Nakano Hiroko, Blumstein Sheila E
Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Brain Lang. 2004 Jan;88(1):96-107. doi: 10.1016/s0093-934x(03)00280-3.
This study investigated how normal subjects and Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics integrate thematic information incrementally using syntax, lexical-semantics, and pragmatics in a simple active declarative sentence. Three priming experiments were conducted using an auditory lexical decision task in which subjects made a lexical decision on a 'target' (the last word of each sentence) preceded by a 'prime' (a subject noun phrase and verb). The presence and magnitude of priming was compared to a baseline condition in which non-words systematically replaced real word primes. Normal subjects showed evidence for combinatorial thematics by exhibiting significant and larger amounts of thematic priming in the condition where two real words were present in the prime than in the conditions in which only one real word was present in the prime. Additionally, normal subjects showed sensitivity to both syntactic structures and pragmatics. In contrast, Broca's patients did not show significant priming for any condition nor did they show a difference in the magnitude of priming among the conditions. Nonetheless, they showed sensitivity to pragmatics. Wernicke's patients showed significant priming for all conditions, but did not show differences in the magnitude of priming among the conditions. However, they showed sensitivity to sentence grammaticality and pragmatics. The distinct patterns of performance of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics are discussed in terms of the nature of their impairments in the processes of combinatorial thematics.
本研究调查了正常受试者以及布罗卡失语症患者和韦尼克失语症患者如何在一个简单的主动陈述句中，利用句法、词汇语义和语用逐步整合主题信息。使用听觉词汇判断任务进行了三项启动实验，在该任务中，受试者对一个由“启动词”（一个主语名词短语和动词）引导的“目标词”（每个句子的最后一个词）进行词汇判断。将启动的存在和程度与一个基线条件进行比较，在基线条件下，非单词系统地替换真实单词启动词。正常受试者通过在启动词中有两个真实单词的条件下表现出比启动词中只有一个真实单词的条件下更显著、更大程度的主题启动，从而显示出组合主题的证据。此外，正常受试者对句法结构和语用都表现出敏感性。相比之下，布罗卡失语症患者在任何条件下都没有表现出显著的启动，也没有在不同条件下的启动程度上表现出差异。尽管如此，他们对语用表现出敏感性。韦尼克失语症患者在所有条件下都表现出显著的启动，但在不同条件下的启动程度上没有表现出差异。然而，他们对句子语法性和语用表现出敏感性。根据布罗卡失语症患者和韦尼克失语症患者在组合主题过程中损伤的性质，讨论了他们不同的表现模式。
