The Neuro-cognition of Word Comprehension

描述（由申请人提供）：涉及单词理解的心理和潜在神经（神经认知）操作是基于语言的交流的基础。了解大脑如何在不到半秒的时间内从大约5万个可能性中识别出单个单词，一直是心理学、神经科学和教育理论家面临的一个持续挑战。找到这个问题和相关问题的答案将代表基础语言科学向前迈出的重要一步，但也将提供一个框架，帮助隔离某些发育性语言障碍的神经认知缺陷。本研究的总体目标是从神经认知的角度继续研究词汇理解过程。本提案中概述的实验重点是回答有关时间动力学（ERP）的问题，现在是作为单词理解基础的神经网络的空间组织（MEG和fMRI）。这项研究有四个具体目标。在目标1中，我们建议测试一系列的预测时间动态的视觉单词理解来自我们最近制定的双模态交互激活模型（BIAM）的文字处理。实验提出，使用我们很好地理解ERP掩蔽启动范式，以及两个新的实验技术。我们还将在三个新的方向扩大我们的研究范围。在目标2中，我们提出了一系列新的ERP研究，旨在扩大我们的研究理解的听觉通道，使用我们新开发的双耳分听启动任务。这些研究将使我们能够更好地阐述BIAM的听觉方面。在目标3中，我们提出了一些实验，在视觉和口语文字处理之间的界面上测试来自BIAM的预测，我们假设这一水平对学习阅读的过程至关重要。最后，在目标4中，我们建议通过使用多模态成像技术来增强我们在单词理解的时间动态方面的工作。这将提供有关词汇理解所涉及的神经网络的空间组织的急需信息，并使我们能够在词汇理解的BIAM中添加解剖学成分。我们的长期目标是将这些研究扩展到正常儿童以及那些有文字处理缺陷的儿童，包括阅读障碍和SLI。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The mental and underlying neural (neuro-cognitive) operations involved in the comprehension of words are fundamental to language based communication. Understanding how the brain identifies individual words from around fifty thousand or so possibilities in less than half a second, has been a continuing challenge for theorists in psychology, neuroscience and education. Finding the answer to this and related questions would represent a major step forward in basic language science, but also would provide a framework for helping isolate the neuro-cognitive locus of deficits in certain developmental language disorders. The overall goal of the proposed research is to continue our study of word comprehension processes from a neuro-cognitive perspective. The experiments outlined in this proposal are focused on providing answers to questions about the temporal dynamics (ERPs) and now the spatial organization (MEG and fMRI) of the neural networks that underlie the comprehension of words. The proposed research has four specific aims. In Aim 1 we propose to test a series of predictions about the temporal dynamics of visual word comprehension derived from our recently elaborated Bi-modal Interactive Activation Model (BIAM) of word processing. Experiments are proposed that use our well understood ERP masked priming paradigm, as well as two new novel experimental techniques. We will also extend the scope of our research in three new directions. In Aim 2 we propose a novel series of ERP studies designed to expand our study of comprehension to the auditory modality using our newly developed dichotic priming task. These studies will allow us to better elaborate the auditory side of the BIAM. In Aim 3 we propose experiments that test predictions from the BIAM at the interface between visual and spoken word processing, a level we hypothesize is critical to the process of learning to read. Finally, in Aim 4 we propose to augment our work on the temporal dynamics of word comprehension by using multi-modal imaging techniques. This will provide much needed information about the spatial organization of the neural networks involved in word comprehension and will allow us to add an anatomical component to our BIAM of word comprehension. Our long term goal is to extend these studies to normal children as well as those with word processing deficits including dyslexia and SLI.