Dear Users
This week Gina Humphries will give a project proposal talk at 4 pm in
YNiC open plan on "Semantic indeterminacy in the brain: linking
production and comprehension processes".
Abstract:
"This study aims to examine which regions of the brain are recruited
during sentence comprehension and sentence production. Gennari and
MacDonald (2008, 2009) have recently argued that semantic ambiguity as
to who-is-doing-what-to-whom in phrases is an important source of reading
difficulty. For example, in reading “the movie that the director…,” a
similar interpretation is entertained 90% of the time (that the director
wrote the movie), whereas in reading “the director that the movie….,”
many interpretations are possible. The authors showed that the
proportion of alternative relationships entertained between the nouns,
as indexed by a sentence completion study, predicts reading difficulty.
Here, we aim to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying the
comprehension and production of these structures. Specifically, we ask
whether left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and other regions of the
language processing network such as posterior middle temporal gyrus
(PMTG) are sensitive to the degree of who-is-doing-what-to-whom ambiguity in
comprehension and production."
Everyone is welcome to attend.
Best wishes
Rebecca
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Dr. Rebecca E. Millman
Science Liaison Officer
York Neuroimaging Centre
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Heslington
YO10 5DG
Tel: +44 (0) 1904 567614
Fax: +44 (0) 1904 435356
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