Abstract not found

Before next-generation human language technology can be designed to function successfully in actual #eld settings, interface techniques will be needed that can guide users' language to coincide with current system capabilities. The present study examines how input modality and presentation structure in#uence the linguistic complexity observed in people's spoken and written input to an interactive system. Using a semi-automatic simulation technique, language was collected during speech-only, writing-only, and combined pen#voice exchanges, and using presentation formats that either were structured or unconstrained. Results indicate that both modality and presentation format substantially in#uence linguistic complexity, although the speci#c nature of their impact di#ers. A comprehensive analysis is provided of how both factors a#ect people's observed language in terms of total words, dis#uencies, utterance length, lexical variability, perplexity, syntactic ambiguity, and semanti...

Abstract not found

and acquisition in this language. D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Noun; Verb; Chinese; fMRI Introduction A central issue in the cognitive neuroscience of language is how the brain represents linguistic categories such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Neuropsychological studies of brain-injured patients and neuroimaging studies of normal speakers have both suggested specific brain areas that respond to different linguistic categories, in particular, object names (nouns) and action names (verbs). For example, while Broca's aphasics have significant problems with action/verb naming, Wernicke's aphasics typically experience difficulties in producing nouns (Bates et al., 1991; Caramazza and Hillis, 1991; Miceli et al., 1988; Shapiro and Caramazza, 2003). PET studies reveal that nouns and verbs elicit responses from different regions of the brain: nouns or object names activate the posterior regions (occipitotemporal areas, including the visual cortex) while verbs or

Neuropsychological studies have demonstrated that the production of nouns and verbs can be dissociated in aphasia. These reports have been taken as evidence for separate representations of nouns and verbs in the human brain. We used whole-head magnetoencephalography to record cortical dynamics of action and object naming in 10 healthy adults and in 1 anomic patient with superior naming of verbs compared with nouns due to a left posterior parietal lesion. A single set of 100 line drawings was used for both action and object naming. In normal subjects, the activation sequences in action and object naming were essentially identical, advancing from the occipital to posterior temporoparietal and further to the left frontal cortex, without consistent involvement of the classical left inferior frontal (Broca) and temporal (Wernicke) language areas. In the anomic patient, pronounced differences between action and object naming emerged in the left hemisphere. The activation sequence was disrupted at the level of the damaged parietal cortex and did not reach the left frontal cortex even in the relatively easier action naming. The more severely impaired object naming was associated with exceptionally strong and early activation of the left inferior frontal cortex (Broca) and subsequent pronounced activation of the left middle temporal cortex, silent in action naming. Verb and noun retrieval thus utilized a spatiotemporally similar neuronal network in healthy individuals. A clear dissociation in cortical correlates of verb and noun retrieval only became evident in our anomic patient, in whom damage to the language network has resulted in disproportionately worse performance in object than action naming.

the nature of selective deficits involving nouns and verbs

and verbs: neurological correlates of linguistic processing

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