Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions

Abstract During language comprehension, the brain processes not only word meanings, but also the grammatical structure—the “syntax”—that strings words into phrases and sentences. Yet the neural basis of syntax remains contentious, partly due to the elusiveness of experimental designs that vary struc...

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Autores principales:	Suhail Matar, Julien Dirani, Alec Marantz, Liina Pylkkänen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/49f4669c75bf4c8092fc9ba5083cdee4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:49f4669c75bf4c8092fc9ba5083cdee42021-12-02T18:17:54ZLeft posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions10.1038/s41598-021-86474-x2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/49f4669c75bf4c8092fc9ba5083cdee42021-03-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86474-xhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract During language comprehension, the brain processes not only word meanings, but also the grammatical structure—the “syntax”—that strings words into phrases and sentences. Yet the neural basis of syntax remains contentious, partly due to the elusiveness of experimental designs that vary structure independently of meaning-related variables. Here, we exploit Arabic’s grammatical properties, which enable such a design. We collected magnetoencephalography (MEG) data while participants read the same noun-adjective expressions with zero, one, or two contiguously-written definite articles (e.g., ‘chair purple’; ‘the-chair purple’; ‘the-chair the-purple’), representing equivalent concepts, but with different levels of syntactic complexity (respectively, indefinite phrases: ‘a purple chair’; sentences: ‘The chair is purple.’; definite phrases: ‘the purple chair’). We expected regions processing syntax to respond differently to simple versus complex structures. Single-word controls (‘chair’/‘purple’) addressed definiteness-based accounts. In noun-adjective expressions, syntactic complexity only modulated activity in the left posterior temporal lobe (LPTL), ~ 300 ms after each word’s onset: indefinite phrases induced more MEG-measured positive activity. The effects disappeared in single-word tokens, ruling out non-syntactic interpretations. In contrast, left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) activation was driven by meaning. Overall, the results support models implicating the LPTL in structure building and the LATL in early stages of conceptual combination.Suhail MatarJulien DiraniAlec MarantzLiina PylkkänenNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Suhail Matar Julien Dirani Alec Marantz Liina Pylkkänen Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions
description	Abstract During language comprehension, the brain processes not only word meanings, but also the grammatical structure—the “syntax”—that strings words into phrases and sentences. Yet the neural basis of syntax remains contentious, partly due to the elusiveness of experimental designs that vary structure independently of meaning-related variables. Here, we exploit Arabic’s grammatical properties, which enable such a design. We collected magnetoencephalography (MEG) data while participants read the same noun-adjective expressions with zero, one, or two contiguously-written definite articles (e.g., ‘chair purple’; ‘the-chair purple’; ‘the-chair the-purple’), representing equivalent concepts, but with different levels of syntactic complexity (respectively, indefinite phrases: ‘a purple chair’; sentences: ‘The chair is purple.’; definite phrases: ‘the purple chair’). We expected regions processing syntax to respond differently to simple versus complex structures. Single-word controls (‘chair’/‘purple’) addressed definiteness-based accounts. In noun-adjective expressions, syntactic complexity only modulated activity in the left posterior temporal lobe (LPTL), ~ 300 ms after each word’s onset: indefinite phrases induced more MEG-measured positive activity. The effects disappeared in single-word tokens, ruling out non-syntactic interpretations. In contrast, left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) activation was driven by meaning. Overall, the results support models implicating the LPTL in structure building and the LATL in early stages of conceptual combination.
format	article
author	Suhail Matar Julien Dirani Alec Marantz Liina Pylkkänen
author_facet	Suhail Matar Julien Dirani Alec Marantz Liina Pylkkänen
author_sort	Suhail Matar
title	Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions
title_short	Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions
title_full	Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions
title_fullStr	Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions
title_full_unstemmed	Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions
title_sort	left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched arabic expressions
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/49f4669c75bf4c8092fc9ba5083cdee4
work_keys_str_mv	AT suhailmatar leftposteriortemporalcortexissensitivetosyntaxwithinconceptuallymatchedarabicexpressions AT juliendirani leftposteriortemporalcortexissensitivetosyntaxwithinconceptuallymatchedarabicexpressions AT alecmarantz leftposteriortemporalcortexissensitivetosyntaxwithinconceptuallymatchedarabicexpressions AT liinapylkkanen leftposteriortemporalcortexissensitivetosyntaxwithinconceptuallymatchedarabicexpressions
_version_	1718378271832276992

Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions

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