Neural classification maps for distinct word combinations in Broca’s area

Abstract

Humans are equipped with the remarkable ability to comprehend an infinite number of utterances. Relations between grammatical categories restrict the way words combine into phrases and sentences. How the brain recognises different word combinations remains largely unknown, although this is a necessary condition for combinatorial unboundedness. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivariate pattern analysis to explore whether distinct neural populations of a known language network hub —Broca’s area—are specialised for recognising distinct simple word combinations. The phrases consisted of a noun (flag) occurring either with a content word, an adjective (green flag), or with a function word, a determiner (that flag). The key result is that the distribution of neural populations classifying word combination in Broca’s area seems sensitive to neuroanatomical subdivisions within this area, irrespective of task. The information patterns for adjective + noun were localised in the anterior part (BA45) whereas those for determiner + noun were localised in the posterior part (BA44). Our findings provide preliminary answers to the fundamental question of how lexico-grammatical access and word combination interact during simple word combination, with the observation that Broca’s area is sensitive to the recognition of categorical relationships during combinatory processing, based on different demands placed on syntactic and semantic processing. This supports the hypothesis that the combinatorial power of language consists of some neural computation capturing phrasal differences when processing linguistic input.