Cross, Zachariah R, Kohler, Mark J, Schlesewsky, Matthias et al. (2 more authors) (2018) Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation and Incremental Sentence Comprehension:Computational Dependencies during Language Learning as Revealed by Neuronal Oscillations. Frontiers in human neuroscience. p. 18. ISSN 1662-5161
Abstract
We hypothesize a beneficial influence of sleep on the consolidation of the combinatorial mechanisms underlying incremental sentence comprehension. These predictions are grounded in recent work examining the effect of sleep on the consolidation of linguistic information, which demonstrate that sleep-dependent neurophysiological activity consolidates the meaning of novel words and simple grammatical rules. However, the sleep-dependent consolidation of sentence-level combinatorics has not been studied to date. Here, we propose that dissociable aspects of sleep neurophysiology consolidate two different types of combinatory mechanisms in human language: sequence-based (order-sensitive) and dependency-based (order-insensitive) combinatorics. The distinction between the two types of combinatorics is motivated both by cross-linguistic considerations and the neurobiological underpinnings of human language. Unifying this perspective with principles of sleep-dependent memory consolidation, we posit that a function of sleep is to optimize the consolidation of sequence-based knowledge (thewhen) and the establishment of semantic schemas of unordered items (thewhat) that underpin cross-linguistic variations in sentence comprehension. This hypothesis builds on the proposal that sleep is involved in the construction of predictive codes, a unified principle of brain function that supports incremental sentence comprehension. Finally, we discuss neurophysiological measures (EEG/MEG) that could be used to test these claims, such as the quantification of neuronal oscillations, which reflect basic mechanisms of information processing in the brain.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Cross, Kohler, Schlesewsky, Gaskell and Bornkessel-Schlesewsky. |
Keywords: | Journal Article |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Psychology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 19 Feb 2018 15:50 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jan 2025 17:31 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00018 |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00018 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:127722 |