Electrophysiology of Linguistic Processing

语言处理的电生理学

• 批准号: 9241395
• 负责人: MARTA KUTAS
• 金额: $ 75.01万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1986
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1986-12-01 至 2021-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9241395
• 关键词: Accounting; Address; Adopted; Algorithm Design; Automobile Driving; Biological; Books; Brain; Brain Injuries; Canis familiaris; Child; Church; Coin; Communities; Comprehension; Computer software; Consensus; Data; Dictionary; Electroencephalography; Electrophysiology (science); Event; Experimental Designs; Functional disorder; Gender; Greek; Hand; Hearing; Human; Individual; Institution; Intervention; Investigation; Knowledge; Language; Lead; Learning; Left; Life; Linguistics; Longevity; Manufactured Baseball; Measures; Mediation; Modeling; Names; Pattern; Periodicity; Process; Reading; Regression Analysis; Research; Resolution; Role; Schizophrenia; Self-Help Devices; Shoes; Specific qualifier value; Specificity; Speech Recognition Software; Speed; Stereotyping; Sum; System; Testing; Theoretical model; Therapeutic Intervention; Time; Translations; Uncertainty; Variant; Visual; Visual Fields; Voice; Walking; Work; Writing; adjudicate; analytical method; base; brain electrical activity; computer design; design; experimental study; flexibility; innovation; insight; instrument; language comprehension; lexical; millisecond; natural language; neuromechanism; novel; open source; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; semantic processing; temporal measurement; theories; young adult

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As we read and hear sentences, our intact brains quickly settle on the intended interpretation-this despite the fact that (a) individual words generally have multiple dictionary meanings (baseball vs lemonade pitcher, adopt a child vs a stance), and (b) the words alone sometimes omit details crucial for sentence interpretation (begin the book, reading? writing?). This is a long-standing problem with no consensus on an adequate, biologically realistic, theory of sentence interpretation, based on the available data. There are many theoretical alternatives, each accounting for certain phenomena of meaning indeterminacy (too many or unstated word meanings or senses). Thus, we believe what is needed for theoretical progress are new- and new kinds of-brain data that characterize in greater depth and breadth what specific content of the interpretation is computed and with what types of information (e.g., gender stereotypes, event knowledge), and when. This is now possible via systematic investigations of real-time sentence interpretation across a wider-than-previously-examined range of meaning indeterminacy, using temporally-precise measures of neural activity in intact, dynamically interpreting brains (both halves). Our experiments use brainwaves- event-related brain potentials (ERPs)-to track relevant brain processes with millisecond resolution, in both proven and novel experimental paradigms, to investigate a broad spectrum of meaning indeterminacy (homonyms, polysemes, metonyms), including words such as shoe and shoot (coined "hermenesemes") which seem unambiguous in context but may be interpreted differently, e.g., his vs her shoe and shoot with a rifle vs camera. Remarkably few studies have used brain waves to these ends, much less to figure out how human brains handle the wide range of language input rates that boggle current voice recognition software. We thus test proposals that neural oscillations adjust to word input rates and thereby impact the speed and efficiency of interpretative processes. All told, some of our proposed experiments test current alternative theories. Others, by necessity, are systematic explorations designed to address critical questions, pushing beyond the boundaries of current debate, an approach which past work shows can lead to the discovery of new phenomena and drive theory in unforeseen directions. Ultimately, we aim to answer these open questions in enough detail to be able to understand, assess, and remediate language comprehension breakdowns in developing and compromised brains across the lifespan. Understanding how the brain's two halves cope with the meaning indeterminacy of words arriving at variable rates is also likely to provide insight int the design of computer algorithms for assistive technologies for communicative and language translation purposes. In sum this project investigates sentence comprehension in the brains of healthy young adults in order to lay critical groundwork necessary for advancing both theory and therapy.

 描述（由申请人提供）：当我们阅读和听到句子时，我们完整的大脑很快就决定了预期的解释--尽管事实上（a）单个单词通常有多种字典含义（棒球vs柠檬水投手，收养一个孩子vs一个立场），（B）单词本身有时会忽略句子解释的关键细节（开始这本书，阅读？写作？）。这是一个长期存在的问题，没有一个适当的，生物现实的，句子解释理论的共识，根据现有的数据。有许多理论上的替代方案，每一个都解释了意义不确定性的某些现象（太多或未说明的单词意义或意义）。因此，我们认为理论进步所需要的是新的-和新类型的-大脑数据，这些数据在更大的深度和广度上表征了计算的解释的具体内容以及使用什么类型的信息（例如，性别刻板印象，事件知识），以及何时。这是现在可能的，通过系统的调查，实时句子的解释，在一个比以前更广泛的意义不确定性的范围内，使用时间精确的神经活动的措施，在完整的，动态解释的大脑（两半）。我们的实验使用脑电波-事件相关脑电位（ERP）-以毫秒分辨率跟踪相关的大脑过程，在经过验证的和新颖的实验范式中，研究广泛的意义不确定性（同音异义词，多义词，转喻），包括鞋子和射击（创造的“解释性”）等词，这些词在上下文中似乎是明确的，但可能会有不同的解释，例如，他对她的鞋，用步枪对相机射击。很少有研究将脑电波用于这些目的，更不用说弄清楚人类大脑如何处理令当前语音识别软件感到困惑的各种语言输入速率。因此，我们测试的建议，神经振荡调整字输入率，从而影响解释过程的速度和效率。总而言之，我们提出的一些实验测试了当前的替代理论。其他的，出于必要，是系统的探索，旨在解决关键问题，超越当前辩论的界限，过去的工作表明，这种方法可以导致发现新的现象，并将理论推向不可预见的方向。最终，我们的目标是足够详细地回答这些开放性问题，以便能够理解，评估和修复整个生命周期中发育和受损大脑的语言理解障碍。了解大脑的两个半球如何科普以可变速率到达的单词的含义不确定性，也可能为辅助技术的计算机算法设计提供洞察力，以达到沟通和语言翻译的目的。总之，这个项目调查了健康年轻人大脑中的句子理解，以便为推进理论和治疗奠定必要的关键基础。