Uddén Julia, Hultén Annika, Schoffelen Jan-Mathijs, Lam Nietzsche, Harbusch Karin, van den Bosch Antal, Kempen Gerard, Petersson Karl Magnus, Hagoort Peter
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Neurobiol Lang (Camb). 2022 Sep 29;3(4):575-598. doi: 10.1162/nol_a_00076. eCollection 2022.
This study investigated two questions. One is: To what degree is sentence processing beyond single words independent of the input modality (speech vs. reading)? The second question is: Which parts of the network recruited by both modalities is sensitive to syntactic complexity? These questions were investigated by having more than 200 participants read or listen to well-formed sentences or series of unconnected words. A largely left-hemisphere frontotemporoparietal network was found to be supramodal in nature, i.e., independent of input modality. In addition, the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LpMTG) were most clearly associated with left-branching complexity. The left anterior temporal lobe showed the greatest sensitivity to sentences that differed in right-branching complexity. Moreover, activity in LIFG and LpMTG increased from sentence onset to end, in parallel with an increase of the left-branching complexity. While LIFG, bilateral anterior temporal lobe, posterior MTG, and left inferior parietal lobe all contribute to the supramodal unification processes, the results suggest that these regions differ in their respective contributions to syntactic complexity related processing. The consequences of these findings for neurobiological models of language processing are discussed.
本研究探讨了两个问题。一是：句子处理超出单个单词的程度在多大程度上独立于输入方式（语音与阅读）？第二个问题是：两种方式都招募的网络的哪些部分对句法复杂性敏感？通过让200多名参与者阅读或听结构良好的句子或一系列不相关的单词来研究这些问题。发现一个主要位于左半球的额颞顶叶网络本质上是超模态的，即独立于输入方式。此外，左下额叶回（LIFG）和左后颞中回（LpMTG）与左分支复杂性最明显相关。左前颞叶对右分支复杂性不同的句子表现出最大的敏感性。此外，从句子开始到结束，LIFG和LpMTG的活动增加，同时左分支复杂性增加。虽然LIFG、双侧前颞叶、后MTG和左下顶叶都有助于超模态统一过程，但结果表明这些区域在对句法复杂性相关处理的各自贡献方面存在差异。讨论了这些发现对语言处理神经生物学模型的影响。
