Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Neural basis of processing sequential and hierarchical syntactic structures.

Bertram Opitz1, Angela D Friederici

  • 1Department of Psychology, Experimental Neuropsychology Unit, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany. b.opitz@mx.uni-saarland.de

Human Brain Mapping
|April 25, 2007
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Grammar acquisition in preschool children is related to white matter maturation of the dorsal language network.

Developmental cognitive neuroscience·2026
Same author

The coming decade of digital brain research: A vision for neuroscience at the intersection of technology and computing.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025
Same author

Assessing quantitative MRI techniques using multimodal comparisons.

PloS one·2025
Same author

Versatile use of chimpanzee call combinations promotes meaning expansion.

Science advances·2025
Same author

Characterizing Directional Dynamics of Semantic Prediction Based on Inter-regional Temporal Generalization.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2025
Same author

Functional and structural brain asymmetries in language processing.

Handbook of clinical neurology·2025
Same journal

Benchmarking fMRI Denoising Pipelines.

Human brain mapping·2026
Same journal

Modeled Long-Term Effects of Psilocybin on Dynamic Activity and Effective Connectivity of Fronto-Striatal-Thalamic Circuits.

Human brain mapping·2026
Same journal

Intrinsic Functional Architecture Reflects Individual Differences in Passive Working Memory: An Exploratory Resting-State fMRI Study.

Human brain mapping·2026
Same journal

Symptom Overlap and Neurobiological Similarities Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Tinnitus.

Human brain mapping·2026
Same journal

Test-Retest Reliability of Sensorimotor Activity Measured With Spinal Cord fMRI.

Human brain mapping·2026
Same journal

The Human Visual Claustrum Responses to Physical Stimulus Properties and Subjective Content During Movie Viewing.

Human brain mapping·2026
See all related articles

The brain processes language rules differently based on complexity. Local language rules activate the ventral premotor cortex (PMC), while complex, long-distance dependencies engage Broca's area (BA 44).

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Human language acquisition involves complex psychological processes.
  • Previous research suggests frontal cortex involvement in rule-based language learning.
  • Specific frontal cortex regions may vary depending on the type of rules processed.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural mechanisms of rule-based language processing.
  • To differentiate brain activation for local vs. long-distance syntactic dependencies.
  • To explore the role of the frontal cortex in processing artificial language structures.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
  • An artificial language was designed to compare local and hierarchical dependencies.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Neural activity was analyzed during exposure to different rule types.

    • Main Results:

    • Left ventral premotor cortex (PMC) activation correlated with local rule changes.
    • Long-distance dependencies activated the opercular part of the inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area, BA 44).
    • Hippocampal activity was observed for local dependencies, suggesting a dual-mechanism.

    Conclusions:

    • Syntactic processing in the brain is dependent on the type of rule involved.
    • Broca's area (BA 44/45) is crucial for processing long-distance dependencies in language.
    • The ventral PMC appears to process local dependencies, potentially with hippocampal involvement.