Neurophysiological dynamics of phrase-structure building during sentence processing

TLDR

The syntactic structure of sentences is thought to involve a tree‑like hierarchy of nested phrases. The study sought the neural implementation of this hierarchical phrase‑structure construct. Epileptic patients performed a language task while intracranial electrodes recorded neural activity. Neural activation in left‑hemisphere language areas rose with each successive word but dropped abruptly when words could be merged into a phrase, suggesting a neural footprint of the merge operation underlying recursive language.

Abstract

Significance According to most linguists, the syntactic structure of sentences involves a tree-like hierarchy of nested phrases, as in the sentence [happy linguists] [draw [a diagram]]. Here, we searched for the neural implementation of this hypothetical construct. Epileptic patients volunteered to perform a language task while implanted with intracranial electrodes for clinical purposes. While patients read sentences one word at a time, neural activation in left-hemisphere language areas increased with each successive word but decreased suddenly whenever words could be merged into a phrase. This may be the neural footprint of “merge,” a fundamental tree-building operation that has been hypothesized to allow for the recursive properties of human language.