The role of the l-IPS in the comprehension of reversible and irreversible sentences: an rTMS study
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The role of the l‑IPS in the comprehension of reversible and irreversible sentences: an rTMS study Lorenzo Vercesi1 · Prerana Sabnis1,2 · Chiara Finocchiaro3 · Luigi Cattaneo1 · Elena Tonolli1 · Gabriele Miceli1,3,4 Received: 1 May 2020 / Accepted: 7 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Thematic roles can be seen as semantic labels assigned to who/what is taking part in the event denoted by a verb. Encoding thematic relations is crucial for sentence interpretation since it relies on both syntactic and semantic aspects. In previous studies, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left inferior intraparietal sulcus (l-IPS) selectively influenced performance accuracy on reversible passive (but not active) sentences. The effect was attributed to the fact that in these sentences the assignment of the agent and theme roles requires re-analysis of the first-pass sentence parsing. To evaluate the role of reversibility and non-canonical word order (passive voice) on the effect, rTMS was applied over l-IPS during a sentence comprehension task that included reversible and irreversible, active and passive sentences. Participants were asked to identify who/what was performing the action or who/what the action was being performed on. Stimulation of the l-IPS increased response time on reversible passive sentences but not on reversible active sentences. Importantly, no effect was found on irreversible sentences, irrespective of sentence diathesis. Results suggest that neither reversibility nor sentence diathesis alone are responsible for the effect and that the effect is likely to be triggered/constrained by a combination of semantic reversibility and non-canonical word order. Combined with the results of previous studies, and irrespective of the specific role of each feature, these findings support the view that the l-IPS is critically involved in the assignment of thematic roles in reversible sentences. Keywords rTMS · Thematic role assignment · Semantic reversibility · l-IPS · Sentence processing
Introduction Thematic role assignment and sentence comprehension In all languages, sentence comprehension requires information at different levels to be computed and integrated. Lorenzo Vercesi and Prerana Sabnis contributed equally. * Lorenzo Vercesi [email protected] 1
CIMeC‑Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
2
International Doctorate for Experimental Approaches To Language and Brain (IDEALAB), University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
3
DipSCo, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
4
Centro Linceo Interdisciplinare ‘Beniamino Segre’, Accademia Dei Lincei, Rome, Italy
Regardless of the language spoken by an individual, correctly establishing who/what is taking which part in the event described by the verb is essential for sentence interpretation. To understand a sentence like The girl watches the tree‚ for example, the listener must identify the girl as the one who is doing the action (the agent), a
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