Speech prosody enhances the neural processing of syntax

  • Human language relies on hierarchically structured syntax to facilitate efficient and robust communication. The correct processing of syntactic information is essential for successful communication between speakers. As an abstract level of language, syntax has often been studied separately from the physical form of the speech signal, thus often masking the interactions that can promote better syntactic processing in the human brain. We analyzed a MEG dataset to investigate how acoustic cues, specifically prosody, interact with syntactic operations. We examined whether prosody enhances the cortical encoding of syntactic representations. We decoded left-sided dependencies directly from brain activity and evaluated possible modulations of the decoding by the presence of prosodic boundaries. Our findings demonstrate that prosodic boundary presence improves the representation of left-sided dependencies, indicating the facilitative role of prosodic cues in processing abstract linguistic features. This study gives neurobiological evidence for the boosting of syntactic processing via interaction with prosody.

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Metadaten
Author:Giulio DeganoORCiD, Peter DonhauserORCiD, Laura GwilliamsORCiD, Paola Merlo, Narly GolestaniORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-745348
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.03.547482
Parent Title (English):bioRxiv
Document Type:Preprint
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2023/07/04
Date of first Publication:2023/07/04
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2023/07/05
Issue:2023.07.03.547482
Page Number:33
HeBIS-PPN:510536840
Institutes:Angeschlossene und kooperierende Institutionen / MPI für Hirnforschung
Dewey Decimal Classification:1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie
6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY-NC-ND - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitungen 4.0 International