4.7 Article

Neural correlates of syntactic movement: converging evidence from two fMRI experiments

Journal

NEUROIMAGE
Volume 21, Issue 4, Pages 1320-1336

Publisher

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.11.027

Keywords

fMRI; syntactic movement; topicalization

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This paper studies neural processes of sentence comprehension, focusing on a specific syntactic operation-syntactic movement. We describe two fMRI experiments that manipulate this particular syntactic component. The sentences in each of the experiments are different, yet the structural contrast in both is syntactically identical, comparing movement and no-movement sentences. Two distinct Hebrew constructions, topicalization and wh-questions, were presented in an auditory comprehension task and compared to carefully matched baseline sentences. We show that both contrasts, presented in. an auditory comprehension task, yield comparable activations in a consistent set of brain regions, including left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left ventral precentral sulcus (vPCS), and bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS). Furthermore, we show that these regions are not sensitive to two other syntactic contrasts. The results, considered in the context of previous imaging and lesion studies, suggest that the processing of syntactic movement involves a consistent et of brain regions, regardless of the superficial properties of the sentences at issue, and irrespective of task. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available