Dokument

Summary:
The current thesis presents a novel approach to studying the neurobiology of language. We embedded a variety of controlled stimuli into naturalistic stories thereby aiming for high ecological validity of the experiment and the results. The different manipulations in the stories ranged from phonology, syntax and semantics through to the interplay of language and social cognition. In order to simulate natural language comprehension, the stories were presented auditorily and included rich contextual information. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, participants listened to the stories and answered two comprehension questions after each story, in order to ensure they were listening attentively. The findings of each manipulation were inline with previous findings on the topics under consideration and offered novel insights into the neurobiological implementation of language. This research provides supporting evidence for the need of a new conceptualisation of language processing, rooted in neurobiologically plausible mechanisms of the human brain.

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