Elucidation of neural bases of universality and variability of language through a comparative study of Japanese and Kaqchikel

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K16733
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Kyushu University (2016); The University of Tokyo (2015)
• Principal Investigator: Ohta Shinri 九州大学, 人文科学研究院, 講師 (20750045)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 言語 / fMRI / 語順 / 左下前頭回 / 上側頭回 / かき混ぜ / 主題化 / カクチケル・マヤ語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the present comparative study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we tried to elucidate the neural bases of universality and variability of the human languages. Here we targeted Japanese and Kaqchikel, a Mayan language spoken in Guatemala. In both Kaqchikel and Japanese, we found that the conditions with scrambled sentences elicited significant activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, which has been proposed as a grammar center, indicating the effects of syntactic loads. Moreover, in Kaqchikel, the conditions without topicalization resulted in significant activation in bilateral Heschl’s and superior temporal gyri, demonstrating that the syntactic and phonological processes were clearly dissociated within the language areas. These results establish that scrambling and topicalization have different impacts on the specified language areas.

Free Research Field

言語脳科学、心理言語学