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Neural signatures of syntactic variation in speech planning
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Sauppe, Sebastian; Choudhary, Kamal K.; Giroud, Nathalie; Blasi, Damián E.; Norcliffe, Elisabeth; Bhattamishra, Shikha; Gulati, Mahima; Egurtzegi, Aitor; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina; Meyer, Martin; Bickel, Balthasar
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In: PLoS Biol (2021)
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Abstract:
Planning to speak is a challenge for the brain, and the challenge varies between and within languages. Yet, little is known about how neural processes react to these variable challenges beyond the planning of individual words. Here, we examine how fundamental differences in syntax shape the time course of sentence planning. Most languages treat alike (i.e., align with each other) the 2 uses of a word like “gardener” in “the gardener crouched” and in “the gardener planted trees.” A minority keeps these formally distinct by adding special marking in 1 case, and some languages display both aligned and nonaligned expressions. Exploiting such a contrast in Hindi, we used electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking to suggest that this difference is associated with distinct patterns of neural processing and gaze behavior during early planning stages, preceding phonological word form preparation. Planning sentences with aligned expressions induces larger synchronization in the theta frequency band, suggesting higher working memory engagement, and more visual attention to agents than planning nonaligned sentences, suggesting delayed commitment to the relational details of the event. Furthermore, plain, unmarked expressions are associated with larger desynchronization in the alpha band than expressions with special markers, suggesting more engagement in information processing to keep overlapping structures distinct during planning. Our findings contrast with the observation that the form of aligned expressions is simpler, and they suggest that the global preference for alignment is driven not by its neurophysiological effect on sentence planning but by other sources, possibly by aspects of production flexibility and fluency or by sentence comprehension. This challenges current theories on how production and comprehension may affect the evolution and distribution of syntactic variants in the world’s languages.
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Keyword:
Short Reports
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URL: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001038
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7837500/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33497384
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Case Syncretism, Animacy, and Word Order in Continental West Germanic: Neurolinguistic Evidence from a Comparative Study on Standard German, Zurich German, and Fering (North Frisian) ...
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Individual Differences in Peripheral Hearing and Cognition Reveal Sentence Processing Differences in Healthy Older Adults
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In: Front Neurosci (2020)
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Language processing as a precursor to language change : evidence from Icelandic
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| 12 |
Of Trees and Birds ... : A Festschrift for Gisbert Fanselow ...
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| 15 |
Toward a Neurobiologically Plausible Model of Language-Related, Negative Event-Related Potentials
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| 16 |
The exceptional nature of the first person in natural story processing and the transfer of egocentricity
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| 17 |
Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation and Incremental Sentence Comprehension : Computational Dependencies during Language Learning as Revealed by Neuronal Oscillations
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Comprehension demands modulate re-reading, but not first-pass reading behavior
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Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation and Incremental Sentence Comprehension: Computational Dependencies during Language Learning as Revealed by Neuronal Oscillations
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