scholarly journals Neurobiological Systems for Lexical Representation and Analysis in English

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 1678-1691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjana Bozic ◽  
Lorraine K. Tyler ◽  
Li Su ◽  
Cai Wingfield ◽  
William D. Marslen-Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Semantic Transparency ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
The Brain

Current research suggests that language comprehension engages two joint but functionally distinguishable neurobiological processes: a distributed bilateral system, which supports general perceptual and interpretative processes underpinning speech comprehension, and a left hemisphere (LH) frontotemporal system, selectively tuned to the processing of combinatorial grammatical sequences, such as regularly inflected verbs in English [Marslen-Wilson, W. D., & Tyler, L. K. Morphology, language and the brain: The decompositional substrate for language comprehension. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 362, 823–836, 2007]. Here we investigated how English derivationally complex words engage these systems, asking whether they selectively activate the LH system in the same way as inflections or whether they primarily engage the bilateral system that support nondecompositional access. In an fMRI study, we saw no evidence for selective activation of the LH frontotemporal system, even for highly transparent forms like bravely. Instead, a combination of univariate and multivariate analyses revealed the engagement of a distributed bilateral system, modulated by factors of perceptual complexity and semantic transparency. We discuss the implications for theories of the processing and representation of English derivational morphology and highlight the importance of neurobiological constraints in understanding these processes.

scholarly journals Syntactic Complexity and Frequency in the Neurocognitive Language System

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1605-1620 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Cross-language differences in the brain network subserving intelligible speech

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (10) ◽  
pp. 2972-2977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianqiao Ge ◽  
Gang Peng ◽  
Bingjiang Lyu ◽  
Yi Wang ◽  
Yan Zhuo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Posterior Portion ◽  
Cortical Dynamics ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
The Brain

How is language processed in the brain by native speakers of different languages? Is there one brain system for all languages or are different languages subserved by different brain systems? The first view emphasizes commonality, whereas the second emphasizes specificity. We investigated the cortical dynamics involved in processing two very diverse languages: a tonal language (Chinese) and a nontonal language (English). We used functional MRI and dynamic causal modeling analysis to compute and compare brain network models exhaustively with all possible connections among nodes of language regions in temporal and frontal cortex and found that the information flow from the posterior to anterior portions of the temporal cortex was commonly shared by Chinese and English speakers during speech comprehension, whereas the inferior frontal gyrus received neural signals from the left posterior portion of the temporal cortex in English speakers and from the bilateral anterior portion of the temporal cortex in Chinese speakers. Our results revealed that, although speech processing is largely carried out in the common left hemisphere classical language areas (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas) and anterior temporal cortex, speech comprehension across different language groups depends on how these brain regions interact with each other. Moreover, the right anterior temporal cortex, which is crucial for tone processing, is equally important as its left homolog, the left anterior temporal cortex, in modulating the cortical dynamics in tone language comprehension. The current study pinpoints the importance of the bilateral anterior temporal cortex in language comprehension that is downplayed or even ignored by popular contemporary models of speech comprehension.

scholarly journals Linguistic structure and meaning organize neural oscillations into a content-specific hierarchy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greta Kaufeld ◽  
Hans Rutger Bosker ◽  
Phillip M. Alday ◽  
Antje S. Meyer ◽  
Andrea E. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Neural Oscillations ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Linguistic Content

AbstractNeural oscillations track linguistic information during speech comprehension (e.g., Ding et al., 2016; Keitel et al., 2018), and are known to be modulated by acoustic landmarks and speech intelligibility (e.g., Zoefel & VanRullen, 2015). But, it is unclear what information (e.g., timing, rhythm, or content) the brain utilizes to generate linguistic structure and meaning beyond the information that is present in the physical stimulus. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate whether oscillations are modulated by linguistic content over and above the speech stimulus’ rhythmicity and temporal distribution. We manipulated the presence of semantic and syntactic information apart from the timescale of their occurrence, and controlled for the acoustic-prosodic and lexical-semantic information in the signal. EEG was recorded while 29 adult native speakers of all genders listened to naturally-spoken Dutch sentences, jabberwocky controls with a sentence-like prosodic rhythm and morphemes, word lists with lexical content but no phrase structure, and backwards acoustically-matched controls. Mutual information (MI) analysis revealed sensitivity to linguistic content: Phase MI was highest for sentences at the phrasal (0.8-1.1 Hz) and lexical timescale (1.9-2.8 Hz), suggesting that the delta-band is modulated by lexically-driven combinatorial processing beyond prosody, and that linguistic content (i.e., structure and meaning) organizes the phase of neural oscillations beyond the timescale and rhythmicity of the stimulus. This pattern is consistent with neurophysiologically-inspired models of language comprehension (Martin, 2016, 2020; Martin & Doumas, 2017) where oscillations encode endogenously-generated linguistic content over and above exogenous or stimulus-driven timing and rhythm information.Significance StatementBiological systems like the brain encode their environment not only by reacting in a series of stimulus-driven responses, but by combining stimulus-driven information with endogenous, internally-generated, inferential knowledge and meaning. Understanding language from speech is the human benchmark for this. Much research focusses on the purely stimulus-driven response, but here, we focus on the goal of language behavior: conveying structure and meaning. To that end, we use naturalistic stimuli that contrast acoustic-prosodic and lexical-semantic information to show that, during spoken language comprehension, oscillatory modulations reflect computations related to inferring structure and meaning from the acoustic signal. Our experiment provides the first evidence to date that compositional structure and meaning organize the oscillatory response, above and beyond acoustic and lexical controls.

scholarly journals V. A letter on a canal in the medulla spinalis of some quadrupeds

1809 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 146-147
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Cauda Equina ◽  
The Other ◽  
Small Stream ◽  
Spinal Marrow ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Contrary Direction

Sir, According to your request, I send you an account of the facts I have ascertained, respecting a canal I discovered in the year 1803, in the medulla spinalis of the horse, bullock, sheep, hog, and dog; and should it appear to you deserving of being laid before the Royal Society, I shall feel myself particularly obliged, by having so great an honour conferred upon me. Upon tracing the sixth ventricle of the brain, which corresponds to the fourth in the human subject, to its apparent termination, the calamus scriptorius, I perceived the appearance of a canal, continuing by a direct course into the centre of the spinal marrow. To ascertain with accuracy whether such structure existed throughout its whole length, I made sections of the spinal marrow at different distances from the brain, and found that each divided portion exhibited an orifice with a diameter sufficient to admit a large sized pin; from which a small quantity of transparent colourless fluid issued, like that contained in the ventricles of the brain. The canal is lined by a membrane resembling the tunica arachnoidea, and is situated above the fissure of the medulla, being separated by a medullary layer: it is most easily distinguished where the large nerves are given off in the bend of the neck and sacrum, imperceptibly terminating in the cauda equina. Having satisfactorily ascertained its existence through the whole length of the spinal marrow, my next object was to discover whether it was a continued tube from one extremity to the other: this was most decidedly proved, by dividing the spinal marrow through the middle, and pouring mercury into the orifice where the canal was cut across, it passed in a small stream, with equal facility towards the brain (into which it entered), or in a contrary direction to where the spinal marrow terminates.

How does the brain process time? insights from an event-related fMRI study

NeuroImage ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. S49
Author(s):  
D.L. Harrington ◽  
L.A. Mead ◽  
A.R. Mayer ◽  
K.Y. Haaland ◽  
S.M. Rao
Keyword(s):  
Process Time ◽  
Brain Process ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Neurodegeneration in friedreich's ataxia is associated with a mixed activation pattern of the brain. A fMRI study

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 1780-1791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Ginestroni ◽  
Stefano Diciotti ◽  
Paolo Cecchi ◽  
Ilaria Pesaresi ◽  
Carlo Tessa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Friedreich’S Ataxia ◽  
Friedreich's Ataxia ◽  
Activation Pattern ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Imaging Implicit Morphological Processing: Evidence from Hebrew

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 1955-1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atira S. Bick ◽  
Ram Frost ◽  
Gadi Goelman
Keyword(s):  
Masked Priming ◽  
Statistical Correlation ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Semantic Transparency ◽  
Lexical Structure ◽  
The Neural Networks ◽  
Distinct Aspect ◽  
The Brain

Is morphology a discrete and independent element of lexical structure or does it simply reflect a fine-tuning of the system to the statistical correlation that exists among orthographic and semantic properties of words? Hebrew provides a unique opportunity to examine morphological processing in the brain because of its rich morphological system. In an fMRI masked priming experiment, we investigated the neural networks involved in implicit morphological processing in Hebrew. In the lMFG and lIFG, activation was found to be significantly reduced when the primes were morphologically related to the targets. This effect was not influenced by the semantic transparency of the morphological prime, and was not found in the semantic or orthographic condition. Additional morphologically related decrease in activation was found in the lIPL, where activation was significantly modulated by semantic transparency. Our findings regarding implicit morphological processing suggest that morphology is an automatic and distinct aspect of visually processing words. These results also coincide with the behavioral data previously obtained demonstrating the central role of morphological processing in reading Hebrew.

Lantern Demonstration of Gross Lesions of the Cerebrum

1901 ◽  
Vol 47 (199) ◽  
pp. 729-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Shaw Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Dura Mater ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Pyramidal Layer ◽  
Gross Lesions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Morbid Conditions

This demonstration was a further report on the subject laid before the Association at the meeting at Claybury in February last, viz., the morbid changes occurring in the brain and other intra-cranial contents in amentia and dementia. In a paper read before the Royal Society in the spring of 1900, and subsequently published in the Philosophical Transactions, it was stated, as the result of a systematic micrometric examination of the visuo-sensory (primary visual) and visuo-psychic (lower associational) regions of the cerebral cortex, that the depth of the pyramidal layer of nerve-cells varies with the amentia or dementia existing in the patient. At the meeting of the Association referred to it was further shown, from an analysis, clinical and pathological, of 121 cases of insanity which appeared consecutively in the post-mortem room at Claybury, that the morbid conditions inside the skull-cap in insanity, viz., abnormalities in the dura mater, the pia arachnoid, the ependyma and intra-cranial fluid, etc., are the accompaniments of and vary in degree with dementia alone, and are independent of the duration of the mental disease. Since that date the pre-frontal (higher associational) region has been systematically examined in nineteen cases, viz., normal persons and normal aments (infants), and cases of amentia, of chronic and recurrent insanity without appreciable dementia, and of dementia, and the results obtained form the subject of the present demonstration. A paper on the whole subject will shortly be published in the Archives of the Claybury Laboratory.

scholarly journals Quantitative representations of an exaggerated anxiety response in the brain of female spider phobics-a parametric fMRI study

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 3025-3038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Zilverstand ◽  
Bettina Sorger ◽  
Anita Kaemingk ◽  
Rainer Goebel
Keyword(s):  
Fmri Study ◽  
Anxiety Response ◽  
The Brain
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