Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T03:55:24.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Lexical access as a brain mechanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2004

Friedemann Pulvermüller*
Affiliation:
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, CambridgeCB2 2EF, United Kingdomhttp://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/People/Friedemann.Pulvermuller.html

Abstract

The following questions are addressed concerning how a theory of lexical access can be realized in the brain: (1) Can a brainlike device function without inhibitory mechanisms? (2) Where in the brain can one expect to find processes underlying access to word semantics, syntactic word properties, phonological word forms, and their phonetic gestures? (3) If large neuron ensembles are the basis of such processes, how can one expect these populations to be connected? (4) In particular, how could one-way, reciprocal, and numbered connections be realized? and, (5) How can a neuroscientific approach for multiple access to the same word in the course of the production of a sentence?

Type
Continuing Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

This commentary originally appeared in the Levelt et al. treatment in BBS 22(1) (pp. 52–54).

Commentary on William J. M. Levelt, Ardi Roelofs, & Antje S. Meyer (1999). A theory of lexical access in speech production. BBS 22(1):1–75.