Linguistic Memory Representations: Behavioral & Neural Assessment

描述(申请人提供)：这个项目的目标是增加对阅读过程中识别单词的基本认知过程的理解，并增加对这些过程的神经基础的理解。在认知过程方面，该项目重点研究词汇表征(在词形和词义层面)如何与感知、注意和运动控制机制相互作用，这些机制在熟练阅读中是至关重要的，以及这些词汇层面的表征如何与在语篇加工过程中产生的更高水平的意义相互作用。关于认知过程在大脑中的实例化，该项目重点关注使用眼球跟踪作为行为测量的研究和使用事件相关脑电位(ERPs)的研究得出的关于词汇处理本质的结论存在很大差异。来自这些方法的证据支持了关于单词识别速度和单词处理在多大程度上整合了广泛的不同类型信息的截然不同的结论。该项目在实验中解决了这些问题，这些实验密切协调了行为测量(阅读过程中的眼球跟踪)和神经生理测量(ERPs)的使用。该项目旨在填补目前在以下问题上的理解空白：(1)阅读过程中的词汇通达；(2)词形表征和语篇表征的相互作用；(3)词义表征和语篇表征的相互作用。实现这些目标将有助于整合当前对单词和句子水平过程的理解，并深化对语言处理中心领域中认知和神经结构的理解，从而为人类语言理论做出贡献。此外，该项目将解决有关行为和神经生理测量的敏感性以及如何结合关于语言处理的行为和神经证据的方法学知识方面的重要空白。该项目还将通过加深对处于努力前沿的结构和方法的理解，帮助诊断和修复语言和记忆障碍，以确定正常衰老、痴呆症和失语症对认知处理的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This goal of this project is to increase understanding of the basic cognitive processes by which words are recognized during reading and to increase understanding of the neural basis of those processes. With respect to cognitive processes, the project focuses on how lexical representations (at the level of word form and word meaning) interact with the mechanisms of perception, attention and motor control that are critical during skilled reading, and further how representations at those lexical levels interact with the higher-level meanings created during discourse processing. With respect to the instantiation in the brain of cognitive processes, the project focuses on substantial divergences in conclusions about the nature of lexical processing that have emerged from studies that have used eye-tracking as a behavioral measure and those that have used event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Evidence from these methods has supported very different conclusions about the speed of word recognition and about the degree to which the processing of a word integrates a broad range of different types of information. The project addresses these issues in experiments that closely coordinate the use of behavioral measures (eye-tracking during reading) and neurophysiologic measures (ERPs). The project aims to fill gaps in current understanding about the following issues: (1) lexical access during reading, (2) the interaction of word-form representations and discourse representations, and (3) the interaction of word- meaning representations and discourse representations. Achieving these aims will contribute to theories of human language by allowing integration of current understanding about word-level and sentence-level processes, and deepening understanding of cognitive and neural architectures in a central domain of language processing. In addition the project will address important gaps in methodological knowledge about the sensitivity of behavioral and neurophysiologic measures, and about how to combine behavioral and neural evidence about language processing. The project will also contribute to the diagnosis and remediation of impairments in language and memory by deepening understanding of the constructs and methods that are at the forefront of efforts to determine how cognitive processing is affected by normal aging, dementia and aphasia.