Tyler L K, Marslen-Wilson W D, Stamatakis E A
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Jun 7;102(23):8375-80. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0408213102. Epub 2005 May 27.
A technique for studying the relationship between brain and language, which involves correlating scores on two continuous variables, signal intensity across the entire brains of brain-damaged patients and behavioral priming scores, was used to investigate a central issue in cognitive neuroscience: Are the components of the neural language system organized as a single undifferentiated process, or do they respond differentially to different types of linguistic structure? Differences in lexical structure, in the form of the regular and irregular past tense, have proven to be critical in this debate by contrasting a highly predictable rule-like process (e.g., jump-jumped) with an unpredictable idiosyncratic process typified by the irregulars (e.g., think-thought). The key issue raised by these contrasts is whether processing regular and irregular past tense forms differentially engages different aspects of the neural language system or whether they are processed within a single system that distinguishes between them purely on the basis of phonological and semantic differences. The correlational analyses provide clear evidence for a functional differentiation between different brain regions associated with the processing of lexical form, meaning, and morphological structure.
一种研究大脑与语言之间关系的技术被用于调查认知神经科学中的一个核心问题，该技术涉及对两个连续变量的分数进行关联，即脑损伤患者全脑的信号强度和行为启动分数。这个问题是：神经语言系统的组成部分是作为一个单一的、无差别的过程组织起来的，还是它们对不同类型的语言结构有不同的反应？词汇结构的差异，以规则和不规则过去时态的形式呈现，通过将高度可预测的类似规则的过程（如jump - jumped）与以不规则形式为典型的不可预测的特殊过程（如think - thought）进行对比，已被证明在这场辩论中至关重要。这些对比所提出的关键问题是，处理规则和不规则过去时态形式是否会分别涉及神经语言系统的不同方面，或者它们是否在一个仅基于语音和语义差异来区分它们的单一系统中进行处理。相关分析为与词汇形式、意义和形态结构处理相关的不同脑区之间的功能分化提供了明确证据。
