While much research has addressed the neural basis of lexical access and the composition of lexical items into larger meanings, little is known about how the semantic properties of individual words affect composition. Research on modifier-noun combinations has, however, shown that composition related activity in the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) is sensitive to the conceptual specificity of the composing words. Here we tested whether this pattern extends to verb-argument combinations in minimal subject-verb-object sentences. If the LATL specificity effects extend to verb-argument integration, this would suggest a general mechanism that composes not only entity concepts, but also propositions describing events. Results showed an overall similar modulation by conceptual specificity in the verb domain, suggesting a central, category-insensitive, role for the LATL as a conceptual combiner. Additionally, we saw specificity effects in the left mid-superior temporal cortex, but the angular gyrus, often hypothesized as combinatory, showed no effects of composition.

虽然许多研究已经解决了词汇访问的神经基础和词汇项目组合成更大含义的问题，但对单个词的语义属性如何影响组合知之甚少。然而，对修饰词-名词组合的研究表明，左前颞叶 (LATL) 中与构成相关的活动对构成词的概念特异性很敏感。在这里，我们测试了这种模式是否扩展到最小主-动词-宾句中的动词-参数组合。如果 LATL 特异性效应扩展到动词-参数集成，这将表明一种通用机制，不仅包括实体概念，还包括描述事件的命题。结果显示动词域中概念特异性的整体相似调制，表明一个中心的、类别不敏感的、LATL 作为概念组合器的作用。此外，我们在左侧中上颞叶皮层看到了特异性效应，但通常假设为组合的角回没有表现出成分的影响。