The role of left anterior temporal lobe in basic linguistic composition: Evidence from stereo-electroencephalography.

Determining the neural bases of basic linguistic composition is central to research on the cognitive neuroscience of language. The left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) is widely reported during linguistic composition of visual stimuli in magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies. However, this effect is less reported during the linguistic composition of auditory stimuli in intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) studies. To further test this discrepancy, we directly examined the composition effect in LATL by combining the iEEG technique with visual stimuli. Participants were asked to read minimal two-word phrases in the composition condition and read words preceded by pound signs in the noncomposition condition. The results showed that high-gamma power in the LATL was higher in the composition condition compared to the noncomposition condition. These results provide more substantial evidence for the role of LATL in basic linguistic composition (at least in visual modality) and highlight the potential role of stimuli modality (visual vs. auditory) in the phrasal composition effect in LATL.