Li Xiaoqing, Zhang Yuping, Xia Jinyan, Swaab Tamara Y
CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Language Ability, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, China.
CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Neuropsychologia. 2017 Jul 28;102:70-81. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.05.017. Epub 2017 May 15.
Although numerous studies have demonstrated that the language processing system can predict upcoming content during comprehension, there is still no clear picture of the anticipatory stage of predictive processing. This electroencephalograph study examined the cognitive and neural oscillatory mechanisms underlying anticipatory processing during language comprehension, and the consequences of this prediction for bottom-up processing of predicted/unpredicted content. Participants read Mandarin Chinese sentences that were either strongly or weakly constraining and that contained critical nouns that were congruent or incongruent with the sentence contexts. We examined the effects of semantic predictability on anticipatory processing prior to the onset of the critical nouns and on integration of the critical nouns. The results revealed that, at the integration stage, the strong-constraint condition (compared to the weak-constraint condition) elicited a reduced N400 and reduced theta activity (4-7Hz) for the congruent nouns, but induced beta (13-18Hz) and theta (4-7Hz) power decreases for the incongruent nouns, indicating benefits of confirmed predictions and potential costs of disconfirmed predictions. More importantly, at the anticipatory stage, the strongly constraining context elicited an enhanced sustained anterior negativity and beta power decrease (19-25Hz), which indicates that strong prediction places a higher processing load on the anticipatory stage of processing. The differences (in the ease of processing and the underlying neural oscillatory activities) between anticipatory and integration stages of lexical processing were discussed with regard to predictive processing models.
尽管大量研究表明，语言处理系统在理解过程中能够预测即将出现的内容，但对于预测性处理的预期阶段仍没有清晰的认识。这项脑电图研究考察了语言理解过程中预期处理背后的认知和神经振荡机制，以及这种预测对预测/未预测内容的自下而上处理的影响。参与者阅读汉语句子，这些句子的约束性有强有弱，并且包含与句子语境一致或不一致的关键名词。我们考察了语义可预测性对关键名词出现之前的预期处理以及对关键名词整合的影响。结果显示，在整合阶段，与弱约束条件相比，强约束条件下一致名词引发的N400波幅降低以及θ波活动（4 - 7赫兹）减少，但不一致名词则引发β波（13 - 18赫兹）和θ波（4 - 7赫兹）功率下降，这表明确认预测有好处，而未确认预测可能有代价。更重要的是，在预期阶段，强约束语境引发了增强的持续性前部负波和β波功率下降（19 - 25赫兹），这表明强预测在处理的预期阶段施加了更高的处理负荷。结合预测性处理模型讨论了词汇处理预期阶段和整合阶段之间（在处理难易程度和潜在神经振荡活动方面）的差异。
