ABSTRACT Sentence production involves mapping from deep structures that specify meaning and thematic roles to surface structures that specify the order and sequencing of production ready elements. We propose that the frontal aslant tract is a key pathway for sequencing complex actions with deep hierarchical structure. In the domain of language, and primarily with respect to the left FAT, we refer to this as the ‘Syntagmatic Constraints On Positional Elements’ (SCOPE) hypothesis. One prediction made by the SCOPE hypothesis is that disruption of the frontal aslant tract should disrupt sentence production at grammatical phrase boundaries, with no disruption of articulatory processes. We test this prediction in a patient undergoing direct electrical stimulation mapping of the frontal aslant tract during an awake craniotomy to remove a left frontal brain tumor. We found that stimulation of the left FAT prolonged inter-word durations at the start of grammatical phrases, while inter-word durations internal to noun phrases were unaffected, and there was no effect on intra-word articulatory duration. These results provide initial support for the SCOPE hypothesis, and motivate novel directions for future research to explore the functions of this recently discovered component of the language system.

中文翻译：

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左额叶斜束的直接电刺激会扰乱句子计划而不影响发音

摘要 句子生产涉及从指定含义和主题角色的深层结构到指定生产就绪元素的顺序和排序的表面结构的映射。我们认为额叶斜束是对具有深层层次结构的复杂动作进行排序的关键途径。在语言领域，主要是关于左 FAT，我们将其称为“位置元素的句法约束”（SCOPE）假设。SCOPE 假说做出的一项预测是，额叶倾斜束的破坏会破坏语法短语边界的句子生成，但不会破坏发音过程。我们在一名患者身上测试了这一预测，该患者在清醒开颅手术切除左额叶脑肿瘤期间接受额叶倾斜束的直接电刺激映射。我们发现，刺激左侧 FAT 会延长语法短语开头的词间持续时间，而名词短语内部的词间持续时间不受影响，并且对词内发音持续时间没有影响。这些结果为 SCOPE 假说提供了初步支持，并为未来研究探索这一最近发现的语言系统组件的功能提供了新的方向。