An exploratory study and new model of the role of implicit timing in sentence comprehension

Abstract

Linguistic prosody is essential for language comprehension, but our recent findings suggest that some people with stroke (PWS) comprehend sentences better when typical prosodic contours are replaced with list-like prosody. We investigated this surprising behavioral finding by examining the neural basis of list prosody using fMRI in neurotypical controls, finding increased activation in the bilateral posterior superior temporal gyri, regardless of sentence structure. In PWS, lesion-symptom mapping revealed distinct effects: those with left posterior superior temporal gyrus and left striatum damage showed slower response times with list prosody for simple sentences and faster but less accurate responses for complex sentences. Conversely, PWS with left globus pallidus damage benefitted from list prosody, showing faster responses for simple sentences and slower but more accurate responses for complex ones. These findings inform a neuroanatomical model of the role of implicit timing in auditory sentence comprehension, providing a framework for future research.