Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:25:18.795Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How long is now? The multiple timescales of language processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2016

Christopher J. Honey ,
Janice Chen ,
Kathrin Müsch  and
Uri Hasson
Christopher J. Honey
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Collaborative Program in Neuroscience, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada; [email protected]@utoronto.cahttp://www.honeylab.org
Janice Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540. [email protected]@princeton.eduhttp://hlab.princeton.edu
Kathrin Müsch
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Collaborative Program in Neuroscience, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada; [email protected]@utoronto.cahttp://www.honeylab.org
Uri Hasson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540. [email protected]@princeton.eduhttp://hlab.princeton.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Christiansen & Chater (C&C) envision language function as a hierarchical chain of transformations, enabling rapid, continuous processing of input. Their notion of a “Now-or-Never” bottleneck may be elaborated by recognizing that timescales become longer at successive levels of the sensory processing hierarchy – that is, the window of “Now” expands. We propose that a hierarchical “process memory” is intrinsic to language processing.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e77
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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.)

References

Elliott, L. L. (1962) Backward and forward masking of probe tones of different frequencies. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 34:1116–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuster, J. M. (1997) Network memory. Trends in Neuroscience 20:451–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hasson, U., Chen, J. & Honey, C. J. (2015) Hierarchical process memory: Memory as an integral component of information processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19(6):304–13. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.04.006.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hasson, U., Yang, E., Vallines, I., Heeger, D. J. & Rubin, N. (2008) A hierarchy of temporal receptive windows in human cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience 28(10):2539–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Honey, C. J., Thesen, T., Donner, T. H., Silbert, L. J., Carlson, C. E., Devinsky, O., Doyle, W. K., Rubin, N., Heeger, D. J. & Hasson, U. (2012) Slow cortical dynamics and the accumulation of information over long timescales. Neuron 76(2):423–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lerner, Y., Honey, C. J., Silbert, L. J. & Hasson, U. (2011) Topographic mapping of a hierarchy of temporal receptive windows using a narrated story. Journal of Neuroscience 31:2906–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nieuwland, M. S. & Van Berkum, J. J. (2006) When peanuts fall in love: N400 evidence for the power of discourse. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 18(7):1098–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stephens, G. J., Honey, C. J. & Hasson, U. (2013) A place for time: The spatiotemporal structure of neural dynamics during natural audition. Journal of Neurophysiology 110(9):2019–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warren, R. M., Obusek, C. J., Farmer, R. M. & Warren, R. P. (1969) Auditory sequence: Confusion of patterns other than speech or music. Science 164:586–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed