Neural integration of language production and comprehension

Two key assumptions underpin the cognitive neuroscience of language. First, there is a clear-cut split between the processes involved in understanding an utterance (recognizing a word, resolving ambiguity) and the processes involved in crafting that utterance (translating an idea into sound or writing). For example, the “classic” Lichtheim–Broca–Wernicke model proposes distinct anatomical pathways associated with production and comprehension, primarily on the basis of deficit–lesion correlations in aphasia (1). Second, researchers assume that the linguistic mechanisms are lateralized, with production processes (e.g., lexical selection, articulation) and, to some extent, comprehension processes primarily occurring in the left hemisphere. Silbert et al. (2) report a neuroimaging study based on the production and comprehension of naturalistic narrative that challenges these two assumptions.

[1]  D. Thiele,et al.  Assembling the pieces. , 2008, Nature chemical biology.

[2]  Patti Adank,et al.  The neural bases of difficult speech comprehension and speech production: Two Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analyses , 2012, Brain and Language.

[3]  Gary S Dell,et al.  The P-chain: relating sentence production and its disorders to comprehension and acquisition , 2014, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[4]  Maryellen C. MacDonald,et al.  How language production shapes language form and comprehension , 2012, Front. Psychol..

[5]  M. Pickering,et al.  Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue , 2004, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[6]  M. Pickering,et al.  An integrated theory of language production and comprehension. , 2013, The Behavioral and brain sciences.

[7]  David Swinney,et al.  Language and the brain : representation and processing , 2000 .

[8]  Feng Rong,et al.  Sensorimotor Integration in Speech Processing: Computational Basis and Neural Organization , 2011, Neuron.

[9]  Peter Hagoort,et al.  Beyond the language given: the neural correlates of inferring speaker meaning. , 2014, Cerebral cortex.

[10]  D. Poeppel,et al.  Coupled neural systems underlie the production and comprehension of naturalistic narrative speech , 2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[11]  Frank H Guenther,et al.  The DIVA model: A neural theory of speech acquisition and production , 2011, Language and cognitive processes.

[12]  S. Goldinger Echoes of echoes? An episodic theory of lexical access. , 1998, Psychological review.

[13]  H. Mitterer,et al.  The link between speech perception and production is phonological and abstract: Evidence from the shadowing task , 2008, Cognition.

[14]  L. Fadiga,et al.  Active perception: sensorimotor circuits as a cortical basis for language , 2010, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[15]  Alexandra A. Cleland,et al.  Syntactic co-ordination in dialogue , 2000, Cognition.

[16]  David Poeppel,et al.  Functional Anatomic Models of Language: Assembling the Pieces , 2008, The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry.

[17]  W. Levelt,et al.  Speaking: From Intention to Articulation , 1990 .

[18]  Sophie K. Scott,et al.  A little more conversation, a little less action — candidate roles for the motor cortex in speech perception , 2009, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[19]  P. Kay,et al.  Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[20]  Antje S. Meyer,et al.  Exploring the time course of lexical access in language production : Picture word interference studies , 1990 .