Hagoort Peter
F.C. Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging, P.O. Box 9101, NL-6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Neuroimage. 2003 Nov;20 Suppl 1:S18-29. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.09.013.
Syntax is one of the components in the architecture of language processing that allows the listener/reader to bind single-word information into a unified interpretation of multiword utterances. This paper discusses ERP effects that have been observed in relation to syntactic processing. The fact that these effects differ from the semantic N400 indicates that the brain honors the distinction between semantic and syntactic binding operations. Two models of syntactic processing attempt to account for syntax-related ERP effects. One type of model is serial, with a first phase that is purely syntactic in nature (syntax-first model). The other type of model is parallel and assumes that information immediately guides the interpretation process once it becomes available. This is referred to as the immediacy model. ERP evidence is presented in support of the latter model. Next, an explicit computational model is proposed to explain the ERP data. This Unification Model assumes that syntactic frames are stored in memory and retrieved on the basis of the spoken or written word form input. The syntactic frames associated with the individual lexical items are unified by a dynamic binding process into a structural representation that spans the whole utterance. On the basis of a meta-analysis of imaging studies on syntax, it is argued that the left posterior inferior frontal cortex is involved in binding syntactic frames together, whereas the left superior temporal cortex is involved in retrieval of the syntactic frames stored in memory. Lesion data that support the involvement of this left frontotemporal network in syntactic processing are discussed.
句法是语言处理架构的组成部分之一，它使听者/读者能够将单个单词的信息整合为对多词话语的统一理解。本文讨论了与句法处理相关的事件相关电位（ERP）效应。这些效应与语义N400不同这一事实表明，大脑区分了语义和句法绑定操作。两种句法处理模型试图解释与句法相关的ERP效应。一种模型是串行的，第一阶段本质上是纯句法的（句法优先模型）。另一种模型是并行的，假设信息一旦可用就立即指导解释过程。这被称为即时性模型。文中给出了支持后一种模型的ERP证据。接下来，提出了一个明确的计算模型来解释ERP数据。这个统一模型假设句法框架存储在记忆中，并根据口头或书面单词形式输入进行检索。与各个词汇项相关联的句法框架通过动态绑定过程统一为一个跨越整个话语的结构表示。基于对句法成像研究的荟萃分析，有人认为左后下额叶皮层参与将句法框架绑定在一起，而左上颞叶皮层参与存储在记忆中的句法框架的检索。文中讨论了支持这个左额颞叶网络参与句法处理的病变数据。
