Contributions of Neural Memory Circuits

描述(由申请人提供)：这个项目的长期目标是进一步阐明语言中特殊映射和规则控制映射之间区别的神经认知基础。该项目在相互竞争的语言神经认知模型的背景下，研究了四个问题--分离性、计算/表征、领域特异性/概括性和神经相关性。双重系统模型认为，特殊映射存储在心理词典中，而心理语法是复杂语言表征规则控制的基础。一种这样的观点--陈述性/程序性模型--认为词汇依赖于时间叶-陈述性记忆系统，而语法涉及额叶/基底节程序性记忆系统。单一系统模型假设了一个计算系统，否认了两种映射类型之间的范畴区别。以前的心理语言学、发展学、神经学和神经成像研究，主要是关于规则/不规则形态的研究，已经开始梳理这些模型。我们建议在两个维度上复制和扩展这项研究。(1)语言域：我们将研究形态音系学(在规则/不规则过去时、过去分词、复数和派生形态中)、句法(在补语/助词区分中，以及在形态句法功能范畴的层级中)，以及成分语义(在确定性效应和负极性项中)。(2)受试者分组：初步数据表明，男性和女性对这两个大脑系统的相对依赖程度不同：男性倾向于组成复杂的语言表达，而女性倾向于记住它们。因此，我们将性作为一个重要的设计因素。具体目标：我们将通过两项互补的研究来检验相互竞争的模型的预测：(I)使用ERPs、fMRI和偶极模型对认知正常的成年人进行的神经成像研究；以及(Ii)对健康成年人和成年脑损伤患者进行的心理语言学和神经学研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this project is to further elucidate the neurocognitive underpinnings of the distinction in language between idiosyncratic and rule-governed mappings. The project examines four issues - separability, computation/representation, domain-specificity/-generality, and neural correlates - in the context of competing neurocognitive models of language. Dual-system models claim that idiosyncratic mappings are stored in the mental lexicon, while the mental grammar underlies the rule-governed composition of complex linguistic representations. One such view - the declarative/procedural model - argues that the lexicon depends on the temporal-lobe- declarative memory system, whereas grammar involves the frontal/basal-ganglia procedural memory system. Single-system models posit one computational system, denying a categorical distinction between the two types of mapping. Previous psycholinguistic, developmental, neurological and neuroimaging studies, largely on regular/irregular morphology, have begun to tease apart the models. We propose to replicate and extend the research in two dimensions. (1) Linguistic domains: We will examine morpho-phonology (in regular/irregular past tense, past participle, plural, and derivational morphology), syntax (in the complement/adjunct distinction, and in the hierarchy of morphosyntactic functional categories), and compositional semantics (in the definiteness effect, and negative polarity items). (2) Subject groups: Preliminary data suggest that men and women differ in their relative reliance on the two brain systems: Whereas men tend to compose complex linguistic representations, women tend to memorize them. Thus we introduce sex as an important design factor. Specific aims: We will test the predictions of the competing models with two complementary studies: (i) a neuroimaging study of cognitively unimpaired adults, using ERPs, fMRI and dipole modeling; and (ii) a psycholinguistic and neurological study of healthy adults and of adult-onset brain-damaged patients.