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High gamma response tracks different syntactic structures in homophonous phrases.

ABSTRACT: Syntax is a species-specific component of human language combining a finite set of words in a potentially infinite number of sentences. Since words are by definition expressed by sound, factoring out syntactic information is normally impossible. Here, we circumvented this problem in a novel way by designing phrases with exactly the same acoustic content but different syntactic structures depending on the other words they occur with. In particular, we used phrases merging an article with a noun yielding a Noun Phrase (NP) or a clitic with a verb yielding a Verb Phrase (VP). We performed stereo-electroencephalographic (SEEG) recordings in epileptic patients. We measured a different electrophysiological correlates of verb phrases vs. noun phrases in multiple cortical areas in both hemispheres, including language areas and their homologous in the non-dominant hemisphere. The high gamma band activity (150-300?Hz frequency), which plays a crucial role in inter-regional cortical communications, showed a significant difference during the presentation of the homophonous phrases, depending on whether the phrase was a verb phrase or a noun phrase. Our findings contribute to the ultimate goal of a complete neural decoding of linguistic structures from the brain.

SUBMITTER: Artoni F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7200802 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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High gamma response tracks different syntactic structures in homophonous phrases.

Artoni Fiorenzo F d'Orio Piergiorgio P Catricalà Eleonora E Conca Francesca F Bottoni Franco F Pelliccia Veronica V Sartori Ivana I Russo Giorgio Lo GL Cappa Stefano F SF Micera Silvestro S Moro Andrea A

Scientific reports 20200505 1

Syntax is a species-specific component of human language combining a finite set of words in a potentially infinite number of sentences. Since words are by definition expressed by sound, factoring out syntactic information is normally impossible. Here, we circumvented this problem in a novel way by designing phrases with exactly the same acoustic content but different syntactic structures depending on the other words they occur with. In particular, we used phrases merging an article with a noun y ...[more]

PMID: 32372065

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Dataset Information

High gamma response tracks different syntactic structures in homophonous phrases.

Publications

High gamma response tracks different syntactic structures in homophonous phrases.

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