Conflict and cognitive control during sentence comprehension: Recruitment of a frontal network during the processing of Spanish object-first sentences Articles uri icon

publication date

  • February 2011

start page

  • 382

end page

  • 391

issue

  • 3

volume

  • 49

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0028-3932

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1873-3514

abstract

  • During sentence processing there is a preference to treat the first noun phrase found as the subject and agent, unless marked the other way. This preference would lead to a conflict in thematic role assignment when the syntactic structure conforms to a non-canonical object-before-subject pattern. Left perisylvian and fronto-parietal brain networks have been found to be engaged by increased computational demands during sentence comprehension, while event-reated brain potentials have been used to study the on-line manifestation of these demands. However, evidence regarding the spatiotemporal organization of brain networks in this domain is scarce. In the current study we used Magnetoencephalography to track spatio-temporally brain activity while Spanish speakers were reading subject- and object-first cleft sentences. Both kinds of sentences remained ambiguous between a subject-first or an object-first interpretation up to the appearance of the second argument. Results show the time-modulation of a frontal network at the disambiguation point of object-first sentences. Moreover, the time windows where these effects took place have been previously related to thematic role integration (300&-500 ms) and to sentence reanalysis and resolution of conflicts during processing (beyond 500 ms post-stimulus). These results point to frontal cognitive control as a putative key mechanism which may operate when a revision of the sentence structure and meaning is necessary.

keywords

  • frontal cortex; magnetoencephalography; sentence comprehension; syntactic processing; thematic roles; word order