Determinants of Bold Signal Correlates of Processing Object-Extracted Relative Clauses

Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the determinants of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal correlates of processing relative clauses. Matched pairs of sentences that differed in their processing demands were compared. One member of the pair consisted of a syntactically simpler object-subject (OS) sentence, containing a subject-relativized clause attached to the object noun phrase. The second member of the pair consisted of a syntactically more complex subject-object (SO) sentence, containing an object-relativized clause attached to the subject noun phrase. Participants made plausibility judgments about the sentences in whole sentence visual presentation. Voxel-wise statistical activation maps showed increased BOLD signal in multiple cortical regions for complex compared to simple syntactic structures. This pattern was found for plausible sentences only and, within the set of plausible sentences, for SO sentences in which the head noun of the relative clause was animate and the subject noun of the relative clause was inanimate. These results require a re-interpretation of previous results with the same materials using positron emission tomography.

[1]  G. Waters,et al.  Vascular responses to syntactic processing: Event‐related fMRI study of relative clauses , 2002, Human brain mapping.

[2]  Anders M. Dale,et al.  Automated manifold surgery: constructing geometrically accurate and topologically correct models of the human cerebral cortex , 2001, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[3]  C. Fiebach,et al.  Separating syntactic memory costs and syntactic integration costs during parsing: the processing of German WH-questions , 2002 .

[4]  R W Cox,et al.  AFNI: software for analysis and visualization of functional magnetic resonance neuroimages. , 1996, Computers and biomedical research, an international journal.

[5]  Michael K. Tanenhaus,et al.  Linguistic Structure in Language Processing , 1988 .

[6]  A. Dale,et al.  High‐resolution intersubject averaging and a coordinate system for the cortical surface , 1999, Human brain mapping.

[7]  A. Galaburda,et al.  Human Cerebral Cortex: Localization, Parcellation, and Morphometry with Magnetic Resonance Imaging , 1992, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[8]  David Caplan,et al.  Individual differences in rCBF correlates of syntactic processing in sentence comprehension: effects of working memory and speed of processing , 2003, NeuroImage.

[9]  M. Kutas,et al.  An electrophysiological analysis of animacy effects in the processing of object relative sentences. , 1999, Psychophysiology.

[10]  Martin J. Pickering,et al.  Processing local and unbounded dependencies: A unified account , 1994 .

[11]  J. Gee,et al.  Neural basis for sentence comprehension: Grammatical and short‐term memory components , 2002, Human brain mapping.

[12]  M. Just,et al.  Individual differences in syntactic processing: The role of working memory , 1991 .

[13]  A M Dale,et al.  Estimation and detection of event‐related fMRI signals with temporally correlated noise: A statistically efficient and unbiased approach , 2000, Human brain mapping.

[14]  David Caplan,et al.  Effects of age and speed of processing on rCBF correlates of syntactic processing in sentence comprehension , 2003, Human brain mapping.

[15]  N. Alpert,et al.  Localization of Syntactic Comprehension by Positron Emission Tomography , 1996, Brain and Language.

[16]  M. Pickering,et al.  Dependency categorial grammar and coordination , 1993 .

[17]  Lyn Frazier,et al.  Successive cyclicity in the grammar and the parser , 1989 .

[18]  Colin M. Brown,et al.  Syntactic Processing in Left Prefrontal Cortex Is Independent of Lexical Meaning , 2001, NeuroImage.

[19]  T. Hendler,et al.  The Neural Reality of Syntactic Transformations , 2003, Psychological science.

[20]  A. Dale,et al.  Selective averaging of rapidly presented individual trials using fMRI , 1997, Human brain mapping.

[21]  C. Clifton,et al.  Comprehending Sentences with Long-Distance Dependencies , 1989 .

[22]  M. Just,et al.  From the SelectedWorks of Marcel Adam Just 1992 A capacity theory of comprehension : Individual differences in working memory , 2017 .

[23]  A. Dale,et al.  Cortical Surface-Based Analysis II: Inflation, Flattening, and a Surface-Based Coordinate System , 1999, NeuroImage.

[24]  E. Gibson.  Linguistic complexity: locality of syntactic dependencies , 1998, Cognition.

[25]  Robin K. Morris,et al.  Processing Subject and Object Relative Clauses: Evidence from Eye Movements , 2002 .

[26]  M. Just,et al.  Brain Activation Modulated by Sentence Comprehension , 1996, Science.

[27]  E C Wong,et al.  Processing strategies for time‐course data sets in functional mri of the human brain , 1993, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[28]  G. Waters,et al.  Working memory and written sentence comprehension , 1987 .

[29]  R Turner,et al.  Signal sources in bold contrast fMRI. , 1997, Advances in experimental medicine and biology.

[30]  N. Makris,et al.  MRI-Based Topographic Parcellation of Human Neocortex: An Anatomically Specified Method with Estimate of Reliability , 1996, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[31]  Martin J. Pickering,et al.  Sentence processing without empty categories , 1991 .

[32]  Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel,et al.  Question/statement judgments: An fMRI study of intonation processing , 2004, Human brain mapping.

[33]  Anders M. Dale,et al.  Cortical Surface-Based Analysis I. Segmentation and Surface Reconstruction , 1999, NeuroImage.

[34]  A M Dale,et al.  Randomized event‐related experimental designs allow for extremely rapid presentation rates using functional MRI , 1998, Neuroreport.

[35]  G. Waters,et al.  PET Studies of Syntactic Processing with Auditory Sentence Presentation , 1999, NeuroImage.

[36]  David Caplan,et al.  Effects of Syntactic Structure and Propositional Number on Patterns of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow , 1998, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[37]  G. Waters,et al.  Activation of Broca's area by syntactic processing under conditions of concurrent articulation , 2000, Human brain mapping.

[38]  David Caplan,et al.  Interaction of verb selectional restrictions, noun animacy and syntactic form in sentence processing , 1994 .

[39]  A M Dale,et al.  Optimal experimental design for event‐related fMRI , 1999, Human brain mapping.

[40]  A D Friederici,et al.  Syntactic Working Memory and the Establishment of Filler-Gap Dependencies: Insights from ERPs and fMRI , 2001, Journal of psycholinguistic research.