NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE PERCEPTION--FMRI INVESTIGATIONS

语言感知的神经生物学--FMRI 研究

• 批准号: 6634484
• 负责人: Gregory Hickok
• 金额: $ 24.47万
• 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 2005-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6634484
• 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，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、高分辨率功能性脑成像技术——的出现使得这一目标在不久的将来成为现实。 由于 fMR 成像的最佳方法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驱动实验，我们将使用可以告知方法论和理论问题的协议来进行这些实验。 关于语言神经组织的目标。 1. 绘制句子层面处理听觉语言所涉及的神经组织的范围——这是一种语言分析层面，在认知和语言理论中一直很突出，但尚未使用功能成像技术进行彻底研究。 2. 确定涉及语言与非语言听觉感知的神经系统的特异性。 我们将句子的感知与一系列非语言听觉刺激的感知进行对比，每个非语言听觉刺激控制句子处理的特定方面，例如时间声学处理（向后句子）、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处理中的作用以及听到单个刺激作为语言信号与非语言信号的神经相关性。 3. 研究不同神经系统处理语言信号不同方面（韵律、词汇语义内容、句法）的程度。 关于方法论的目标。 1. 研究可靠性问题：重测可靠性、定位可靠性以及重复效果方面的可靠性。 2. 实证检验神经影像中任务效应的认知基础，即回答问题，任务操作能否提供语言感知神经基础的窗口，或者我们只是测量特定任务的效应。 我们提出了一组选择性注意实验（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验演示格式的实用性。 我们之前的工作已经证明，人们可以在单次试验中呈现刺激（而不是此类刺激的块）并获得可靠的激活，或许还可以提高灵敏度。这从根本上增加了功能磁共振成像实验设计的灵活性。 我们通过几个实验评估了该技术的有效性。