Both autonomy and local specificity are compatible with observed interconnectivity at the cell level when considering two different levels: cell assemblies and brain systems. Early syntactic structuring processes in particular are likely to representan autonomous module in the language/brain system.

The signal functions of infant crying cannot be understood properly without due attention to their ontogenetic development. Based on our own research on the development of infant cries, we argue that the controversies in cry literature will not be solved by static models, but that progress will made only when considering ontogenetic changes in interpreting cry data.

The role of the basal ganglia in syntactic language processing was investigated with event-related brain potentials in fourteen neurologically impaired patients. Seven of these patients had basal ganglia lesions while 7 other patients primarily had lesions of the left temporo–parietal region excluding the basal ganglia. All patients listened to sentences that were either correct or included a verb argument structure violation. In previous experiments this type of violation elicited a biphasic pattern of an N400–P600 complex in young healthy participants. While the N400 may result from incorrect semantic-thematic role assignment, the P600 reflects the fact that verb information does not license the syntactic structure at present. Results of the patient experiment revealed a double dissociation: patients with left temporo–parietal lesions only show a P600, whereas patients with lesions of the basal ganglia showed no P600, but a negativity with extended duration that resembled an N400. The latter pattern not only confirms previous reports that the basal ganglia modulate the P600 but extends these results by showing that the N400 as a late semantic–thematic integration process appears partially modulated by the basal ganglia. (JINS, 2003, 9, 1053–1060.)

The notion that the working-memory system is not to be located in the prefrontal cortex, but rather constituted by the interplay between temporal and frontal areas, is of some attraction. However, at least for the domain of sentence comprehension, this perspective is promoted on the basis of sparse data. For this domain, the authors not only missed out on the chance to systematically integrate event-related brain potential (ERP) and neuroimaging data when interpreting their own findings on semantic aspects of working memory, but also neglected syntactic aspects of working memory and computation altogether.

We criticize the lack of neuroanatomical precision in the Grodzinsky target article. We propose a more precise neuroanatomical characterization of syntactic processing and suggest that syntactic procedures are supported by the left frontal operculum in addition to the anterior part of the superior temporal gyrus, which appears to be associated with syntactic knowledge representation.

Both linguistic and empirical evidence fail to support Grodzinsky's account of Broca's aphasics' comprehension problems. We address concerns regarding Grodzinsky's referring to the internal subject hypothesis, the importance of case information in thematic role assignment, the processing of passives, and the adequacy of Grodzinsky's linear strategy.

Sentence comprehension in second language (L2) learners was examined using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Native Japanese speakers who had learned German as a second language after puberty listened to German sentences which were either correct, semantically incorrect, syntactically incorrect or both semantically and syntactically incorrect. Brain responses were registered while participants listened to these sentences. Grammaticality judgments required after each sentence revealed that their overall performance was not perfect but clearly above chance. When comparing the L2-learners' brain responses to those of native listeners, a variety of differences were observed. Whereas semantically incorrect sentences showed an ERP pattern similar to that of native listeners (a centro-parietal N400-effect), correct sentences elicited a greater positivity in L2-learners than in native listeners, possibly in reflection of greater difficulties in syntactic integration. For sentences containing a phrase structure violation, L2-learners did not show significant modulations of the syntax-related ERP components usually seen in native listeners (i.e. the early anterior negativity and the P600). Furthermore, sentences containing a pure semantic or a combined syntactic and semantic violation elicited a late right anterior-central negativity, an effect which has not been observed for native language processing. The topography of the effect may suggest that these additional processes are based on conceptual-semantic rather than on lexical-semantic aspects.

In a within-subjects design, event-related potentials were compared for two types of sentence-final syntactic errors: Incorrect verb inflection and incorrect word category (phrase structure). In a grammatical judgment task, these errors triggered robust N400 and P600 components. To assess the degree of automaticity of the underlying linguistic processes, the N400 and P600 effects were measured in a task for which the participants judged whether a word in a sentence was printed in upper case. In this physical judgment task, the N400 and P600 following verb inflection errors were greatly attenuated or absent, whereas those elicited by word category violation were only slightly diminished in amplitude. The data suggest that word category information is processed more automatically than inflectional information. The P600 appears to reflect a relatively controlled language-related process.