Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobule allows language rule generalization
A crucial aspect when learning a language is discovering the rules that govern how words are combined in order to convey meanings. Because rules are characterized by sequential co-occurrences between elements (e.g., “These cupcakes are unbelievable”), tracking the statistical relationships between t...
| Authors: | ; ; ; ; ; ; ; |
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| Format: | Article |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication date: | 2020 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya) |
| Repository: | Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:recercat.cat:10230/46717 |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10230/46717 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000895 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Language acquisition Transcranial magnetic stimulation Functional magnetic resonance imaging |
| _version_ | 1878739618413674496 |
|---|---|
| author | Orpella, Joan |
| author2 | Ripollés, Pablo Ruzzoli, Manuela Amengual, Julià L. Callejas, Alicia Martinez-Alvarez, Anna Soto-Faraco, Salvador, 1970- de Diego-Balaguer, Ruth |
| author2_role | author author author author author author author |
| author_browse | Amengual, Julià L. Callejas, Alicia Martinez-Alvarez, Anna Orpella, Joan Ripollés, Pablo Ruzzoli, Manuela Soto-Faraco, Salvador, 1970- de Diego-Balaguer, Ruth |
| author_facet | Orpella, Joan Ripollés, Pablo Ruzzoli, Manuela Amengual, Julià L. Callejas, Alicia Martinez-Alvarez, Anna Soto-Faraco, Salvador, 1970- de Diego-Balaguer, Ruth |
| author_role | author |
| collection | Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya |
| description | A crucial aspect when learning a language is discovering the rules that govern how words are combined in order to convey meanings. Because rules are characterized by sequential co-occurrences between elements (e.g., “These cupcakes are unbelievable”), tracking the statistical relationships between these elements is fundamental. However, purely bottom-up statistical learning alone cannot fully account for the ability to create abstract rule representations that can be generalized, a paramount requirement of linguistic rules. Here, we provide evidence that, after the statistical relations between words have been extracted, the engagement of goal-directed attention is key to enable rule generalization. Incidental learning performance during a rule-learning task on an artificial language revealed a progressive shift from statistical learning to goal-directed attention. In addition, and consistent with the recruitment of attention, functional MRI (fMRI) analyses of late learning stages showed left parietal activity within a broad bilateral dorsal frontoparietal network. Critically, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on participants’ peak of activation within the left parietal cortex impaired their ability to generalize learned rules to a structurally analogous new language. No stimulation or rTMS on a nonrelevant brain region did not have the same interfering effect on generalization. Performance on an additional attentional task showed that this rTMS on the parietal site hindered participants’ ability to integrate “what” (stimulus identity) and “when” (stimulus timing) information about an expected target. The present findings suggest that learning rules from speech is a two-stage process: following statistical learning, goal-directed attention—involving left parietal regions—integrates “what” and “when” stimulus information to facilitate rapid rule generalization. |
| eu_rights_str_mv | openAccess |
| format | article |
| id | ES_c4e192e6bc8e157c7d73ba4b48ef2cbe |
| institution | Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya) |
| instname_str | Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya) |
| network_acronym_str | ES |
| network_name_str | España |
| oai_identifier_str | oai:recercat.cat:10230/46717 |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| publisherStr | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| reponame_str | Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya |
| spelling | Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobule allows language rule generalization Orpella, Joan Ripollés, Pablo Ruzzoli, Manuela Amengual, Julià L. Callejas, Alicia Martinez-Alvarez, Anna Soto-Faraco, Salvador, 1970- de Diego-Balaguer, Ruth Language acquisition Transcranial magnetic stimulation Functional magnetic resonance imaging A crucial aspect when learning a language is discovering the rules that govern how words are combined in order to convey meanings. Because rules are characterized by sequential co-occurrences between elements (e.g., “These cupcakes are unbelievable”), tracking the statistical relationships between these elements is fundamental. However, purely bottom-up statistical learning alone cannot fully account for the ability to create abstract rule representations that can be generalized, a paramount requirement of linguistic rules. Here, we provide evidence that, after the statistical relations between words have been extracted, the engagement of goal-directed attention is key to enable rule generalization. Incidental learning performance during a rule-learning task on an artificial language revealed a progressive shift from statistical learning to goal-directed attention. In addition, and consistent with the recruitment of attention, functional MRI (fMRI) analyses of late learning stages showed left parietal activity within a broad bilateral dorsal frontoparietal network. Critically, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on participants’ peak of activation within the left parietal cortex impaired their ability to generalize learned rules to a structurally analogous new language. No stimulation or rTMS on a nonrelevant brain region did not have the same interfering effect on generalization. Performance on an additional attentional task showed that this rTMS on the parietal site hindered participants’ ability to integrate “what” (stimulus identity) and “when” (stimulus timing) information about an expected target. The present findings suggest that learning rules from speech is a two-stage process: following statistical learning, goal-directed attention—involving left parietal regions—integrates “what” and “when” stimulus information to facilitate rapid rule generalization. This work was supported by the European Research Council grant ERC-StG-313841 (TuningLang) and the BFU2017-87109-P Grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (RdD-B) which is part of Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (Co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. ERDF, a way to build Europe), the European Research Council (Proof of Concept, ERC, 727595) (SS-F), the Juan de la Cierva Post-Doctorate Fellowship (JCI-2012-12335, Ministerio de Economia y Competividad) (MR) and CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya for institutional support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://hdl.handle.net/10230/46717 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000895 |
| spellingShingle | Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobule allows language rule generalization Orpella, Joan Language acquisition Transcranial magnetic stimulation Functional magnetic resonance imaging |
| status_str | publishedVersion |
| title | Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobule allows language rule generalization |
| title_full | Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobule allows language rule generalization |
| title_fullStr | Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobule allows language rule generalization |
| title_full_unstemmed | Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobule allows language rule generalization |
| title_short | Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobule allows language rule generalization |
| title_sort | Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobule allows language rule generalization |
| topic | Language acquisition Transcranial magnetic stimulation Functional magnetic resonance imaging |
| topic_facet | Language acquisition Transcranial magnetic stimulation Functional magnetic resonance imaging |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10230/46717 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000895 |