Universal grammar in the frontotemporal dementia spectrum

Cotelli, Maria; Borroni, Barbara; Manenti, Rosa; Ginex, Valeria; Calabria, Marco; Moro, Andrea; Alberici, Antonella; Zanetti, Marina; Zanetti, Orazio; Cappa, Stefano F.; Padovani, Alessandro

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.05.012

Cited by 36 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…While this atrophy was sufficient to cause severe lexical semantic deficits, syntactic processing was largely spared, with a mean accuracy of 86.1% correct. The difference in accuracy between patients and controls was just 7%, and although this difference was statistically significant, its small magnitude confirmed that syntactic processing is largely spared in semantic PPA, consistent with previous literature (Warrington, 1975; Hodges et al, 1992; Gorno-Tempini et al, 2004; Grossman, Rhee, & Moore, 2005; Cotelli et al, 2007; Wilson et al, 2011; see Wilson et al, 2012 for review). Second, the ATL was not activated for sentence comprehension relative to rest in the controls or semantic PPA patients.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Semantic PPA is characterized by dramatic bilateral atrophy of the ATL and profound lexical semantic deficits, yet syntactic function is almost completely spared (for review see Wilson, Galantucci, Tartaglia, & Gorno-Tempini, 2012). Patients with semantic PPA almost invariably score close to ceiling on sentence comprehension measures so long as lexical demands are minimized (Warrington, 1975; Hodges et al, 1992; Gorno-Tempini et al, 2004; Wilson et al, 2011) and they show normal sensitivity to syntactic violations in online and offline tasks (Grossman, Rhee, & Moore, 2005; Cotelli et al, 2007). Other patient groups with ATL damage have also been reported to have spared sentence comprehension, including patients who have had anterior temporal lobectomies (Kho et al, 2008) and patients with herpes simplex encephalitis (Kapur et al, 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What Role Does the Anterior Temporal Lobe Play in Sentence-level Processing? Neural Correlates of Syntactic Processing in Semantic Variant Primary Progressive Aphasia

Wilson

DeMarco

Henry

et al. 2014

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies have implicated the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in sentence-level processing, with syntactic structure-building and/or combinatorial semantic processing suggested as possible roles. A potential challenge to the view that the ATL is involved in syntactic aspects of sentence processing comes from the clinical syndrome of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (semantic PPA, also known as semantic dementia). In semantic PPA, bilateral neurodegeneration of the anterior temporal lobes is associated with profound lexical semantic deficits, yet syntax is strikingly spared. The goal of this study was to investigate the neural correlates of syntactic processing in semantic PPA, in order to determine which regions normally involved in syntactic processing are damaged in semantic PPA, and whether spared syntactic processing depends on preserved functionality of intact regions, preserved functionality of atrophic regions, or compensatory functional reorganization. We scanned 20 individuals with semantic PPA and 24 age-matched controls using structural and functional MRI. Participants performed a sentence comprehension task that emphasized syntactic processing and minimized lexical semantic demands. We found that in controls, left inferior frontal and left posterior temporal regions were modulated by syntactic processing, while anterior temporal regions were not significantly modulated. In the semantic PPA group, atrophy was most severe in the anterior temporal lobes, but extended to the posterior temporal regions involved in syntactic processing. Functional activity for syntactic processing was broadly similar in patients and controls; in particular, whole-brain analyses revealed no significant differences between patients and controls in the regions modulated by syntactic processing. The atrophic left anterior temporal lobe did show abnormal functionality in semantic PPA patients, however this took the unexpected form of a failure to deactivate. Taken together, our findings indicate that spared syntactic processing in semantic PPA depends on preserved functionality of structurally intact left frontal regions and moderately atrophic left posterior temporal regions, but no functional reorganization was apparent as a consequence of anterior temporal atrophy and dysfunction. These results suggest that the role of the anterior temporal lobe in sentence processing is less likely to relate to syntactic structure-building, and more likely to relate to higher level processes such as combinatorial semantic processing.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Role Does the Anterior Temporal Lobe Play in Sentence-level Processing? Neural Correlates of Syntactic Processing in Semantic Variant Primary Progressive Aphasia

Wilson

DeMarco

Henry

et al. 2014

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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“…Also, the production of grammatically well-formed sentences did not correlate with reverse digit span, an untimed measure of working memory that has minimal motor demands. Other studies have reported a link between working memory and grammaticality in sentence processing (10,30,31). The present investigation suggests that sentence production in ALS, in contrast to sentence comprehension, may rely more heavily on purely linguistic resources than on executive resources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Deficits in sentence expression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Ash

Olm

McMillan

et al. 2014

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration

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Quantitative examinations of speech production in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are rare. To identify language features minimally confounded by a motor disorder, we investigated linguistic and motor sources of impaired sentence expression in ALS, and we related deficits to gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) MRI abnormalities. We analyzed a semi-structured speech sample in 26 ALS patients and 19 healthy seniors for motor- and language-related deficits. Regression analyses related grammaticality to GM atrophy and reduced WM fractional anisotropy (FA). Results demonstrated that ALS patients were impaired relative to controls on quantity of speech, speech rate, speech articulation errors, and grammaticality. Speech rate and articulation errors were related to the patients’ motor impairment, while grammatical difficulty was independent of motor difficulty. This was confirmed in subgroups without dysarthria and without executive deficits. Regressions related grammatical expression to GM atrophy in left inferior frontal and anterior temporal regions and to reduced FA in superior longitudinal and inferior frontal-occipital fasciculi. In conclusion, patients with ALS exhibit multifactorial deficits in sentence expression. They demonstrate a deficit in grammatical expression that is independent of their motor disorder. Impaired grammatical expression is related to disease in a network of brain regions associated with syntactic processing.

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“…Literal and anomalous counterparts were created for each set by selecting different subject nouns “Y” or different verbs. All the anomalies contained a world knowledge violation, as classically employed in language research (Kutas and Hylliard, 1980; Cotelli et al, 2007). For the metaphor and approximation sets, the anomalous condition resulted from the clash of two incompatible semantic fields, while in the metonymy set the anomalies are related to selectional properties of the lexicon, and specifically of the verbs (see below for set specific criteria).…”

Section: Rating Studymentioning

confidence: 93%

Differentiating among pragmatic uses of words through timed sensicality judgments

et al. 2013

Self Cite

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Pragmatic and cognitive accounts of figurative language posit a difference between metaphor and metonymy in terms of underlying conceptual operations. Recently, other pragmatic uses of words have been accounted for in the Relevance Theory framework, such as approximation, described in terms of conceptual adjustment that varies in degree and direction with respect to the case of metaphor. Despite the theoretical distinctions, there is very poor experimental evidence addressing the metaphor/metonymy distinction, and none concerning approximation. Here we used meticulously built materials to investigate the interpretation mechanisms of these three phenomena through timed sensicality judgments. Results revealed that interpreting metaphors and approximations differs from literal interpretation both in accuracy and reaction times, with higher difficulty and costs for metaphors than for approximations. This suggests similar albeit gradual interpretative costs, in line with the latest account of Relevance Theory. Metonymy, on the contrary, almost equates literal comprehension and calls for a theoretical distinction from metaphor. Overall, this work represents a first attempt to provide an empirical basis for a theory-sound and psychologically-grounded taxonomy of figurative and loose uses of language.

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Universal grammar in the frontotemporal dementia spectrum

Cited by 36 publications

References 50 publications

What Role Does the Anterior Temporal Lobe Play in Sentence-level Processing? Neural Correlates of Syntactic Processing in Semantic Variant Primary Progressive Aphasia

What Role Does the Anterior Temporal Lobe Play in Sentence-level Processing? Neural Correlates of Syntactic Processing in Semantic Variant Primary Progressive Aphasia

Deficits in sentence expression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Differentiating among pragmatic uses of words through timed sensicality judgments

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