Phoebe Gaston, Christian Brodbeck, C. Phillips, Ellen F. Lau
{"title":"Auditory Word Comprehension Is Less Incremental in Isolated Words","authors":"Phoebe Gaston, Christian Brodbeck, C. Phillips, Ellen F. Lau","doi":"10.1101/2021.09.09.459631","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.09.459631","url":null,"abstract":"Partial speech input is often understood to trigger rapid and automatic activation of successively higher-level representations of words, from sound to meaning. Here we show evidence from magnetoencephalography that this type of incremental processing is limited when words are heard in isolation as compared to continuous speech. This suggests a less unified and automatic word recognition process than is often assumed. We present evidence from isolated words that neural effects of phoneme probability, quantified by phoneme surprisal, are significantly stronger than (statistically null) effects of phoneme-by-phoneme lexical uncertainty, quantified by cohort entropy. In contrast, we find robust effects of both cohort entropy and phoneme surprisal during perception of connected speech, with a significant interaction between the contexts. This dissociation rules out models of word recognition in which phoneme surprisal and cohort entropy are common indicators of a uniform process, even though these closely related information- theoretic measures both arise from the probability distribution of wordforms consistent with the input. We propose that phoneme surprisal effects reflect automatic access of a lower level of representation of the auditory input (e.g., wordforms) while the occurrence of cohort entropy effects is task-sensitive, driven by a competition process or a higher-level representation that is engaged late (or not at all) during the processing of single words.","PeriodicalId":34845,"journal":{"name":"Neurobiology of Language","volume":"4 1","pages":"29 - 52"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2021-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41907652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
P. Ferré, J. Jarret, S. Brambati, Pierre Bellec, Y. Joanette
{"title":"Task-Induced Functional Connectivity of Picture Naming in Healthy Aging: The Impacts of Age and Task Complexity","authors":"P. Ferré, J. Jarret, S. Brambati, Pierre Bellec, Y. Joanette","doi":"10.1162/nol_a_00007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00007","url":null,"abstract":"The topological organization of the brain, governed by the capacity of brain regions to synchronize their activity, allows for cost-effective performance during everyday cognitive activity. Functional connectivity is an fMRI method deemed task-specific and demand-dependent. Although the brain undergoes significant changes during healthy aging, conceptual knowledge and word-production accuracy are generally preserved. The exploration of task-induced functional connectivity patterns during active picture naming may thus provide additional information about healthy functional cerebral mechanisms that are specifically adapted to the cognitive activity at hand. The goal of this study is to assess and describe age-related differences in functional connectivity during an overt picture-naming task, as well as to compare age-related differences under complex task demand, defined by lexical frequency. Results suggest both age-specific and task-specific mechanisms. In the context of preserved behavioral performance in a picture-naming task, older adults show a complex array of differences in functional connectivity architecture, including both increases and decreases. In brief, there is increased segregation and specialization of regions that are classically assigned to naming processes. Results also expand on previous word-production studies and suggest that motor regions are particularly subject to age-related differences. This study also provides the first indication that intrinsic task demand, as manipulated by lexical frequency, interacts little with the relationship between age and functional connectivity. Together, these findings confirm the value of task-induced functional connectivity analysis in revealing the brain organization that subserves task performance during healthy aging.","PeriodicalId":34845,"journal":{"name":"Neurobiology of Language","volume":"1 1","pages":"161-184"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2020-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1162/nol_a_00007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43920891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lexical Access in Naming and Reading: Spatiotemporal Localization of Semantic Facilitation and Interference Using MEG","authors":"Julien Dirani, L. Pylkkänen","doi":"10.1162/nol_a_00008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00008","url":null,"abstract":"Naming an object involves quick retrieval of a target word from long-term memory. Research using the semantic interference paradigm has shown that objects take longer to name when they are preceded by primes in the same semantic category. This has been interpreted as reflecting either competition during lexical selection or as an interference effect at a later, postlexical level. Since the behavioral finding has been a core argument for the existence of competition during lexical selection in naming, understanding its processing level is important for models of language production. We used MEG to determine the spatiotemporal localization of the interference effect. We also compared its neural signature to the effect of semantic relatedness in reading, in which relatedness is expected to speed up behavioral responses and reduce activity in the left superior temporal cortex at around 200–300 ms. This is exactly what we found. However, in naming, we observed a more complex pattern for our semantically related targets. First, the angular gyrus showed a facilitory pattern at 300–400 ms, likely reflecting aspects of lexical access. This was followed by a broadly distributed and sustained interference pattern that lasted until articulatory stages. More transient interference effects were also observed at 395–485 ms in the left STG and at ∼100–200 ms before articulation in the parietal cortex. Thus, our findings suggest that the semantic interference effect originates from both early and late sources, which may explain its varying localizations in previous literature.","PeriodicalId":34845,"journal":{"name":"Neurobiology of Language","volume":"1 1","pages":"185-207"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1162/nol_a_00008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47847137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chad S. Rogers, Michael S. Jones, Sarah McConkey, Brent Spehar, Kristin J. Van Engen, M. Sommers, J. Peelle
{"title":"Age-Related Differences in Auditory Cortex Activity During Spoken Word Recognition","authors":"Chad S. Rogers, Michael S. Jones, Sarah McConkey, Brent Spehar, Kristin J. Van Engen, M. Sommers, J. Peelle","doi":"10.1101/2020.03.05.977306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.05.977306","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding spoken words requires the rapid matching of a complex acoustic stimulus with stored lexical representations. The degree to which the brain networks supporting spoken word recognition are affected by adult aging remains poorly understood. In the current study we used fMRI to measure the brain responses to spoken words in two conditions: an attentive listening condition, in which no response was required, and a repetition task. Listeners were 29 young adults (aged 19–30 years) and 32 older adults (aged 65–81 years) without self-reported hearing difficulty. We found largely similar patterns of activity during word perception for both young and older adults, centered on bilateral superior temporal gyrus. As expected, the repetition condition resulted in significantly more activity in areas related to motor planning and execution (including premotor cortex and supplemental motor area) compared to the attentive listening condition. Importantly, however, older adults showed significantly less activity in probabilistically-defined auditory cortex than young adults when listening to individual words in both the attentive listening and repetition tasks. Age differences in auditory cortex activity were seen selectively for words (no age differences were present for 1-channel vocoded speech, used as a control condition), and could not be easily explained by accuracy on the task, movement in the scanner, or hearing sensitivity (available on a subset of participants). These findings indicate largely similar patterns of brain activity for young and older adults when listening to words in quiet, but suggest less recruitment of auditory cortex by the older adults.","PeriodicalId":34845,"journal":{"name":"Neurobiology of Language","volume":"1 1","pages":"452 - 473"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2020-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42118411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}