Integration demands modulate effective connectivity in a fronto-temporal network for contextual sentence integration.
Gesa Hartwigsen1, Ilona Henseler2, Anika Stockert3
1Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig, Germany; Language & Aphasia Laboratory, Department of Neurology, University of Leipzig, Germany.
Neuroimage
|August 21, 2016
Summary
Understanding sentence comprehension requires examining brain networks. This study reveals how left-hemisphere regions, like the anterior inferior frontal gyrus, inhibit other areas to integrate unexpected sentence endings.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Left-hemispheric frontal and temporal brain regions are known to support sentence contextual integration.
- The precise influence and interaction between these regions during integration remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate task-related changes in effective connectivity within the left-hemispheric language network during sentence comprehension.
- To elucidate how different brain regions interact to integrate contextual information, particularly when encountering unexpected or anomalous sentence endings.
Main Methods:
- Utilized dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to analyze functional neuroimaging data.
- Examined effective connectivity changes in response to expected, unexpected, and semantically anomalous sentence endings.
- Employed probabilistic fiber tracking to identify white matter tracts mediating effective connectivity.
Main Results:
- Increased neural activity observed in left anterior inferior frontal gyrus (aIFG), posterior superior temporal sulcus/middle temporal gyrus (pSTS/MTG), and anterior superior temporal sulcus/MTG (aSTS/MTG) during integration of unexpected or anomalous endings.
- DCM revealed that unexpected endings enhanced inhibitory influence from left aSTS/MTG to pSTS/MTG.
- Semantically anomalous endings led to increased inhibitory drive from left aIFG to pSTS/MTG.
Conclusions:
- Sentence comprehension, especially with challenging endings, involves inhibitory mechanisms within a left-hemispheric network.
- The left pSTS/MTG appears to be inhibited, potentially suppressing dominant expected sentence continuations.
- Findings advance understanding of large-scale neural networks in sentence processing and may inform studies on language disorders like post-stroke aphasia.
Keywords:
Dynamic causal modelingInferior frontal gyrusLanguagePrimingSemantic processingTemporal cortexMore Related Videos
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