Although the construction of syntactic structures is considered a fundamental component of language processing, insights concerning its neurobiological basis have remained elusive. This may be due, in part, to the inherent difficulty of isolating incremental syntax from other components of language, such as semantic composition. However, while pure manipulations of syntax are challenging to design, natural language grammars do have a sparse set of constructions presenting the possibility. Here we examined one such case, English post-nominal adjectives (mountain TALL enough for a strenuous hike), which were contrasted with semantically parallel but structurally simpler noun-adjective sequences in an MEG experiment. We observed a sharp activity increase in the left posterior temporal lobe (PTL) when syntactic composition was more straightforward, approximately 200 msec after adjective onset. The semantic fit between the noun and adjective was also varied, but this affected anterior temporal cortex, consistent with prior work. These findings offer a unique demonstration of the relevance of posterior temporal cortex for syntactic processing in natural language. We also present connectivity evidence that the syntax-related PTL responses were relayed to ipsilateral inferior frontal and anterior temporal regions. The combined results draw an initial picture of the rapid spatio-temporal dynamics of the syntactic and semantic composition network in sentence processing.

中文翻译：

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隔离自然语言中的语法：MEG证据表明左后颞叶皮质的早期贡献。

尽管句法结构的构建被认为是语言处理的基本组成部分，但有关其神经生物学基础的见解仍然难以捉摸。这可能部分是由于将增量语法与语言的其他组成部分（例如语义组成）相隔离的固有困难。但是，尽管语法的纯粹操纵对设计具有挑战性，但是自然语言语法的确有一套稀疏的构造，从而提供了可能性。在这里，我们研究了一个这样的情况，即英语名词后形容词（山高足以应付剧烈的远足），在MEG实验中将其与语义上平行但结构上较简单的名词形容词序列进行对比。当语法组成更简单时，我们观察到左后颞叶（PTL）的活动急剧增加，形容词发作后约200毫秒。名词和形容词之间的语义适合度也有所不同，但这会影响前颞叶皮层，与先前的工作一致。这些发现为后颞叶皮层与自然语言句法处理的相关性提供了独特的证明。我们还提供了连通性证据，表明与语法相关的PTL响应被传递到同侧下额叶和前颞叶区域。合并的结果为句子处理中句法和语义组成网络的快速时空动态提供了初步的图像。这些发现为后颞叶皮层与自然语言句法处理的相关性提供了独特的证明。我们还提供了连通性证据，表明与语法相关的PTL响应被传递到同侧下额叶和前颞叶区域。合并的结果为句子处理中句法和语义组成网络的快速时空动态提供了初步的图像。这些发现为后颞叶皮层与自然语言句法处理的相关性提供了独特的证明。我们还提供了连通性证据，表明与语法相关的PTL响应被传递到同侧下额叶和前颞叶区域。合并的结果为句子处理中句法和语义组成网络的快速时空动态提供了初步的图像。