{"title":"Contextual modulation of the neural network underlying the processing of compositional nontransparent meaning","authors":"Yao-Ying Lai","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101202","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study examines the neurocognitive mechanisms supporting the processing of sentences involving compositional nontransparent meaning, investigating if the neural correlates are modulated by clausal and extra-clausal prior context. We probe through sentences like “<em>The player jumped for 5 s.</em>“, which engenders an iterative meaning (multiple jumping actions) that is morphosyntactically-unsupported yet obtained at the compositional level ([verb + adverbial]). We hypothesize that the non-transparent meaning is computed by comprehenders’ contextual evaluation, which would be more effortful without guiding cues yet could be facilitated by the presence of biasing information in context. This predicts that the comprehension of nontransparent sentences is contextually modulated, eliciting greater cost than their transparent counterparts—particularly when they are processed in a neutral context than in an iterative-biasing context. The reported fMRI experiment showed that computing nontransparent meaning preferentially recruited the left inferior frontal gyrus (L.IFG), the left middle temporal regions, and the right IFG, in contrast to the transparent counterpart. Crucially, the left frontal activation subserving nontransparent sentences was attenuated in a biasing context, as compared to a neutral context. The context effect was corroborated by the results of iterativity judgments that showed differential iterative vs. non-iterative interpretations for the nontransparent sentences as cued by the clausal and extra-clausal context. While the influence of clausal context has been demonstrated, this study provides novel evidence showing that compositional meaning computation is modulated by prior context in addition. The findings reveal a left-lateralized frontal-temporal network for compositional nontransparent meaning that is subject to contextual modulation beyond morphosyntactic computation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"72 ","pages":"Article 101202"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140910348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aikaterini Premeti , Maria Pia Bucci , Karin Heidlmayr , Pierre Vigneron , Frédéric Isel
{"title":"Neurodynamics of selected language processes involved in word reading: An EEG study with French dyslexic adults","authors":"Aikaterini Premeti , Maria Pia Bucci , Karin Heidlmayr , Pierre Vigneron , Frédéric Isel","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101201","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This event-related potential (ERP) study aimed to examine at which point in the stream of four cognitive processes of word reading impairment occurs in dyslexic adults. Fourteen French native dyslexic speakers and eighteen matched controls performed a delayed phonological lexical decision task that consisted in deciding whether visual stimuli sounded like French words. Three hundred stimuli equally distributed among five experimental conditions (60 concrete French words, 60 pseudo-homophones, 60 pseudowords, 60 consonant and 60 symbol strings) were presented. Critically, two language processes involving phonological information, namely grapheme-to-phoneme conversion (N320) and memory retrieval of phonological information (Late Positive Complex) were impaired in dyslexics compared to controls. Moreover, lexical access (N400) was significantly modulated by six predictive variables assumed to be reliable markers of dyslexia. In contrast, and unexpectedly, the early processes of visual expertise for print (N170) appeared to operate in the same way in the two groups of participants. The locus of dyslexia is probably to be found primarily in some aspects of phonological processing during word reading. These findings support a clinical neurophysiology model postulating that at least two phonological processes during reading might be impaired in dyslexics, namely grapheme-to-phoneme conversion, and memory retrieval of phonological information.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"71 ","pages":"Article 101201"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0911604424000113/pdfft?md5=2654b50afede9b85925d7369471e80f7&pid=1-s2.0-S0911604424000113-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140343768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wenhui Li , Zhongqing Jiang , Yihan Xu , Tingting Yu , Xuan Ning , Ying Liu , Chan Li
{"title":"A study of ERPs acquired during handwritten and printed Chinese character processing in a lexical decision task","authors":"Wenhui Li , Zhongqing Jiang , Yihan Xu , Tingting Yu , Xuan Ning , Ying Liu , Chan Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101200","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The aim of this study was to investigate the time course differences in brain processing between handwritten and printed Chinese characters. Behavioural and event-related potential (ERP) data were collected from twenty participants as they performed a lexical decision task in which Chinese handwritten and printed characters served as stimuli. The findings indicated that N1 reflects orthographic regularity during the early processing stage; N400 and the late positive component (LPC) data revealed that reading handwritten words evoke greater ERP amplitudes during the late processing stage. Although handwritten characters evoke greater ERP amplitudes, this did not result in more efficient behavioural outcomes. Therefore, it appears that the greater ERP amplitudes observed in the handwriting task corresponded to deeper meaning comprehension, which is also more challenging for semantic integration.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"71 ","pages":"Article 101200"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140342080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shiting Yang , Lirong Tang , Li Liu , Qi Dong , George K. Georgiou , Yun Nan
{"title":"Musical pitch processing predicts reading development in Chinese school-age children","authors":"Shiting Yang , Lirong Tang , Li Liu , Qi Dong , George K. Georgiou , Yun Nan","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101199","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Musical pitch perception is closely related to phonological awareness and reading development in alphabetic languages. However, whether such a relation also exists in tonal languages such as Chinese remains unclear. Here, we examined the musical pitch—reading relations and the possible mediating effects of phonological awareness in a sample of typically-developing Chinese children followed from Grade 3 (age 9) to Grade 5 (age 11). Phonological awareness and reading (accuracy and fluency) were assessed at both time points. Musical pitch perception was examined with a passive oddball EEG paradigm and an active identification task at age 9. Results showed that neural musical pitch sensitivity (indexed by P3a latency) predicted reading accuracy at age 11 and its two-year development. Behavioral musical pitch sensitivity predicted reading fluency at both ages through the effects of phonological awareness. Together, our results reveal the effects of musical pitch processing on reading development at both behavioral and neural levels in Chinese.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"71 ","pages":"Article 101199"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140163214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Role of the left inferior frontal gyrus in transforming format types of action descriptions between stimuli and representations","authors":"Hiroshi Shibata , Kenji Ogawa","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101191","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101191","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging study to elucidate the process involved in the transformation of the format types of action descriptions between stimuli and representations. We independently manipulated the format types of both stimuli (visual action [Vi] vs. verbal [Ve] stimulus) and internal representations (Vi vs. Ve representation) and set four types of experimental tasks. Each participant was required to generate a Vi or Ve representation after being presented with a Vi or Ve stimulus, according to each task. Increased activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) (Brodmann areas 44 and 45) was found in the transformation contrast: ([Vi stimulus and Ve representation] + [Ve stimulus and Vi representation]) > ([Vi stimulus and Vi representation] + [Ve stimulus and Ve representation]). This result suggests that the left IFG is involved with the transformation process and has the function of generating an internal representation in a format different from that of externally presented stimuli.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"71 ","pages":"Article 101191"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139743205","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Barbara Lust , Suzanne Flynn , Charles Henderson , James Gair , Janet Cohen Sherman
{"title":"Disintegration at the syntax-semantics interface in prodromal Alzheimer's disease: New evidence from complex sentence anaphora in amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI)","authors":"Barbara Lust , Suzanne Flynn , Charles Henderson , James Gair , Janet Cohen Sherman","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101190","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101190","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Although diverse language deficits have been widely observed in prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD), the underlying nature of such deficits and their explanation remains opaque. Consequently, both clinical applications and brain-language models are not well-defined. In this paper we report results from two experiments which test language production in a group of individuals with amnestic </span>Mild Cognitive Impairment<span> (aMCI) in contrast to healthy aging<span><span> and healthy young. The experiments apply factorial designs informed by linguistic analysis to test two forms of complex sentences involving anaphora (relations between pronouns and their antecedents). Results show that aMCI individuals differentiate forms of anaphora depending on sentence structure, with selective impairment of sentences which involve </span>construal with reference to context (anaphoric coreference). We argue that aMCI individuals maintain core structural knowledge while evidencing deficiency in syntax-semantics integration, thus locating the source of the deficit in the language-thought interface of the Language Faculty.</span></span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"70 ","pages":"Article 101190"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139065344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marte Mestach, Robert J. Hartsuiker, Aurélie Pistono
{"title":"Can we track the progression of Alzheimer's Disease via lexical-semantic variables in connected speech?","authors":"Marte Mestach, Robert J. Hartsuiker, Aurélie Pistono","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101189","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p><span>Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common </span>neurodegenerative disorders<span><span> worldwide and is characterized by problems with cognition and language, especially word-finding difficulties. The present study focuses on lexical-semantic features via five discourse variables reflecting word-finding difficulties, namely indefinite terms, lexical frequency, repetitions, semantic paraphasias, and use of pronouns. Our aim is twofold: testing whether these variables can discriminate </span>healthy aging from AD, but also mild from moderate AD.</span></p></div><div><h3>Method</h3><p>105 participants were examined from the existing Pitt corpus (available on DementiaBank), which includes the Cookie Theft Picture Description task. 40 participants were healthy controls, 25 were mild AD participants, and 40 moderate AD participants.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>The moderate AD group differed significantly from healthy controls in terms of indefinite terms, repetitions, semantic paraphasias, and pronouns. For the latter variable, mild AD patients also differed significantly from healthy controls. However, none of the variables could differentiate mild from moderate AD.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><p>Four out of five discourse variables could discriminate healthy aging from moderate AD, while only one could discriminate mild AD patients. This is therefore questioning current literature on connected-speech measures in AD and calling for further research on the variables that could better distinguish mild to moderate AD.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"70 ","pages":"Article 101189"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138582011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Young interpreting trainees’ better adaptation to the flanker conflicting environment: An ERP study","authors":"Hongming Zhao , Xiaocong Chen , Yanping Dong","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101181","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101181","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In the intense debate about the potential benefits of bilingual experience to executive functioning (EF), little research addresses the possibility that the benefits may manifest in the process of adapting to an EF task. In this study, we hypothesize that interpreters, confronted frequently with more intense interference from different languages, may adapt to the interference task more efficiently. With the event-related potential (ERP) technique, this study examined whether participants with interpreting experience may adapt to the conflicting environment of a Flanker task more efficiently than non-interpreter bilinguals with the progression of the task (i.e., from the first to the second half trials). Our results showed that the interpreter group showed better conflict resolution (i.e., a lower error rate) despite being less active in early attentional processing (i.e., less negative overall N1 and N2 amplitudes). Second, both groups showed an adaptation effect in the second half trials compared with the first half, as reflected by less negative overall N2 amplitude and more positive overall P3 amplitude. More importantly, only the interpreter group showed an additional benefit in adaptation, as reflected by an earlier overall P3 peak latency in the second half trials. Taken together, the results offered some support for an interpreter advantage in the dynamics of adapting to the Flanker task, which could provide new insight into the effect of bilingual experience on non-verbal interference control.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"70 ","pages":"Article 101181"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138553081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"ROSE: A neurocomputational architecture for syntax","authors":"Elliot Murphy","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101180","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101180","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>A comprehensive neural model of language must accommodate four components: representations, operations, structures and encoding. Recent intracranial research has begun to map out the feature space associated with syntactic processes, but the field lacks a unified framework that can direct invasive neural analyses. This article proposes a neurocomputational architecture for syntax, termed ROSE (Representation, Operation, Structure, Encoding). Under ROSE, the basic data structures of syntax are atomic features, types of mental representations (R), and are coded at the single-unit and ensemble level. Operations (O) transforming these units into manipulable objects accessible to subsequent structure-building levels are coded via high frequency broadband γ activity. Low frequency synchronization and cross-frequency coupling code for recursive structural inferences (S). Distinct forms of low frequency coupling encode these structures onto distinct workspaces (E). Causally connecting R to O is spike-phase/LFP coupling; connecting O to S is phase-amplitude coupling; connecting S to E are frontotemporal traveling oscillations. ROSE is reliant on neurophysiologically plausible mechanisms and provides an anatomically precise and falsifiable grounding for natural language syntax.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"70 ","pages":"Article 101180"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138335252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of response congruence on speech production: An event-related potentials study","authors":"J.R. Kuipers","doi":"10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101178","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101178","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>A puzzling finding in the speech production literature is the facilitation of categorically related distractors in a superordinate level naming task. The context is in this case response congruent, because application of the task instruction to the context would lead to the correct response. This study investigates the time-course of response congruence effects in speech production using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants overtly named target words that were overlaid on context pictures with either their superordinate category level name or their associated function, while their response times and ERPs were recorded. Behavioural results replicate the facilitating effect of response congruence. The ERP results showed that the N2 was larger for a response incongruent than congruent context, and this effect correlated with the behavioural pattern of results. This key finding suggests that response incongruence is associated with a conflict-monitoring response which drives the behavioural effect. Further, N400 amplitude was not modulated by response congruence, showing that its effect appears confined to the conceptualisation phase. Finally, P3 modulations mirrored those in RTs, but unlike the N2 effect, they did not correlate with RTs. This suggests that, although the facilitating effect of response congruence is confined to the conceptualisation phase of speech production, response incongruent representations may remain active during later processing stages, or that this late effect of response congruence reflects conflict resolve. Implications for models of speech production are discussed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neurolinguistics","volume":"69 ","pages":"Article 101178"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0911604423000556/pdfft?md5=79f15e8353a223c3864c504a4ecf9538&pid=1-s2.0-S0911604423000556-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134655127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}