Neurolinguistics

Electrophysiological Correlates of Complement Coercion

by Martin Paczynski

Kuperberg, GR., Choi, A., Cohn, N., Paczynski M., Jackendoff, R. (2010) Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 22(12), 2685-2701.

This study examined the electrophysiological correlates of complement coercion. ERPs were measured as participants... more This study examined the electrophysiological correlates of complement coercion. ERPs were measured as participants read and made acceptability judgments about plausible coerced sentences, plausible noncoerced sentences, and highly implausible animacy-violated sentences (“The journalist began/wrote/ astonished the article before his coffee break”). Relative to non- coerced complement nouns, the coerced nouns evoked an N400 effect. This effect was not modulated by the number of possible activities implied by the coerced nouns (e.g., began reading the article; began writing the article) and did not differ either in magnitude or scalp distribution from the N400 effect evoked by the animacy-violated complement nouns. We suggest that the N400modulation to both coerced and animacy-violated complement nouns reflected different types of mismatches between the semantic restrictions of the verb and the semantic properties of the incoming complement noun. This is consistent with models holding that a verbʼs semantic argument structure is represented and stored at a distinct level from its syntactic argument structure. Unlike the coerced complement noun, the animacy-violated nouns also evoked a robust P600 effect, which may have been triggered by the judgments of the highly implausible (syntactically determined) meanings of the animacy-violated propositions. No additional ERP effects were seen in the coerced sentences until the sentence-final word that, relative to sentence-final words in the noncoerced sentences, evoked a sustained anteriorly distributed positivity. We suggest that this effect reflected delayed attempts to retrieve the specific event(s) implied by coerced complement nouns.

Establishing Causal Coherence across Sentences: An ERP Study

by Martin Paczynski

Kuperberg, G.R., Paczynski, M., and Ditman, T. (2011) Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 23(5), 1230–1246

This study examined neural activity associated with establishing causal relationships across sentences during on-line... more This study examined neural activity associated with establishing causal relationships across sentences during on-line comprehension. ERPs were measured while participants read and judged the relatedness of three-sentence scenarios in which the final sentence was highly causally related, intermediately related, and causally unrelated to its context. Lexico-semantic co-occurrence was matched across the three conditions using a Latent Semantic Analysis. Critical words in causally unrelated scenarios evoked a larger N400 than words in both highly causally related and intermediately related scenarios, regardless of whether they appeared before or at the sentence-final position. At midline sites, the N400 to intermediately related sentence-final words was attenuated to the same degree as to highly causally related words, but otherwise the N400 to intermediately related words fell in between that evoked by highly causally related and intermediately related words. No modulation of the late positivity/P600 component was observed across conditions. These results indicate that both simple and complex causal inferences can influence the earliest stages of semantically processing an incoming word. Further, they suggest that causal coherence, at the situation level, can influence incremental word-by-word discourse comprehension, even when semantic relationships between individual words are matched.

Electrophysiological Evidence for Use of the Animacy Hierarchy, but not Thematic Role Assignment, During Verb Argument Processing

by Martin Paczynski

Paczynski, M., Kuperberg, G. (2011), Language and Cognitive Processes, 26 (9), 1402-1456

Animacy is known to play an important role in language processing and production, but debate remains as to how it... more Animacy is known to play an important role in language processing and production, but debate remains as to how it exerts its effects: (1) through links to syntactic ordering, (2) through inherent differences between animate and inanimate entities in their salience/lexico-semantic accessibility, and (3) through links to specific thematic roles. We contrasted these three accounts in two event-related potential (ERP) experiments examining the processing of direct object arguments in simple English sentences. In Experiment 1, we found a larger N400 to animate than inanimate direct object arguments assigned the Patient role, ruling out the second account. In Experiment 2, we found no difference in the N400 evoked by animate direct object arguments assigned the Patient role (prototypically inanimate) and those assigned the Experiencer role (prototypically animate), ruling out the third account. We therefore suggest that animacy may impact processing through a direct link to syntactic linear ordering, at least on postverbal arguments in English. We also exam- ined processing on direct object arguments that violated the animacy-based selection-restriction constraints of their preceding verbs. These violations evoked a robust P600, which was not modulated by thematic role assignment or reversibility, suggesting that the so-called semantic P600 is driven by overall propositional impossibility, rather than thematic role reanalysis

Incidental picture exposure affects later reading: Evidence from the N400

by Leonora Coppens

in press, Brain and Language

Language comprehenders form a mental representation of the implied shape of objects mentioned in the text. In the... more Language comprehenders form a mental representation of the implied shape of objects mentioned in the text. In the present study, the influence of prior visual experience on subsequent reading was assessed. In two separate phases, participants saw a picture of an object and read a text about the object, suggesting the same or a different shape. When the shapes in the two phases mismatched, ERPs during reading showed a larger N400 amplitude than when the shapes matched, suggesting that a picture presented incidentally 15 minutes earlier affected reading. These results further strengthen the case for the interaction of language and visual experience during language comprehension.


Keywords: embodied cognition; reading comprehension; visual experience; ERP; N400

Linguaggio e natura umana in Ray Jackendoff

by Erica Gazzoldi

Ray Jackendoff e la sua ipotesi innatista: il linguaggio sarebbe una capacità innata dell'uomo. Ecco una breve... more Ray Jackendoff e la sua ipotesi innatista: il linguaggio sarebbe una capacità innata dell'uomo. Ecco una breve relazione delle sue argomentazioni.

Abstract, Dedication, and Acknowledgments for the Hobbs (2011) dissertation published by SAS.

by Robert Dean Hobbs

The Hobbs (2011) doctoral study is published in the ProQuest Dissertations and These database, UMI No. 3484309

The purpose of the qualitative research was to assess models of education developed for the study to investigate how... more The purpose of the qualitative research was to assess models of education developed for the study to investigate how and when to incorporate second and third languages into the curriculum to improve language acquisition. Research indicates that L3 enhances and reinforces L2 and L1. The stratified systematic grounded theory study explored the perspectives of neurolinguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and interdisciplinary education researchers to derive variables for constructing a new model of education. The outcome of the Internet survey revealed that 100% of the participants agreed that education must change and that teacher training must improve. Variables from the cross-disciplinary data contributed to the construction of an integrated model of multilingual education consisting of four primary models and other models to serve as tools for designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment as well as determining demographics and student meta-analysis of language abilities and storage in the brain. The first model emerged from the data to offer multilingual principles of education. The other primary models are macro, meso, and micro models. The macro model represents schools, instruction, assessment, and the curriculum cycle. The meso model depicts the developmental domains of the individual learner and includes a cyclical equation. The micro model delineates multilingual processing in the brain based on neurolinguistic research, variables from the current study, and Kees de Bot's bilingual adaptation of Levelt's language processing model. Recommendations include the incorporation of notional-functional pragmatic-aesthetic concepts as depicted in the models developed for the study and enhanced by input from published researchers with unique language and research repertoires who were located on four continents.

what is aphasia

by Andy Angel

OxfordHandbookofConstructionGrammar_06March11

by Bert Cappelle

prepublished version of:
Friedemann Pulvermüller, Bert Cappelle and Yury Shtyrov. 2012. Brain basis of meaning, words, constructions and grammar. In: Thomas Hoffmann and Graeme Trousdale (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Construction Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heating up or cooling up the brain: MEG evidence that phrasal verbs are lexical units

by Bert Cappelle

Evaluación de las alteraciones de la comprensión de textos en distinto tipo de lesión cerebral

by Valeria Abusamra

Introducción: Las lesiones cerebrales, según su tipo y localización, pueden afectar tanto la decodificación lectora... more Introducción: Las lesiones cerebrales, según su tipo y localización, pueden afectar tanto la decodificación lectora como la comprensión de textos. Las alteraciones de la decodificación
(los cuadros de alexia) se valoran clásicamente con tareas incluidas en las baterías para evaluar pacientes afásicos. Las alteraciones de la comprensión de textos, pese a su mayor
frecuencia e importancia ecológica, han recibido menos atención y hay pocos instrumentos destinados a evaluarla.
Objetivos: Diseñar una batería breve para evaluar alteraciones de la comprensión de textos en pacientes con dan˜ o cerebral y probar si resulta apta para diferenciar un grupo de lesionados de su respectivo grupo control.
Sujetos y método: Se estudiaron 30 pacientes (con traumatismo craneal, lesión en el hemisferio derecho o deterioro cognitivo leve) y 30 controles a los que se les aplicó un test de eficacia lectora (TECLE) y dos pruebas de comprensión de textos especialmente diseñadas. Se comparó el rendimiento de los grupos.
Resultados: Se encontraron diferencias significativas en el rendimiento de pacientes y controles en las tres pruebas utilizadas. Esto sugiere que las pruebas son útiles para discriminar entre casos y controles. Además, una proporción importante de los pacientes de todas las patologías estudiadas mostró dificultades para comprender textos.
Conclusiones: Se discute la importancia, clínica y legal, de incluir la dimensión textual en la evaluación de los efectos del dan˜ o cerebral y de no reducir la evaluación de la lectura a
tareas de decodificación.

To what extent does neurolinguistics embody EFL teaching methods?

by Ayşegül Nergis

Normen und Abweichungen in der Zweisprachigkeit–eine neurolinguistische Analyse

by Sandra Tinner

Re-examining Paul Broca's initial presentation of M. Leborgne: Understanding the impetus for brain and language research

by Marjorie Lorch

published in Cortex, 2011

Metaphor, Recognition, and Neural Process

by Bill Benzon

Published in The American Journal of Semiotics

Karl Pribram's concept of neural holography suggests a neurological basis for metaphor: the brain creates a new... more Karl Pribram's concept of neural holography suggests a neurological basis for metaphor: the brain creates a new concept by the metaphoric process of using one concept as a filter — better, as an extractor — for another. For example, the concept "Achilles" is "filtered" through the concept "lion" to foreground the pattern of fighting fury the two hold in common. In this model the linguistic capacity of the left cortical hemisphere is augmented by the capacity of the right hemisphere for analysis of images. Left-hemisphere syntax holds the tenor and vehicle in place while right-hemisphere imaging process extracts the metaphor ground. Metaphors can be concatenated one after the other so that the ground of one metaphor can enter into another one as tenor or vehicle. Thus conceived metaphor is a mechanism through which thought can be extended into new conceptual territory.

Some (Radical Minimalist) Thoughts on Merge

by Peter Kosta

Diego Gabriel Krivochen, Universidad de La Plata, Argentina

&

Peter Kosta, Universität Potsdam, Germany


Talk presented at the Workshop 'Minimalist program - Quo Vadis' at the University of Potsdam, 3.-6.10.2011

The present proposal seeks to revisit some basic biolinguistic claims from the convergence of formal syntax, quantum... more The present proposal seeks to revisit some basic biolinguistic claims from the convergence of formal syntax, quantum mechanics, molecular genetics, neurolinguistics and relational semantics.

Processing of audiovisual stimuli in aphasic and non-brain-damaged listeners

by Dörte Hessler

together with Roel Jonkers and Roelien Bastiaanse, currently in press in Aphasiology

Background
During speech perception not only auditory but also visual information (seen speech) is processed.... more Background
During speech perception not only auditory but also visual information (seen speech) is processed. This was shown by, for example, McGurk and MacDonald (1976). In their study participants watched videos showing a speaker articulating the syllable /ka/, while the sound of /pa/ was dubbed onto the video. The most commonly reported perception was neither of the two syllables, but a fusion of both (/ta/). This effect of audiovisual integration has been called the “McGurk effect”. Klitsch (2008) showed that the McGurk effect was also found for participants with aphasia and its strength was comparable to an age-matched control group. However her task was an offline measure and therefore provided limited information about the processing itself.

Aims
In this study reaction time data will be analysed in addition to answer types. By this we aim to find out whether there are qualitative differences between healthy and aphasic processing, shown by different patterns in the reaction times.

Methods & Procedures
Three aphasic participants and a group of fourteen non-brain–damaged control participants took part in a nonword identification task in which they were presented with a speaker pronouncing a syllable. Afterwards they had to choose the matching syllable fromthree written options. This task was carried out in four conditions: “auditory only”, “visual only” (articulatory movements), “audiovisual”, and “McGurk” (incongruent auditory and audiovisual information). Along with the answer types, the reaction times were also recorded for all participants.

Outcomes & Results
The aphasic participants made more errors and were slower than the non-brain-damaged control participants across conditions. Within the McGurk condition we found different patterns for the non-brain-damaged and the aphasic participants: reaction times were increased for the control group whenever a McGurk-type answer was chosen (compared with answers representing the auditory or visual part of the stimulus), while there were no influences of the chosen answer type on the reaction times for the aphasic participants.

Conclusions

Processing of audiovisual information was not only slower in three aphasic participants but also differed qualitatively from the non-brain-damaged control group. For the control participants reaction times differed depending on what answer type

The influence of phonetic dimensions on aphasic speech perception

by Dörte Hessler

together with Roel Jonkers and Roelien Bastiaanse, published 2010 in 'Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 24, pp 980-996'

Individuals with aphasia have more problems detecting small differences between speech sounds than larger ones. This... more Individuals with aphasia have more problems detecting small differences between speech sounds than larger ones. This paper reports how phonemic processing is impaired and how this is influenced by speechreading. A non-word discrimination task was carried out with ‘audiovisual’, ‘auditory only’ and ‘visual only’ stimulus display. Subjects had to decide whether two presented stimuli were the same. Six aphasic subjects with speech sound processing difficulties and 14 non-brain-damaged control subjects participated in this study. It was found that the aphasic subjects have difficulties in discriminating pairs of non-words, which are more profound for small differences. Differences in ‘voicing’ were least often detected and therefore seem most difficult to perceive. This implies different processing of the phonetic dimensions in speech sound perception. Performance improved when speechreading was possible. As this improvement is not based on differences in place of articulation only, theories of audiovisual processing need to be revised.

Fluidez verbal escrita en el envejecimiento normal con quejas subjetivas de memoria y en el deterioro cognitivo leve

by José María Ruiz Sánchez de León

Written verbal fluency in normal aging with subjective memory complaints and mild cognitive impairment [In Spanish] Anales de Psicología 2011, 27(2), 360-368.

Resumen:
Introducción. El presente estudio analiza si una tarea de fluidez verbal escrita es útil para... more Resumen:
Introducción. El presente estudio analiza si una tarea de fluidez verbal escrita es útil para discriminar el deterioro cognitivo leve (DCL) frente al envejecimiento normal con quejas subjetivas de memoria (EN). Método. Se reclutaron 140 participantes con un juicio clínico de EN (n=64) o DCL (n=76) diagnosticado ad hoc a los que se les administró una tarea de fluidez verbal fonológica y semántica escrita. Resultados. El análisis descrip-tivo muestra una composición homogénea de los grupos en función de la edad, sexo y años de escolaridad. Se observa cómo, tanto la puntuación en cada criterio de evocación particular, como los sumatorios de los tres criterios fonológicos (FAS) y semánticos (SEMÁNTICA) son superiores en el grupo con EN que en el grupo con DCL (F=1.899, p<.005, para FAS y F=24.200, p<.001, para SEMÁNTICA). El trabajo analiza también las correlaciones con diferentes pruebas clásicas de cribado. Discusión. Los resultados muestran la utilidad de la fluidez verbal escrita en el cribado del DCL. Esta modalidad ofrece frente a la modalidad oral, además, la ventaja añadida de su posible aplicación grupal. Se han observado las diferencias ya conocidas entre los criterios de evocación fonológica y semántica, con-cluyendo que los segundos aportan más información para el cribado de pacientes con DCL.
Palabras clave:
Neuropsicología; fluidez verbal; fluidez fonológica; fluidez semántica; envejecimiento; quejas de memoria; deterioro cognitivo leve; datos normativos.

Abstract:
Introduction. The present study analyzes whether a written verbal fluency task is suitable to differentiate between Mild Cognitive Impair-ment (MCI) and Normal Aging with subjective memory complaints (NA). Method. 140 subjects with a clinical judgement of NA (n=64) and MCI (n=76), diagnosed ad hoc, were administered both a verbal phonological fluency task and a verbal semantic fluency task. Results. The descriptive analysis of the data shows a homogeneous distribution of both groups taking into account age, gender and education. The group with NA scores significantly higher than the group with MCI on every indivicual criterion of evocation and also on both the summation of the three phonological criteria (FAS) and the summation of the three semantic criteria (SEMAN-TIC), being F=1.899, p<.005, for FAS and F=24.200, p<.001, for SE-MANTIC. The study also analyzes the correlations of the written verbal tasks with several classical screening tests. Discussion. The results support the suitability of the written verbal fluency tasks on the screening of MCI. Further, this assessment procedure offers, too, the benefit of its possibility of administration to a group of people. Differences between the phono-logical evocation criteria and the semantic evocation criteria were con-firmed in this study, concluding that the latter are more reliable at the screening of people with MCI than the former.
Key words:
Neuropsychology; verbal fluency; phonological fluency; se-mantic fluency; aging; memory complaints; mild cognitive impairment; normative data.

Gesture in the Brain: A multi-tasking experiment.

by Nicla Rossini

in Zlatev, J., Johansson Falck, M., Lundmark, C. and Andrén M. (Eds) Studies in Language and Cognition. Pp. 436-453. Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Cambridge.
N.B.: THIS IS A PRE-PUBLICATION DRAFT. IT MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. CONTENTS MAY DIFFER CONSIDERABLY.

Alphabetic Vs. Non-Alphabetic Writing: Linguistic Fit and Natural Tendencies

by Antonio Baroni

Italian Journal of Linguistics/Rivista di Linguistica 23.2 (2011), pp. 127-159.

This article has two main purposes. The first one is to prove that the alleged superiority of the alphabet to other... more This article has two main purposes. The first one is to prove that the alleged superiority of the alphabet to other writing systems (syllabic and logosyllabic ones) is an ethnocentric prejudice and that the optimality of a writing system has to be measured following a series of criteria which cannot be reduced to the faithful mapping of sounds. The second one is to incorporate into the graphemic theory external data and new approaches to develop new methods of investigation and to emancipate graphemics from phonology. The structure of the article is composed of seven parts. First of all, we discuss some definition problems; then, in the introduction, the main points of view about the alphabetic principle are exposed and in chapter 2 the relationships between writing systems and language perception
are investigated. In chapter 3 we attempt to define some criteria to judge the degree of optimality of the different writing systems. In chapter 4 we try to find some patterns of predictability of the degree of opacity and transparency of some of the main European writing systems (the opaque English, French and Danish orthographies and the shallow Finnish and
Italian orthographies). In chapter 5 we shortly examine the natural evolution of writing in recent times: Internet, SMS and new writing systems. Finally, in chapter 6 we try to draw some temporary conclusions.