NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE PERCEPTION--FMRI INVESTIGATIONS

语言感知的神经生物学--FMRI 研究

• 批准号: 6516179
• 负责人: Gregory Hickok
• 金额: $ 20.25万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-05-01 至 2004-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6516179
• 关键词: attention; auditory stimulus; bioimaging /biomedical imaging; brain mapping; clinical research; functional magnetic resonance imaging; human subject; neural information processing; sound perception; speech recognition

The long range goal of this project is to map the neurobiology of auditory language perception, both in terms of its linguistic sub-components and in terms of its domain specificity. The advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)--a non- invasive, high resolution functional brain imaging technique--has made the realization of this goal a real possibility in the near future. Because optimal methodological procedures for fMR imaging have yet to be worked out satisfactorily we propose a relatively small set of theoretically motivated experiments that we will carry out using protocols that can inform methodological as well as theoretical questions. Aim Concerning the Neural Organization of Language. 1. To map the extent of neural tissue involved in processing auditory language at the sentence level--a level of linguistic analysis which has been prominent in cognitive and linguistic theories but has yet to be investigated thoroughly using functional imaging techniques. 2. To determine the specificity of neural systems involved in linguistic vs. non- linguistic auditory perception. We contrast perception of sentences with perception of a range of non-linguistic auditory stimuli each of which controls for specific aspects of sentence processing such as temporal acoustic processing (backwards sentences), hierarchical structure processing (music), processing meaningful strings of sounds (environmental sound "events"). We also investigate the role of expertise in auditory processing and the neural correlates of hearing a single stimulus as linguistic versus non-linguistic signal. 3. To investigate the extent to which different aspects of the linguistic signal (prosody, lexical-semantic content, syntax) are processed in distinct neural systems. Aims Concerning Methodology. 1. To investigate reliability issues: test-retest reliability, reliability of localization, and reliability as seen in terms of repetition effects. 2. To examine empirically the cognitive basis of task effects in neuroimaging, namely, to answer the question, can task manipulations provide a window on the neural basis of linguistic perception or are we simply measuring task-specific effects. We propose a set of selective attention experiments (a widely used task manipulation) to investigate the issue. 3. Our third goal is to explore the utility of the single trial presentation format. Our prior work has demonstrated that one can present stimuli in single trials (rather than blocks of such stimuli) and obtain reliable activations, perhaps with increased sensitivity. This radically increases the flexibility of experimental design in fMRI. We assess the validity of the technique in several experiments.

该项目的长期目标是绘制听觉语言感知的神经生物学图谱，包括其语言子成分和领域特异性。功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）——一种非侵入性、高分辨率的功能性脑成像技术——的出现，使这一目标在不久的将来真正成为可能。由于fMR成像的最佳方法学程序尚未令人满意地制定出来，我们提出了一组相对较小的理论动机实验，我们将使用可以告知方法学和理论问题的协议进行实验。目的：关于语言的神经组织。在句子水平上绘制涉及处理听觉语言的神经组织的范围——这是语言分析的一个水平，在认知和语言理论中已经很突出，但尚未使用功能成像技术进行彻底的研究。2. 目的：确定语言与非语言听觉感知相关神经系统的特异性。我们将对句子的感知与对一系列非语言听觉刺激的感知进行了对比，每一种听觉刺激都控制着句子处理的特定方面，如时间声学处理（倒叙句子）、层次结构处理（音乐）、处理有意义的声音串（环境声音“事件”）。我们还研究了专业知识在听觉加工中的作用，以及听到单一刺激作为语言信号与非语言信号的神经相关性。3. 研究语言信号的不同方面（韵律、词汇语义内容、句法）在不同神经系统中的处理程度。关于方法论的目的。研究信度问题：重测信度、本地化信度和重复效应的信度。2. 为了从经验上检验神经影像学中任务效应的认知基础，也就是说，为了回答这个问题，任务操作是否为语言感知的神经基础提供了一个窗口，或者我们只是测量任务特定的效应。我们提出了一套选择性注意实验（一种广泛使用的任务操作）来研究这个问题。3. 我们的第三个目标是探索单一试用演示格式的效用。我们之前的工作已经证明，一个人可以在单一的试验中呈现刺激（而不是这样的刺激块）并获得可靠的激活，可能会增加灵敏度。这从根本上增加了fMRI实验设计的灵活性。我们在几个实验中评估了该技术的有效性。