The neural basis of language
[primary collaborator: Nancy Kanwisher]
My current research program focuses on investigating the neural basis of language using functional neuroimaging. Whereas many cortical and subcortical regions have been implicated in language processing, investigating the functional profiles of these regions has proven challenging. Part of the difficulty associated with investigating functional specificity of language-sensitive cortical regions may have to do with anatomical and functional variability present in the human brains. In an attempt to circumvent these issues, I am using the individual-subjects functional localization approach (see Saxe et al., 2006, for a recent review of the method), which involves (a) functionally defining a set of regions involved in the cognitive process of interest in individual brains, and subsequently (b) testing hypotheses about the functional profiles of these regions by examining their responses to various manipulations. We recently developed a way to localize language-sensitive regions in individual participants in a short period of scanning, and we are currently pursuing two main lines of research: (1) examining the involvement of these language-sensitive regions in different aspects of language (e.g., phonology, semantics, syntax, pragmatics) in order to discover the internal functional architecture of the language system, and (2) examining the involvement of these regions in non-linguistic cognitive processes in order to determine the extent to which these regions are specialized for language.
Relevant papers:
Fedorenko, E. & Kanwisher, N. (2009). Neuroimaging of language: Why hasn't a clearer picture emerged? Language and Linguistics Compass, 3.
Fedorenko, E., Hsieh, P.-J., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S. & Kanwisher, N. (in preparation). Functional localization in the domain of language: A new take on the questions of functional specificity.
Fedorenko, E. & Kanwisher, N. (in preparation). Syntactic processing in the human brain: What we know, what we don't know, and how to proceed.
Fedorenko, E., Kanwisher, N. et al. (in preparation). Investigating domain-specificity of language-sensitive cortical regions using the functional localization approach.
The cognitive architecture of the language system
[primary collaborator: Edward Gibson]
In addition to my main line of research, I continue to pursue a number of projects in the Gibson lab. These projects are aimed at investigating a variety of questions concerning the nature of language comprehension and production mechanisms. Below I briefly describe some of these projects (listed roughly chronologically, starting with the oldest projects).
Relevant papers:
Fedorenko, E., Gibson, E. & Rohde, D. (2006). The nature of working memory capacity in sentence comprehension: Evidence against domain-specific resources. Journal of Memory and Language, 54(4).
Fedorenko, E., Gibson, E. & Rohde, D. (2007). The nature of working memory in linguistic, arithmetic and spatial integration processes. Journal of Memory and Language, 56(2).
Fedorenko, E., Patel, A., Casasanto, D., Winawer, J. & Gibson, E. (2009). Structural integration in language and music: Evidence for a shared system. Memory & Cognition, 37(1).
Fedorenko, E. & Gibson, E. (in preparation). The relationship between syntactic storage and syntactic integration resources.
Fedorenko, E., Gibson, E. & Rohde, D. (in preparation). Further evidence for an overlap in verbal working memory resources between language comprehension and arithmetic processing.
Relevant papers:
Tily, H., Fedorenko, E. & Gibson, E. (in press). The relationship between lexical and structural retrieval in sentence comprehension. QJEP. [To be available for download soon.]
Fedorenko, E., Piantadosi, S., Frank, M.C. & Gibson, E. (submitted). The interaction of syntactic and lexical information sources in language processing: The case of the noun-verb ambiguity.
Fedorenko, E., Frank, M.C. & Gibson, E. (in preprartion). Syntactic complexity effects in Jabberwocky sentences.
Relevant papers:
Fedorenko, E., Tily, H. & Gibson, E. (submitted). The role of animacy information in the processing of relative clauses.
Gibson, E., Fedorenko, E. & Ishizuka, T. (submitted). The role of discourse predictability in the processing of subject- and object-extracted relative clauses.
Jaeger, F., Fedorenko, E. & Gibson, E. (submitted). Anti-locality effects in English: Consequences for theories of sentence comprehension.
Fedorenko, E., Woodbury, R. & Gibson, E. (submitted). Direct evidence of memory retrieval as a source of difficulty in long-distance structural dependencies in language.
Levy, R., Fedorenko, E., Breen, M. & Gibson, E. (in preparation). The processing of extraposed structures in English.
Levy, R., Fedorenko, E. & Gibson, E. (in preparation). The syntactic complexity of Russian relative clauses.
Relevant papers:
Fedorenko, E. & Levy, R. (in preparation). The effects of information structure on the processing of non-canonical word orders: Evidence from Russian.
Relevant papers:
Breen, M., Fedorenko, E., Wagner, M. & Gibson, E. (submitted). Acoustic correlates of information structure.
Quantitative investigations of syntax
[primary collaborator: Edward Gibson]
I am interested in a variety of questions concerning the nature of syntactic representations. In the past few years, we have done some work on multiple-wh questions in English and Russian. We are continuing that line of research. More generally, we have been working on developing new quantitative methods for evaluating questions that concern syntactic representations. In the fall of 2008, Ted and I taught a new class called "Quantitative Approaches to Syntax", and we are planning to do it again in the spring of 2010.
Relevant papers:
Fedorenko, E. & Gibson, E. (in press). Adding a third wh-element does not increase the acceptability of object-initial multiple-wh-questions. Syntax.
Fedorenko, E. & Gibson, E. (submitted). Syntactic parallelism as an account of superiority effects: Empirical investigations in English and Russian.
Fedorenko, E. & Gibson, E. (in preparation). A quantitative evaluation of the acceptability of multiple-wh-questions in different contexts.
Gibson, E. & Fedorenko, E. (in preparation). A quantitative approach to research in syntax.
The nature of the listener's representations of the speaker's utterances
[collaborators: Rebecca Saxe, Lillia Cherkasskiy, Steve Piantadosi, Jon Scholz]
This is an exciting project I did in Rebecca Saxe's lab. Our research question was whether comprehenders represent others' utterances fully propositionally (e.g., Mary said/thinks that X) or whether they only extract and represent the content of the utterance (e.g., X). We investigated this question by examining the response of functionally-defined regions specialized for theory of mind to dialogs where the critical utterance was preceded by the phrase "I think" produced with different prosodic contours, thereby focusing different aspects of the utterance. You can find out what we found in our CNS poster. A paper is currently in preparation and will be available for download soon.
Relevant papers:
Fedorenko, E., Cherkasskiy, L., Piantadosi, S., Scholz, J. & Saxe, R. (in preparation). The nature of the listener's representations of the speaker's utterances.
Cross-cultural investigations of cognition
[primary collaborators: Mike Frank, Edward Gibson, Dan Everett]
Dan Everett (2005) made several claims about the effects of culture on language and other cognitive abilities of the Pirahã, a small isolated tribe living in the Amazon forest in Brazil. This project is aimed at empirically evaluating some of these claims.
Relevant papers:
Frank, M.C., Everett, D., Fedorenko, E. & Gibson, E. (2008). Number as a cognitive technology: Evidence from Pirahã language and cognition. Cognition, 108.
Frank, M.C., Fedorenko, E., Saxe, R. & Gibson, E. (submitted). Language for number is a cognitive technology for abstraction.
Fedorenko, E., Frank, M.C., Everett, D. & Gibson, E. (submitted). Phonological and spatial short-term memory in an isolated Amazonian tribe.