Functional neuroanatomy of meaning acquisition from context

An important issue in language learning is how new words are integrated in the brain representations that sustain language processing. To identify the brain regions involved in meaning acquisition and word learning, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Young participants were...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Mestres Missé, Anna, Camara Mancha, Estela, Rodríguez Fornells, Antoni, Rotte, Michael, Münte, Thomas F.
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2008
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/65373
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/65373
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Adquisició del llenguatge
Comprensió
Mapatge del cervell
Significació (Psicologia)
Language acquisition
Comprehension
Brain mapping
Meaning (Psychology)
Descrição
Resumo:An important issue in language learning is how new words are integrated in the brain representations that sustain language processing. To identify the brain regions involved in meaning acquisition and word learning, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Young participants were required to deduce the meaning of a novel word presented within increasingly constrained sentence contexts that were read silently during the scanning session. Inconsistent contexts were also presented in which no meaning could be assigned to the novel word. Participants showed meaning acquisition in the consistent but not in the inconsistent condition. A distributed brain network was identified comprising the left anterior inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45), the middle temporal gyrus (BA 21), the parahippocampal gyrus, and several subcortical structures (the thalamus and the striatum). Drawing on previous neuroimaging evidence, we tentatively identify the roles of these brain areas in the retrieval, selection, and encoding of the meaning.