Decoding the Neural Dynamics of Headed Syntactic Structure Building
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11320%2F26%3AKEWPAU5A" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11320/26:KEWPAU5A - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2126-24.2025" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2126-24.2025</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2126-24.2025" target="_blank" >10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2126-24.2025</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Decoding the Neural Dynamics of Headed Syntactic Structure Building
Original language description
The brain builds hierarchical phrases during language comprehension; however, the details and dynamics of the phrase-building process remain underspecified. This study directly probes whether the neural code of verb phrases involves reactivating the syntactic property of a key subcomponent (the “head” verb). To this end, we train a part-of-speech sliding–window verb/adverb decoder on EEG signals recorded while 30 participants read sentences in a controlled experiment. The decoder reaches above-chance performance that is spatiotemporally consistent and generalizes to unseen data across sentence positions. Applying the decoder to held-out data yields predicted activation levels for the verbal “head” of a verb phrase at a distant nonhead word (adverb); the critical adverb appeared either at the end of a verb phrase or at a sequentially and lexically matched position with no verb phrase boundary. There is stronger verb activation beginning at ∼600 milliseconds at the critical adverb when it appears at a verb phrase boundary; this effect is not modulated by the strength of conceptual association nor does it reflect word predictability. Time-locked analyses additionally reveal a negativity waveform component and increased beta-delta inter-trial phase coherence, both previously linked to linguistic composition, in a similar time window. With a novel application of neural decoding, our findings delineate the dynamics by which the brain encodes phrasal representations by, in part, reactivating the representation of key subcomponents. We thus establish a link between cognitive accounts of phrasal representations and electrophysiological dynamics. Copyright © 2025 the authors.
Czech name
—
Czech description
—
Classification
Type
J<sub>SC</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database
CEP classification
—
OECD FORD branch
10201 - Computer sciences, information science, bioinformathics (hardware development to be 2.2, social aspect to be 5.8)
Result continuities
Project
—
Continuities
—
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Journal of Neuroscience
ISSN
0270-6474
e-ISSN
—
Volume of the periodical
45
Issue of the periodical within the volume
17
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
1
Pages from-to
e2126242025
UT code for WoS article
—
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-105003304557