fMRI Studies of Conceptual Processes

概念过程的功能磁共振成像研究

• 批准号: 6998472
• 负责人: MARCEL Adam JUST
• 金额: $ 16.31万
• 依托单位: CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-09-30 至 2009-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6998472
• 关键词: behavioral /social science research tag; bioimaging /biomedical imaging; brain electrical activity; brain interhemispheric activity; brain mapping; clinical research; cognition; comprehension; computational neuroscience; computer simulation; cues; emotions; functional magnetic resonance imaging; human subject; imagery; language; model design /development; neural information processing

This project proposes three series of fMRI brain imaging studies to investigate high-level conceptual processes in text comprehension, particularly the comprehension of metaphor, irony, and causality. The operating characteristics of the cortical networks that underlie such processing are multifaceted, including the specification of which cortical areas activate, the time courses of their activation, and the patterns of synchronization across areas. The brain activation characteristics will be related to the underlying cognitive processes and to measures of behavioral performance, integrating the two levels of explanation. In particular, the studies will have the following specific aims, among others: ? To characterize the brain activation during the comprehension of novel, dynamically computed metaphors, in contrast to frozen metaphors (e.g. information highway) that are retrieved from memory, and in contrast to literal sentences that have no figurative meaning. 1- To determine the role of visual and auditory imagery in figurative language comprehension. 2- To examine how prosodic cues like a sarcastic tone are processed in the auditory comprehension of irony. 3- To determine how information about the emotional state of a speaker (e.g. jocular, bitter) is used to interpret an ironical utterance. 4- To examine how the relation between two events described in a text is computed, depending on whether the events are related by physical causality, social causality, serial order, or verb-based information. 5- To determine how causal connectives like Therefore affect the processing of causal relations between events described in a text. Finally, an overarching aim is to construct a common computational model within the theoretical framework that accounts for as many of the brain activation and behavioral findings as possible, postulating as small a number of plausible underlying mechanisms as possible. The research will provide tools for assessing patients with brain damage to parts of the language system and provide a basis for future therapies.

本研究提出三个系列的功能磁共振脑成像研究来探讨语篇理解中的高级概念过程，特别是隐喻、反语和因果关系的理解。作为这种处理基础的皮层网络的操作特征是多方面的，包括哪些皮层区域激活的规范，它们激活的时间过程，以及跨区域的同步模式。大脑激活特征将与潜在的认知过程和行为表现的测量相关，整合两个层次的解释。特别是，这些研究除其他外将有以下具体目标： ?为了表征小说理解过程中的大脑激活，动态计算 隐喻，与从记忆中检索的冻结隐喻（例如信息高速公路）相反，与没有比喻意义的字面句子相反。 1-确定视觉和听觉意象在比喻语言理解中的作用。 2-研究反讽的听觉理解过程中，反讽语调等韵律线索的加工过程。 3-判断说话人的情绪状态（如诙谐、痛苦）如何被用来解释反语。 4-研究文本中描述的两个事件之间的关系是如何计算的，这取决于事件是否通过物理因果关系、社会因果关系、序列顺序或基于动词的信息相关联。 5-确定因果连接词如Therefore如何影响文本中描述的事件之间因果关系的处理。 最后，一个总体目标是在理论模型中构建一个通用的计算模型。 这个框架解释了尽可能多的大脑激活和行为发现，假设尽可能少的可能合理的潜在机制。 这项研究将为评估语言系统部分脑损伤患者提供工具，并为未来的治疗提供基础。