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 An attempt to replicate a dissociation between syntax and semantics during sentence comprehension reported by Dapretto & Bookheimer (1999, Neuron)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Siegelman ◽  
Zachary Mineroff ◽  
Idan Blank ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Comparison Task ◽  
Original Result ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Syntactic Cues

AbstractDoes processing the meanings of individual words vs. assembling words into phrases and sentences rely on distinct pools of cognitive and neural resources? Many have argued for such a dissociation, although the field is lacking a consensus on which brain region(s) support lexico-semantic vs. syntactic processing. Although some have also argued against such a dissociation, the dominant view in the field remains that distinct brain regions support these two fundamental components of language. One of the earlier and most cited pieces of evidence in favor of this dissociation comes from a paper by Dapretto & Bookheimer (1999, Neuron; DB). Using a sentence meaning comparison task, DB observed two distinct peaks within the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG): one more active when comparisons relied on lexico-semantic cues, and another – when they instead relied on syntactic cues. Although the paper has been highly cited over the years, no attempt has been made, to our knowledge, to replicate the original finding. We here report an fMRI study that attempts to do so. Using a combination of three approaches – whole-brain, group-level ROIs, and individual functional ROIs – we fail to replicate the originally reported dissociation. In particular, parts of the LIFG respond reliably more strongly during lexico-semantic than syntactic processing, but no part of the LIFG (including in the region defined around the peak reported by DB) shows the opposite response pattern. We hypothesize that the original result was a false positive, possibly driven by one participant or item given the use of a fixed-effects analysis and a small number of items (8 per condition) and participants (n=8).

Action Sentences Activate Sensory Motor Regions in the Brain Independently of Their Status of Reality

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 1363-1376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel de Vega ◽  
Inmaculada León ◽  
Juan A. Hernández ◽  
Mitchell Valdés ◽  
Iván Padrón ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Linguistic Meaning ◽  
Extrastriate Body Area ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Concrete Action ◽  
One Step ◽  
Linguistic Structures ◽  
The Brain

Some studies have reported that understanding concrete action-related words and sentences elicits activations of motor areas in the brain. The present fMRI study goes one step further by testing whether this is also the case for comprehension of nonfactual statements. Three linguistic structures were used (factuals, counterfactuals, and negations), referring either to actions or, as a control condition, to visual events. The results showed that action sentences elicited stronger activations than visual sentences in the SMA, extending to the primary motor area, as well as in regions generally associated with the planning and understanding of actions (left superior temporal gyrus, left and right supramarginal gyri). Also, we found stronger activations for action sentences than for visual sentences in the extrastriate body area, a region involved in the visual processing of human body movements. These action-related effects occurred not only in factuals but also in negations and counterfactuals, suggesting that brain regions involved in action understanding and planning are activated by default even when the actions are described as hypothetical or as not happening. Moreover, some of these regions overlapped with those activated during the observation of action videos, indicating that the act of understanding action language and that of observing real actions share neural networks. These results support the claim that embodied representations of linguistic meaning are important even in abstract linguistic contexts.

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.

An Event-Related fMRI Study of Visual and Auditory Oddball Tasks

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 221-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kent A. Kiehl ◽  
Kristin R. Laurens ◽  
Timothy L. Duty ◽  
Bruce B. Forster ◽  
Peter F. Liddle
Keyword(s):  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Hemodynamic Response ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Auditory Modality ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Temporal Lobes ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Occipital Lobes

Abstract Whole brain event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques were employed to elucidate the cerebral sites involved in processing rare target and novel visual stimuli during an oddball discrimination task. The analyses of the hemodynamic response to the visual target stimuli revealed a distributed network of neural sources in anterior and posterior cingulate, inferior and middle frontal gyrus, bilateral parietal lobules, anterior superior temporal gyrus, amygdala, and thalamus. The analyses of the hemodynamic response for the visual novel stimuli revealed an extensive network of neural activations in occipital lobes and posterior temporal lobes, bilateral parietal lobules, and lateral frontal cortex. The hemodynamic response associated with processing target and novel stimuli in the visual modality were also compared with data from an analogous study in the auditory modality ( Kiehl et al., 2001 ). Similar patterns of activation were observed for target and novel stimuli in both modalities, but there were some significant differences. The results support the hypothesis that target detection and novelty processing are associated with neural activation in widespread neural areas, suggesting that the brain seems to adopt a strategy of activating many potentially useful brain regions despite the low probability that these brain regions are necessary for task performance.

Effects of Alphabet-Supplemented Speech on Brain Activity of Listeners: An fMRI Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 1452-1463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelene Fercho ◽  
Lee A. Baugh ◽  
Elizabeth K. Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Speech Processing ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Audiovisual Integration ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Integration Sites

Purpose The purpose of this article was to examine the neural mechanisms associated with increases in speech intelligibility brought about through alphabet supplementation. Method Neurotypical participants listened to dysarthric speech while watching an accompanying video of a hand pointing to the 1st letter spoken of each word on an alphabet display (treatment condition) or a scrambled display (control condition). Their hemodynamic response was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, using a sparse sampling event-related paradigm. Speech intelligibility was assessed via a forced-choice auditory identification task throughout the scanning session. Results Alphabet supplementation was associated with significant increases in speech intelligibility. Further, alphabet supplementation increased activation in brain regions known to be involved in both auditory speech and visual letter perception above that seen with the scrambled display. Significant increases in functional activity were observed within the posterior to mid superior temporal sulcus/superior temporal gyrus during alphabet supplementation, regions known to be involved in speech processing and audiovisual integration. Conclusion Alphabet supplementation is an effective tool for increasing the intelligibility of degraded speech and is associated with changes in activity within audiovisual integration sites. Changes in activity within the superior temporal sulcus/superior temporal gyrus may be related to the behavioral increases in intelligibility brought about by this augmented communication method.

scholarly journals fMRI of Past Tense Processing: The Effects of Phonological Complexity and Task Difficulty

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rutvik Desai ◽  
Lisa L. Conant ◽  
Eric Waldron ◽  
Jeffrey R. Binder
Keyword(s):  
Response Selection ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Small Region ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Single System ◽  
System View ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Phonological Complexity

The generation of regular and irregular past tense verbs has been an important issue in cognitive science and has been used to advance different models of the organization of language in the brain. The dual-system view holds that the regular past tense forms are generated by a rule while irregular forms are retrieved from memory. The single-system view, on the other hand, holds that both forms are generated by a single integrated system and differ only in their reliance on factors such as phonology and semantics. We conducted an event-related fMRI study to examine the activation patterns associated with the generation and reading of regular and irregular past tense forms, in addition to the reading of their stems. Regular and irregular past tense generation activated similar brain regions compared to the reading of their respective stems. The areas activated more for irregular generation compared to regular generation included inferior frontal, precentral, and parietal regions bilaterally. This activation can be interpreted as reflecting the greater attentional and response selection demands of irregular generation. Compared to irregular generation, regular generation activated a small region in the left superior temporal gyrus when the regular and irregular past tense forms were mismatched on phonological complexity. No areas were more activated for regulars than irregulars when the past tense forms were matched on this variable. This suggests that the activation specific to regulars was related to the higher phonological complexity of their past tense forms rather than to their generation. A contrast of the reading of regular and irregular past tense forms was consistent with this hypothesis. These results support a single-system account of past tense generation.

The Cortical Maps of Hierarchical Linguistic Structures during Speech Perception

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 3232-3240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingwei Sheng ◽  
Li Zheng ◽  
Bingjiang Lyu ◽  
Zhehang Cen ◽  
Lang Qin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Source Imaging ◽  
Cortical Maps ◽  
Linguistic Units ◽  
Linguistic Structures ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractThe hierarchical nature of language requires human brain to internally parse connected-speech and incrementally construct abstract linguistic structures. Recent research revealed multiple neural processing timescales underlying grammar-based configuration of linguistic hierarchies. However, little is known about where in the whole cerebral cortex such temporally scaled neural processes occur. This study used novel magnetoencephalography source imaging techniques combined with a unique language stimulation paradigm to segregate cortical maps synchronized to 3 levels of linguistic units (i.e., words, phrases, and sentences). Notably, distinct ensembles of cortical loci were identified to feature structures at different levels. The superior temporal gyrus was found to be involved in processing all 3 linguistic levels while distinct ensembles of other brain regions were recruited to encode each linguistic level. Neural activities in the right motor cortex only followed the rhythm of monosyllabic words which have clear acoustic boundaries, whereas the left anterior temporal lobe and the left inferior frontal gyrus were selectively recruited in processing phrases or sentences. Our results ground a multi-timescale hierarchical neural processing of speech in neuroanatomical reality with specific sets of cortices responsible for different levels of linguistic units.

Neural processing of cold-induced pain relief in heat allodynia (fMRI study)

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (S 2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Mohr ◽  
I Mangels ◽  
C Helmchen
Keyword(s):  
Pain Relief ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Fmri Study

Conceptual disorganization and redistribution of resting state cortical hubs in untreated first episode psychosis: A 7T MRI study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avyarthana Dey ◽  
Kara Dempster ◽  
Michael Mackinley ◽  
Peter Jeon ◽  
Tushar Das ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
First Episode Psychosis ◽  
Cortical Reorganization ◽  
First Episode ◽  
Formal Thought Disorder ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Episode Psychosis ◽  
Positive And Negative Symptoms

Background:Network level dysconnectivity has been studied in positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Conceptual disorganization (CD) is a symptom subtype which predicts impaired real-world functioning in psychosis. Systematic reviews have reported aberrant connectivity in formal thought disorder, a construct related to CD. However, no studies have investigated whole-brain functional correlates of CD in psychosis. We sought to investigate brain regions explaining the severity of CD in patients with first-episode psychosis (FEPs) compared with healthy controls (HCs).Methods:We computed whole-brain binarized degree centrality maps of 31 FEPs, 25 HCs and characterized the patterns of network connectivity in the two groups. In FEPs, we related these findings to the severity of CD. We also studied the effect of positive and negative symptoms on altered network connectivity.Results:Compared to HCs, reduced hubness of a right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG) cluster was observed in the FEPs. In patients exhibiting high CD, increased hubness of a medial superior parietal (mSPL) cluster was observed, compared to patients exhibiting low CD. These two regions were strongly correlated with CD scores but not with other symptom scores.Discussion:Our observations are congruent with previous findings of reduced but not increased hubness. We observed increased hubness of mSPL suggesting that cortical reorganization occurs to provide alternate routes for information transfer.Conclusion:These findings provide insight into the underlying neural processes mediating the presentation of symptoms in untreated FEP. A longitudinal tracking of the symptom course will be useful to assess the mechanisms underlying these compensatory changes.

scholarly journals Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the Mechanism

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 205920432110101
Author(s):  
Gonçalo T. Barradas ◽  
Patrik N. Juslin ◽  
Sergi Bermúdez i Badia
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Geriatric Depression Scale ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Brain Stem Reflex

Music is frequently regarded as a unique way to connect with dementia patients. Yet little is known about how persons with dementia respond emotionally to music. Are their responses different from those of healthy listeners? If so, why? The present study makes a first attempt to tackle these issues in a Portuguese context, with a focus on psychological mechanisms. In Experiment 1, featuring 20 young and healthy adults, we found that musical excerpts which have previously been shown to activate specific emotion induction mechanisms (brain stem reflex, contagion, episodic memory, musical expectancy) in Sweden were valid and yielded predicted emotions also in Portugal, as indexed by self-reported feelings, psychophysiology, and post hoc mechanism indices. In Experiment 2, we used the same stimuli to compare the responses of 20 elderly listeners diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with those of 20 healthy listeners. We controlled for cognitive functioning (Mini-Mental State Examination) and depression (Geriatric Depression Scale). Our predictions about how mechanisms would be differentially affected by decline in brain regions associated with AD received support in that AD patients reported significantly lower levels of (a) sadness in the contagion condition, (b) happiness and nostalgia in the episodic memory condition, and (c) anxiety in the musical expectancy condition. By contrast, no significant difference in reported surprise was found in the brain stem reflex condition. Implications for musical interventions aimed at dementia are discussed, highlighting the key role that basic research may play in developing applications.

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