Department of Linguistics, New York University, 10 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA.
Department of Linguistics, New York University, 10 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA; Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA; NYUAD Institute, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Brain Lang. 2021 Jul;218:104951. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104951. Epub 2021 Apr 21.
While much research has addressed the neural basis of lexical access and the composition of lexical items into larger meanings, little is known about how the semantic properties of individual words affect composition. Research on modifier-noun combinations has, however, shown that composition related activity in the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) is sensitive to the conceptual specificity of the composing words. Here we tested whether this pattern extends to verb-argument combinations in minimal subject-verb-object sentences. If the LATL specificity effects extend to verb-argument integration, this would suggest a general mechanism that composes not only entity concepts, but also propositions describing events. Results showed an overall similar modulation by conceptual specificity in the verb domain, suggesting a central, category-insensitive, role for the LATL as a conceptual combiner. Additionally, we saw specificity effects in the left mid-superior temporal cortex, but the angular gyrus, often hypothesized as combinatory, showed no effects of composition.
虽然大量研究已经探讨了词汇访问的神经基础以及词汇成分的更大意义组成，但对于单个单词的语义属性如何影响组成知之甚少。然而，关于修饰语-名词组合的研究表明，左前颞叶（LATL）中的组成相关活动对组成词的概念特异性敏感。在这里，我们测试了这种模式是否扩展到最小主语-动词-宾语句子中的动词-宾语组合。如果 LATL 的特异性效应扩展到动词-宾语整合，这将表明存在一种普遍的机制，不仅可以组成实体概念，还可以组成描述事件的命题。结果表明，在动词域中整体上存在概念特异性的类似调制，这表明 LATL 作为概念组合器具有中心、类别不敏感的作用。此外，我们在左中颞上回中看到了特异性效应，但角回，通常被假设为组合，没有显示出组合的效果。
