When Elephants Fly: Differential Sensitivity of Right and Left Inferior Frontal Gyri to Discourse and World Knowledge
Open accessAbstract
Both local discourse and world knowledge are known to influence sentence processing. We investigated how these two sources of information conspire in language comprehension. Two types of critical sentences, correct and world knowledge anomalies, were preceded by either a neutral or a local context. The latter made the world knowledge anomalies more acceptable or plausible. We predicted that the effect of world knowledge anomalies would be weaker for the local context. World knowledge effects have previously been observed in the left inferior frontal region (Brodmann's area 45/47). In the current study, an effect of world knowledge was present in this region in the neutral context. We also observed an effect in the right inferior frontal gyrus, which was more sensitive to the discourse manipulation than the left inferior frontal gyrus. In addition, the left angular gyrus reacted strongly to the degree of discourse coherence between the context and critical sentence. Overall, both world knowledge and the discourse context affect the process of meaning unification, but do so by recruiting partly different sets of brain areas.
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The IFG and lateral temporal regions have been associated, across different studies, with processing of semantic, syntactic, social, and personal information across contexts.
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From Grounding the neurobiology of language in first principles: The necessity of non-language-centric explanations for language comprehension (2018) · cites this paper as Menenti, Petersson, Scheeringa, & Hagoort, 2009
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From Grounding the neurobiology of language in first principles: The necessity of non-language-centric explanations for language comprehension (2018) · cites this paper as Menenti, Petersson, Scheeringa, & Hagoort, 2009
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“…effortful inhibition (Aron et al., 2014), detecting and resolving conflicts between beliefs and logic (Goel et al., 2000; Goel and Dolan, 2003; Goel, 2007; Menenti et al., 2009; Stollstorff et al., 2012), and rejecting inappropriate hypotheses in accordance with new evidence (Cools et al., 2002).”
BackgroundResult
- Authors
- Menenti, L., Petersson, K. M., Scheeringa, R., & Hagoort, P.
- Affiliations
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (NL)
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (NL)
- 1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 2009-12-01
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 2358-2368
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2137351172
- Cited by
- 114
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 2.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Keywords
- world knowledge, discourse context, sentence processing, language comprehension, inferior frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, hemispheric lateralization, discourse coherence
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Female, Frontal Lobe, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Language, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Psycholinguistics, Knowledge, Comprehension, Young Adult
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