Syntax-Semantics Interaction During Sentence Comprehension: An Individual Differences Approach

理解语言的能力是人类智力的一个标志。虽然这种能力对于神经系统正常的成年人来说似乎毫不费力，但这种轻松掩盖了复杂的潜在神经过程网络。研究语言理解的神经机制的一个主要挑战是，人们可能并不都以完全相同的方式处理语言。例如，人们识别单词的难易程度以及记住前面单词和句子信息的能力可能存在很大差异。考虑到这种个体差异，如果研究人员采用常见的神经成像方法，将经历相同刺激（例如，相同的单词）的不同人的大脑活动平均起来，那么语言处理的机制可能会变得模糊。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Albert Kim博士和他的同事Akira Miyake博士将研究语言理解的神经机制，重点关注个体之间的系统差异。金博士和三宅博士将用脑电图（EEG）记录阅读句子的参与者的脑电波活动，测量句子中每个单词的事件相关电位（ERPs）。他们将把盲源分离（BSS）算法应用的最新进展纳入到这项研究中，以分离来自不同大脑区域的快速脑电信号，并以基于功能磁共振成像的脑成像无法提供的方式，表征语言处理的神经生物学中的个体差异。语言理解的发育障碍阻碍了学业和职业上的成功，而获得性语言理解障碍，如中风后的语言理解障碍，可能从根本上使人衰弱。因此，了解语言加工的基本机制可能与语言障碍的诊断和治疗有关。由于同时测量和比较语言过程中个体差异的多种测量方法的新颖性，这项工作有可能改变该领域当前的研究实践。金博士和三宅博士将通过在适当的渠道组织特刊和在国家和国际会议上组织特别讲习班，最大限度地扩大这项工作的广泛影响。这些专题和研讨会的目标是汇集认知神经科学各个领域（如语言、记忆、注意力、决策）的研究，说明整合个体差异分析、神经认知理论和现代分析方法的理论重要性和可行性。最后，由于拟议的研究涉及多种研究方法和途径，它将为参与该项目的研究生和本科生提供非常丰富的培训机会。

The ability to comprehend language is a hallmark of human intelligence. Although this ability seems to come effortlessly to neurologically normal adults, such ease belies a complex underlying network of neural processes. A major challenge in investigating the neural mechanisms of language comprehension is that people may not all process language in exactly the same way. People may vary substantially, for example, in the ease with which they can recognize words and in their abilities to hold in mind information about the preceding words and sentences. Given such individual differences, the mechanisms of language processing can be obscured if researchers adopt the common neuroimaging practice of averaging together brain activity from different people who have experienced the same stimuli (for example, the same word). With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Albert Kim and his colleague Dr. Akira Miyake will investigate the neural mechanisms of language comprehension with a focus on systematic differences between individuals. . Dr. Kim and Dr. Miyake will record brain electrical activity using electroencephalography (EEG) from the scalps of participants who are reading sentences, measuring event related potentials (ERPs) for each word in the sentences. They will incorporate recent advances in application of blind source separation (BSS) algorithm into this research to enable separation of fast brain electrical signals from different brain regions and enable characterization of individual differences in the neurobiology of language processing in ways that cannot be provided by fMRI based brain imaging. Developmental disorders of language comprehension impede scholastic and professional success, and acquired language comprehension disorders, such as those following stroke, can be fundamentally debilitating. Thus, understanding the basic mechanisms of language processing is likely to be relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of disordered language. Because of the novelty of simultaneously measuring and comparing multiple measures of individual differences in language processes, this work has the potential to transform current research practices in the field. Dr. Kim and Dr. Miyake will maximize the broader impact of the work by organizing special journal issues in appropriate outlets and special workshops within national and international conferences. The goal of these special issues and workshops will be to assemble research in various areas in cognitive neuroscience (e.g., language, memory, attention, decision making) that illustrates the theoretical importance and viability of integrating individual differences analyses, neurocognitive theories, and modern analysis methods. Finally, because the proposed research involves multiple research methods and approaches, it will provide exceptionally rich training opportunities to the graduate students and undergraduate students who will be working on the project.