Journal article

Brain basis of communicative actions in language

N Egorova, Y Shtyrov, F Pulvermüller

Neuroimage | ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE | Published : 2016

Open access

Abstract

Although language is a key tool for communication in social interaction, most studies in the neuroscience of language have focused on language structures such as words and sentences. Here, the neural correlates of speech acts, that is, the actions performed by using language, were investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were shown videos, in which the same critical utterances were used in different communicative contexts, to Name objects, or to Request them from communication partners. Understanding of critical utterances as Requests was accompanied by activation in bilateral premotor, left inferior frontal and temporo-parietal cortical areas known to sup..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Government Council on Grants, Russian Federation


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MC_US_A060_0034, MC-A060-5PQ90, U1055.04.003.00001.01), the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Behavioural and Brain Sciences Research Council (BABEL grant, EP/J004561/1), Freie Universitat Berlin, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Excellence Cluster Languages of Emotion), Aarhus University, the Lundbeck Foundation (Denmark; grant 2013-12951 Neolex, project code 15480) and NRU Higher School of Economics (subsidy granted to the HSE by the Government of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the Global Competitiveness Program). N. Egorova was supported by Gates Cambridge Scholarship. We also would like to thank Alejandro Vicente-Grabovetsky, Simon Strangeways, Kevin Symonds, Lucy MacGregor, Lauren Navrady, Charlotte Rae and Philip Gomersall for their help at different stages of the project.