ◽  
Vol 1146 ◽  
pp. 101-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Bedny ◽  
Justin C. Hulbert ◽  
Sharon L. Thompson-Schill
Keyword(s):  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Word Comprehension

Broca's area plays a role in syntactic processing during Chinese reading comprehension

2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 1371-1378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suiping Wang ◽  
Zude Zhu ◽  
John X. Zhang ◽  
Zhaoxin Wang ◽  
Zhuangwei Xiao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Chinese Reading

Early hierarchical syntactic processing in Broca's area for merging words

2007 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. S116
Author(s):  
Kazuki Iijima ◽  
Naoki Fukui ◽  
Kuniyoshi L. Sakai
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area

scholarly journals Towards a causal role of Broca's area in language: A TMS-EEG study on syntactic prediction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Maran ◽  
Ole Numssen ◽  
Gesa Hartwigsen ◽  
Angela D. Friederici ◽  
Emiliano Zaccarella
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Predictive Mechanisms

Categorical predictions have been proposed as the key mechanism supporting the fast pace of syntactic composition in human language. Accordingly, grammar-based expectations facilitate the analysis of incoming syntactic information - e.g., hearing the determiner 'the' enhances the prediction of a noun - which is then checked against a single or few other word categories. Previous functional neuroimaging studies point towards Broca's area in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) as one fundamental cortical region involved in categorical prediction during on-line language processing. Causal evidence for this hypothesis is however still missing. In this study, we combined Electroencephalography (EEG) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to test whether Broca's area is functionally relevant in predictive mechanisms for language. Specifically, we transiently perturbed Broca's area during the categorical prediction phase in two-word constructions, while simultaneously measuring the Event-Related Potential (ERP) correlates of syntactic composition. We reasoned that if Broca's area is involved in predictive mechanisms for syntax, disruptive TMS during the processing of the first word (determiner/pronoun) would mitigate the difference in ERP responses for predicted and unpredicted categories when composing basic phrases and sentences. Contrary to our hypothesis, perturbation of Broca's area at the predictive stage did not affect the ERP correlates of basic composition. The correlation strength between the electrical field induced by TMS and the magnitude of the EEG response on the scalp further confirmed this pattern. We discuss the present results in light of an alternative account of the role of Broca's area in syntactic composition, namely the bottom-up integration of words into constituents.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document