10.06.2013 Views

Electrophysiological Evidence for Sentence Comprehension - Wings

Electrophysiological Evidence for Sentence Comprehension - Wings

Electrophysiological Evidence for Sentence Comprehension - Wings

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

enzyme activity, receptors or transmitters due to the various radioactive tracers that are<br />

developed <strong>for</strong> it (<strong>for</strong> various research with PET see e.g. Senda et al., 2002).<br />

Lower temporal resolution makes these methods less practical <strong>for</strong> the study of rapid<br />

processes involved in language comprehension. There<strong>for</strong>e, different experimental<br />

paradigms are used in the fMRI studies. The most common paradigm is the blocked<br />

design (<strong>for</strong> overview of the paradigms see Donaldson & Buckner, 2002). The signal is<br />

acquired during one block of stimuli and is compared to the signal acquired in a different<br />

block that corresponds to a different task condition. If the equipment allows (rapid data<br />

acquisition, sensitivity of the equipment), event-related designs can be applied in fMRI<br />

experiments, as well.<br />

The biggest advantage of hemodynamic methods is their excellent spatial resolution. The<br />

methods are there<strong>for</strong>e used <strong>for</strong> the localization of the processes involved in language<br />

comprehension (<strong>for</strong> overview see Bookheimer, 2002). However, sentence comprehension<br />

studies are rare due to the methods’ limitations. In one such study Stromswold et al.<br />

(1996) used PET to show increased activation in left pars opercularis in left-branching<br />

sentences in comparison to ‘easier’ right-branching sentences claiming that this region<br />

has particular function in syntactic processing. In a more complicated paradigm that<br />

included both semantic and syntactic conditions Dapretto & Bookheimer (1999) have<br />

shown differences in activations: while activations in Brodmann’s area (BA) 45 was<br />

increased in both conditions (Broca’s area), they reported that BA 44 was strongly<br />

activated only in the syntactic condition and BA 47 (i.e. parts of the inferior frontal<br />

22

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!