The functional neuroanatomy of serial order in language

Boeckx, Cédric; Martinez‐Alvarez, Anna; Leivada, Evelina

doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2014.07.001

Cited by 23 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…These procedures for mapping a hierarchical syntactic representation into a linearized sequence are the objects of inquiry in theoretical syntax and morphology that refer to linear order, such as word order constraints (e.g. the head parameter) and affixation rules (Chomsky, 1980;& Raimey, 2013) (see Bornkessel et al, 2005 andBoeckx et al, 2014 for related proposals regarding linearization and Broca's area).…”

Section: Syntax 14mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cortical Organization of Syntax

2019

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Syntax, the structure of sentences, enables humans to express an infinite range of meanings through finite means. The neurobiology of syntax has been intensely studied but with little consensus. Two main candidate regions have been identified: the posterior inferior frontal gyrus (pIFG) and the posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG). Integrating research in linguistics, psycholinguistics, and neuroscience, we propose a neuroanatomical framework for syntax that attributes distinct syntactic computations to these regions in a unified model. The key theoretical advances are adopting a modern lexicalized view of syntax in which the lexicon and syntactic rules are intertwined, and recognizing a computational asymmetry in the role of syntax during comprehension and production. Our model postulates a hierarchical lexical-syntactic function to the pMTG, which interconnects previously identified speech perception and conceptual-semantic systems in the temporal and inferior parietal lobes, crucial for both sentence production and comprehension. These relational hierarchies are transformed via the pIFG into morpho-syntactic sequences, primarily tied to production. We show how this architecture provides a better account of the full range of data and is consistent with recent proposals regarding the organization of phonological processes in the brain.

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Section: Syntax 14mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cortical Organization of Syntax

2019

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“…This positional encoding stage involves the syntactic realization and linear ordering of lexicalsemantic structures marked with bound-(e.g., inflectional markers indicating number, tense, and aspect, e.g., -ed in English) and free-standing closed-class morphemes (e.g., determiners, prepositions). Positional encoding may further involve the phonological specification of this linear order via the ordering of phonological segments (Garrett, 1975;Bock, 1987;Berndt et al, 2002;Boeckx et al, 2014) and the generation of prosodic structure (Vigliocco and Hartsuiker, 2002;cf. Ferreira, 1993).…”

Section: Lexically-driven Vs Syntactically-driven Stages Of Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociation between Frontal and Temporal-Parietal Contributions to Connected Speech in Acute Stroke

Ding

Martin

Hamilton

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Humans are uniquely able to retrieve and combine words into syntactic structure to produce connected speech. Previous identification of focal brain regions necessary for production focused primarily on associations with the content produced by speakers with chronic stroke, where function may have shifted to other regions after reorganization occurred. Here, we relate patterns of brain damage with deficits to the content and structure of spontaneous connected speech in 52 speakers during the acute stage of a left hemisphere stroke. Multivariate lesion behavior mapping demonstrated that damage to temporal-parietal regions impacted the ability to retrieve words and produce them within increasingly complex combinations. Damage primarily to inferior frontal cortex affected the production of syntactically accurate structure. In contrast to previous work, functional-anatomical dissociations did not depend on lesion size likely because acute lesions were smaller than typically found in chronic stroke. These results are consistent with predictions from theoretical models based primarily on evidence from language comprehension and highlight the importance of investigating individual differences in brain-language relationships in speakers with acute stroke.

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“…It was either deemed as a memory component (Boeckx, Martinez-Alvarez, & Leivada, 2014;Hagoort, 2005Hagoort, , 2013Kuhnke, Meyer, Friederici, & Hartwigsen, 2017;Meyer, Obleser, Anwander, & Friederici, 2012;Xiang, Fonteijn, Norris, & Hagoort, 2010), related to the storage of the syntactic node information (Hagoort, 2005), and the storage and the check of the syntactic frame information (Herrmann, Maess, Hasting, & Friederici, 2009), or an area for syntactic integration (Friederici, 2011;Friederici et al, 2003Matchin et al, 2014;Newman et al, 2003). It was either deemed as a memory component (Boeckx, Martinez-Alvarez, & Leivada, 2014;Hagoort, 2005Hagoort, , 2013Kuhnke, Meyer, Friederici, & Hartwigsen, 2017;Meyer, Obleser, Anwander, & Friederici, 2012;Xiang, Fonteijn, Norris, & Hagoort, 2010), related to the storage of the syntactic node information (Hagoort, 2005), and the storage and the check of the syntactic frame information (Herrmann, Maess, Hasting, & Friederici, 2009), or an area for syntactic integration (Friederici, 2011;Friederici et al, 2003Matchin et al, 2014;Newman et al, 2003).…”

Section: The Left Stgmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the comparatively specific role played by the left STG in the (complex) hierarchical syntactic structure processing was still disputed. It was either deemed as a memory component (Boeckx, Martinez-Alvarez, & Leivada, 2014;Hagoort, 2005Hagoort, , 2013Kuhnke, Meyer, Friederici, & Hartwigsen, 2017;Meyer, Obleser, Anwander, & Friederici, 2012;Xiang, Fonteijn, Norris, & Hagoort, 2010), related to the storage of the syntactic node information (Hagoort, 2005), and the storage and the check of the syntactic frame information (Herrmann, Maess, Hasting, & Friederici, 2009), or an area for syntactic integration (Friederici, 2011;Friederici et al, 2003Matchin et al, 2014;Newman et al, 2003). Combining with the results of DCM, we are inclined to consider the left STG as a multifunctional component which could retrieve the WCI (or label) of the syntactic objects (i.e., the node information) and the labeled hierarchical syntactic templates for later processing, and then integrate and store the various new syntactic information generated from Broca's area in a rule-based way.…”

Section: The Left Stgmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Broca's area appears to participate in structured sequence processing regardless of the complexity, in which "structured" denoted the syntactic dependencies among the elements in the sequence (Uddén & Bahlmann, 2012). To note, some researches also suggested the role of the syntactically specific or language-specific working memory played by Broca's area (Boeckx et al, 2014;Caplan et al, 2002;Cooke et al, 2002;Fiebach, Schlesewsky, Lohmann, von Cramon, & Friederici, 2005;Santi & Grodzinsky, 2012;Stowe et al, 1998), but according to Makuuchi et al (2009), such a working memory competence was supported by the left inferior frontal sulcus rather than Broca's area in IFG.…”

Section: Broca's Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural substrates of word category information as the basis of syntactic processing

Chen

et al. 2018

Human Brain Mapping

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The ability to use word category information (WCI) for syntactic structure building has been hypothesized to be the essence of human language faculty. The neural substrate of the ability of using the WCI for the complex syntactic hierarchical structure processing, however, is yet unknown. Therefore, we directly conducted an fMRI experiment by using a pseudo‐Chinese artificial language with syntactic structures containing a center‐embedded relative clause. Thirty non‐Chinese native (Korean) speakers were randomly divided into two groups: one acquired WCI and WCI‐based syntactic rules (the WCI group) before the scanning session, and the other did not (the non‐WCI group). Both groups were required to judge the grammaticality of the testing sentences, with critical long‐distance dependencies between two elements (the main verb and the relativizer). Behaviorally, the WCI group's accuracy was significantly higher and its reaction time was shorter. The scanning results showed that the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) and Broca's area were more strongly activated for the WCI group, and the dynamic causal modeling analyses revealed a distinct effective connectivity pattern for this group. Therefore, the present research, for the first time, reveals that the activation of and the functional connectivity between Broca's area and the left STG play a critical role in the ability of the rule‐based use of the WCI which is crucial for complex hierarchical structure building, and might be substantially corresponding to the “labeling competence” within the linguistic framework.

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The functional neuroanatomy of serial order in language

Cited by 23 publications

References 89 publications

The Cortical Organization of Syntax

The Cortical Organization of Syntax

Dissociation between Frontal and Temporal-Parietal Contributions to Connected Speech in Acute Stroke

Neural substrates of word category information as the basis of syntactic processing

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