主题：Syntax in the Human Brain
报告人：Prof. Kuniyoshi L. Sakai, The University of Tokyo
时间：2019年5月28日，13:00-15:00
地点：北京大学王克桢楼1113会议室
摘要：
There is a tacit assumption in neuroscience from the genetic to the system level, which holds that the biological foundations of humans are essentially similar to those of nonhuman primates. However, the recent development of linguistics has clarified that human language is radically different from what is known as animal communication, and that syntax is a unique and innate function of the human brain. In my talk, I will provide experimental evidence that fundamental language processing is indeed specialized in the human brain, focusing particularly on the function of the grammar center (1). Specifically, our recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the left lateral premotor cortex (LPMC) are specialized in syntactic processing (2-5). Moreover, we have shown that the former region is responsible for calculating "Degree of Merger" (DoM), i.e., the maximum depth of merged subtrees within a given domain in a sentence (6-7). I will further provide the proof of direct causal link between the brain and syntax, such that a lesion in the left IFG is sufficient to cause agrammatic comprehension (8-9).
1. Sakai, K. L.: Language acquisition and brain development. Science 310, 815-819 (2005).
2. Hashimoto, R. & Sakai, K. L.: Specialization in the left prefrontal cortex for sentence comprehension. Neuron 35, 589-597 (2002).
3. Sakai, K. L., Noguchi, Y., Takeuchi, T. & Watanabe, E.: Selective priming of syntactic processing by event-related transcranial magnetic stimulation of Broca's area. Neuron 35, 1177-1182 (2002).
4. Kinno, R., Kawamura, M., Shioda, S. & Sakai, K. L.: Neural correlates of non-canonical syntactic processing revealed by a picture-sentence matching task. Hum. Brain Mapp. 29, 1015-1027 (2008).
5. Tanaka, K., Ohta, S., Kinno, R. & Sakai, K. L.: Activation changes of the left inferior frontal gyrus for the factors of construction and scrambling in a sentence. Proc. Japan Acad., Ser. B 93, 511-522 (2017).
6. Ohta, S., Fukui, N. & Sakai, K. L.: Syntactic computation in the human brain: The Degree of Merger as a key factor. PLOS ONE 8, e56230, 1-16 (2013).
7. Ohta, S., Fukui, N. & Sakai, K. L.: Computational principles of syntax in the regions specialized for language: Integrating theoretical linguistics and functional imaging. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 7, 204, 1-13 (2013).
8. Kinno, R., Muragaki, Y., Hori, T., Maruyama, T., Kawamura, M. & Sakai, K. L.: Agrammatic comprehension caused by a glioma in the left frontal cortex. Brain Language 110, 71-80 (2009).
9. Kinno, R., Ohta, S., Muragaki, Y., Maruyama, T. & Sakai, K. L.: Differential reorganization of three syntax-related networks induced by a left frontal glioma. Brain 137, 1193-1212 (2014).
邀请人：纳家勇治 研究员