Neural Bases of Verb-Argument Processing

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然我们对语言理解了解很多，但对它在大脑中如何实现却知之甚少。该提案测试了关于动词及其论元（例如其主语和宾语）在大脑中如何处理的两个假设，这对于失语症成年人中动词论元处理的哪些方面可能被保留或受损具有重要意义。这项研究有三个目的：（1）加深我们对协同完成动词论证处理的多个大脑系统的理解，以及它们在大脑中的情况如何与它们的不同功能相关（粗粒度与细粒度处理；预测与整合）； （2）为了检验我们的假设预测，患有失语症的成年人一般不太可能预测即将出现的单词，但如果他们的右半球（RH）或左后半球（LH）未受损，仍然会产生一类特殊的针对特定论点的预测； (3) 了解跨多个大脑系统分布语言处理对动词论证理解的影响。 该提案包括五个实验。实验 1 将通过比较因 LH 损伤（仅前部区域或延伸至后部区域）而失语的参与者与视觉世界中未受损参与者的表现，来测试预测可能事件参与者和争论的大脑系统的定位 实验。实验 2 将使用此范例来测试对争论与可能事件参与者的预测是否具有不同的属性，并且是否由不同的大脑系统生成。实验3将监测未受损的成年人和患有失语症的成年人在阅读时的眼球运动，以确定哪些大脑系统对不可能的论点快速敏感，以检验我们的假设，即存在语义上空洞的论点特定预测，可以通过任何导致可能的事件解释的单词来满足。实验4将使用相同的方法来研究动词-论证理解过程中所招募的不同大脑系统的输出之间是否存在竞争。实验 5 收集来自未受影响参与者的功能磁共振成像数据，以提供关于参数和可能事件参与者的预测定位以及动词-参数组合的解释的聚合证据。这项工作的总体目标是提高我们对动词论证处理背后的神经语言过程及其在脑损伤后受损的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although we know a great deal about language comprehension, we know much less about how it is implemented in the brain. This proposal tests two hypotheses about how verbs and their arguments (e.g. their subjects and objects) are processed in the brain, which have important implications for which aspects of verb-argument processing might be preserved vs. impaired among adults with aphasia. This research has three aims: (1) To increase our understanding of the multiple brain systems that work together to accomplish verb-argument processing, and how their situation in the brain might relate to their different functions (coarse- vs. fine-grained processing; prediction vs. integration); (2) To test our hypotheses' predictions that adults with aphasia will be less likely to predict upcoming words in general, but will still generate a special class of argument-specific predictions if they have a undamaged right hemisphere (RH) or posterior left hemisphere (LH); and (3) To understand the consequences that distributing language processing across multiple brain systems has on verb-argument comprehension. The proposal includes five experiments. Experiment 1 will test the localization of the brain systems underlying the prediction of likely event participants and arguments by comparing the performance of participants with aphasia due to LH damage (either anterior only or extending to posterior areas) to that of unimpaired participants in a visual world experiment. Experiment 2 will use this paradigm to test whether predictions for arguments vs. likely event participants have different properties and are generated by different brain systems. Experiments 3 will monitor the eye movements of both unimpaired adults and adults with aphasia while they are reading to determine which brain systems are quickly sensitive to impossible arguments, in order to test our hypothesis that there are semantically vacuous argument-specific predictions that can be satisfied by any word that results in a possible event interpretation. Experiment 4 will use the same method to investigate whether there is competition between the output of the different brain systems recruited during verb-argument comprehension. Experiment 5 gathers fMRI data from unimpaired participants to provide converging evidence regarding the localization of predictions for arguments and likely event participants and the interpretation of verb- argument combinations. The overarching goal of this work is to improve our understanding of the neurolinguistic processes underlying verb-argument processing and their impairment following brain damage.