Research Institute of Foreign Languages, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing 100089, China; School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660, USA.
Brain Lang. 2021 Jan;212:104878. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104878. Epub 2020 Oct 20.
A speaker's intended meaning can be inferred from an utterance with or without reference to its context for particularized implicature (PI) and/or generalized implicature (GI). Although previous studies have separately revealed the neural correlates of PI and GI comprehension, it remains controversial whether they share theory-of-mind (ToM) related inferential processes. Here we address this issue using functional MRI (fMRI) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Participants listened to single-turn dialogues where the reply was indirect with either PI or GI or was direct for control conditions (i.e., PIC and GIC). Results showed that PI and GI comprehension shared the multivariate fMRI patterns of language processing; in contrast, the ToM-related pattern was only elicited by PI comprehension, either at the whole-brain level or within dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Moreover, stimulating right TPJ exclusively affected PI comprehension. These findings suggest that understanding PI, but not GI, requires ToM-related inferential processes.
说话者的意图含义可以从话语中推断出来，无论是否参考其特定含义 (PI) 和/或广义含义 (GI) 的上下文。尽管之前的研究分别揭示了 PI 和 GI 理解的神经相关性，但它们是否共享与思维理论 (ToM) 相关的推理过程仍存在争议。在这里，我们使用功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 和经颅直流电刺激 (tDCS) 来解决这个问题。参与者听了单轮对话，其中回复是间接的，具有 PI 或 GI，或者是直接的对照条件（即，PIC 和 GIC）。结果表明，PI 和 GI 的理解共享语言处理的多变量 fMRI 模式；相比之下，只有 PI 理解会引发与 ToM 相关的模式，无论是在全脑水平还是在背内侧前额叶皮层 (dmPFC) 内。此外，仅刺激右侧 TPJ 会影响 PI 的理解。这些发现表明，理解 PI 而不是 GI 需要与 ToM 相关的推理过程。
