The goal of this research is to understand how different referential forms are processed in the brain. Most instances of real-life language use involve discourses in which several sentences or utterances are coherently linked through the use of repeated references. Repeated references can be made with different forms. For example, a person mentioned early in discourse (the referent) can be later referred to by a proper name (e.g., Bill), a specific definite description (e.g., the waiter), a less specific definite description (e.g., the man), or a pronoun (e.g., he). The form of referential expressions has played a key role in theories of reference, but not much is known about the underlying brain mechanisms.
This research project will test the theoretical claim that the choice and processing of referential form reflect general memory processes that are involved in the representation of multiple referents and that these processes are prone to interference, especially when the referents are salient. According to this "interference view", high semantic overlap between the referential expression and the representation of the referent in memory results in more interference. General referential forms such as pronouns and general definite descriptions, which represent conditions of low semantic overlap, reduce this interference and these expressions are preferred when referents could be easily identified. At the neural level, the interference view predicts that semantic overlap between the representations of the referential expression and the referent can increase brain activation both in areas that are involved in the semantic representation of referents (e.g., regions in the temporal lobe for many types of object referents) and in areas that are known to support the manipulation and integration of multiple representations (e.g., areas around the intra parietal sulcus (IPS)). Self paced reading and matching functional MRI (fMRI) experiments will test the predictions of this view by examining the relation between brain activation and behavioral aspects of processing definite description references.
The application of converging behavioral and fMRI methodologies is unique in discourse research and holds promise for bridging functional accounts of discourse processes with their possible brain basis. Tying referential processing to underlying brain mechanisms would represent a major leap forward in terms of the scientific understanding of these issues. Moreover, explaining linguistic phenomena on the basis of non language brain mechanisms is a potentially transformative research in that it could disrupt the well accepted theoretical perspective that reference processing is driven by language "rules" or arbitrary conventions.
