Neural aspects of sentence comprehension: syntactic complexity, reversibility, and reanalysis.

ABSTRACT: Broca's area is preferentially activated by reversible sentences with complex syntax, but various linguistic factors may be responsible for this finding, including syntactic movement, working-memory demands, and post hoc reanalysis. To distinguish between these, we tested the interaction of syntactic complexity and semantic reversibility in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of sentence-picture matching. During auditory comprehension, semantic reversibility induced selective activation throughout the left perisylvian language network. In contrast, syntactic complexity (object-embedded vs. subject-embedded relative clauses) within reversible sentences engaged only the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and left precentral gyrus. Within irreversible sentences, only the LIFG was se

SUBMITTER: Meltzer JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2901020 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature