Using Complement Coercion to Understand the Neural Basis of Semantic Composition: Evidence from an fMRI Study

Previous research regarding the neural basis of semantic composition has relied heavily on violation paradigms, which often compare implausible sentences that violate world knowledge to plausible sentences that do not violate world knowledge. This comparison is problematic as it may involve extralinguistic operations such as contextual repair and processes that ultimately lead to the rejection of an anomalous sentence, and these processes may not be part of the core language system. Also, it is unclear if violations of world knowledge actually affect the linguistic operations for semantic composition. Here, we compared two types of sentences that were grammatical, plausible, and acceptable and differed only in the number of semantic operations required for comprehension without the confound of implausible sentences. Specifically, we compared complement coercion sentences (the novelist began the book), which require an extra compositional operation to arrive at their meaning, to control sentences (the novelist wrote the book), which do not have this extra compositional operation, and found that the neural response to complement coercion sentences activated Brodmann's area 45 in the left inferior frontal gyrus more than control sentences. Furthermore, the processing of complement coercion recruited different brain regions than more traditional semantic and syntactic violations (the novelist astonished/write the book, respectively), suggesting that coercion processes are a part of the core of the language faculty but do not recruit the wider network of brain regions underlying semantic and syntactic violations.

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Unification of Speaker and Meaning in Language Comprehension: An fMRI Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2008.21161 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 21 (11) ◽

pp. 2085-2099 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

Cathelijne M. J. Y. Tesink ◽

Karl Magnus Petersson ◽

Jos J. A. van Berkum ◽

Daniëlle van den Brink ◽

Jan K. Buitelaar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Language Comprehension ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Social Background ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

World Knowledge ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Related Information ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Crucial Component

When interpreting a message, a listener takes into account several sources of linguistic and extralinguistic information. Here we focused on one particular form of extralinguistic information, certain speaker characteristics as conveyed by the voice. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the neural structures involved in the unification of sentence meaning and voice-based inferences about the speaker's age, sex, or social background. We found enhanced activation in the inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally (BA 45/47) during listening to sentences whose meaning was incongruent with inferred speaker characteristics. Furthermore, our results showed an overlap in brain regions involved in unification of speaker-related information and those used for the unification of semantic and world knowledge information [inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally (BA 45/47) and left middle temporal gyrus (BA 21)]. These findings provide evidence for a shared neural unification system for linguistic and extralinguistic sources of information and extend the existing knowledge about the role of inferior frontal cortex as a crucial component for unification during language comprehension.

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Syntactic Complexity and Frequency in the Neurocognitive Language System

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01137 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (9) ◽

pp. 1605-1620 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Yun-Hsuan Yang ◽

William D. Marslen-Wilson ◽

Mirjana Bozic

Keyword(s):

Language Comprehension ◽

Multivariate Analyses ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Temporal Cortex ◽

Frequency Effect ◽

Syntactic Complexity ◽

Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Key Factor ◽

Frequent Items

Prominent neurobiological models of language follow the widely accepted assumption that language comprehension requires two principal mechanisms: a lexicon storing the sound-to-meaning mapping of words, primarily involving bilateral temporal regions, and a combinatorial processor for syntactically structured items, such as phrases and sentences, localized in a left-lateralized network linking left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and posterior temporal areas. However, recent research showing that the processing of simple phrasal sequences may engage only bilateral temporal areas, together with the claims of distributional approaches to grammar, raise the question of whether frequent phrases are stored alongside individual words in temporal areas. In this fMRI study, we varied the frequency of words and of short and long phrases in English. If frequent phrases are indeed stored, then only less frequent items should generate selective left frontotemporal activation, because memory traces for such items would be weaker or not available in temporal cortex. Complementary univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that, overall, simple words (verbs) and long phrases engaged LIFG and temporal areas, whereas short phrases engaged bilateral temporal areas, suggesting that syntactic complexity is a key factor for LIFG activation. Although we found a robust frequency effect for words in temporal areas, no frequency effects were found for the two phrasal conditions. These findings support the conclusion that long and short phrases are analyzed, respectively, in the left frontal network and in a bilateral temporal network but are not retrieved from memory in the same way as simple words during spoken language comprehension.

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The neuroscience of Romeo and Juliet : an fMRI study of acting

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.181908 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 181908 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Steven Brown ◽

Peter Cockett ◽

Ye Yuan

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Role Playing ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Multiple Roles ◽

First Person ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Romeo And Juliet ◽

Loss Of Self ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Mri Study

The current study represents a first attempt at examining the neural basis of dramatic acting. While all people play multiple roles in daily life—for example, ‘spouse' or ‘employee'—these roles are all facets of the ‘self' and thus of the first-person (1P) perspective. Compared to such everyday role playing, actors are required to portray other people and to adopt their gestures, emotions and behaviours. Consequently, actors must think and behave not as themselves but as the characters they are pretending to be. In other words, they have to assume a ‘fictional first-person' (Fic1P) perspective. In this functional MRI study, we sought to identify brain regions preferentially activated when actors adopt a Fic1P perspective during dramatic role playing. In the scanner, university-trained actors responded to a series of hypothetical questions from either their own 1P perspective or from that of Romeo (male participants) or Juliet (female participants) from Shakespeare's drama. Compared to responding as oneself, responding in character produced global reductions in brain activity and, particularly, deactivations in the cortical midline network of the frontal lobe, including the dorsomedial and ventromedial prefrontal cortices. Thus, portraying a character through acting seems to be a deactivation-driven process, perhaps representing a ‘loss of self'.

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Dissociable brain correlates for depression, anxiety, dissociation, and somatization in depersonalization-derealization disorder

CNS Spectrums ◽

10.1017/s1092852913000588 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 35-42 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Erwin Lemche ◽

Simon A. Surguladze ◽

Michael J. Brammer ◽

Mary L. Phillips ◽

Mauricio Sierra ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Self Report ◽

Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽

Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Symptoms Of Depression ◽

Caudate Head ◽

Brain Correlates ◽

The Right

ObjectiveThe cerebral mechanisms of traits associated with depersonalization-derealization disorder (DPRD) remain poorly understood.MethodHappy and sad emotion expressions were presented to DPRD and non-referred control (NC) subjects in an implicit event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, and correlated with self report scales reflecting typical co-morbidities of DPRD: depression, dissociation, anxiety, somatization.ResultsSignificant differences between the slopes of the two groups were observed for somatization in the right temporal operculum (happy) and ventral striatum, bilaterally (sad). Discriminative regions for symptoms of depression were the right pulvinar (happy) and left amygdala (sad). For dissociation, discriminative regions were the left mesial inferior temporal gyrus (happy) and left supramarginal gyrus (sad). For state anxiety, discriminative regions were the left inferior frontal gyrus (happy) and parahippocampal gyrus (sad). For trait anxiety, discriminative regions were the right caudate head (happy) and left superior temporal gyrus (sad).DiscussionThe ascertained brain regions are in line with previous findings for the respective traits. The findings suggest separate brain systems for each trait.ConclusionOur results do not justify any bias for a certain nosological category in DPRD.

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Neural Correlates for the Suppression of Habitual Behavior: A Functional MRI Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/0898929041502643 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. 944-954 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Miwa Matsubara ◽

Shuhei Yamaguchi ◽

Jiang Xu ◽

Shotai Kobayashi

Keyword(s):

Left Hemisphere ◽

Anterior Part ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Critical Role ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Error Rates ◽

Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Scanning Procedure ◽

Manual Responses ◽

Habitual Behavior

It has been suggested that inhibitory executive control of behavior is directed by the frontal lobes. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the brain regions that are involved in the inhibition of habitual manual responses. Fifteen right-handed subjects performed the rock–scissors– paper game against computer-simulated pictures of hands during the scanning procedure. The subjects were required to win, lose, or draw against the presented picture in a separate block. We considered that the situation in which subjects intentionally lost the game required the suppression of habitual behavior, because it is natural behavior for people to attempt to win the game. Compared with the WIN and DRAW conditions, the left premotor and sensorimotor areas were activated for both hand sessions with a positive correlation with error rates. Importantly, the LOSE condition in the case of the right hand yielded brain activation exclusively in the anterior part of the left inferior frontal gyrus, the activity which showed a negative correlation with error rates. Overall brain activations were predominant in the left hemisphere, irrespective of the hand used for the response. The results suggest that the anterior part of the left inferior frontal gyrus plays a critical role in the inhibition of habitual manual behavior, and that the left hemisphere is dominant for the selection of well-learned manual behavior.

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The Neural Basis of Language

Language in Our Brain ◽

10.7551/mitpress/9780262036924.003.0009 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Angela D. Friederici ◽

Noam Chomsky

Keyword(s):

Brain Structures ◽

Human Being ◽

Human Language ◽

Arcuate Fasciculus ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Language Faculty ◽

The Core ◽

Integrative View ◽

Human Capacity ◽

Human Language Faculty

The findings discussed in this book lead to a first integrative view on the neurobiology of language, which proposes that BA 44 and the arcuate fasciculus are those brain structures that have evolved to subserve the human capacity to process syntax, which is at the core of the human language faculty. The chapter concludes with a brief statement of why syntax is important for the human being.

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The Functional Language Network

Language in Our Brain ◽

10.7551/mitpress/9780262036924.003.0005 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Angela D. Friederici ◽

Noam Chomsky

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Information Transfer ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Oscillatory Activity ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Functional Neural Network ◽

Ventral Pathway ◽

Open Issue ◽

Language Network

How information content is encoded and decoded in the sending and receiving brain areas is still an open issue. A possible though speculative view is that encoding and decoding requires similarity at the neuronal level in the encoding and decoding regions. This chapter discusses the functional neural network of language. It first describes the language network at the neurotransmitter level and then discusses the available data at the level of functional connectivity and oscillatory activity. Section 1 looks at the neural basis of information transfer, namely at the neurotransmitters which are crucially involved in the transmission of information from one neuron to the next. Section 2 uses functional connectivity analyses to provide information about how different brain regions work together. They allow us to make statements about which regions work together, and moreover, about the direction of the information flow between these. Section 3 models the language circuit as a a dynamic temporo-frontal network with initial input-driven information processed bottom-up from the auditory cortex to the frontal cortex along the ventral pathway, with semantic information reaching the anterior inferior frontal gyrus, and syntactic information reaching the posterior inferior frontal gyrus.

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