title: Conflict and cognitive control during sentence comprehension: recruitment of a frontal network during the processing of Spanish object-first sentences.
abstract: During sentence processing there is a preference to treat the first noun phrase found as the subject and agent, unless marked the other way. This preference would lead to a conflict in thematic role assignment when the syntactic structure conforms to a non-canonical object-before-subject pattern. Left perisylvian and fronto-parietal brain networks have been found to be engaged by increased computational demands during sentence comprehension, while event-reated brain potentials have been used to study the on-line manifestation of these demands. However, evidence regarding the spatiotemporal organization of brain networks in this domain is scarce. In the current study we used Magnetoencephalography to track spatio-temporally brain activity while Spanish speakers were reading subject- and object-first cleft sentences. Both kinds of sentences remained ambiguous between a subject-first or an object-first interpretation up to the appearance of the second argument. Results show the time-modulation of a frontal network at the disambiguation point of object-first sentences. Moreover, the time windows where these effects took place have been previously related to thematic role integration (300-500 ms) and to sentence reanalysis and resolution of conflicts during processing (beyond 500 ms post-stimulus). These results point to frontal cognitive control as a putative key mechanism which may operate when a revision of the sentence structure and meaning is necessary.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Cognitive and Computational Neurosciences, Centre for Biomedical Technology, Technical University of Madrid and Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. drg.david@gmail.com
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: del Río
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Maestú
authors.forename: Ramón
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: López-Higes
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moratti
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
authors.forename: Ceferino
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maestú
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: del-Pozo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D055815:Young Adult