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Abstract：
Human language relies on the correct processing of syntactic information, as it is essential for successful communication between speakers. As an abstract level of language, syntax has often been studied separately from the physical form of the speech signal, thus often masking the interactions that can promote better syntactic processing in the human brain. However, behavioral and neural evidence from adults suggests the idea that prosody and syntax interact, and studies in infants support the notion that prosody assists language learning. Here we analyze a MEG dataset to investigate how acoustic cues, specifically prosody, interact with syntactic representations in the brains of native English speakers. More specifically, to examine whether prosody enhances the cortical encoding of syntactic representations, we decode syntactic phrase boundaries directly from brain activity, and evaluate possible modulations of this decoding by the prosodic boundaries. Our findings demonstrate that the presence of prosodic boundaries improves the neural representation of phrase boundaries, indicating the facilitative role of prosodic cues in processing abstract linguistic features. This work has implications for interactive models of how the brain processes different linguistic features. Future research is needed to establish the neural underpinnings of prosody-syntax interactions in languages with different typological characteristics.
摘要：
人类语言依赖于对句法信息的正确处理,因为这对于演讲者之间的成功沟通至关重要。作为语言的抽象层次，语法通常与语音信号的物理形式分开研究，因此，经常掩盖可以促进人脑更好句法处理的相互作用。然而,来自成年人的行为和神经证据表明韵律和语法相互作用，对婴儿的研究支持韵律有助于语言学习的概念。在这里，我们分析了一个MEG数据集来研究声学线索，特别是韵律,与以英语为母语的人的大脑中的句法表示进行交互。更具体地说,为了检查韵律是否增强了句法表示的皮层编码，我们直接从大脑活动中解码句法短语边界，并通过韵律边界评估此解码的可能调制。我们的发现表明，韵律边界的存在改善了短语边界的神经表示，表明韵律线索在处理抽象语言特征中的促进作用。这项工作对大脑如何处理不同语言特征的交互式模型具有影响。需要进一步的研究来建立具有不同类型特征的语言中韵律-语法相互作用的神经基础。
