Brain Signatures of Communication (BraiSiCo)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Friedemann Pulvermüller (†)
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages ; Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 367641808

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

With the BraiSiCo grant we made a step forward in addressing long-standing and intensivelydebated questions in psycho- and neurolinguistics and in cognitive neuroscience about the spatio-temporal dynamics of pragmatic processing. We found that (i) speech acts are processed rapidly within 200 ms or even earlier and occurring in parallel with early semantic access; (ii) neural signatures of communicative function are similar in the comprehension and production modalities; (iii) different communicative functions are processed in different sets of brain areas, and this local specificity can be linked to speech-act specific partner´s action following it and (iv) are elicitable using both monologic tightly controlled experimental paradigms as well as in interactive and more ecologically valid settings. In addition, we provided a proof of concept that speech act function can be investigated by using very different utterances - ranging from single words to whole sentences - and various paraand extra-linguistic features - ranging from embedding in dialogic settings, prosodic cues to gestural cues. Finally, we addressed some fundamental theoretical questions about the linguistic and psychological properties of speech acts as members of larger classes and of indirect vs direct speech acts in general, demonstrating, for example, the role of confounding factors in previous research and setting criteria for improved experimental investigation of the phenomenon of linguistic indirectness.

Publications

• Neural reuse of action perception circuits for language, concepts and communication. Progress in Neurobiology, 160(c(2018, 1)), 1-44.
  Pulvermüller, Friedemann
  
• Neurophysiological evidence for rapid processing of verbal and gestural information in understanding communicative actions. Scientific Reports, 9(1).
  Tomasello, Rosario; Kim, Cora; Dreyer, Felix R.; Grisoni, Luigi & Pulvermüller, Friedemann
  
• Brain signatures predict communicative function of speech production in interaction. Cortex, 135(c(2021, 2)), 127-145.
  Boux, Isabella; Tomasello, Rosario; Grisoni, Luigi & Pulvermüller, Friedemann
  
• Cognitive features of indirect speech acts. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 38(1), 40-64.
  Boux, Isabella P.; Margiotoudi, Konstantina; Dreyer, Felix R.; Tomasello, Rosario & Pulvermüller, Friedemann
  
• Instantaneous neural processing of communicative functions conveyed by speech prosody. Cerebral Cortex, 32(21), 4885-4901.
  Tomasello, Rosario; Grisoni, Luigi; Boux, Isabella; Sammler, Daniela & Pulvermüller, Friedemann
  
• Does the right temporo-parietal junction play a role in processing indirect speech acts? A transcranial magnetic stimulation study. Neuropsychologia, 188(c(2023, 9)), 108588.
  Boux, Isabella P. & Pulvermüller, Friedemann
  
• Linguistic signs in action: The neuropragmatics of speech acts. Brain and Language, 236(c(2023, 1)), 105203.
  Tomasello, Rosario