Abstract
Humans have knowledge about the properties of their native language at various levels of representation; sound, structure, and meaning computation constitute the core components of any linguistic theory. Although the brain sciences have engaged with representational theories of sound and syntactic structure, the study of the neural bases of sentence-level semantic computation has so far focused on manipulations that mainly vary knowledge about the world, and not necessarily linguistic knowledge about meaning, as defined by formal semantics. In this MEG study, we vary both semantic and world knowledge in the same experiment, and show that semantic violations, but not world knowledge violations, elicit an effect in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), while both types of violations engage the left inferior prefrontal cortex. In our previous work, we have shown that the vmPFC is also sensitive to various types of 'coercions', i.e., operations that repair semantic type-mismatch. Together, these results suggest that the vmPFC is involved in the composition of complex meaning, but not in the evaluation of whether an expression fits one's knowledge of the world.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1313-1334 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Language and Cognitive Processes |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2009 |
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Keywords
- Anterior midline field
- Left inferior prefrontal cortex
- Magnetoencephalography
- Semantic processing
- Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Linguistics and Language
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Cite this
Semantics vs. world knowledge in prefrontal cortex. / Pylkkänen, Liina; Oliveri, Bridget; Smart, Andrew J.
In: Language and Cognitive Processes, Vol. 24, No. 9, 11.2009, p. 1313-1334.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Semantics vs. world knowledge in prefrontal cortex
AU - Pylkkänen, Liina
AU - Oliveri, Bridget
AU - Smart, Andrew J.
PY - 2009/11
Y1 - 2009/11
N2 - Humans have knowledge about the properties of their native language at various levels of representation; sound, structure, and meaning computation constitute the core components of any linguistic theory. Although the brain sciences have engaged with representational theories of sound and syntactic structure, the study of the neural bases of sentence-level semantic computation has so far focused on manipulations that mainly vary knowledge about the world, and not necessarily linguistic knowledge about meaning, as defined by formal semantics. In this MEG study, we vary both semantic and world knowledge in the same experiment, and show that semantic violations, but not world knowledge violations, elicit an effect in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), while both types of violations engage the left inferior prefrontal cortex. In our previous work, we have shown that the vmPFC is also sensitive to various types of 'coercions', i.e., operations that repair semantic type-mismatch. Together, these results suggest that the vmPFC is involved in the composition of complex meaning, but not in the evaluation of whether an expression fits one's knowledge of the world.
AB - Humans have knowledge about the properties of their native language at various levels of representation; sound, structure, and meaning computation constitute the core components of any linguistic theory. Although the brain sciences have engaged with representational theories of sound and syntactic structure, the study of the neural bases of sentence-level semantic computation has so far focused on manipulations that mainly vary knowledge about the world, and not necessarily linguistic knowledge about meaning, as defined by formal semantics. In this MEG study, we vary both semantic and world knowledge in the same experiment, and show that semantic violations, but not world knowledge violations, elicit an effect in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), while both types of violations engage the left inferior prefrontal cortex. In our previous work, we have shown that the vmPFC is also sensitive to various types of 'coercions', i.e., operations that repair semantic type-mismatch. Together, these results suggest that the vmPFC is involved in the composition of complex meaning, but not in the evaluation of whether an expression fits one's knowledge of the world.
KW - Anterior midline field
KW - Left inferior prefrontal cortex
KW - Magnetoencephalography
KW - Semantic processing
KW - Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=74949085896&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01690960903120176
DO - 10.1080/01690960903120176
M3 - Article
VL - 24
SP - 1313
EP - 1334
JO - Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
JF - Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
SN - 2327-3798
IS - 9
ER -