Rules from words: a dynamic neural basis for a lawful linguistic process.
Listeners show a reliable bias towards interpreting speech sounds in a way that conforms to linguistic restrictions (phonotactic constraints) on the permissible patterning of speech sounds in a language. This perceptual bias may enforce and strengthen the systematicity that is the hallmark of phonological representation. Using Granger causality analysis of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-constrained magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) data, we tested the differential predictions of rule-based, frequency-based, and top-down lexical influence-driven explanations of processes that produce phonotactic biases in phoneme categorization. Consistent with the top-down lexical influence account, brain regions associated with the representation of words had a stronger influence on acoustic-phonetic regions in trials that led to the identification of phonotactically legal (versus illegal) word-initial consonant clusters. Regions associated with the application of linguistic rules had no such effect. Similarly, high frequency phoneme clusters failed to produce stronger feedforward influences by acoustic-phonetic regions on areas associated with higher linguistic representation. These results suggest that top-down lexical influences contribute to the systematicity of phonological representation.
Neuropsychology Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America ; Department of Psychology, Salem State University, Salem, Massachusetts, United States of America ; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
David W
DW
Gow
Neuropsychology Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America ; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America.
A Conrad
AC
Nied
D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D015225:Magnetoencephalography / Q000379:methods; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*