Neural activity during sentence processing as reflected in theta, alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations

Lam, Nietzsche H. L.; Schoffelen, Jan Mathijs; Uddén, Julia; Hultén, Annika; Hagoort, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.03.007

Cited by 122 publications

(126 citation statements)

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“…The current study pertains to participants from the MEG session in the auditory modality. A more in depth description of the experimental protocol has been provided elsewhere (Lam, Schoffelen, Udden, Hulten, & Hagoort, 2016;Schoffelen et al, 2017). All participants were right-handed, reported normal hearing, had normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and had no known history of neurological, developmental or language deficits.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust neuronal oscillatory entrainment to speech displays individual variation in lateralisation

Lam

Hultén

Hagoort

et al. 2018

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

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Earlier work has suggested that delta, theta and gamma oscillations entrain to the speech rhythm. We used magnetoencephalography and a large sample of 102 participants to investigate oscillatory entrainment to speech, and observed robust entrainment of delta and theta activity, and weak group-level gamma entrainment. We show that the peak frequency and the hemispheric lateralisation of the entrainment are subject to considerable individual variability. The first finding may support the involvement of intrinsic oscillations in entrainment, and the second finding suggests that there is no systematic default right-hemispheric bias for processing acoustic signals on a slow time scale. Although low frequency entrainment to speech is a robust phenomenon, the characteristics of entrainment vary across individuals, and this variation is important for understanding the underlying neural mechanisms of entrainment, as well as its functional significance.ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust neuronal oscillatory entrainment to speech displays individual variation in lateralisation

Lam

Hultén

Hagoort

et al. 2018

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

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“…A GC spectral peak in the gamma frequency range was absent in our data. Although studies in the visual system allow for experimental paradigms eliciting robust and strongly modulated gamma band rhythmicity, language paradigms do not typically lead to similarly strong local gamma-band responses (23), rendering the likelihood of detecting gamma-band interactions low. In addition, characterization of feedforward and feedback connections based on their cytoarchitectonic connectivity profiles is likely to be more distinct in peripheral sensory systems than in higher cortical regions (24), such as the higher-order areas in the human brain network for language.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, we found that rhythmic activity in the alpha frequency range (8-12 Hz) propagates from temporal cortical areas to frontal cortical areas, and that beta frequency rhythmic activity (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30) propagates in the opposite direction. These results indicate the functional relevance of rhythmic directed interactions during language processing, where interactions between areas are supported by different frequency bands, depending on the direction of the interaction.…”

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confidence: 94%

Frequency-specific directed interactions in the human brain network for language

Schoffelen

Hultén

Lam

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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116

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The brain's remarkable capacity for language requires bidirectional interactions between functionally specialized brain regions. We used magnetoencephalography to investigate interregional interactions in the brain network for language while 102 participants were reading sentences. Using Granger causality analysis, we identified inferior frontal cortex and anterior temporal regions to receive widespread input and middle temporal regions to send widespread output. This fits well with the notion that these regions play a central role in language processing. Characterization of the functional topology of this network, using data-driven matrix factorization, which allowed for partitioning into a set of subnetworks, revealed directed connections at distinct frequencies of interaction. Connections originating from temporal regions peaked at alpha frequency, whereas connections originating from frontal and parietal regions peaked at beta frequency. These findings indicate that the information flow between language-relevant brain areas, which is required for linguistic processing, may depend on the contributions of distinct brain rhythms.language | Granger causality | brain networks | magnetoencephalography T he human brain is capable of effortlessly extracting meaning from sequences of written or spoken words by means of a sophisticated interplay between dedicated neocortical regions. Neuroanatomical research has revealed a number of white-matter pathways that facilitate these interregional interactions (1). Electrophysiological research with electro-and magnetoencephalography (EEG/MEG) has revealed with high temporal precision the sequential activation of individual nodes embedded within the human brain network for language (2, 3). However, the nature of the functional interactions that enable the efficient flow of information between the nodes of this network has yet to be elucidated.One important feature of cortical interregional connections is that they are frequently reciprocal in nature (4), which implies that information can be exchanged in a bidirectional fashion. Moreover, the information flow between cortical regions may be facilitated by interregional rhythmic synchronization (5), where neuronal rhythms of specific different frequencies reflect the direction in which the information is flowing (6, 7). This bidirectional flow of information should also be a crucial feature of the neurobiological system that supports language processing. Linguistic processing is not a simple bottom-up process where incoming linguistic information (for instance, when reading a sentence) drives a sequence of activations of cortical areas that gradually transforms a string of letters into a representation of sentence and discourse meaning. Rather, contextual information, which is either already available, or built up while a sentence unfolds, can also provide top-down information, affecting the response in lower-order areas.Here, we show that interregional interactions in the human brain network for language are subserved by rhyt...

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“…There is one study that does not fit the more or less clear‐cut picture outlined above. Lam, Schoffelen, Uddén, Hultén, and Hagoort () compared coherent and scrambled sentences (word lists) during reading. They found decreased theta power in bilateral occipitotemporal regions and increased theta in left anterior superior temporal regions for sentences compared to word lists.…”

Section: Syntactic and Semantic Structure Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The power of neural oscillations to inform sentence comprehension: A linguistic perspective

Prystauka

Lewis

2019

Language and Linguist. Compass

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The field of psycholinguistics is currently experiencing an explosion of interest in the analysis of neural oscillations—rhythmic brain activity synchronized at different temporal and spatial levels. Given that language comprehension relies on a myriad of processes, which are carried out in parallel in distributed brain networks, there is hope that this methodology might bring the field closer to understanding some of the more basic (spatially and temporally distributed, yet at the same time often overlapping) neural computations that support language function. In this review, we discuss existing proposals linking oscillatory dynamics in different frequency bands to basic neural computations and review relevant theories suggesting associations between band‐specific oscillations and higher‐level cognitive processes. More or less consistent patterns of oscillatory activity related to certain types of linguistic processing can already be derived from the evidence that has accumulated over the past few decades. The centerpiece of the current review is a synthesis of such patterns grouped by linguistic phenomenon. We restrict our review to evidence linking measures of oscillatory power to the comprehension of sentences, as well as linguistically (and/or pragmatically) more complex structures. For each grouping, we provide a brief summary and a table of associated oscillatory signatures that a psycholinguist might expect to find when employing a particular linguistic task. Summarizing across different paradigms, we conclude that a handful of basic neural oscillatory mechanisms are likely recruited in different ways and at different times for carrying out a variety of linguistic computations.

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Neural activity during sentence processing as reflected in theta, alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations

Cited by 122 publications

References 67 publications

Robust neuronal oscillatory entrainment to speech displays individual variation in lateralisation

Robust neuronal oscillatory entrainment to speech displays individual variation in lateralisation

Frequency-specific directed interactions in the human brain network for language

The power of neural oscillations to inform sentence comprehension: A linguistic perspective

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