Brain dynamics underlying combinatorial semantics

10 gennaio 2013
ore 15.00

• Dott. Nicola Molinaro - BCBL – Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language San Sebastian (SPAGNA)

Abstract

The use of novel noun phrases is a common, natural, and creative way to fill a vocabulary gap. People introduce new concepts into discourse by combining existing words. However, the combination of word-related concepts is not ‘unconstrained’ and must respect rules of predication (Murphy, 1990), so that a specific message can be plausible (or not).

In this talk I will present EEG and fMRI data about the neurophysiological correlates involved in combinatorial semantics. We manipulated the typicality of the relation between noun and adjective in Spanish noun phrases in context (i.e., embedded in sentences).

Experimental evidence indicate that combinatorial semantic processing of non-anomalous stimuli rely on multiple left-lateralized brain pathways that are selectively stimulated by low-typical (but plausible) linguistic scenarios. 

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