A Hierarchical Generative Framework of Language Processing: Linking Language Perception, Interpretation, and
Meredith Brown1, Gina R Kuperberg1
1Department of Psychiatry-Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown MA, USA ; Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford MA, USA.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|December 8, 2015
Summary
Generative probabilistic models explain how brain circuits predict language. Disruptions in schizophrenia compromise language processing and may cause thought disorder and auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs).
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Language and thought dysfunction are core to schizophrenia.
- Previous research on schizophrenia's language abnormalities has been fragmented.
- Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) and disorganized speech are key symptoms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose generative probabilistic frameworks to unify research on schizophrenia's language abnormalities.
- To link high-level semantic/contextual processing and low-level perception deficits.
- To explain the neural basis of thought disorder and AVHs.
Main Methods:
- Review of neural and cognitive evidence on generative language processing.
- Analysis of probabilistic prediction and error signaling in language.
- Integration of separate research literatures on schizophrenia and language.
Main Results:
- Normal language processing relies on generative circuits making probabilistic predictions.
- Disruptions in these circuits impair high-level and low-level language functions in schizophrenia.
- Aberrant predictions may underlie thought-disordered speech and AVHs.
Conclusions:
- Generative probabilistic frameworks offer a unified view of language dysfunction in schizophrenia.
- This perspective highlights the role of prediction errors in schizophrenia's language symptoms.
- Future research can explore these mechanisms for cognitive rehabilitation strategies.
Keywords:
auditory verbal hallucinationsgenerative modelslanguageschizophreniaspeech perceptionthought disorderMore Related Videos
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