The Domain-General Multiple Demand (MD) Network Does Not Support Core Aspects of Language Comprehension: A Large-Scale fMRI Investigation
| Autor: | Josef Affourtit, Idan Blank, Evgeniia Diachek, Matthew Siegelman, Evelina Fedorenko |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Adolescent media_common.quotation_subject Lateralization of brain function 050105 experimental psychology Task (project management) Executive Function Young Adult 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Reading (process) Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Active listening Language interpretation Research Articles Aged Language media_common Brain Mapping business.industry Working memory General Neuroscience 05 social sciences Brain Contrast (statistics) Cognition Middle Aged Fixation (psychology) Executive functions Magnetic Resonance Imaging Comprehension Female Nerve Net business Psychology Photic Stimulation 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Sentence Cognitive psychology |
| Zdroj: | J Neurosci |
| ISSN: | 1529-2401 0270-6474 |
| DOI: | 10.1523/jneurosci.2036-19.2020 |
| Popis: | Aside from the language-selective left-lateralized fronto-temporal network, language comprehension sometimes additionally recruits a domain-general bilateral fronto-parietal network implicated in executive functions: the multiple demand (MD) network. However, the nature of the MD network’s contributions to language comprehension remains debated. To illuminate the role of this network in language processing, we conducted a large-scale fMRI investigation using data from 30 diverse word and sentence comprehension experiments (481 unique participants, 678 scanning sessions). In line with prior findings, the MD network was active during many language tasks. Moreover, similar to the language-selective network, which is robustly lateralized to the left hemisphere, these responses were stronger in the left-hemisphere MD regions. However, in stark contrast with the language-selective network, the MD network responded more strongly (i) to lists of unconnected words than to sentences, and critically, (ii) in paradigms with an explicit task compared to passive comprehension paradigms. In fact, many passive comprehension tasks failed to elicit a response above the fixation baseline in the MD network, in contrast to strong responses in the language-selective network. In tandem, these results argue against a role for the MD network in core aspects of sentence comprehension like inhibiting irrelevant meanings or parses, keeping intermediate representations active in working memory, or predicting upcoming words or structures. These results align with recent evidence of relatively poor tracking of the linguistic signal by the MD regions during naturalistic comprehension, and instead suggest that the MD network’s engagement during language processing likely reflects effort associated with extraneous task demands.Significance StatementDomain-general executive processes, like working memory and cognitive control, have long been implicated in language comprehension, including in neuroimaging studies that have reported activation in domain-general multiple demand (MD) regions for linguistic manipulations. However, much prior evidence has come from paradigms where language interpretation is accompanied by extraneous tasks. Using a large fMRI dataset (30 experiments/481 participants/678 sessions), we demonstrate that MD regions are engaged during language comprehension in the presence of task demands, but not during passive reading/listening—conditions that strongly activate the fronto-temporal language network. These results present a fundamental challenge to proposals whereby linguistic computations, like inhibiting irrelevant meanings, keeping representations active in working memory, or predicting upcoming elements, draw on domain-general executive resources. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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