Speaking in the brain: The interaction between words and syntax in producing sentences

Abstract

This neuroimaging study investigated the neural infrastructure of sentence-level language production. We compared brain activation patterns, as measured with BOLD-fMRI, during production of sentences which differed in verb argument structures (intransitives, transitives, ditransitives) and the lexical status of the verb (known verbs or pseudo-verbs). An example for the type of sentence to be produced started a mini-block of six sentences with the same structure. For each trial, participants were first given the (pseudo-)verb followed by three geometric shapes to serve as verb arguments in the sentences. Production of sentences with known verbs yielded greater activation compared to those with pseudo-verbs in the core language network of left inferior frontal gyrus, the left posterior middle temporal gyrus, and a more posterior middle temporal region extending into the angular gyrus (LpMTG/AG), analogous to effects observed in language comprehension. Increasing the number of verb arguments led to greater activation in an overlapping left pMTG/AG area, particularly for known verbs, as well as in the bilateral precuneus. Thus, producing sentences with more complex structures using existing verbs lead to increased activation in the language network, suggesting some reliance on memory retrieval of stored lexical-syntactic information during sentence production. This study thus provides evidence from sentence-level language production in line with functional models of the language network that have so far been mainly based on single word production, comprehension and processing in aphasia.