Neural Bases of Semantic Interpretation

语义解释的神经基础

• 批准号: 0545186
• 负责人: Liina Pylkkanen
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-07-01 至 2010-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0545186&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Neural; Bases; Semantic; Interpretation

Although our understanding of the brain bases of semantic interpretation is beginning to be detailed at the level of individual lexical items, the neural mechanisms by which complex meanings are composed are still entirely unknown. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Pylkkanen will conduct a three-year investigation aimed at elucidating the spatio-temporal dynamics of complex meaning composition. Brain activity will be measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG), which offers the best combination of spatial and temporal resolution of currently available cognitive neuroscience methods. One of the most fascinating features of human language is that many meanings are not expressed overtly. For example, when a sentence such as "the boy shut the door tight" is encountered, all English speakers immediately and automatically know that this sentence describes a causal relation between an event of shutting and a state of tightness even though no overt element in the sentence describes causality. Further, all speakers converge on the interpretation that the state of tightness does not hold of the explicitly mentioned door, but rather of some unmentioned closure between the door and its frame. This project focuses on the interpretation of covert meaning, as it offers a unique opportunity to study semantic composition while largely eliminating phonological and syntactic processing. The project covers multiple levels of representational complexity and involves three sets of studies: one investigating covert complexity in individual lexical items that appear to be simple, another on the effect of semantic opacity in the processing of overtly complex words such as "sweat-er", and a third on covert meaning composition at the sentence level. The project represents a novel type of combination of cognitive neuroscience methodology with detailed representational hypotheses emerging from theoretical linguistics, reflecting Dr. Pylkkanen's combined training in the two fields. An integral part of this research is bringing together a diverse group of students and faculty from linguistics, psychology and medical and/or neuroscience backgrounds. Finally, the clinical applications of the project are potentially substantial. Semantic impairment characterizes a vast array of neurological disorders, including aphasias, schizophrenia, developmental disorders such as autism, and neurodegenerative diseases. A prerequisite for understanding semantic malfunction is first understanding how the healthy brain accesses and computes meaning.

尽管我们对语义解释的大脑基础的理解开始在单个词汇项目的水平上详细介绍，但复杂含义所构成的神经机制仍然完全未知。在国家科学基金会的支持下，Pylkkanen博士将进行为期三年的调查，旨在阐明复杂含义组成的时空动力学。脑活动将使用磁脑电图（MEG）进行测量，该脑活动将提供当前可用的认知神经科学方法的空间和时间分辨率的最佳组合。人类语言最迷人的特征之一是，许多含义并未公开表达。例如，当遇到“男孩关闭门”之类的句子时，所有说英语的说话者都立即并自动知道，即使句子中没有明显的元素描述因果关系，该句子也描述了关闭事件与紧密的状态之间的因果关系。此外，所有说话者都融合了这样的解释，即紧密的状态不符合明确提到的门，而是门与框架之间的一些未提及的闭合。该项目着重于秘密含义的解释，因为它为学习语义组成提供了独特的机会，同时在很大程度上消除了语音和句法处理。该项目涵盖了多个代表性复杂性，并涉及三组研究：一组研究似乎很简单的单个词汇项目中的秘密复杂性，另一个研究了语义不透明度在处理公开复杂词的效果上，例如“汗水”，例如“ Sweat-er”，以及第三个对句子含义在句子水平上的含义。该项目代表了认知神经科学方法论的一种新型组合，以及从理论语言学中出现的详细代表性假设，反映了佩尔卡宁博士在这两个领域中的综合培训。这项研究不可或缺的一部分是将语言学，心理学和医学和/或神经科学背景的一群学生和教职员工汇集在一起​​。最后，该项目的临床应用可能是实质的。语义障碍表征了各种各样的神经系统疾病，包括失语症，精神分裂症，自闭症等发育障碍和神经退行性疾病。理解语义故障的先决条件首先是了解健康的大脑如何访问和计算含义。