Chwilla Dorothee J
Donders Centre for Cognition, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2022 Nov 25;16:1014547. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.1014547. eCollection 2022.
Semantics and syntax are core components of language. The prevailing view was that processing of word meaning and syntactic processing happens in isolation from other systems. In light of proofed interactions between language and other systems, especially with perception, action and emotion, this view became untenable. This article reviews Event-related potential studies conducted at the Donders Centre for Cognition exploring the interplay between language comprehension and a person's emotional state. The research program was aimed at an investigation of the online effects of emotional state on semantic processing and syntactic processing. To this aim we manipulated mood via film fragments (happy vs. sad) before participants read neutral sentences while their EEG was recorded. In Part 1, it is shown that mood impacts online semantic processing (as indicated by N400) and the processing of syntactic violations (as indicated by P600). Part 2 was directed at a further determination of the mechanisms underlying these interactions. The role of heuristics was examined by investigating the effects of mood on the P600 to semantic reversals. The results revealed that mood affects heuristic processing. The next step consisted of an assessment of the role of attention, in the mood-by-semantics and mood-by-syntax interaction. This was accomplished by recording EEG while manipulating attention via task next to emotional state. Participants performed a semantic or syntactic judgment task vs. a letter-size judgment task. The main ERP results were as follows: (i) attention interacts with the mood effect on semantic processing and syntactic processing, respectively, (ii) the effects of mood on semantic processing and syntactic processing are reliable, and (iii) the mood effects on semantic processing are not fixed but context-dependent. In Part 3 the effects of mood on the processing of script knowledge and general world knowledge are presented. Part 4 closes with a discussion of the mechanisms involved in the mood-by-language interactions and recommendations for future research. Regarding the underlying mechanism we propose that heuristics based on semantic expectancies or syntactic expectancies play a key role in the mood-by-language interactions. The results support the view that language takes place in continuous interaction with other (non-language) systems.
语义和句法是语言的核心组成部分。主流观点认为，词义处理和句法处理与其他系统相互独立进行。鉴于语言与其他系统之间已被证实的相互作用，尤其是与感知、行动和情感的相互作用，这种观点变得站不住脚。本文回顾了在唐德斯认知中心进行的与事件相关电位研究，该研究探索了语言理解与一个人的情绪状态之间的相互作用。该研究项目旨在调查情绪状态对语义处理和句法处理的即时影响。为了实现这一目标，我们在参与者阅读中性句子并记录其脑电图时，通过电影片段（快乐与悲伤）来操纵他们的情绪。在第一部分中，研究表明情绪会影响即时语义处理（由N400表示）和句法违规处理（由P600表示）。第二部分旨在进一步确定这些相互作用背后的机制。通过研究情绪对语义反转的P600的影响来检验启发式的作用。结果表明情绪会影响启发式处理。下一步是评估注意力在情绪与语义以及情绪与句法相互作用中的作用。这是通过在操纵情绪状态的同时通过任务操纵注意力来记录脑电图来完成的。参与者执行语义或句法判断任务与字母大小判断任务。主要的事件相关电位结果如下：（i）注意力分别与情绪对语义处理和句法处理的影响相互作用，（ii）情绪对语义处理和句法处理的影响是可靠的，（iii）情绪对语义处理的影响不是固定的，而是依赖于上下文的。在第三部分中，展示了情绪对脚本知识和一般世界知识处理的影响。第四部分以对情绪与语言相互作用中涉及的机制的讨论以及对未来研究的建议作为结尾。关于潜在机制，我们提出基于语义预期或句法预期的启发式在情绪与语言的相互作用中起关键作用。这些结果支持了语言与其他（非语言）系统持续相互作用的观点。
