Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2018 Oct 11;13(10):e0202943. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202943. eCollection 2018.
Several studies have shown that communicative language production as compared to non-communicative language production recruits parts of the mentalizing or theory of mind network, yet the exact role of this network in communication remains underspecified. In this study, we therefore aimed to test under what conditions the mentalizing network contributes to communicative language production. We were especially interested in distinguishing between situations in which speakers have to consider which information they do or do not share with their addressee (common vs. privileged ground information). We therefore manipulated whether speakers had to distinguish between common and privileged ground in order to communicate efficiently with the listener, in addition to comparing language production in a communicative and a non-communicative context. Participants performed a referential communicative game in the MRI-scanner as well as a similar, non-communicative task. We found that the medial prefrontal cortex, a core region of the mentalizing network, is especially sensitive to communicative contexts in which speakers have to take their addressee's needs into account in order to communicate efficiently. In addition, we found neural differences between the communicative and the non-communicative settings before speakers started to plan their utterances, suggesting that they continuously update common ground in a communicative context.
已有多项研究表明，与非交际性语言产生相比，交际性语言产生会激活心理理论或心智理论网络的部分区域，但该网络在交流中的具体作用仍不明确。因此，在这项研究中，我们旨在测试心理理论网络在交际性语言产生中起作用的条件。我们特别感兴趣的是区分说话者需要考虑与听话者共享或不共享哪些信息的情况（公共与私人信息）。因此，除了在交际和非交际语境下比较语言产生外，我们还操纵了说话者是否需要区分公共和私人信息，以便与听话者进行有效沟通。参与者在 MRI 扫描仪中进行了参考交际游戏，以及类似的非交际任务。我们发现，内侧前额叶皮层是心理理论网络的核心区域，在说话者必须考虑听话者的需求以进行有效沟通的交际语境中，该区域对交际语境特别敏感。此外，我们还发现，在说话者开始计划他们的话语之前，交际和非交际环境之间存在神经差异，这表明在交际语境中，他们不断更新公共领域。
