Contributions of Neural Memory Circuits

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的长期目标是进一步阐明语言中特质映射和规则映射之间区别的神经认知基础。该项目研究了四个问题——可分离性、计算/表示、领域特异性/普遍性和神经相关性——在相互竞争的语言神经认知模型的背景下。双系统模型声称，特质映射存储在心理词汇中，而心理语法是复杂语言表征的规则支配组成的基础。其中一种观点——陈述性/程序性模型——认为词汇依赖于颞叶陈述性记忆系统，而语法则涉及额叶/基底神经节程序性记忆系统。单系统模型假设一个计算系统，否认两种类型的映射之间的绝对区别。先前的心理语言学、发育学、神经学和神经影像学研究，主要是关于规则/不规则形态学的，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研究。(1)语言领域：我们将研究形态音韵学（在规则/不规则过去时，过去分词，复数和衍生形态中），句法（在补语/助词区分中，在形态句法功能范畴的层次结构中），以及组成语义（在确定性效应和负极性项目中）。(2)受试者群体：初步数据表明，男性和女性在相对依赖这两个大脑系统方面存在差异：男性倾向于构成复杂的语言表征，而女性倾向于记忆它们。因此，我们引入性别作为一个重要的设计因素。具体目标：我们将通过两项互补研究来检验竞争模型的预测：(i)一项对认知未受损成人的神经影像学研究，使用erp、fMRI和偶极子模型；（ii）对健康成人和成人发病脑损伤患者进行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.