A predictive coding perspective on beta oscillations during sentence-level language comprehension

Ashley G. Lewis, Jan-Mathijs Schoffelen, Herbert Schriefers, Marcel Bastiaansen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

69 Citations (Scopus)
197 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Oscillatory neural dynamics have been steadily receiving more attention as a robust and temporally precise signature of network activity related to language processing. We have recently proposed that oscillatory dynamics in the beta and gamma frequency ranges measured during sentence-level comprehension might be best explained from a predictive coding perspective. Under our proposal we related beta oscillations to both the maintenance/change of the neural network configuration responsible for the construction and representation of sentence-level meaning, and to top–down predictions about upcoming linguistic input based on that sentence-level meaning. Here we zoom in on these particular aspects of our proposal, and discuss both old and new supporting evidence. Finally, we present some preliminary magnetoencephalography data from an experiment comparing Dutch subject- and object-relative clauses that was specifically designed to test our predictive coding framework. Initial results support the first of the two suggested roles for beta oscillations in sentence-level language comprehension.
Original languageEnglish
JournalFrontiers in Human Neuroscience
Volume10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • language comprehension
  • neural oscillations
  • beta
  • predictive coding
  • EEG
  • MEG

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