The extended argument dependency model: a neurocognitive approach to sentence comprehension across languages.

Real-time language comprehension is a principal cognitive ability and thereby relates to central properties of the human cognitive architecture. Yet how do the presumably universal cognitive and neural substrates of language processing relate to the astounding diversity of human languages (over 5,000)? The authors present a neurocognitive model of online comprehension, the extended argument dependency model (eADM), that accounts for cross-linguistic unity and diversity in the processing of core constituents (verbs and arguments). The eADM postulates that core constituent processing proceeds in three hierarchically organized phases: (1) constituent structure building without relational interpretation, (2) argument role assignment via a restricted set of cross-linguistically motivated information types (e.

Linguistic prominence and Broca's area: the influence of animacy as a linearization principle.

Previous neuroimaging findings suggest a sensitivity of the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus (i.e. a core subregion of Broca's area) to a number of linguistic dependencies governing the linear sequencing of information in a sentence (e.

Context-sensitive neural responses to conflict resolution: electrophysiological evidence from subject-object ambiguities in language comprehension.

Reanalysis in language comprehension provides a window on how superficially similar processes of conflict resolution may differ depending on the context in which they are initiated. Thus, previous ERP studies have shown that reanalyses towards object-initial orders in German sentences with dative-active verbs (e.g.

Processing linguistic complexity and grammaticality in the left frontal cortex.

We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to directly compare the hemodynamic responses associated with varying degrees of linguistic complexity with those engendered by the processing of ungrammatical utterances. We demonstrate a dissociation within the left inferior frontal cortex between the deep frontal operculum, which responds to syntactic violations, and a core region of Broca's area, that is, the inferior portion of the left pars opercularis in Brodmann area 44, the activation of which is modulated as a function of the complexity of well-formed sentences. The data demonstrate that different brain regions in the prefrontal cortex support distinct mechanisms in the mapping from a linguistic form onto meaning, thereby separating ungrammaticality from linguistic complexity.

The emergence of the unmarked: a new perspective on the language-specific function of Broca's area.

A number of neuroimaging studies have implicated an involvement of Broca's area, particularly of the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), in the processing of complex (permuted) sentences. However, functional interpretations of this region's role range from very general (e.g.

When case meets agreement: event-related potential effects for morphology-based conflict resolution in human language comprehension.

We present event-related potential evidence from language comprehension that processing conflicts arising from the same linguistic domain and appearing within the same time range do not interact when they draw upon distinct underlying neural populations. Thus, a combined violation of two morphosyntactic information types, number-agreement and case, engendered a LAN/N400-P600 pattern, while the corresponding single violations are associated with LAN-P600 and N400-P600 responses, respectively. The absence of an interaction between the two negativities indicates that neuronal resource sharing does not result from a similarity of function, but rather requires an overlap of the underlying neuronal populations.

Who did what to whom? The neural basis of argument hierarchies during language comprehension.

The present fMRI study aimed at identifying neural correlates of the syntax-semantics interface in language comprehension. This was achieved by examining what we refer to as "argument hierarchy construction", i.e.

"Capacity" reconsidered: interindividual differences in language comprehension and individual alpha frequency.

The influence of interindividual differences in cognitive mechanisms on language comprehension remains controversial not only due to conflicting experimental findings, but also in view of the difficulty associated with determining which measure should be used in participant classification. Here, we address the latter problem by proposing that an electrophysiological measure, individual alpha frequency (IAF), may be a suitable means of classifying interindividual differences in sentence processing. Interindividual differences in IAF have been shown to correlate with performance on memory tasks and speed of information processing.

On the cost of syntactic ambiguity in human language comprehension: an individual differences approach.

We present an event-related brain potential (ERP) study demonstrating that high and low span readers show qualitatively different brain responses in the comprehension of ambiguous and complex linguistic stimuli. During the processing of ambiguous German sentences, low span readers showed a broadly distributed, sustained positivity, whereas high span participants showed a shorter, topographically more focused negativity. Qualitatively similar effects were observable in response to (complex) object-initial sentences.

Fractionating language comprehension via frequency characteristics of the human EEG.

We present a new analysis technique for EEG research on language comprehension, which dissociates superficially indistinguishable event-related potential (ERP) components. A frequency-based analysis differentiated between two apparently identical but functionally distinct N400 effects in terms of activity in separable frequency bands, and whether the activity stemmed from increased power or phase locking. Whereas linguistic problem detection is associated with theta band activity (approximately 3.

Contextual information modulates initial processes of syntactic integration: the role of inter- versus intrasentential predictions.

The authors demonstrate that intersentential context may influence syntactic integration processes during online sentence comprehension, although this influence appears to be restricted to cases in which a contextual requirement must be fulfilled. By applying event-related brain potentials to the processing of clause-medial word order variations in German, the authors show that the local processing difficulty (a negativity from 300 to 450 ms) observed for object-initial sentences in a neutral context is also obtained in a (behaviorally) facilitating context in which the object is contextually given. By contrast, the processing pattern for a focused (questioned) initial object does not differ from that for a focused subject: both elicit a parietal positivity (280-480 ms) post-onset of the focused phrase.

The neurophysiological basis of word order variations in German.

This paper aims to dissociate grammatical and general cognitive (e.g., working-memory based) accounts of the processing costs elicited by word order variations in German.

Why a "word order difference" is not always a "word order" difference: a reply to Weyerts, Penke, Münte, Heinze, and Clahsen.

We present evidence that the supposed processing advantage for an SVfinO word order over an SOVfin word order in German argued for by Weyerts, Penke, Münte, Heinze, and Clahsen (2002) is supported by neither experimental nor theoretical evidence. Specifically, we show (a) that the frontocentral negativity for an SOVfin in comparison to an SVfinO word order in Weyerts et al.'s Experiments 2 and 3 is reducible to more general differences in the electrophysiological responses elicited by nouns versus verbs in a sentence context, and (b) that the P600 difference between the two word orders in Experiment 2, as well as the reading time differences in Experiment 1, result from the fact that the two supposedly ungrammatical conditions actually differ in their degree of ill-formedness.

Grammar overrides frequency: evidence from the online processing of flexible word order.

We show that online processing difficulties induced by word order variations in German cannot be attributed to the relative infrequency of the constructions in question, but rather appear to reflect the application of grammatical principles during parsing. Event-related brain potentials revealed that dative-marked objects in the initial position of an embedded sentence do not elicit a neurophysiologically distinct response from subjects, whereas accusative-marked objects do. These differences are predictable on the basis of grammatical distinctions (i.

Beyond syntax: language-related positivities reflect the revision of hierarchies.

On the basis of an experiment using event-related brain potentials (EPRs), we argue that a characterisation of language-related positivities as necessarily syntax-related is too restrictive. Our data show that, in verb-final German clauses, the processing of a verb which disconfirms the expectations with regard to the hierarchical thematic structure of a sentence (who is doing what to whom) gives rise to an early (200-600 ms) parietal positivity. Thus, positive ERP components elicited during language processing appear to be related to operations (most often revisions) applying to hierarchically structured linguistic information in general, rather than to syntactic structure in particular.