title: Dissociating sentential prosody from sentence processing: activation interacts with task demands.
abstract: Sentence processing was contrasted with processing of syntactic prosody under two task conditions in order to examine the representation of these components of language and their interaction with working memory load. Twelve adults received fMDI scans while they listened to low-pass filtered and unfiltered sentences either passively, or during tasks that required subjects to remember and recognize information contained in the stimuli. Results indicated that temporal activation for prosodic stimuli differed compared to activation for sentence stimuli only during passive listening tasks. The inclusion of memory demands was associated with frontal activation, which was differentially lateralized for sentence and prosodic stimuli. The results demonstrate differential brain activation for prosodic vs sentential stimuli which interacts with the memory demands placed on the subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0071, USA. eplante@u.arizona.edu
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Plante
authors.forename: Marlena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Creusere
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sabin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*