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，但我们对它如何在大脑中实现知之甚少。这项提议测试了两个关于动词及其论元（例如，它们的主语和宾语）如何在大脑中加工的假设，这对失语症成年人中动词论元加工的哪些方面可能被保留或受损具有重要意义。这项研究有三个目标：（1）增加我们对共同完成动词论元加工的多个大脑系统的理解，以及它们在大脑中的位置如何与它们的不同功能相关。（粗粒度处理与细粒度处理;预测与集成）;（2）为了验证我们的假设，即患有失语症的成年人一般不太可能预测即将出现的单词，但如果他们有一个未受损的右半球（RH）或左后半球（LH），仍然会产生一类特殊的特定论元的预测;（3）了解分布在多个大脑系统的语言处理对动词论元理解的后果。 该计划包括五个实验。实验1将通过比较因LH损伤（仅前部或延伸到后部区域）而失语的参与者的表现与视觉世界中未受损参与者的表现，测试潜在事件参与者和论点预测的大脑系统定位 实验实验2将使用这种范式来测试对论点与可能事件参与者的预测是否具有不同的属性，并且由不同的大脑系统产生。实验3将监测正常成人和失语症成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迅速敏感，以验证我们的假设，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事件解释的单词来满足。实验四将采用同样的方法考察动词论元理解过程中不同脑系统的输出是否存在竞争。实验5收集了未受损参与者的fMRI数据，以提供关于论点和可能的事件参与者的预测的本地化以及动词-论点组合的解释的收敛证据。这项工作的总体目标是提高我们的理解的神经语言学过程的基础动词论元处理和他们的损害后，脑损伤。

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.