认知与发展心理学研究室知识库

句子比词串更具有记忆优势的现象被称作句优效应。研究发现，句优效应与语义工作记忆之间存在紧密的联系。功能神经影像研究提示左侧腹侧颞顶联合区（ventral temporoparietal junction, vTPJ）与外侧颞叶前部（lateral anterior temporal lobe, lATL）可能是句优效应以及语义工作记忆的神经基础。一项新近研究发现，左侧vTPJ和lATL在句子加工中所表现出的敏感性反映的是社会语义工作记忆成分，而并不是一般性的语义工作记忆。

本研究通过经颅磁刺激（Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, TMS）实验考察左侧 vTPJ 和 lATL 的神经活动与领域一般性和领域特殊性的句优效应之间是否存在因果联系，从而为左侧 vTPJ和 lATL与社会语义工作记忆的关系提供新的证据。

实验1通过对左侧 vTPJ和lATL以及一个负责句法加工的对照刺激脑区— —颞上沟后部（posterior superior temporal sulcus, pSTS）分别施加离线 TMS 来考 察这些区域对领域一般性和领域特殊性的句优效应的贡献。实验中操纵了材料的 语言属性（句子/词汇）和材料的社会性（高/低）。高社会性材料的语义与人际互 动和人际关系有关，低社会性材料的语义不涉及与人有关的实体或事件。结果发现，抑制左侧 vTPJ 对句优效应同时表现出了领域一般性和特殊性的影响，即高、低社会性句子的句优效应均出现了显著下降，且高社会性句子回忆成绩的下降幅 度显著大于低社会性句子；抑制左侧 lATL 产生的结果模式与 vTPJ 相似，但高、低社会性句子回忆成绩的下降幅度的差异仅达到边缘显著的水平；抑制左侧pSTS 则如预期一样导致了领域一般性的句优效应下降。实验 2 在实验 1 结果的基础上，选择了对句优效应表现出显著领域特殊性影响的左侧 vTPJ 作为刺激位点，通过在线 TMS 刺激来针对性地考察 vTPJ 对高、低社会性句子的工作记忆保 持的贡献。结果发现，在保持阶段抑制 vTPJ 同样对句优效应同时表现出了领域一般性和领域特殊性的影响，即高、低社会性句子的句优效应均出现显著下降的现象，且高社会性句子回忆成绩的下降幅度显著大于低社会性句子。

综上所述，本研究采用 TMS 技术对句优效应的领域一般性和领域特殊性的神经基础进行了探究。结果表明，左侧 vTPJ 是社会领域特殊性句优效应的重要 神经基础，其神经活动可能与社会语义工作记忆存在因果联系。领域一般性句优 效应的神经基础则可能较为广泛，包含了左侧 vTPJ 和 lATL 以及 pSTS 等脑区。上述发现为相关脑区在句子加工和语义工作记忆中的作用提供了重要的新证据和新启示。

The phenomenon of sentence advantage, in which sentences have a greater memory advantage than word lists, is called the sentence superiority effect. Studies have found that there is a close relationship between the sentence superiority effect and semantic working memory. Functional neuroimaging studies suggest that the left ventral temporoparietal junction (vTPJ) and lateral anterior temporal lobe (lATL) may be the neural basis of the sentence superiority effect and semantic working memory. A recent study found that the sensitivity exhibited by the left vTPJ and lATL in sentence processing reflects the social-semantic working-memory component, rather than the general semantic working memory.

This study aims to investigate whether there is a causal link between neural activities in the left vTPJ and lATL and the domain-general and domain-specific sentence superiority effects through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) experiments, thus providing new evidence for the relationship between the left vTPJ and lATL and social-semantic working-memory.

Experiment 1 employed offline TMS to separately stimulate the left vTPJ, lATL, and a control stimulus brain region responsible for syntactic processing, the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), to investigate the contributions of these regions to the domain-general and domain-specific sentence superiority effects. In the experiment, the linguistic attributes (sentences/lists) and socialness (high/low) of the materials were manipulated. The semantics of high-socialness materials were related to interpersonal interactions and relationships, while the semantics of low-socialness materials did not involve human-related entities or events. The results showed that suppressing the left vTPJ had both domain-general and domain-specific effects on the sentence superiority effect, with significant decreases in the sentence superiority effect for both high- and low-socialness sentences. The decline in recall performance for high-socialness sentences was significantly greater than that for low-socialness sentences. The pattern of results obtained from suppressing the left lATL was similar to that of the vTPJ, but the difference in the decline in recall performance between high- and low-socialness sentences only reached a marginally significant level. As expected, suppressing the left pSTS led to a decrease in the domain-general sentence superiority effect. Based on the results of Experiment 1, Experiment 2 selected the left vTPJ, which showed significant domain-specific effects on the sentence superiority effect, as the stimulation site. Through online TMS stimulation, it specifically examined the contribution of the vTPJ to the working memory maintenance of high- and low-socialness sentences. The results revealed that suppressing the vTPJ during the maintenance phase also exhibited both domain-general and domain-specific effects on the sentence superiority effect, with significant decreases in the sentence superiority effect for both high- and low-socialness sentences. The decline in recall performance for high-socialness sentences was significantly greater than that for low-socialness sentences.

In summary, this study employed TMS technology to investigate the neural basis of domain-general and domain-specific sentence superiority effects. The results indicate that the left vTPJ is an important neural basis for the domain-specific sentence superiority effect in the social domain, and its neural activity may have a causal relationship with social-semantic working-memory. The neural basis of domain-general sentence superiority effects may be more extensive, encompassing brain regions such as the left vTPJ, lATL, and pSTS. These findings provide important new evidence and insights into the roles of these brain regions in sentence processing and semantic working memory.