听觉经验缺失对句子阅读中语义加工层级的选择性影响
Selective Effects of Auditory Experience Deprivation on Hierarchical Semantic Processing during Sentence Reading
吴岩 1陈杰 1白昀晓 1王穗苹2
作者信息
- 1. 东北师范大学心理学院,长春 130024;认知神经科学与心理健康吉林省重点实验室,长春 130024
- 2. 儿童青少年阅读与发展教育部哲学社会科学实验室,广州 510631
- 折叠
摘要
“感官—运动模拟假说”认为，感官经验在语义构建的过程中发挥重要作用。听障者由于早期听觉经验缺失，其语义表征的形成会受到影响。然而，这种影响发生在语义加工的哪个层级，还有待探究。本研究结合ERP分析、多变量模式分析及θ频段振荡分析，考察听觉经验缺失对句子阅读中不同层级语义加工及其神经表征的影响。实验通过操纵目标词是否违反词汇或句子层面的语义约束，分别在局部词汇语境和整体句子语境两个层级上操纵语义一致性。结果显示，在词汇语境条件下，加工违反动词语义约束的目标词时，听障被试与健听被试均出现显著的N400效应，且两类人群的神经表征均可被有效解码，提示听障者在词汇语境层级具备相对完好的语义加工与表征构建能力。与之相对，听障者对句子语境层级的加工存在明显不足：虽然听障者仍可探测句子语境中的语义冲突，其N400效应与早期阶段的神经表征解码模式和健听者无显著差异，但缺乏晚期时间窗口内持续稳定的解码能力，且未出现θ频段神经振荡的相应调制。综上，听觉经验缺失并未显著削弱词汇语境下的语义加工过程，但会选择性影响句子语境层级语义表征的稳定性及其维持过程。
Abstract
Semantic processing is a fundamental component of language comprehension and is shaped by individuals sensory and linguistic experiences. Several contemporary theories propose that semantic knowledge is not entirely abstract but is gradually constructed through interactions between language input and perceptual experience. From this perspective, auditory experience deprivation may alter the experiential foundations of semantic representations, potentially exerting differential effects across levels of language processing. Behavioral evidence suggests that deaf individuals often perform comparably to hearing peers in lexical recognition and basic semantic judgments, yet experience persistent difficulties in sentence comprehension and higher-order meaning integration. However, it remains unclear whether these difficulties reflect a general semantic impairment or a selective disruption of higher-level semantic representations, and how such effects are realized in the temporal dynamics of neural processing.To address these questions, the present study combined multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of event-related potentials (ERPs) with neural oscillation analyses. Deaf and hearing participants completed a sentence reading task in which semantic constraints were independently manipulated at the lexical and sentence levels. Time-resolved ERP decoding was used to assess whether neural representations associated with different semantic conditions could be reliably discriminated and sustained over time, whereas time-frequency analyses focused on theta-band activity, a neural signature closely associated with semantic integration, working memory maintenance, and predictive processing.Twenty-five deaf university participants were recruited. All deaf participants reported severe or profound hearing loss and were either congenitally deaf or became deaf before language acquisition. A total of 25 undergraduates were recruited as the control group. All participants were native Chinese speakers with no identified language delay or any other disorders. Their ages were matched to those of deaf university participants.The results revealed a clear dissociation between lexical- and sentence-level. Under lexical-level semantic constraints, both deaf and hearing participants showed comparable N400 effects and robust decoding effects, indicating intact lexical formation of discriminable lexical semantic representations. In contrast, under sentence-level semantic constraints, deaf participants showed decoding processes and N400 effects comparable to those of hearing participants in the early stage, yet lacked sustained decoding, accompanied by an absence of theta effects.These findings indicate that early auditory experience deprivation does not fundamentally compromise lexical semantic processing, but selectively affects the stability and maintenance of sentence-level semantic representations. By integrating neural decoding and oscillatory measures, this study advances our understanding of the dynamic neural mechanisms underlying sentence comprehension in deaf readers and provides novel evidence for experience-based, hierarchical models of semantic representation and language processing.关键词
听觉经验缺失/语义加工/ERP解码/神经振荡Key words
auditory experience deprivation/semantic processing/ERP decoding/neural oscillations引用本文复制引用
吴岩,陈杰,白昀晓,王穗苹.听觉经验缺失对句子阅读中语义加工层级的选择性影响[EB/OL].(2026-10-17)[2026-10-22].https://chinaxiv.org/abs/202610.00103.学科分类
语言学
