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Incremental Language Comprehension Difficulty Predicts Activity in the Language Network but Not the Multiple Demand Network.

ABSTRACT: What role do domain-general executive functions play in human language comprehension? To address this question, we examine the relationship between behavioral measures of comprehension and neural activity in the domain-general "multiple demand" (MD) network, which has been linked to constructs like attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and selection, and implicated in diverse goal-directed behaviors. Specifically, functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected during naturalistic story listening are compared with theory-neutral measures of online comprehension difficulty and incremental processing load (reading times and eye-fixation durations). Critically, to ensure that variance in these measures is driven by features of the linguistic stimulus rather than reflecting participant- or trial-level variability, the neuroimaging and behavioral datasets were collected in nonoverlapping samples. We find no behavioral-neural link in functionally localized MD regions; instead, this link is found in the domain-specific, fronto-temporal "core language network," in both left-hemispheric areas and their right hemispheric homotopic areas. These results argue against strong involvement of domain-general executive circuits in language comprehension.

SUBMITTER: Wehbe L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8328211 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Incremental Language Comprehension Difficulty Predicts Activity in the Language Network but Not the Multiple Demand Network.

Wehbe Leila L Blank Idan Asher IA Shain Cory C Futrell Richard R Levy Roger R von der Malsburg Titus T Smith Nathaniel N Gibson Edward E Fedorenko Evelina E

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 20210701 9

What role do domain-general executive functions play in human language comprehension? To address this question, we examine the relationship between behavioral measures of comprehension and neural activity in the domain-general "multiple demand" (MD) network, which has been linked to constructs like attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and selection, and implicated in diverse goal-directed behaviors. Specifically, functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected during naturalistic ...[more]

PMID: 33895807

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Dataset Information

Incremental Language Comprehension Difficulty Predicts Activity in the Language Network but Not the Multiple Demand Network.

Publications

Incremental Language Comprehension Difficulty Predicts Activity in the Language Network but Not the Multiple Demand Network.

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