Article

The current rapid event-related fMRI study used optional parasitic-gap
constructions, such as [Which paper] did the tired student submit [(gap)--] after
reviewing [(p-gap)--/it]?, to test 3 potential roles for Broca's area in sentence
processing. These 3 functional options are: I. any intra-sentential Dependency
relation activates Broca's area. II. This region specifically processes syntactic
Displacement or movement. III. Broca's area handles any dependency relation, as
long as it is predictable at an early stage of processing. Broca's area was only
activated by the contrast that tested predictability within BA 45, as determined
by its overlap with cytoarchitectonic probability maps. These results imply that
an alternative or modified functional account of Broca's area, from those
presently available, is required. Constraints on either a displacement account to
movements that are not parasitic or a Working Memory one to predicted
dependencies that cross verbal arguments or noun phrases would achieve the
necessary consistency. Further, the results from the minimal contrasts
investigating displacement and dependency have implications to potential language
regions outside of Broca's area. The minimal contrast investigating displacement
activated the left anterior Middle Temporal Gyrus, which has more recently been
claimed to play a role in syntactic operations.
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Langue : ANGLAIS