Incremental Language Comprehension Difficulty Predicts Activity in the Language Network but Not the Multiple Demand Network
Name
2020.04.15.043844.full.pdf
Description
Submitted version
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2.35 MB
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Author(s)
Wehbe, Leila
Blank, Idan Asher
Shain, Cory
Futrell, Richard
Levy, Roger
von der Malsburg, Titus
Smith, Nathaniel
Gibson, Edward
Fedorenko, Evelina
Date Issued
2021
Journal
Cerebral Cortex
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Citation
Wehbe, Leila, Blank, Idan Asher, Shain, Cory, Futrell, Richard, Levy, Roger et al. 2021. "Incremental Language Comprehension Difficulty Predicts Activity in the Language Network but Not the Multiple Demand Network." Cerebral Cortex, 31 (9).
Version
Original manuscript
Abstract
Abstract
What role do domain-general executive functions play in human language comprehension? To address this question, we examine the relationship between behavioral measures of comprehension and neural activity in the domain-general “multiple demand” (MD) network, which has been linked to constructs like attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and selection, and implicated in diverse goal-directed behaviors. Specifically, functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected during naturalistic story listening are compared with theory-neutral measures of online comprehension difficulty and incremental processing load (reading times and eye-fixation durations). Critically, to ensure that variance in these measures is driven by features of the linguistic stimulus rather than reflecting participant- or trial-level variability, the neuroimaging and behavioral datasets were collected in nonoverlapping samples. We find no behavioral-neural link in functionally localized MD regions; instead, this link is found in the domain-specific, fronto-temporal “core language network,” in both left-hemispheric areas and their right hemispheric homotopic areas. These results argue against strong involvement of domain-general executive circuits in language comprehension.
What role do domain-general executive functions play in human language comprehension? To address this question, we examine the relationship between behavioral measures of comprehension and neural activity in the domain-general “multiple demand” (MD) network, which has been linked to constructs like attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and selection, and implicated in diverse goal-directed behaviors. Specifically, functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected during naturalistic story listening are compared with theory-neutral measures of online comprehension difficulty and incremental processing load (reading times and eye-fixation durations). Critically, to ensure that variance in these measures is driven by features of the linguistic stimulus rather than reflecting participant- or trial-level variability, the neuroimaging and behavioral datasets were collected in nonoverlapping samples. We find no behavioral-neural link in functionally localized MD regions; instead, this link is found in the domain-specific, fronto-temporal “core language network,” in both left-hemispheric areas and their right hemispheric homotopic areas. These results argue against strong involvement of domain-general executive circuits in language comprehension.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1093/CERCOR/BHAB065
