Open AccessQuestion/statement judgments: An fMRI study of intonation processing
Author(s) -
Doherty Colin P.,
West W. Caroline,
Dilley Laura C.,
ShattuckHufnagel Stefanie,
Caplan David
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.20042
Subject(s) - intonation (linguistics) , psychology , hum , statement (logic) , functional magnetic resonance imaging , cognitive psychology , linguistics , neuroscience , philosophy , art , performance art , art history
We examined changes in fMRI BOLD signal associated with question/statement judgments in an event‐related paradigm to investigate the neural basis of processing one aspect of intonation. Subjects made judgments about digitized recordings of three types of utterances: questions with rising intonation (RQ; e.g., “She was talking to her father?”), statements with a falling intonation (FS; e.g., “She was talking to her father.”), and questions with a falling intonation and a word order change (FQ; e.g., “Was she talking to her father?”). Functional echo planar imaging (EPI) scans were collected from 11 normal subjects. There was increased BOLD activity in bilateral inferior frontal and temporal regions for RQ over either FQ or FS stimuli. The study provides data relevant to the location of regions responsive to intonationally marked illocutionary differences between questions and statements. Hum Brain Mapping 23:85–98, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.