A structural distance effect for backward anaphora in Broca%26apos;s area: An fMRI study

作者：Matchin William^*; Sprouse Jon; Hickok Gregory

来源：Brain and Language, 2014, 138: 1-11.

DOI：10.1016/j.bandl.2014.09.001

• Syntax
• Sentence processing
• fMRI
• Left inferior frontal gyrus
• Broca%26apos
• s area
• Prediction
• Cognitive control
• Syntactic movement
• Anaphora
• English

Accounts of the role of Broca%26apos;s area in sentence comprehension range from specific syntactic operations to domain-general processes. The present study was designed to tease apart these two general accounts by measuring the BOLD response to two syntactically distinct long-distance dependencies that invoke abstractly similar predictive processes: backward anaphora and filler-gap dependencies. Previous research has observed distance effects in Broca%26apos;s area for filler-gap dependencies, but not canonical anaphora, which has been interpreted in support of a syntactic movement account. However, filler-gap dependencies engage predictive mechanisms, resulting in active search for the gap, while canonical anaphora do not. Backward anaphora correct for this asymmetry as they engage a predictive mechanism that parallels the active search in filler-gap dependencies. The results revealed a distance effect in the pars triangularis of Broca%26apos;s area for the backward anaphora condition, supporting a prediction-based role for this region rather than one for a particular syntactic operation.

• 出版日期2014-11