Processing of phrase structure violations and interaural time differences in the temporal cortex: An MEG study
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1
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany
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2
Institute for Psychology I, University of Leipzig, Germany
Previous investigations of early syntax processing in auditory sentences report the generators underlying the magnetic early left anterior negativity (ELANm) in anterior parts of the superior temporal gyrus and in the inferior frontal gyrus. Using visually presented sentences, a recent study questioned these results by introducing a "sensory hypothesis" of syntax processing, which postulates that sensory cortices are involved in early syntax processing. When considering auditory perception as such, previous studies showed activation within the auditory cortex to changes in interaural time differences (ITDs). Only a few studies, however, investigated ITDs with speech stimuli. The goal of the present MEG study was twofold, first to investigate the sensory syntactic processing hypothesis in the auditory domain and second to investigate the processing of infrequently occurring ITDs within a naturally spoken language. For these purposes, we contrasted sentences which were syntactically correct, included a phrase structure violation (marked by closed class morphology), an interaural time difference or the combination of both. Our results reveal stronger activation for syntactically incorrect compared to syntactically correct sentences around 140 ms in the primary auditory cortex (PAC) / planum temporale (PT) and in the middle part of the superior temporal sulcus (mSTS), maximal in the PAC/PT. Infrequent changes of the ITD within naturally spoken sentences elicited even stronger activation in the PAC/PT and mSTS, irrespectively of their grammaticality. In addition, very early effects, localized in the PAC/PT and mSTS, were found around 70 ms for syntactically incorrect sentences and sentences including an ITD. The combination of both violations resulted in even stronger activation compared to these violations alone. The observed neuronal source localization to processing ITDs in naturally spoken sentences is compatible with previous findings using simpler stimuli. Our syntax-related findings speak in favor of the sensory hypothesis in auditory sentence processing. The very early effects are interpreted to reflect the amount of preferential attention to specific stimulus information.
Conference:
MMN 09
Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Apr - 7 Apr, 2009.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster Presentations
Citation:
Herrmann
B,
Hahne
A,
Maess
B,
Schroger
E and
Friederici
A
(2009). Processing of phrase structure violations and interaural time differences in the temporal cortex: An MEG study.
Conference Abstract:
MMN 09
Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.092
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Received:
25 Mar 2009;
Published Online:
25 Mar 2009.
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Correspondence:
Björn Herrmann, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, bherrmann@cbs.mpg.de