The neural architecture of the morphosyntax/semantics interface: a novel approach for testing language processing in fronto-temporal dementia

In this study, we present a new battery of tasks to test language processing in fronto-temporal dementia, with the aim of assessing the cognitive neuropsychological correlates of the morphosyntax/semantics interface. The novelty of this battery relies on its ability to disentangle the semantic properties that are morphosyntactically relevant from the semantic properties that are not, and the morphological and syntactic features that are semantically determined from those that are not. The approach used in this study: 1) allows to answer the question whether distinct kinds of both semantic and morphosyntactic knowledge are subserved by distinctive neurocognitive patterns; 2) yields new insights into specific principles that underlie the relationship between conceptual-semantic representations and linguistic structures; 3) can make specific contributions to the functional recovery of cognitive and linguistic abilities, by identifying the conceptual-semantic and morphosyntactic deficits that need to be targeted.