Neurophysiological mechanisms of language comprehension

语言理解的神经生理机制

• 批准号: 10448901
• 负责人: Matthew John Nelson
• 金额: $ 13.54万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-04-08 至 2027-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10448901
• 关键词: Academic Training; Affect; Aphasia; Area; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain; Clinical; Communication; Communication impairment; Comprehension; Diagnosis; Disease; Electric Stimulation; Electrodes; Epilepsy; Etiology; Event; Excision; Family; Funding; Goals; Gold; Hospitals; Human; Implant; Individual; Inferior frontal gyrus; Instruction; Intervention; Language; Language Disorders; Lead; Left; Linguistics; Link; Measures; Mentors; Monitor; Neurodegenerative Disorders; Outcome; Patients; Pattern; Persons; Play; Population; Publications; Reaction Time; Reading; Research; Research Personnel; Resolution; Role; Seizures; Semantics; Site; Stroke; Structure; Structure of superior temporal sulcus; Techniques; Testing; Therapeutic; Time; Training; Traumatic Brain Injury; United States; Work; base; career; cognitive neuroscience; common symptom; experience; experimental study; improved; insight; language comprehension; language impairment; neural correlate; neurophysiology; neuroregulation; neurosurgery; novel; phrases; relating to nervous system; syntax; volunteer

Abstract: Language disorders afflict 6 to 8 million people in the United States. One common symptom in language disorders is difficulty comprehending the grammatical structure of sentences. Understanding that the sentence “The car at the stoplight is blue” refers to a blue car requires recognizing “at the stoplight” as a distinct phrase that modifies the preceding noun phrase “the car”. People with grammatical comprehension disorders have difficulty with this. With intracranial recordings in human neurosurgical patient volunteers with normal language function we previously described the patterns of phrase-structure building in neural activity observed in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and superior temporal sulcus (STS). This is hypothesized to play a causal role in the comprehension of sentence structure, but such a role has never been demonstrated. Aim 1 will test this hypothesis by directly electrically stimulating and thus transiently disrupting the left IFG and STS of neurosurgical patient volunteers at key phrasal boundaries in a sentence and observing how this affects sentence comprehension accuracy. Aim 2 will investigate a direct link between neural activity and the resulting behavior for each trial using a self-paced reading task while we record neural activity directly from key language network sites, specifically the left IFG and STS. We will correlate neural activity with per-word reaction times, which reflect the processing requirements for each word. Also, for the experiments in Aim 1 we will simultaneously record activity from one language network area (IFG or STS) while stimulating the other area to demonstrate how disrupting each area affects activity elsewhere in the language network. Altogether, we expect that disrupting fronto-temporal phrase-merging activity will reliably create comprehension errors, and that this neural activity will be tied to behavioral markers of phrase processing and affected by the intracranial stimulation in a way that we can predict given the result that the stimulation has on behavior. Our team is uniquely qualified to accomplish these aims. This proposal will provide me with training in the technique of intracranial stimulation with simultaneous recording in human patient volunteers performing a task, in deepening my understanding of theoretical linguistics through formal instruction and mentoring, and in communication disorders, specifically aphasia. In summary, the proposed studies and training plan will lead to a better understanding of grammatical deficits in language disorders, leading to improved treatments and interventions, and will expand my impact as a neuroscientist, serving as a bridge to independent funding.

抽象的： 在美国，语言障碍困扰着6至800万人。语言的一种常见症状 疾病很难理解句子的语法结构。了解这句话 “蓝色的汽车是蓝色的”是指蓝色汽车需要将“在火灯上”识别为一个独特的短语 这修改了前面的名词短语“ The Car”。具有语法理解障碍的人 很难。与正常的人类神经外科患者志愿者中的颅内记录 语言函数我们先前描述了观察到的神经活动中短语结构的模式 在左下额回（IFG）和上临时沟（STS）中。假设这是有因果关系的 在理解句子结构中的作用，但是从未证明这种角色。 AIM 1将测试 通过直接电刺激并瞬时破坏左IFG和STS的假设 在句子中关键短语边界处的神经外科患者志愿者，并观察这如何影响 句子理解精度。 AIM 2将研究神经活动与结果之间的直接联系 每次试验的行为使用自定进度的阅读任务，而我们直接从钥匙记录神经活动 语言网站，特别是左IFG和STS。我们将将神经活动与人均相关 反应时间，反映每个单词的处理要求。另外，对于AIM 1中的实验，我们 将在刺激另一个语言网络区域（IFG或STS）中简单地记录活动 展示每个区域如何影响语言网络其他地方的活动的区域。共， 我们预计破坏额快的短语合并活动将可靠地造成理解错误， 并且这种神经活动将与短语处理的行为标记相关，并受到 鉴于刺激对行为的结果，颅内刺激我们可以预测。我们的 团队具有独特的资格来实现这些目标。该建议将为我提供培训 颅内刺激的技术以及同时记录的人类患者志愿者 任务，通过形式教学和心理加深我对理论语言学的理解， 沟通障碍，特别是失语症。总而言之，拟议的研究和培训计划将导致 更好地了解语言障碍中语法缺陷，从而改善治疗方法 干预措施，并将扩大我作为神经科学家的影响，并成为独立资金的桥梁。