Electrophysiology of Linguistic Processing

 描述(申请人提供)：当我们阅读和听到句子时，我们完整的大脑很快就会确定想要的解释--尽管事实是(A)单个单词通常有多种词典含义(棒球和柠檬水罐，收养一个孩子和一个立场)，以及(B)单独的单词有时会省略对句子解释至关重要的细节(从书开始，阅读？写作？)。这是一个长期存在的问题，在现有数据的基础上，没有就充分的、生物上现实的句子解释理论达成共识。有许多理论上的选择，每一种都解释了某些意义不确定的现象(太多或未陈述的词义或意义)。因此，我们认为，理论进步需要的是新的--和新类型的--大脑数据，这些数据更深入和更广泛地表征解释的具体内容是什么，以及用什么类型的信息(例如，性别定型观念、事件知识)以及何时计算的。现在，这是可能的，通过系统地研究实时句子解释，跨越比之前检查的更广泛的含义不确定性范围，使用完整的、动态翻译的大脑(两个半脑)中神经活动的时间精确测量。我们的实验使用脑波-事件相关脑电位(ERPs)-在经过验证和新颖的实验范式中以毫秒的分辨率跟踪相关的大脑过程，以调查广泛的意义不确定性(同音异义词、多义词、转喻)，包括在上下文中似乎明确但可能被不同解释的单词，如他和她的鞋子以及用步枪和相机射击。值得注意的是，很少有研究使用脑电波来达到这些目的，更不用说弄清楚人类大脑如何处理当前令人困惑的语音识别软件的广泛语言输入速率。因此，我们测试了神经振荡调整到单词输入率，从而影响解释过程的速度和效率的提议。总而言之，我们提议的一些实验测试了当前的替代理论。其他的必然是系统的探索，旨在解决关键问题，超越当前辩论的界限，过去的工作表明，这种方法可以导致新现象的发现，并将理论推向不可预见的方向。最终，我们的目标是足够详细地回答这些悬而未决的问题，以便能够理解、评估和补救在整个生命周期中大脑发育和受损的语言理解障碍。了解大脑的两个半边是如何处理以不同速率到达的单词的含义不确定性，也可能为设计用于交际和语言翻译目的辅助技术的计算机算法提供洞察力。总而言之，这个项目调查了健康年轻人的大脑中的句子理解，以便为推进理论和治疗奠定必要的关键基础。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As we read and hear sentences, our intact brains quickly settle on the intended interpretation-this despite the fact that (a) individual words generally have multiple dictionary meanings (baseball vs lemonade pitcher, adopt a child vs a stance), and (b) the words alone sometimes omit details crucial for sentence interpretation (begin the book, reading? writing?). This is a long-standing problem with no consensus on an adequate, biologically realistic, theory of sentence interpretation, based on the available data. There are many theoretical alternatives, each accounting for certain phenomena of meaning indeterminacy (too many or unstated word meanings or senses). Thus, we believe what is needed for theoretical progress are new- and new kinds of-brain data that characterize in greater depth and breadth what specific content of the interpretation is computed and with what types of information (e.g., gender stereotypes, event knowledge), and when. This is now possible via systematic investigations of real-time sentence interpretation across a wider-than-previously-examined range of meaning indeterminacy, using temporally-precise measures of neural activity in intact, dynamically interpreting brains (both halves). Our experiments use brainwaves- event-related brain potentials (ERPs)-to track relevant brain processes with millisecond resolution, in both proven and novel experimental paradigms, to investigate a broad spectrum of meaning indeterminacy (homonyms, polysemes, metonyms), including words such as shoe and shoot (coined "hermenesemes") which seem unambiguous in context but may be interpreted differently, e.g., his vs her shoe and shoot with a rifle vs camera. Remarkably few studies have used brain waves to these ends, much less to figure out how human brains handle the wide range of language input rates that boggle current voice recognition software. We thus test proposals that neural oscillations adjust to word input rates and thereby impact the speed and efficiency of interpretative processes. All told, some of our proposed experiments test current alternative theories. Others, by necessity, are systematic explorations designed to address critical questions, pushing beyond the boundaries of current debate, an approach which past work shows can lead to the discovery of new phenomena and drive theory in unforeseen directions. Ultimately, we aim to answer these open questions in enough detail to be able to understand, assess, and remediate language comprehension breakdowns in developing and compromised brains across the lifespan. Understanding how the brain's two halves cope with the meaning indeterminacy of words arriving at variable rates is also likely to provide insight int the design of computer algorithms for assistive technologies for communicative and language translation purposes. In sum this project investigates sentence comprehension in the brains of healthy young adults in order to lay critical groundwork necessary for advancing both theory and therapy.