Common and Distinct Neural Substrates for Pragmatic, Semantic, and Syntactic Processing of Spoken Sentences: An fMRI Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Kuperberg ◽  
P. K. McGuire ◽  
E. T. Bullmore ◽  
M. J. Brammer ◽  
S. Rabe-Hesketh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Linguistic Information ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right

Extracting meaning from speech requires the use of pragmatic, semantic, and syntactic information. A central question is: Does the processing of these different types of linguistic information have common or distinct neuroanatomical substrates? We addressed this issue using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural activity when subjects listened to spoken normal sentences contrasted with sentences that had either (A) pragmatical, (B) semantic (selection restriction), or (C) syntactic (subcategorical) violations sentences. All three contrasts revealed robust activation of the left-inferior-temporal/fusiform gyrus. Activity in this area was also observed in a combined analysis of all three experiments, suggesting that it was modulated by all three types of linguistic violation. Planned statistical comparisons between the three experiments revealed (1) a greater difference between conditions in activation of the left-superior-temporal gyrus for the pragmatic experiment than the semantic/syntactic experiments; (2) a greater difference between conditions in activation of the right-superior and middletemporal gyrus in the semantic experiment than in the syntactic experiment; and (3) no regions activated to a greater degree in the syntactic experiment than in the semantic experiment. These data show that, while left- and right-superior-temporal regions may be differentially involved in processing pragmatic and lexico-semantic information within sentences, the left-inferior-temporal/fusiform gyrus is involved in processing all three types of linguistic information. We suggest that this region may play a key role in using pragmatic, semantic (selection restriction), and subcategorical information to construct a higher representation of meaning of sentences.

scholarly journals The rodent hippocampus as a bilateral structure: A review of hemispheric lateralization

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake T. Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Brain Region ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Hemispheric Lateralization ◽  
Hemispheric Differences ◽  
Functional Lateralization ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
Behavior And Cognition

AbstractThe left and right rodent hippocampi exhibit striking lateralization in some of the very neural substrates considered to be critical for hippocampal cognitive function. Despite this, there is an overwhelming lack of consideration for hemispheric differences in studies of the rodent hippocampus. Asymmetries identified so far suggest that a bilateral model of the hippocampus will be essential for an understanding of this brain region, and perhaps of the brain more widely. Although hypotheses have been proposed to explain how the left and right hippocampi contribute to behavior and cognition, these hypotheses have either been refuted by more recent studies or have been limited in the scope of data they explain. Here, I will first review data on human and rodent hippocampal lateralization. The implications of these data suggest that considering the hippocampus as a bilateral structure with functional lateralization will be critical moving forward in understanding the function and mechanisms of this brain region. In exploring these implications, I will then propose a hypothesis of the hippocampus as a bilateral structure. This discrete-continuous (DC) hypothesis proposes that the left and right hippocampi contribute to spatial memory and navigation in a complementary manner. Specifically, the left hemisphere stores spatial information as discrete, salient locations and that the right hemisphere represents space continuously, contributing to route computation and flexible spatial navigation. Consideration of hippocampal lateralization in designing future studies may provide insight into the function of the hippocampus and resolve debates concerning its function.

scholarly journals Brain Regions Involved in Underlying Syntactic Processing of Mandarin Chinese Intransitive Verbs: An fMRI Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 983
Author(s):  
Xin Wang ◽  
Shiwen Feng ◽  
Tongquan Zhou ◽  
Renyu Wang ◽  
Guowei Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Intransitive Verbs ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Passive Verbs

According to the Unaccusative Hypothesis, intransitive verbs are divided into unaccusative and unergative ones based on the distinction of their syntactic properties, which has been proved by previous theoretical and empirical evidence. However, debate has been raised regarding whether intransitive verbs in Mandarin Chinese can be split into unaccusative and unergative ones syntactically. To analyze this theoretical controversy, the present study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural processing of deep unaccusative, unergative sentences, and passive sentences (derived structures undergoing a syntactic movement) in Mandarin Chinese. The results revealed no significant difference in the neural processing of deep unaccusative and unergative sentences, and the comparisons between passive sentences and the other sentence types revealed activation in the left superior temporal gyrus (LSTG) and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG). These findings indicate that the syntactic processing of unaccusative and unergative verbs in Mandarin Chinese is highly similar but different from that of passive verbs, which suggests that deep unaccusative and unergative sentences in Mandarin Chinese are both base-generated structures and that there is no syntactic distinction between unaccusative and unergative verbs in Mandarin Chinese.

scholarly journals The neural correlates of ideation in product design engineering practitioners

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Hay ◽  
A. H. B. Duffy ◽  
S. J. Gilbert ◽  
L. Lyall ◽  
G. Campbell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Design Engineering ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Design Engineers ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Fmri Analysis ◽  
The Right ◽  
Creative Ideation

In product design engineering (PDE), ideation involves the generation of technical behaviours and physical structures to address specific functional requirements. This differs from generic creative ideation tasks, which emphasise functional and technical considerations less. To advance knowledge about the neural basis of PDE ideation, we present the first fMRI study on professional product design engineers practising in industry. We aimed to explore brain activation during ideation, and compare activation in open-ended and constrained tasks. Imagery manipulation tasks were contrasted with ideation tasks in a sample of 29 PDE professionals. The key findings were: (1) PDE ideation is associated with greater activity in left cingulate gyrus; (2) there were no significant differences between open-ended and constrained tasks; and (3) a preliminary association with activity in the right superior temporal gyrus was also observed. The results are consistent with existing fMRI work on generic creative ideation, suggesting that PDE ideation may share a number of similarities at the neural level. Future work includes: functional connectivity analysis of open-ended and constrained ideation to further investigate potential differences; investigating the effects of aspects of design expertise/training on processing; and the use of novelty measures directly linked to the designer’s internal processing in fMRI analysis.

Sagittal Position of the Left and Right Maxillary Segment in Children with Cleft Lip and Palate

1997 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 438-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Ras ◽  
Laura van Aalten ◽  
Arina Janse ◽  
Shell Mobers ◽  
Birte Prahl-Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Computed Tomography ◽  
Cleft Lip ◽  
Cleft Lip And Palate ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Cranial Base ◽  
Oral Clefts ◽  
Bilateral Cleft Lip ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate left-right differences in the sagittal position of the maxillary segments in children with cleft lip and palate. Method: The sample consisted of children with operated cleft lip or cleft lip and alveolus [CL/CLA (n=16) mean age, 9.3 yr], operated unilateral cleft lip and palate [UCLP (n=27) mean age, 9.1 yr], and operated bilateral cleft lip and palate [ [BCLP(n = 17) mean age, 9.5 yr]. Computed tomography (CT) horizontal slices of the maxilla were obtained and used to determine the sagittal position of the left and right segment of the maxilla in relation to the mandibular rami and the cranial base. Significant effects were analyzed with multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA). Results and Conclusions: It was concluded that, in contrast to children having CL/CLA or UCLP, children with BCLP showed left-right differences in the sagittal position of the maxillary segments. The segment on the left side was more posteriorly positioned compared to the right side. Because the same results were obtained in relation to the mandibular rami as well as in relation to the cranial base, it can be assumed that the position of these rami are not affected by the different types of oral clefts.

scholarly journals EVOLUTION OF NOBIRU COAST AT DECADAL TO CENTENNIAL SCALES INCLUDING THE 2011 TSUNAMI IMPACT

2018 ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Hitoshi Tanaka ◽  
Nguyen Xuan Tinh ◽  
Vo Cong Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Deposition Rate ◽  
Sediment Deposition ◽  
Littoral Drift ◽  
Open Sea ◽  
Miyagi Prefecture ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
High Sediment ◽  
Sediment Deposit

Nobiru Coast, which is 2.8 km long coast located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, is a well-known coast because of high sediment deposition rate (Figure 1). The predominant littoral drift of this coast is from east to west (Takahashi and Tanaka, 2005). The sediment deposit at the western end causes significant effect on the aquaculture in Matsushima Bay which is located on the right of Miyato Island, due to closure of a channel connecting open sea and Matsushima Bay. Tanaka et al. (2006) reported the sediment deposition rate on this coast from historical maps. The tsunami, which occurred on 11 March 2011, caused different types of damage on the left and right-hand sides of the coast. Accordingly, this study would evaluate the change of shoreline on Nobiru Coast at decadal to centennial scales including the 2011 tsunami impact using aerial and satellites images.

scholarly journals Neuroanatomical Correlates of Macrolinguistic Aspects in Narrative Discourse in Unilateral Left and Right Hemisphere Stroke: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Fernanda Schneider ◽  
Karine Marcotte ◽  
Amelie Brisebois ◽  
Sabrine Amaral Martins Townsend ◽  
Anderson Dick Smidarle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Matter Density ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Voxel Based Morphometry ◽  
Gray Matter Density ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right

Background A growing body of literature has demonstrated the importance of discourse assessment in patients who suffered from brain injury, both in the left and right hemispheres, as discourse represents a key component of functional communication. However, little is known about the relationship between gray matter density and macrolinguistic processing. Purpose This study aimed to investigate this relationship in a group of participants with middle–low to low socioeconomic status. Method Twenty adults with unilateral left hemisphere ( n = 10) or right hemisphere ( n = 10) chronic ischemic stroke and 10 matched (age, education, and socioeconomic status) healthy controls produced three oral narratives based on sequential scenes. Voxel-based morphometry analysis was conducted using structural magnetic resonance imaging. Results Compared to healthy controls, the left hemisphere group showed cohesion impairments, whereas the right hemisphere group showed impairments in coherence and in producing macropropositions. Cohesion positively correlated with gray matter density in the right primary sensory area (PSA)/precentral gyrus and the pars opercularis. Coherence, narrativity, and index of lexical informativeness were positively associated with the left PSA/insula and the superior temporal gyrus. Macropropositions were mostly related to the left PSA/insula and superior temporal gyrus, left cingulate, and right primary motor area/insula. Discussion Overall, the present results suggest that both hemispheres are implicated in macrolinguistic processes in narrative discourse. Further studies including larger samples and with various socioeconomic status should be conducted. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14347550

scholarly journals Modulation of brain activity by selective attention to audiovisual dialogues

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Leminen ◽  
Maxime Verwoert ◽  
Mona Moisala ◽  
Viljami Salmela ◽  
Patrik Wikman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Visual Quality ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Facial Movements ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Right

AbstractIn real-life noisy situations, we can selectively attend to conversations in the presence of irrelevant voices, but neurocognitive mechanisms in such natural listening situations remaiin largely unexplored. Previous research has shown distributed activity in the mid superior temporal gyrus (STG) and sulcus (STS) while listening to speech and human voices, in the posterior STS and fusiform gyrus when combining auditory, visual and linguistic information, as well as in lefthemisphere temporal and frontal cortical areas during comprehension. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we investigated how selective attention modulates neural responses to naturalistic audiovisual dialogues. Our healthy adult participants (N = 15) selectively attended to video-taped dialogues between a man and woman in the presence of irrelevant continuous speech in the background. We modulated the auditory quality of dialogues with noise vocoding and their visual quality by masking speech-related facial movements. Both increased auditory quality and increased visual quality were associated with bilateral activity enhancements in the STG/STS. In addition, decreased audiovisual stimulus quality elicited enhanced fronto-parietal activity, presumably reflecting increased attentional demands. Finally, attention to the dialogues, in relation to a control task where a fixation cross was attended and the dialogue ignored, yielded enhanced activity in the left planum polare, angular gyrus, the right temporal pole, as well as in the orbitofrontal/ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate gyrus. Our findings suggest that naturalistic conversations effectively engage participants and reveal brain networks related to social perception in addition to speech and semantic processing networks.

scholarly journals Comparison of Surface Area and Cortical Thickness Asymmetry in the Human and Chimpanzee Brain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Xiang ◽  
Timothy J Crow ◽  
William D Hopkins ◽  
Neil Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Precentral Gyrus ◽  
The Right

Abstract Comparative study of the structural asymmetry of the human and chimpanzee brain may shed light on the evolution of language and other cognitive abilities in humans. Here we report the results of vertex-wise and ROI-based analyses that compared surface area (SA) and cortical thickness (CT) asymmetries in 3D MR images obtained for 91 humans and 77 chimpanzees. The human brain is substantially more asymmetric than the chimpanzee brain. In particular, the human brain has 1) larger total SA in the right compared with the left cerebral hemisphere, 2) a global torque-like asymmetry pattern of widespread thicker cortex in the left compared with the right frontal and the right compared with the left temporo-parieto-occipital lobe, and 3) local asymmetries, most notably in medial occipital cortex and superior temporal gyrus, where rightward asymmetry is observed for both SA and CT. There is also 4) a prominent asymmetry specific to the chimpanzee brain, namely, rightward CT asymmetry of precentral cortex. These findings provide evidence of there being substantial differences in asymmetry between the human and chimpanzee brain. The unique asymmetries of the human brain are potential neural substrates for cognitive specializations, and the presence of significant CT asymmetry of precentral gyrus in the chimpanzee brain should be further investigated.

scholarly journals Activation of Cortical and Cerebellar Motor Areas during Executed and Imagined Hand Movements: An fMRI Study

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 491-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Lotze ◽  
Pedro Montoya ◽  
Michael Erb ◽  
Ernst Hülsmann ◽  
Herta Flor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Anterior Lobe ◽  
Emg Activity ◽  
Cerebral Activation ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Right ◽  
Flexor Digitorum

Brain activation during executed (EM) and imagined movements (IM) of the right and left hand was studied in 10 healthy right-handed subjects using functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI). Low electromyographic (EMG) activity of the musculi flexor digitorum superficialis and high vividness of the imagined movements were trained prior to image acquisition. Regional cerebral activation was measured by fMRI during EM and IM and compared to resting conditions. Anatomically selected regions of interest (ROIs) were marked interactively over the entire brain. In each ROI activated pixels above a t value of 2.45 (p < 0.01) were counted and analyzed. In all subjects the supplementary motor area (SMA), the premotor cortex (PMC), and the primary motor cortex (M1) showed significant activation during both EM and IM; the somatosensory cortex (S1) was significantly activated only during EM. Ipsilateral cerebellar activation was decreased during IM compared to EM. In the cerebellum, IM and EM differed in their foci of maximal activation: Highest ipsilateral activation of the cerebellum was observed in the anterior lobe (Larsell lobule H IV) during EM, whereas a lower maximum was found about 2-cm dorsolateral (Larsell lobule H VII) during IM. The prefrontal and parietal regions revealed no significant changes during both conditions. The results of cortical activity support the hypothesis that motor imagery and motor performance possess similar neural substrates. The differential activation in the cerebellum during EM and IM is in accordance with the assumption that the posterior cerebellum is involved in the inhibition of movement execution during imagination.

Inferences during Story Comprehension: Cortical Recruitment Affected by Predictability of Events and Working Memory Capacity

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 2274-2284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Virtue ◽  
Todd Parrish ◽  
Mark Jung-Beeman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Story Comprehension ◽  
Fmri Signal ◽  
The Right ◽  
Bridging Inferences

Although it has been consistently shown that readers generate bridging inferences during story comprehension, little is currently known about the neural substrates involved when people generate inferences and how these substrates shift with factors that facilitate or impede inferences, such as whether inferences are highly predictable or unpredictable. In the current study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal increased for highly predictable inferences (relative to events that were previously explicitly stated) bilaterally in both the superior temporal gyri and the inferior frontal gyri. Interestingly, high working memory capacity comprehenders, who are most likely to generate inferences during story comprehension, showed greater signal increases than did low working memory capacity comprehenders in the right superior temporal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus. When comprehenders needed to draw unpredictable inferences in a story, fMRI signal increased relative to explicitly stated events in the left inferior gyrus and in the middle frontal gyrus, irrespective of working memory capacity. These results suggest that the predictability of a text (i.e., the causal constraint) and the working memory capacity of the comprehender influence the different neural substrates involved during the generation of bridging inferences.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document