Developmental differences in the neural correlates supporting semantics and syntax during sentence processing

Abstract

School‐aged and adolescent children continue to demonstrate improvements in how they integrate and comprehend real‐time, auditory language over this developmental time period, which can have important implications for academic and social success. To better understand developmental changes in the neural processes engaged during language comprehension in this age group, we use electroencephalography to investigate how 8–9 year old, 12–13 year olds, and adults process semantics and syntax in naturally paced, auditory sentences. Participants listened to semantically and syntactically correct and incorrect sentences and were asked to complete an acceptability judgment task. When processing a semantic error, developmental differences were observed in theta, but not the N400, suggesting that the N400 may be too gross a measure to identify more subtle aspects of semantic development that occur in the school years. For the syntactic task, errors resulted in a larger P600 and greater beta decrease than correct sentences, but the amplitude and location of the P600 and amplitude of beta decreases differed as a function of age, suggesting specialization of syntactic skills is ongoing through adolescence. The current findings shed new light on the development of the neural oscillations supporting language comprehension and suggest that the neural substrates underlying semantic processing reach adult‐like levels at a younger age than those underlying syntactic processing.

Sentence processing: How words generate syntactic structures in the brain

“…Power increases in delta-theta (1-5 Hz) band were also observed in one study [20]. Using similar tense manipulations during auditory presentation of English sentences, other authors also found power decreases in the beta (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) Hz) band starting around 500 ms after incorrect verbs [21,58].…”

“…Finally, the computation of morphosyntactic (person) information was further investigated by Pérez and colleagues [60] who implemented a design from a previous ERP study [33] Given the current evidence, the most systematic effects of (morpho)syntactic violations seem to emerge as power decreases in the alpha and/or beta bands. Such violations notably encompass distinct (morpho)syntactic errors including syntactic category [47,55], verb tense [20,21,[56][57][58] and subject-verb agreement [55,59,60]. Conversely, modulations in other frequency bandsi.e., delta, theta or gammaappear less consistently across studies.…”

EEG phase synchronization during semantic unification relates to individual differences in children’s vocabulary skill

“…Traditional indices of lexical-semantic access (i.e. N400s and low frequency oscillatory power, both measured as activity localized at particular electrodes rather than as synchronous activity between electrodes) will also likely become more robust with age (Hahne et al, 2004;Schneider & Maguire, 2019).…”

“…In children, however, the N400 effect tends to be larger in amplitude, longer in latency, and more broadly or frontally distributed compared to the short‐lasting, focal posterior effect seen in adults (Atchley et al., 2006; Friedrich & Friederici, 2005; Hahne, Eckstein, & Friederici, 2004; Silva‐Pereyra, Klarman, Lin, & Kuhl, 2005). Recently, Schneider and Maguire (2019) used a N400 paradigm to compare oscillatory power in children (aged 8–9), adolescents (aged 12–13) and adults while listening to correct sentences and sentences containing a semantic violation. They found greater theta (4–8 Hz) power at right frontal and central electrodes for semantic violations, which became more robust with age.…”

Individual Differences in Verb Bias Sensitivity in Children and Adults With Developmental Language Disorder

“…These studies, in combination with findings from studies that show the manipulability of verb bias (Wells et al, 2009; Farmer et al, 2011; Fine and Jaeger, 2013; Fine et al, 2013; Ryskin et al, 2017), suggest that verb biases are still forming in children as old as 9 and continue to be shaped by experience throughout the lifespan. Further evidence of prolonged syntactic development throughout adolescence comes from brain imaging studies of sentence processing (Schneider et al, 2016, 2018; Schneider and Maguire, 2018).…”