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Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English BibTeX citation key: Cohn2014d Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details |
Categories: General Keywords: Cognition, Reception Creators: Cohn, Holcomb, Jackendoff, Kuperberg Collection: Neuropsychologia |
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Abstract |
Constituent structure has long been established as a central feature of human language. Analogous to how syntax organizes words in sentences, a narrative grammar organizes sequential images into hierarchic constituents. Here we show that the brain draws upon this constituent structure to comprehend wordless visual narratives. We recorded neural responses as participants viewed sequences of visual images (comics strips) in which blank images either disrupted individual narrative constituentsor fell at natural constituent boundaries. A disruption of either the first or the second narrative constituent produced a left-lateralized anterior negativity effect between 500 and 700 ms. Disruption of the second constituent also elicited a posteriorly-distributed positivity (P600) effect. These neuralresponses are similar tothose associated with structural violations in language and music. These provide evidence that comprehenders use a narrative structure to comprehend visual sequences and that the brain engages similar neurocognitive mechanisms to build structure across multiple domains
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