Neurophysiological mechanisms of language comprehension

语言理解的神经生理机制

• 批准号: 10606581
• 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/10606581
• 关键词: Academic Training; Affect; Aphasia; Area; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain; Brain Mapping; Clinical; Communication; Communication impairment; Comprehension; Diagnosis; Disease; Electric Stimulation; Electrodes; Epilepsy; Etiology; Event; Excision; Family; Funding; Goals; Hospitals; Human; Implant; Individual; Inferior frontal gyrus; Instruction; Intervention; Language; Language Disorders; Left; Linguistics; Link; Maps; Measures; Mentors; Monitor; Neurodegenerative Disorders; Outcome; Patients; Pattern; Persons; Play; Population; Publications; Qualifying; 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; career; cognitive neuroscience; common symptom; experience; experimental study; improved; insight; language comprehension; language impairment; neural; neural correlate; neurophysiology; neuroregulation; neurosurgery; novel; phrases; 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.

摘要： 在美国，语言障碍困扰着600到800万人。语言中的一个常见症状 障碍是很难理解句子的语法结构。理解这句话 “红绿灯处的车是蓝色的”指的是一辆蓝色的车，它需要将“在红绿灯处”识别为一个独特的短语。 这修饰了前面的名词短语“汽车”。有语法理解障碍的人有 这方面有困难。有颅内记录的人类神经外科患者志愿者与正常 语言功能我们之前描述了在观察到的神经活动中短语结构的构建模式 位于左侧额下回(IFG)和颞上沟(STS)。这被认为是一种因果关系 在理解句子结构中的作用，但这种作用从来没有被证明过。AIM 1将测试 这一假说是通过直接电刺激并因此瞬时扰乱左脑IFG和STS来实现的 神经外科患者志愿者在句子中的关键短语边界处观察这一点的影响 句子理解的准确性。目标2将研究神经活动和由此产生的 每次试验的行为使用自定进度的阅读任务，同时我们直接从KEY记录神经活动 语言网络站点，特别是左翼IFG和STS。我们会将神经活动与每个单词相关联 反应时间，它反映了每个单词的处理要求。此外，对于目标1中的实验，我们 将同时记录来自一个语言网络区域(IFG或STS)的活动，同时刺激另一个 展示扰乱每个区域如何影响语言网络中其他地方的活动。总而言之， 我们预计，扰乱额-时短语合并活动将可靠地产生理解错误， 这种神经活动将与短语处理的行为标记物联系在一起，并受到 以一种我们可以预测的方式进行颅内刺激，给出刺激对行为产生的结果。我们的 团队是唯一有资格实现这些目标的团队。这项建议将为我提供培训， 颅脑刺激与同步记录技术在人类患者志愿者中的应用 任务，通过正式的教学和指导加深我对理论语言学的理解，以及在 沟通障碍，特别是失语症。总之，拟议的研究和培训计划将导致 更好地了解语言障碍中的语法缺陷，从而改进治疗和 干预措施，并将扩大我作为一名神经学家的影响力，成为获得独立资助的桥梁。