The Role of the Left Inferior Frontal Cortex in Resolving Syntactic-Semantic Conflict: A Neuropsychological Study
Open AccessHistorically, there have been two different accounts of the role of Broca's area in sentence processing: domain-specific accounts hypothesize that this area is specific to computation of syntactic information only, while domain-general accounts posit a role for this region in general high-level cognitive functions useful for syntax but also other domains. This thesis was motivated by the domain-general account and studied the effects of syntactic-semantic conflict on language comprehension in patients who have suffered a stroke. We manipulated two variables: sentence structure (active versus passive) and conflict (plausible versus implausible). We hypothesized that patients who have damage to the LIFC will have particular difficulty comprehending sentences with syntactic-semantic conflict independent of structure, while patients who have non-frontal left hemisphere damage will not show this specific pattern of errors. Based on the patients recruited, a comparison between a left frontal and left non-frontal group was not possible; however, we were able to determine sentence comprehension profiles for each of our patients (one left frontal, two left non-frontal, one right hemisphere). The left hemisphere patients showed different profiles consistent with different underlying impairments. Future studies should extend these findings and confirm our hypotheses regarding individual patients' deficits in syntactic processing, working memory or conflict resolution.
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