title: Fast oscillatory dynamics during language comprehension: Unification versus maintenance and prediction?
abstract: The role of neuronal oscillations during language comprehension is not yet well understood. In this paper we review and reinterpret the functional roles of beta- and gamma-band oscillatory activity during language comprehension at the sentence and discourse level. We discuss the evidence in favor of a role for beta and gamma in unification (the unification hypothesis), and in light of mounting evidence that cannot be accounted for under this hypothesis, we explore an alternative proposal linking beta and gamma oscillations to maintenance and prediction (respectively) during language comprehension. Our maintenance/prediction hypothesis is able to account for most of the findings that are currently available relating beta and gamma oscillations to language comprehension, and is in good agreement with other proposals about the roles of beta and gamma in domain-general cognitive processing. In conclusion we discuss proposals for further testing and comparing the prediction and unification hypotheses.
authors: Neurobiology of Language Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors: Ashley Glen
authors: AG
authors: Lewis
authors: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors: Lin
authors: L
authors: Wang
authors: Neurobiology of Language Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Academy for Leisure, NHTV University of Applied Sciences, Breda, The Netherlands. Electronic address: bastiaansen4.m@nhtv.nl.
authors: Marcel
authors: M
authors: Bastiaansen
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008959:Models, Neurological; D011932:Reading; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Beta; EEG; Gamma; Language comprehension; MEG; Oscillatory dynamics; Prediction; Unification