Phonological Networks in Language Production and Comprehension

• 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 2019 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411066644

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

The PhoNet project examined the relationship between cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying language comprehension and production by investigating both modalities and obtaining behavioral and neurobiological experimental data. Parallel experiments on picture naming and language understanding, using neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques – including EEG, MEG, and fMRI – were conducted to explore predictive and post-stimulus activity related to language use, differing across phonological, semantic, and pragmatic dimensions. Although overall differences between language production and comprehension were noted, our results indicated that variations in processing specific to types of speech sounds, utterance meanings, and language functions were reflected by similar brain activation patterns in speech production and comprehension. This suggests that relevant brain mechanisms specific to phonological, semantic and pragmatic processing are shared across modalities. Therefore, our findings are consistent with brain language theories that propose joint mechanisms for linguistic processing employed in both production and understanding. They also indicate that the left frontal and sensorimotor cortices play a significant role in supporting these shared processes, which are, however, locally and distributionally specific for phonological, semantic, and pragmatic features. In contrast, our data contradict language models asserting a complete or partial subdivision of the perisylvian language cortex into areas dedicated to specific modalities of language use, such as a “speech production center". We discuss the implications of the project’s results within the broader context of neurobiological, cognitive and linguistic brain-language theories.

Publications

• Brain signatures predict communicative function of speech production in interaction. Cortex, 135, 127-145.
  Boux, Isabella; Tomasello, Rosario; Grisoni, Luigi & Pulvermüller, Friedemann
  
• Predictive and perceptual phonemic processing in articulatory motor areas: A prediction potential & mismatch negativity study. Cortex, 155, 357-372.
  Grisoni, Luigi & Pulvermüller, Friedemann
  
• Congruent Brain Signatures Specific to Phonology in Fronto-Temporal Cortex During Language Production and Understanding. Elsevier BV.
  Dmitrieva, Xenia; Anton, Jean-Luc; Runnqvist, Elin; Fairs, Amie; Ivanova, Bissera; Sein, Julien; Nazarian, Bruno; Dufour, Sophie; Pulvermuller, Friedemann & Strijkers, Kristof
  
• Predictive brain activity shows congruent semantic specificity in language comprehension and production.. The Journal of Neuroscience, e1723232023.
  Grisoni, Luigi; Boux, Isabella P. & Pulvermüller, Friedemann
  
• The prediction potential indexes the meaning and communicative function of upcoming utterances. Cortex, 177, 346-362.
  Antoine, Salomé; Grisoni, Luigi; Tomasello, Rosario & Pulvermüller, Friedemann