Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:58:39.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

26 - Syntax and the brain

from Part VI - Syntax and the external interfaces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2013

Marcel den Dikken
Affiliation:
City University of New York
Get access

Summary

Marr argued that a complete description of any information processing device, including the human brain, necessarily involves three levels of description: the computational level, the algorithmic level, and the implementational level. The goal of this chapter is to illustrate the close, but often unstated, relationship between syntactic theory and brain-based studies of sentence processing (both electrophysiological and neuroimaging). The chapter provides a primer for syntacticians on some of the driving questions underlying brain-based studies of sentence processing, as well as some of the primary results of those investigations. Syntactic theories are primarily concerned with properties of the full syntactic representation of a sentence. When it comes to non-invasively studying brain responses to cognitive stimuli, there really are only two widely available options: electrophysiological responses or hemodynamic responses. The syntactic theory allows syntacticians may be well positioned to become central players in the progress toward a cognitive neuroscience of syntax.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×