Author name cluster

Lars Meyer

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

8 papers

1 author row

YNIMG Journal 2022 Journal Article

Natural infant-directed speech facilitates neural tracking of prosody

Katharina H. Menn
Christine Michel
Lars Meyer
Stefanie Hoehl
Claudia Männel

Infants prefer to be addressed with infant-directed speech (IDS). IDS benefits language acquisition through amplified low-frequency amplitude modulations. It has been reported that this amplification increases electrophysiological tracking of IDS compared to adult-directed speech (ADS). It is still unknown which particular frequency band triggers this effect. Here, we compare tracking at the rates of syllables and prosodic stress, which are both critical to word segmentation and recognition. In mother-infant dyads (n=30), mothers described novel objects to their 9-month-olds while infants' EEG was recorded. For IDS, mothers were instructed to speak to their children as they typically do, while for ADS, mothers described the objects as if speaking with an adult. Phonetic analyses confirmed that pitch features were more prototypically infant-directed in the IDS-condition compared to the ADS-condition. Neural tracking of speech was assessed by speech-brain coherence, which measures the synchronization between speech envelope and EEG. Results revealed significant speech-brain coherence at both syllabic and prosodic stress rates, indicating that infants track speech in IDS and ADS at both rates. We found significantly higher speech-brain coherence for IDS compared to ADS in the prosodic stress rate but not the syllabic rate. This indicates that the IDS benefit arises primarily from enhanced prosodic stress. Thus, neural tracking is sensitive to parents' speech adaptations during natural interactions, possibly facilitating higher-level inferential processes such as word segmentation from continuous speech.

Details DOI

YNIMG Journal 2018 Journal Article

Alignment of alpha-band desynchronization with syntactic structure predicts successful sentence comprehension

Benedict Vassileiou
Lars Meyer
Caroline Beese
Angela D. Friederici

Sentence comprehension requires the encoding of phrases and their relationships into working memory. To date, despite the importance of neural oscillations in language comprehension, the neural-oscillatory dynamics of sentence encoding are only sparsely understood. Although oscillations in a wide range of frequency bands have been reported both for the encoding of unstructured word lists and for working-memory intensive sentences, it is unclear to what extent these frequency bands subserve processes specific to the working-memory component of sentence comprehension or to general verbal working memory. In our auditory electroencephalography study, we isolated the working-memory component of sentence comprehension by adapting a subsequent memory paradigm to sentence comprehension and assessing oscillatory power changes during successful sentence encoding. Time–frequency analyses and source reconstruction revealed alpha-power desynchronization in left-hemispheric language-relevant regions during successful sentence encoding. We further showed that sentence encoding was more successful when source-level alpha-band desynchronization aligned with computational measures of syntactic—compared to lexical-semantic—difficulty. Our results are a preliminary indication of a domain-general mechanism of cortical disinhibition via alpha-band desynchronization superimposed onto the language-relevant cortex, which is beneficial for encoding sentences into working memory.

Details DOI

YNIMG Journal 2018 Journal Article

Perturbation of left posterior prefrontal cortex modulates top-down processing in sentence comprehension

Lars Meyer
Anne Elsner
Sabrina Turker
Philipp Kuhnke
Gesa Hartwigsen

Communication is an inferential process. In particular, language comprehension constantly requires top-down efforts, as often multiple interpretations are compatible with a given sentence. To assess top-down processing in the language domain, our experiment employed ambiguous sentences that allow for multiple interpretations (e. g. , The client sued the murderer with the corrupt lawyer. , where the corrupt lawyer could either belong to The client or the murderer). Interpretation thus depended on whether participants chunk the words of the sentence into short or long syntactic phrases. In principle, bottom-up acoustic information (i. e. , the presence or absence of an intonational phrase boundary at the offset of the murderer) indicates one of the two possible interpretations. Yet, acoustic information often indicates interpretations that require words to be chunked into overly long phrases that would overburden working memory. Processing is biased against these demands, reflected in a top-down preference to chunk words into short rather than long phrases. It is often proposed, but also hotly debated, that the ability to chunk words into short phrases is subserved by the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Here, we employed focal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to perturb the left IFG, which resulted in a further decrease of the aptitude to tolerate long phrases, indicating the inability of the left IFG to assist the chunking of words into phrases. In contrast, the processing of auditory information was not affected. Our findings support a causal top-down role of the left inferior frontal gyrus in the chunking of words into phrases.

Details DOI

YNIMG Journal 2017 Journal Article

Left posterior inferior frontal gyrus is causally involved in reordering during sentence processing

Philipp Kuhnke
Lars Meyer
Angela D. Friederici
Gesa Hartwigsen

Storage and reordering of incoming information are two core processes required for successful sentence comprehension. Storage is necessary whenever the verb and its arguments (i. e. , subject and object) are separated over a long distance, while reordering is necessary whenever the argument order is atypical (e. g. , object-first order in German, where subject-first order is typical). Previous neuroimaging work has associated storage with the left planum temporale (PT), and reordering with the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus (pIFG). Here, we tested the causal role of the PT and pIFG in storage and reordering using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). We applied either effective rTMS over PT or pIFG, or sham rTMS, while subjects listened to sentences that independently varied storage demands (short vs. long argument–verb distance) and reordering demands (subject– vs. object-first argument order). We found that rTMS over pIFG, but not PT, selectively affected reordering during the processing of sentences with a long argument–verb distance. Specifically, relative to sham rTMS, rTMS over pIFG significantly increased the performance difference between object– and subject-first long-distance sentences. These results demonstrate a causal involvement of left pIFG in reordering during sentence comprehension and thus contribute to a better understanding of the role of the pIFG in language processing.

Details DOI

YNIMG Journal 2017 Journal Article

Oscillatory EEG dynamics underlying automatic chunking during sentence processing

Corinna E. Bonhage
Lars Meyer
Thomas Gruber
Angela D. Friederici
Jutta L. Mueller

Sentences are easier to remember than random word sequences, likely because linguistic regularities facilitate chunking of words into meaningful groups. The present electroencephalography study investigated the neural oscillations modulated by this so-called sentence superiority effect during the encoding and maintenance of sentence fragments versus word lists. We hypothesized a chunking-related modulation of neural processing during the encoding and retention of sentences (i. e. , sentence fragments) as compared to word lists. Time–frequency analysis revealed a two-fold oscillatory pattern for the memorization of sentences: Sentence encoding was accompanied by higher delta amplitude (4Hz), originating both from regions processing syntax as well as semantics (bilateral superior/middle temporal regions and fusiform gyrus). Subsequent sentence retention was reflected in decreased theta (6Hz) and beta/gamma (27–32Hz) amplitude instead. Notably, whether participants simply read or properly memorized the sentences did not impact chunking-related activity during encoding. Therefore, we argue that the sentence superiority effect is grounded in highly automatized language processing mechanisms, which generate meaningful memory chunks irrespective of task demands.

Details DOI

YNIMG Journal 2016 Journal Article

How the brain attunes to sentence processing: Relating behavior, structure, and function

Anja Fengler
Lars Meyer
Angela D. Friederici

Unlike other aspects of language comprehension, the ability to process complex sentences develops rather late in life. Brain maturation as well as verbal working memory (vWM) expansion have been discussed as possible reasons. To determine the factors contributing to this functional development, we assessed three aspects in different age-groups (5–6years, 7–8years, and adults): first, functional brain activity during the processing of increasingly complex sentences; second, brain structure in language-related ROIs; and third, the behavioral comprehension performance on complex sentences and the performance on an independent vWM test. At the whole-brain level, brain functional data revealed a qualitatively similar neural network in children and adults including the left pars opercularis (PO), the left inferior parietal lobe together with the posterior superior temporal gyrus (IPL/pSTG), the supplementary motor area, and the cerebellum. While functional activation of the language-related ROIs PO and IPL/pSTG predicted sentence comprehension performance for all age-groups, only adults showed a functional selectivity in these brain regions with increased activation for more complex sentences. The attunement of both the PO and IPL/pSTG toward a functional selectivity for complex sentences is predicted by region-specific gray matter reduction while that of the IPL/pSTG is additionally predicted by vWM span. Thus, both structural brain maturation and vWM expansion provide the basis for the emergence of functional selectivity in language-related brain regions leading to more efficient sentence processing during development.

Details DOI

YNIMG Journal 2012 Journal Article

Linking ordering in Broca's area to storage in left temporo-parietal regions: The case of sentence processing

Lars Meyer
Jonas Obleser
Alfred Anwander
Angela D. Friederici

In sentence processing, storage and ordering of the verb and its arguments (subject and object) are core tasks. Their cortical representation is a matter of ongoing debate, and it is unclear whether prefrontal activations in neuroimaging studies on sentence processing reflect the storage of arguments or their ordering. Moreover, it is unclear how storage during sentence processing relates to the neuroanatomy of storage outside the sentence processing domain. To tackle these questions, we crossed the factor “ordering” (subject-first vs. object-first German sentences) with the factor “storage” (one vs. four phrases intervene between the critical argument and the verb) in an auditory fMRI study. Ordering focally activated the left pars opercularis in Broca's area, while storage activated deep left temporo-parietal (TP) regions. Notably, left TP activation correlated with listener's digit span, while Broca's area activation did not. Furthermore, fractional anisotropy of listeners' left arcuate fasciculus/superior longitudinal fasciculus (AF/SLF) is shown to covary with the functional effect of increased storage demands at sites along the tract. Functionally, the results suggest that storage during sentence processing relies on TP regions, likely shared between sentence processing and other working memory-related tasks, while Broca's area appears as a distinct neural correlate of ordering. We conclude that the abstract notion of sentence processing can be captured by the interplay of concrete cognitive concepts such as ordering and storage.

Details DOI

YNIMG Journal 2011 Journal Article

Dynamic assignment of neural resources in auditory comprehension of complex sentences

Jonas Obleser
Lars Meyer
Angela D. Friederici

Under real-life adverse listening conditions, the interdependence of the brain's analysis of language structure (syntax) and its analysis of the acoustic signal is unclear. In two fMRI experiments, we first tested the functional neural organization when listening to increasingly complex syntax in fMRI. We then tested parametric combinations of syntactic complexity (argument scrambling in three degrees) with speech signal degradation (noise-band vocoding in three different numbers of bands), to shed light on the mutual dependency of sound and syntax analysis along the neural processing pathways. The left anterior and the posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) as well as the left inferior frontal cortex (IFG) were linearly more activated as syntactic complexity increased (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, when syntactic complexity was combined with improving signal quality, this pattern was replicated. However, when syntactic complexity was additive to degrading signal quality, the syntactic complexity effect in the IFG shifted dorsally and medially, and the activation effect in the left posterior STS shifted from posterior toward more middle sections of the sulcus. A distribution analysis of supra- as well as subthreshold data was indicative of this pattern of shifts in the anterior and posterior STS and within the IFG. Results suggest a signal quality gradient within the fronto-temporal language network. More signal-bound processing areas, lower in the processing hierarchy, become relatively more recruited for the analysis of complex language input under more challenging acoustic conditions (“upstream delegation”). This finding provides evidence for dynamic resource assignments along the neural pathways in auditory language comprehension.

Details DOI