Going beyond the information given: a neural system supporting semantic interpretation.
Relating the meaning of a word to the context in which it is encountered is central to comprehension. We investigated the neural basis of this process. Subjects made decisions based on a semantic property of single nouns. The lack of sentence context created ambiguity, as nouns may have several, unrelated semantic identities. Contrasted with unambiguous decisions about each noun's sound structure, the semantic task resulted in activity in the left superior frontal gyrus (SFG), activity that was dependent on choice reaction time. This identified the left SFG as an executive component of a distributed cognitive system that relates a word's meaning to its semantic context to facilitate comprehension.
Scott
Sophie K
SK
Department of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. sophie.scott@ucl.ac.uk
Leff
Alex P
AP
Wise
Richard J S
RJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*