Paper Info
Title
Frequency-based segregation of syntactic and semantic unification during online sentence level language comprehension
Abstract
During sentence level language comprehension, semantic and syntactic unification are functionally distinct operations. Nevertheless, both recruit roughly the same brain areas spatially overlapping networks in the left frontotemporal cortex and happen at the same time in the first few hundred milliseconds after word onset. We tested the hypothesis that semantic and syntactic unification are segregated by means of neuronal synchronization of the functionally relevant networks in different frequency ranges: gamma 40 Hz and up for semantic unification and lower beta 10-20 Hz for syntactic unification. EEG power changes were quantified as participants read either correct sentences, syntactically correct though meaningless sentences syntactic prose, or sentences that did not contain any syntactic structure random word lists. Other sentences contained either a semantic anomaly or a syntactic violation at a critical word in the sentence. Larger EEG gamma-band power was observed for semantically coherent than for semantically anomalous sentences. Similarly, beta-band power was larger for syntactically correct sentences than for incorrect ones. These results confirm the existence of a functional dissociation in EEG oscillatory dynamics during sentence level language comprehension that is compatible with the notion of a frequency-based segregation of syntactic and semantic unification.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1162/jocn_a_00829
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Field
DocType
Volume
Syntactic predicate,Unification,Computer science,Semantic unification,Syntax,Linguistics,Sentence,Electroencephalography,Comprehension,Syntactic structure
Journal
27
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
11
0898-929X
4
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.44
6
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Marcel C. M. Bastiaansen1243.67
Peter Hagoort230466.52