School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Speech and Hearing Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 6;14(1):26965. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-76907-8.
Prior literature has debated whether syntax is separable from semantics in the brain. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and multi-voxel pattern analysis, our previous studies investigated brain activity during morpho-syntactic versus semantic processing. These studies only detected semantic specialization in activation patterns and no syntactic specialization in 5- to 6-year-old and 7- to 8-year-old children. To examine if older children who have mastered morpho-syntactic skills would show specialization for syntax, the current study examined 64 9- to 10-year-old children using the same design and analyses. We observed that only the left IFG pars opercularis was sensitive to syntactic but not semantic information, supporting the hypothesis that this region serves as a core region for syntax. In addition, the left STG which has been implicated in the integration of semantics and syntax, as well as the left MTG and IFG pars triangularis which have been implicated in semantics, were sensitive to both semantic and syntactic information with no evidence of specialization. These findings suggest a lexicalized view of syntax, which argues that semantically sensitive regions are also critical regions for syntactic processing during language comprehension.
先前的文献就大脑中的句法是否可以与语义分离存在争议。我们之前的研究使用功能磁共振成像和多体素模式分析，研究了形态句法与语义处理过程中的大脑活动。这些研究仅在激活模式中检测到语义专业化，而在 5 至 6 岁和 7 至 8 岁的儿童中未检测到句法专业化。为了研究是否掌握形态句法技能的大龄儿童会表现出对句法的专业化，本研究使用相同的设计和分析方法，检查了 64 名 9 至 10 岁的儿童。我们发现只有左侧 IFG 额下回的操作部对句法敏感而对语义信息不敏感，这支持了该区域是句法核心区域的假设。此外，左侧颞上回（STG）与语义和句法的整合有关，左侧颞中回（MTG）和额下回三角部（IFG pars triangularis）与语义有关，它们对语义和句法信息都敏感，没有专业化的证据。这些发现表明了句法的词汇化观点，即认为语义敏感区域也是语言理解过程中句法处理的关键区域。
