Parametric effects of syntactic-semantic conflict in Broca's area during sentence processing.
The hypothesized role of Broca's area in sentence processing ranges from domain-general executive function to domain-specific computation that is specific to certain syntactic structures. We examined this issue by manipulating syntactic structure and conflict between syntactic and semantic cues in a sentence processing task. Functional neuroimaging revealed that activation within several Broca's area regions of interest reflected the parametric variation in syntactic-semantic conflict. These results suggest that Broca's area supports sentence processing by mediating between multiple incompatible constraints on sentence interpretation, consistent with this area's well-known role in conflict resolution in other linguistic and non-linguistic tasks.
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States. mthotha1@swarthmore.edu
Malathi
M
Thothathiri
Albert
A
Kim
John C
JC
Trueswell
Sharon L
SL
Thompson-Schill
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult