Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on January 5, 2005
Cerebral Cortex 2005 15(8):1261-1269; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhi009
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© Oxford University Press 2005; all rights reserved
The Neural Mechanisms of Speech Comprehension: fMRI studies of Semantic Ambiguity
1 Department of Psychology, University College London, UK, 2 MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK and 3 Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
Correspondence should be sent to Jennifer Rodd, Department of Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK. Email: j.rodd{at}ucl.ac.uk.
A number of regions of the temporal and frontal lobes are known to be important for spoken language comprehension, yet we do not have a clear understanding of their functional role(s). In particular, there is considerable disagreement about which brain regions are involved in the semantic aspects of comprehension. Two functional magnetic resonance studies use the phenomenon of semantic ambiguity to identify regions within the fronto-temporal language network that subserve the semantic aspects of spoken language comprehension. Volunteers heard sentences containing ambiguous words (e.g. ‘the shell was fired towards the tank’) and well-matched low-ambiguity sentences (e.g. ‘her secrets were written in her diary’). Although these sentences have similar acoustic, phonological, syntactic and prosodic properties (and were rated as being equally natural), the high-ambiguity sentences require additional processing by those brain regions involved in activating and selecting contextually appropriate word meanings. The ambiguity in these sentences goes largely unnoticed, and yet high-ambiguity sentences produced increased signal in left posterior inferior temporal cortex and inferior frontal gyri bilaterally. Given the ubiquity of semantic ambiguity, we conclude that these brain regions form an important part of the network that is involved in computing the meaning of spoken sentences.
Key Words: frontal cortex • semantics • sentences • spoken language • temporal lobe
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  V. Boulenger, O. Hauk, and F. Pulvermuller Grasping Ideas with the Motor System: Semantic Somatotopy in Idiom Comprehension Cereb Cortex, August 1, 2009; 19(8): 1905 - 1914. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. M. Snijders, T. Vosse, G. Kempen, J. J.A. Van Berkum, K. M. Petersson, and P. Hagoort Retrieval and Unification of Syntactic Structure in Sentence Comprehension: an fMRI Study Using Word-Category Ambiguity Cereb Cortex, July 1, 2009; 19(7): 1493 - 1503. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 C. M. J. Y. Tesink, J. K. Buitelaar, K. M. Petersson, R. J. van der Gaag, C. C. Kan, I. Tendolkar, and P. Hagoort Neural correlates of pragmatic language comprehension in autism spectrum disorders Brain, July 1, 2009; 132(7): 1941 - 1952. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Obleser and S. A. Kotz Expectancy Constraints in Degraded Speech Modulate the Language Comprehension Network Cereb Cortex, June 26, 2009; (2009) bhp128v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. H. Desai, J. R. Binder, L. L. Conant, and M. S. Seidenberg Activation of Sensory-Motor Areas in Sentence Comprehension Cereb Cortex, June 22, 2009; (2009) bhp115v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
H.-D. Xiang, H. M. Fonteijn, D. G. Norris, and P. Hagoort Topographical Functional Connectivity Pattern in the Perisylvian Language Networks Cereb Cortex, June 22, 2009; (2009) bhp119v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. Whitney, M. Grossman, and T. T. J. Kircher The Influence of Multiple Primes on Bottom-Up and Top-Down Regulation during Meaning Retrieval: Evidence for 2 Distinct Neural Networks Cereb Cortex, February 24, 2009; (2009) bhp007v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Bedny, M. McGill, and S. L. Thompson-Schill Semantic Adaptation and Competition during Word Comprehension Cereb Cortex, November 1, 2008; 18(11): 2574 - 2585. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 D. A. Abrams, T. Nicol, S. Zecker, and N. Kraus Right-Hemisphere Auditory Cortex Is Dominant for Coding Syllable Patterns in Speech J. Neurosci., April 9, 2008; 28(15): 3958 - 3965. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 L. K Tyler and W. Marslen-Wilson Fronto-temporal brain systems supporting spoken language comprehension Phil Trans R Soc B, March 12, 2008; 363(1493): 1037 - 1054. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 D. Ben Shalom and D. Poeppel Functional Anatomic Models of Language: Assembling the Pieces Neuroscientist, February 1, 2008; 14(1): 119 - 127. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. J. R. Lauro, M. Tettamanti, S. F. Cappa, and C. Papagno Idiom Comprehension: A Prefrontal Task? Cereb Cortex, January 1, 2008; 18(1): 162 - 170. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. M. Wilson, I. Molnar-Szakacs, and M. Iacoboni Beyond Superior Temporal Cortex: Intersubject Correlations in Narrative Speech Comprehension Cereb Cortex, January 1, 2008; 18(1): 230 - 242. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
U. Hasson, H. C. Nusbaum, and S. L. Small Brain Networks Subserving the Extraction of Sentence Information and Its Encoding to Memory Cereb Cortex, December 1, 2007; 17(12): 2899 - 2913. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. H. Davis, M. R. Coleman, A. R. Absalom, J. M. Rodd, I. S. Johnsrude, B. F. Matta, A. M. Owen, and D. K. Menon Dissociating speech perception and comprehension at reduced levels of awareness PNAS, October 9, 2007; 104(41): 16032 - 16037. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. M. Willems, A. Ozyurek, and P. Hagoort When Language Meets Action: The Neural Integration of Gesture and Speech Cereb Cortex, October 1, 2007; 17(10): 2322 - 2333. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. R. Coleman, J. M. Rodd, M. H. Davis, I. S. Johnsrude, D. K. Menon, J. D. Pickard, and A. M. Owen Do vegetative patients retain aspects of language comprehension? Evidence from fMRI Brain, October 1, 2007; 130(10): 2494 - 2507. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. T. Wang, S. S. Lee, M. Sigman, and M. Dapretto Reading Affect in the Face and Voice: Neural Correlates of Interpreting Communicative Intent in Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders Arch Gen Psychiatry, June 1, 2007; 64(6): 698 - 708. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
W. D Marslen-Wilson and L. K Tyler Morphology, language and the brain: the decompositional substrate for language comprehension Phil Trans R Soc B, May 29, 2007; 362(1481): 823 - 836. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|