Displaying 801 - 855 of 855
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De Vos, C. (2004). Over de biologische functie van taal: Pinker vs. Chomsky. Honours Review, 2(1), 20-25.
Abstract
Hoe is de complexe taal van de mens ontstaan? Geleidelijk door natuurlijke selectie, omdat groeiende grammaticale vermogens voor de mens een evolutionair voordeel opleverden? Of plotseling, als onbedoeld bijproduct of neveneffect van een genetische mutatie, zonder dat er sprake is van een adaptief proces? In dit artikel zet ik de argumenten van Pinker en Bloom voor de eerste stelling tegenover argumenten van Chomsky en Gould voor de tweede stelling. Vervolgens laat ik zien dat deze twee extreme standpunten ruimte bieden voor andere opties, die nader onderzoek waard zijn. Zo kan genetisch onderzoek in de komende decennia informatie opleveren, die nuancering van beide standpunten noodzakelijk maakt. -
De Vries, M., Barth, A. C. R., Maiworm, S., Knecht, S., Zwitserlood, P., & Flöel, A. (2010). Electrical stimulation of Broca’s area enhances implicit learning of an artificial grammar. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 2427-2436. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21385.
Abstract
Artificial grammar learning constitutes a well-established model for the acquisition of grammatical knowledge in a natural setting. Previous neuroimaging studies demonstrated that Broca's area (left BA 44/45) is similarly activated by natural syntactic processing and artificial grammar learning. The current study was conducted to investigate the causal relationship between Broca's area and learning of an artificial grammar by means of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Thirty-eight healthy subjects participated in a between-subject design, with either anodal tDCS (20 min, 1 mA) or sham stimulation, over Broca's area during the acquisition of an artificial grammar. Performance during the acquisition phase, presented as a working memory task, was comparable between groups. In the subsequent classification task, detecting syntactic violations, and specifically, those where no cues to superficial similarity were available, improved significantly after anodal tDCS, resulting in an overall better performance. A control experiment where 10 subjects received anodal tDCS over an area unrelated to artificial grammar learning further supported the specificity of these effects to Broca's area. We conclude that Broca's area is specifically involved in rule-based knowledge, and here, in an improved ability to detect syntactic violations. The results cannot be explained by better tDCS-induced working memory performance during the acquisition phase. This is the first study that demonstrates that tDCS may facilitate acquisition of grammatical knowledge, a finding of potential interest for rehabilitation of aphasia. -
De Vries, M., Ulte, C., Zwitserlood, P., Szymanski, B., & Knecht, S. (2010). Increasing dopamine levels in the brain improves feedback-based procedural learning in healthy participants: An artificial-grammar-learning experiment. Neuropsychologia, 48, 3193-3197. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.06.024.
Abstract
Recently, an increasing number of studies have suggested a role for the basal ganglia and related dopamine inputs in procedural learning, specifically when learning occurs through trial-by-trial feedback (Shohamy, Myers, Kalanithi, & Gluck. (2008). Basal ganglia and dopamine contributions to probabilistic category learning. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 219–236). A necessary relationship has however only been demonstrated in patient studies. In the present study, we show for the first time that increasing dopamine levels in the brain improves the gradual acquisition of complex information in healthy participants. We implemented two artificial-grammar-learning tasks, one with and one without performance feedback. Learning was improved after levodopa intake for the feedback-based learning task only, suggesting that dopamine plays a specific role in trial-by-trial feedback-based learning. This provides promising directions for future studies on dopaminergic modulation of cognitive functioning. -
Wagner, A., Ernestus, M., & Cutler, A. (2006). Formant transitions in fricative identification: The role of native fricative inventory. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 120(4), 2267-2277. doi:10.1121/1.2335422.
Abstract
The distribution of energy across the noise spectrum provides the primary cues for the identification of a fricative. Formant transitions have been reported to play a role in identification of some fricatives, but the combined results so far are conflicting. We report five experiments testing the hypothesis that listeners differ in their use of formant transitions as a function of the presence of spectrally similar fricatives in their native language. Dutch, English, German, Polish, and Spanish native listeners performed phoneme monitoring experiments with pseudowords containing either coherent or misleading formant transitions for the fricatives / s / and / f /. Listeners of German and Dutch, both languages without spectrally similar fricatives, were not affected by the misleading formant transitions. Listeners of the remaining languages were misled by incorrect formant transitions. In an untimed labeling experiment both Dutch and Spanish listeners provided goodness ratings that revealed sensitivity to the acoustic manipulation. We conclude that all listeners may be sensitive to mismatching information at a low auditory level, but that they do not necessarily take full advantage of all available systematic acoustic variation when identifying phonemes. Formant transitions may be most useful for listeners of languages with spectrally similar fricatives. -
Waller, D., Loomis, J. M., & Haun, D. B. M. (2004). Body-based senses enhance knowledge of directions in large-scale environments. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11(1), 157-163.
Abstract
Previous research has shown that inertial cues resulting from passive transport through a large environment do not necessarily facilitate acquiring knowledge about its layout. Here we examine whether the additional body-based cues that result from active movement facilitate the acquisition of spatial knowledge. Three groups of participants learned locations along an 840-m route. One group walked the route during learning, allowing access to body-based cues (i.e., vestibular, proprioceptive, and efferent information). Another group learned by sitting in the laboratory, watching videos made from the first group. A third group watched a specially made video that minimized potentially confusing head-on-trunk rotations of the viewpoint. All groups were tested on their knowledge of directions in the environment as well as on its configural properties. Having access to body-based information reduced pointing error by a small but significant amount. Regardless of the sensory information available during learning, participants exhibited strikingly common biases. -
Warner, N., Smits, R., McQueen, J. M., & Cutler, A. (2005). Phonological and statistical effects on timing of speech perception: Insights from a database of Dutch diphone perception. Speech Communication, 46(1), 53-72. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2005.01.003.
Abstract
We report detailed analyses of a very large database on timing of speech perception collected by Smits et al. (Smits, R., Warner, N., McQueen, J.M., Cutler, A., 2003. Unfolding of phonetic information over time: A database of Dutch diphone perception. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 113, 563–574). Eighteen listeners heard all possible diphones of Dutch, gated in portions of varying size and presented without background noise. The present report analyzes listeners’ responses across gates in terms of phonological features (voicing, place, and manner for consonants; height, backness, and length for vowels). The resulting patterns for feature perception differ from patterns reported when speech is presented in noise. The data are also analyzed for effects of stress and of phonological context (neighboring vowel vs. consonant); effects of these factors are observed to be surprisingly limited. Finally, statistical effects, such as overall phoneme frequency and transitional probabilities, along with response biases, are examined; these too exercise only limited effects on response patterns. The results suggest highly accurate speech perception on the basis of acoustic information alone. -
Warner, N., Good, E., Jongman, A., & Sereno, J. (2006). Orthographic vs. morphological incomplete neutralization effects. Journal of Phonetics, 34(2), 285-293. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2004.11.003.
Abstract
This study, following up on work on Dutch by Warner, Jongman, Sereno, and Kemps (2004. Journal of Phonetics, 32, 251–276), investigates the influence of orthographic distinctions and underlying morphological distinctions on the small sub-phonemic durational differences that have been called incomplete neutralization. One part of the previous work indicated that an orthographic geminate/singleton distinction could cause speakers to produce an incomplete neutralization effect. However, one interpretation of the materials in that experiment is that they contain an underlying difference in the phoneme string at the level of concatenation of morphemes, rather than just an orthographic difference. Thus, the previous effect might simply be another example of incomplete neutralization of a phonemic distinction. The current experiment, also on Dutch, uses word pairs which have the same underlying morphological contrast, but do not differ in orthography. These new materials show no incomplete neutralization, and thus support the hypothesis that orthography, but not underlying morphological differences, can cause incomplete neutralization effects. -
Warner, N., Kim, J., Davis, C., & Cutler, A. (2005). Use of complex phonological patterns in speech processing: Evidence from Korean. Journal of Linguistics, 41(2), 353-387. doi:10.1017/S0022226705003294.
Abstract
Korean has a very complex phonology, with many interacting alternations. In a coronal-/i/ sequence, depending on the type of phonological boundary present, alternations such as palatalization, nasal insertion, nasal assimilation, coda neutralization, and intervocalic voicing can apply. This paper investigates how the phonological patterns of Korean affect processing of morphemes and words. Past research on languages such as English, German, Dutch, and Finnish has shown that listeners exploit syllable structure constraints in processing speech and segmenting it into words. The current study shows that in parsing speech, listeners also use much more complex patterns that relate the surface phonological string to various boundaries. -
Warner, N., Jongman, A., Sereno, J., & Kemps, R. J. J. K. (2004). Incomplete neutralization and other sub-phonemic durational differences in production and perception: Evidence from Dutch. Journal of Phonetics, 32(2), 251-276. doi:10.1016/S0095-4470(03)00032-9.
Abstract
Words which are expected to contain the same surface string of segments may, under identical prosodic circumstances, sometimes be realized with slight differences in duration. Some researchers have attributed such effects to differences in the words’ underlying forms (incomplete neutralization), while others have suggested orthographic influence and extremely careful speech as the cause. In this paper, we demonstrate such sub-phonemic durational differences in Dutch, a language which some past research has found not to have such effects. Past literature has also shown that listeners can often make use of incomplete neutralization to distinguish apparent homophones. We extend perceptual investigations of this topic, and show that listeners can perceive even durational differences which are not consistently observed in production. We further show that a difference which is primarily orthographic rather than underlying can also create such durational differences. We conclude that a wide variety of factors, in addition to underlying form, can induce speakers to produce slight durational differences which listeners can also use in perception. -
Warner, N., Otake, T., & Arai, A. (2010). Intonational structure as a word-boundary cue in Tokyo Japanese. Language and Speech, 53, 107-131. doi:10.1177/0023830909351235.
Abstract
While listeners are recognizing words from the connected speech stream, they are also parsing information from the intonational contour. This contour may contain cues to word boundaries, particularly if a language has boundary tones that occur at a large proportion of word onsets. We investigate how useful the pitch rise at the beginning of an accentual phrase (APR) would be as a potential word-boundary cue for Japanese listeners. A corpus study shows that it should allow listeners to locate approximately 40–60% of word onsets, while causing less than 1% false positives. We then present a word-spotting study which shows that Japanese listeners can, indeed, use accentual phrase boundary cues during segmentation. This work shows that the prosodic patterns that have been found in the production of Japanese also impact listeners’ processing. -
Warren, J. E., Sauter, D., Eisner, F., Wiland, J., Dresner, M. A., Wise, R. J. S., Rosen, S., & Scott, S. K. (2006). Positive emotions preferentially engage an auditory–motor “mirror” system. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26(50), 13067-13075. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3907-06.2006.
Abstract
Social interaction relies on the ability to react to communication signals. Although cortical sensory–motor “mirror” networks are thought to play a key role in visual aspects of primate communication, evidence for a similar generic role for auditory–motor interaction in primate nonverbal communication is lacking. We demonstrate that a network of human premotor cortical regions activated during facial movement is also involved in auditory processing of affective nonverbal vocalizations. Within this auditory–motor mirror network, distinct functional subsystems respond preferentially to emotional valence and arousal properties of heard vocalizations. Positive emotional valence enhanced activation in a left posterior inferior frontal region involved in representation of prototypic actions, whereas increasing arousal enhanced activation in presupplementary motor area cortex involved in higher-order motor control. Our findings demonstrate that listening to nonverbal vocalizations can automatically engage preparation of responsive orofacial gestures, an effect that is greatest for positive-valence and high-arousal emotions. The automatic engagement of responsive orofacial gestures by emotional vocalizations suggests that auditory–motor interactions provide a fundamental mechanism for mirroring the emotional states of others during primate social behavior. Motor facilitation by positive vocal emotions suggests a basic neural mechanism for establishing cohesive bonds within primate social groups.Additional information
supplementary material http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/26/50/13067/DC1 -
Wassenaar, M., & Hagoort, P. (2005). Word-category violations in patients with Broca's aphasia: An ERP study. Brain and Language, 92, 117-137. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2004.05.011.
Abstract
An event-related brain potential experiment was carried out to investigate on-line syntactic processing in patients with Broca’s aphasia. Subjects were visually presented with sentences that were either syntactically correct or contained violations of word-category. Three groups of subjects were tested: Broca patients (N=11), non-aphasic patients with a right hemisphere (RH) lesion (N=9), and healthy aged-matched controls (N=15). Both control groups appeared sensitive to the violations of word-category as shown by clear P600/SPS effects. The Broca patients displayed only a very reduced and delayed P600/SPS effect. The results are discussed in the context of a lexicalist parsing model. It is concluded that Broca patients are hindered to detect on-line violations of word-category, if word class information is incomplete or delayed available. -
Wassenaar, M., Brown, C. M., & Hagoort, P. (2004). ERP-effects of subject-verb agreement violations in patients with Broca's aphasia. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(4), 553-576. doi:10.1162/089892904323057290.
Abstract
This article presents electrophysiological data on on-line syntactic processing during auditory sentence comprehension in patients with Broca's aphasia. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from the scalp while subjects listened to sentences that were either syntactically correct or contained violations of subject-verb agreement. Three groups of subjects were tested: Broca patients (n = 10), nonaphasic patients with a right-hemisphere (RH) lesion (n = 5), and healthy agedmatched controls (n = 12). The healthy, control subjects showed a P600/SPS effect as response to the agreement violations. The nonaphasic patients with an RH lesion showed essentially the same pattern. The overall group of Broca patients did not show this sensitivity. However, the sensitivity was modulated by the severity of the syntactic comprehension impairment. The largest deviation from the standard P600/SPS effect was found in the patients with the relatively more severe syntactic comprehension impairment. In addition, ERPs to tones in a classical tone oddball paradigm were also recorded. Similar to the normal control subjects and RH patients, the group of Broca patients showed a P300 effect in the tone oddball condition. This indicates that aphasia in itself does not lead to a general reduction in all cognitive ERP effects. It was concluded that deviations from the standard P600/SPS effect in the Broca patients reflected difficulties with on-line maintaining of number information across clausal boundaries for establishing subject-verb agreement. -
Weber, A., Braun, B., & Crocker, M. W. (2006). Finding referents in time: Eye-tracking evidence for the role of contrastive accents. Language and Speech, 49(3), 367-392.
Abstract
In two eye-tracking experiments the role of contrastive pitch accents during the on-line determination of referents was examined. In both experiments, German listeners looked earlier at the picture of a referent belonging to a contrast pair (red scissors, given purple scissors) when instructions to click on it carried a contrastive accent on the color adjective (L + H*) than when the adjective was not accented. In addition to this prosodic facilitation, a general preference to interpret adjectives contrastively was found in Experiment 1: Along with the contrast pair, a noncontrastive referent was displayed (red vase) and listeners looked more often at the contrastive referent than at the noncontrastive referent even when the adjective was not focused. Experiment 2 differed from Experiment 1 in that the first member of the contrast pair (purple scissors) was introduced with a contrastive accent, thereby strengthening the salience of the contrast. In Experiment 2, listeners no longer preferred a contrastive interpretation of adjectives when the accent in a subsequent instruction was not contrastive. In sum, the results support both an early role for prosody in reference determination and an interpretation of contrastive focus that is dependent on preceding prosodic context. -
Weber, A., & Cutler, A. (2006). First-language phonotactics in second-language listening. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119(1), 597-607. doi:10.1121/1.2141003.
Abstract
Highly proficient German users of English as a second language, and native speakers of American English, listened to nonsense sequences and responded whenever they detected an embedded English word. The responses of both groups were equivalently facilitated by preceding context that both by English and by German phonotactic constraints forced a boundary at word onset (e.g., lecture was easier to detect in moinlecture than in gorklecture, and wish in yarlwish than in plookwish. The American L1 speakers’ responses were strongly facilitated, and the German listeners’ responses almost as strongly facilitated, by contexts that forced a boundary in English but not in German thrarshlecture, glarshwish. The German listeners’ responses were significantly facilitated also by contexts that forced a boundary in German but not in English )moycelecture, loitwish, while L1 listeners were sensitive to acoustic boundary cues in these materials but not to the phonotactic sequences. The pattern of results suggests that proficient L2 listeners can acquire the phonotactic probabilities of an L2 and use them to good effect in segmenting continuous speech, but at the same time they may not be able to prevent interference from L1 constraints in their L2 listening. -
Weber, A., & Cutler, A. (2004). Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 50(1), 1-25. doi:10.1016/S0749-596X(03)00105-0.
Abstract
Four eye-tracking experiments examined lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition. Dutch listeners hearing English fixated longer on distractor pictures with names containing vowels that Dutch listeners are likely to confuse with vowels in a target picture name (pencil, given target panda) than on less confusable distractors (beetle, given target bottle). English listeners showed no such viewing time difference. The confusability was asymmetric: given pencil as target, panda did not distract more than distinct competitors. Distractors with Dutch names phonologically related to English target names (deksel, ‘lid,’ given target desk) also received longer fixations than distractors with phonologically unrelated names. Again, English listeners showed no differential effect. With the materials translated into Dutch, Dutch listeners showed no activation of the English words (desk, given target deksel). The results motivate two conclusions: native phonemic categories capture second-language input even when stored representations maintain a second-language distinction; and lexical competition is greater for non-native than for native listeners. -
Weber, A., Grice, M., & Crocker, M. W. (2006). The role of prosody in the interpretation of structural ambiguities: A study of anticipatory eye movements. Cognition, 99, B63-B72. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2005.07.001.
Abstract
An eye-tracking experiment examined whether prosodic cues can affect the interpretation of grammatical functions in the absence of clear morphological information. German listeners were presented with scenes depicting three potential referents while hearing temporarily ambiguous SVO and OVS sentences. While case marking on the first noun phrase (NP) was ambiguous, clear case marking on the second NP disambiguated sentences towards SVO or OVS. Listeners interpreted caseambiguous NP1s more often as Subject, and thus expected an Object as upcoming argument, only when sentence beginnings carried an SVO-type intonation. This was revealed by more anticipatory eye movements to suitable Patients (Objects) than Agents (Subjects) in the visual scenes. No such preference was found when sentence beginnings had a clearly OVS-type intonation. Prosodic cues were integrated rapidly enough to affect listeners’ interpretation of grammatical function before disambiguating case information was available. We conclude that in addition to manipulating attachment ambiguities, prosody can influence the interpretation of constituent order ambiguities. -
De Weert, C., & Levelt, W. J. M. (1976). Comparison of normal and dichoptic colour mixing. Vision Research, 16, 59-70. doi:10.1016/0042-6989(76)90077-8.
Abstract
Dichoptic mixtures of equiluminous components of different wavelengths were matched with a binocularly presented "monocular" mixture of appropriate chosen amounts of the same colour components. Stimuli were chosen from the region of 490-630 nm. Although satisfactory colour matches could be obtained, dichoptic mixtures differed from normal mixtures to a considerable extent. Midspectral stimuli tended to be more dominant in the dichoptic mixtures than either short or long wavelength stimuli. An attempt was made to describe the relation between monocular and dichoptic mixtures with one function containing a wavelength variable and an eye dominance parameter. -
De Weert, C., & Levelt, W. J. M. (1976). Dichoptic brightness combinations for unequally coloured lights. Vision Research, 16, 1077-1086.
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Wegener, C. (2006). Savosavo body part terminology. Language Sciences, 28(2-3), 344-359. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2005.11.005.
Abstract
This paper provides a description of body part terminology used in Savosavo, a Papuan language of the Solomon Islands. The first part of the paper lists the known terms and discusses their meanings. This is followed by an analysis of their structural properties. Finally, the paper discusses partonomic relations in Savosavo and argues that it is difficult to structure the body part terminology hierarchically, because there is no linguistic evidence for part–whole relations between body parts. -
Wegener, C. (2005). Major word classes in Savosavo. Grazer Linguistische Studien, 64, 29-52.
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Weisfelt, M., Hoogman, M., van de Beek, D., de Gans, J., Dreschler, W. A., & Schmand, B. A. (2006). Dexamethasone and long-term outcome in adults with bacterial meningitis. Annals of Neurology, 60, 456-468. doi:10.1002/ana.20944.
Abstract
This follow-up study of the European Dexamethasone Study was designed to examine the potential harmful effect of adjunctive dexamethasone treatment on long-term neuropsychological outcome in adults with bacterial meningitis. METHODS: Neurological, audiological, and neuropsychological examinations were performed in adults who survived pneumococcal or meningococcal meningitis. RESULTS: Eighty-seven of 99 (88%) eligible patients were included in the follow-up study; 46 (53%) were treated with dexamethasone and 41 (47%) with placebo. Median time between meningitis and testing was 99 months. Neuropsychological evaluation showed no significant differences between patients treated with dexamethasone and placebo. The proportions of patients with persisting neurological sequelae or hearing loss were similar in the dexamethasone and placebo groups. The overall rate of cognitive dysfunction did not differ significantly between patients and control subjects; however, patients after pneumococcal meningitis had a higher rate of cognitive dysfunction (21 vs 6%; p = 0.05) and experienced more impairment of everyday functioning due to physical problems (p = 0.05) than those after meningococcal meningitis. INTERPRETATION: Treatment with adjunctive dexamethasone is not associated with an increased risk for long-term cognitive impairment. Adults who survive pneumococcal meningitis are at significant risk for long-term neuropsychological abnormalities. -
Weisfelt, M., van de Beek, D., Hoogman, M., Hardeman, C., de Gans, J., & Schmand, B. (2006). Cognitive outcome in adults with moderate disability after pneumococcal meningitis. Journal of Infection, 52, 433-439. doi:10.1016/j.jinf.2005.08.014.
Abstract
Objectives To assess cognitive outcome and quality of life in patients with moderate disability after bacterial meningitis as compared to patients with good recovery. Methods Neuropsychological evaluation was performed in 40 adults after pneumococcal meningitis; 20 patients with moderate disability at discharge on the glasgow outcome scale (GOS score 4) and 20 with good recovery (GOS score 5). Results Patients with GOS score 4 had similar test results as compared to patients with GOS score 5 for the neuropsychological domains ‘intelligence’, ‘memory’ and ‘attention and executive functioning’. Patients with GOS score 4 showed less cognitive slowness than patients with GOS score 5. In a linear regression analysis cognitive speed was related to current intelligence, years of education and time since meningitis. Overall performance on the speed composite score correlated significantly with time since meningitis (−0.62; P<0.001). Therefore, difference between both groups may have been related to a longer time between meningitis and testing for GOS four patients (29 vs. 12 months; P<0.001). Conclusions Patients with moderate disability after bacterial meningitis are not at higher risk for neuropsychological abnormalities than patients with good recovery. In addition, cognitive slowness after bacterial meningitis may be reversible in time. -
White, S. A., Fisher, S. E., Geschwind, D. H., Scharff, C., & Holy, T. E. (2006). Singing mice, songbirds, and more: Models for FOXP2 function and dysfunction in human speech and language. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26(41), 10376-10379. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3379-06.2006.
Abstract
In 2001, a point mutation in the forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) coding sequence was identified as the basis of an inherited speech and language disorder suffered by members of the family known as "KE." This mini-symposium review focuses on recent findings and research-in-progress, primarily from five laboratories. Each aims at capitalizing on the FOXP2 discovery to build a neurobiological bridge between molecule and phenotype. Below, we describe genetic through behavioral techniques used currently to investigate FoxP2 in birds, rodents, and humans for discovery of the neural bases of vocal learning and language. -
Widlok, T. (2004). Ethnography in language Documentation. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(3), 4-6.
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Willems, R. M., Hagoort, P., & Casasanto, D. (2010). Body-specific representations of action verbs: Neural evidence from right- and left-handers. Psychological Science, 21, 67-74. doi:10.1177/0956797609354072.
Abstract
According to theories of embodied cognition, understanding a verb like throw involves unconsciously simulating the action of throwing, using areas of the brain that support motor planning. If understanding action words involves mentally simulating one’s own actions, then the neurocognitive representation of word meanings should differ for people with different kinds of bodies, who perform actions in systematically different ways. In a test of the body-specificity hypothesis, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare premotor activity correlated with action verb understanding in right- and left-handers. Righthanders preferentially activated the left premotor cortex during lexical decisions on manual-action verbs (compared with nonmanual-action verbs), whereas left-handers preferentially activated right premotor areas. This finding helps refine theories of embodied semantics, suggesting that implicit mental simulation during language processing is body specific: Right- and lefthanders, who perform actions differently, use correspondingly different areas of the brain for representing action verb meanings. -
Willems, R. M., Peelen, M. V., & Hagoort, P. (2010). Cerebral lateralization of face-selective and body-selective visual areas depends on handedness. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 1719-1725. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp234.
Abstract
The left-hemisphere dominance for language is a core example of the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. The degree of left-hemisphere dominance for language depends on hand preference: Whereas the majority of right-handers show left-hemispheric language lateralization, this number is reduced in left-handers. Here, we assessed whether handedness analogously has an influence upon lateralization in the visual system. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we localized 4 more or less specialized extrastriate areas in left- and right-handers, namely fusiform face area (FFA), extrastriate body area (EBA), fusiform body area (FBA), and human motion area (human middle temporal [hMT]). We found that lateralization of FFA and EBA depends on handedness: These areas were right lateralized in right-handers but not in left-handers. A similar tendency was observed in FBA but not in hMT. We conclude that the relationship between handedness and hemispheric lateralization extends to functionally lateralized parts of visual cortex, indicating a general coupling between cerebral lateralization and handedness. Our findings indicate that hemispheric specialization is not fixed but can vary considerably across individuals even in areas engaged relatively early in the visual system. -
Willems, R. M., De Boer, M., De Ruiter, J. P., Noordzij, M. L., Hagoort, P., & Toni, I. (2010). A dissociation between linguistic and communicative abilities in the human brain. Psychological Science, 21, 8-14. doi:10.1177/0956797609355563.
Abstract
Although language is an effective vehicle for communication, it is unclear how linguistic and communicative abilities relate to each other. Some researchers have argued that communicative message generation involves perspective taking (mentalizing), and—crucially—that mentalizing depends on language. We employed a verbal communication paradigm to directly test whether the generation of a communicative action relies on mentalizing and whether the cerebral bases of communicative message generation are distinct from parts of cortex sensitive to linguistic variables. We found that dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a brain area consistently associated with mentalizing, was sensitive to the communicative intent of utterances, irrespective of linguistic difficulty. In contrast, left inferior frontal cortex, an area known to be involved in language, was sensitive to the linguistic demands of utterances, but not to communicative intent. These findings show that communicative and linguistic abilities rely on cerebrally (and computationally) distinct mechanisms -
Willems, R. M., Toni, I., Hagoort, P., & Casasanto, D. (2010). Neural dissociations between action verb understanding and motor imagery. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(10), 2387-2400. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21386.
Abstract
According to embodied theories of language, people understand a verb like throw, at least in part, by mentally simulating throwing. This implicit simulation is often assumed to be similar or identical to motor imagery. Here we used fMRI totest whether implicit simulations of actions during language understanding involve the same cortical motor regions as explicit motor imagery Healthy participants were presented with verbs related to hand actions (e.g., to throw) and nonmanual actions (e.g., to kneel). They either read these verbs (lexical decision task) or actively imagined performing the actions named by the verbs (imagery task). Primary motor cortex showd effector-specific activation during imagery, but not during lexical decision. Parts of premotor cortex distinguished manual from nonmanual actions during both lexical decision and imagery, but there was no overlap or correlation between regions activated during the two tasks. These dissociations suggest that implicit simulation and explicit imagery cued by action verbs may involve different types of motor representations and that the construct of “mental simulation” should be distinguished from “mental imagery” in embodied theories of language. -
Willems, R. M., & Varley, R. (2010). Neural insights into the relation between language and communication. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 4, 203. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2010.00203.
Abstract
The human capacity to communicate has been hypothesized to be causally dependent upon language. Intuitively this seems plausible since most communication relies on language. Moreover, intention recognition abilities (as a necessary prerequisite for communication) and language development seem to co-develop. Here we review evidence from neuroimaging as well as from neuropsychology to evaluate the relationship between communicative and linguistic abilities. Our review indicates that communicative abilities are best considered as neurally distinct from language abilities. This conclusion is based upon evidence showing that humans rely on different cortical systems when designing a communicative message for someone else as compared to when performing core linguistic tasks, as well as upon observations of individuals with severe language loss after extensive lesions to the language system, who are still able to perform tasks involving intention understanding -
Witteman, M. J., & Segers, E. (2010). The modality effect tested in children in a user-paced multimedia environment. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26, 132-142. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2009.00335.x.
Abstract
The modality learning effect, according to Mayer (2001), proposes that learning is enhanced when information is presented in both the visual and auditory domain (e.g., pictures and spoken information), compared to presenting information solely in the visual channel (e.g., pictures and written text). Most of the evidence for this effect comes from adults in a laboratory setting. Therefore, we tested the modality effect with 80 children in the highest grade of elementary school, in a naturalistic setting. In a between-subjects design children either saw representational pictures with speech or representational pictures with text. Retention and transfer knowledge was tested at three moments: immediately after the intervention, one day after, and after one week. The present study did not find any evidence for a modality effect in children when the lesson is learner-paced. Instead, we found a reversed modality effect directly after the intervention for retention. A reversed modality effect was also found for the transfer questions one day later. This effect was robust, even when controlling for individual differences. -
Wittenburg, P., Skiba, R., & Trilsbeek, P. (2004). Technology and Tools for Language Documentation. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(4), 3-4.
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Wittenburg, P., Skiba, R., & Trilsbeek, P. (2005). The language archive at the MPI: Contents, tools, and technologies. Language Archives Newsletter, 5, 7-9.
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Wittenburg, P. (2004). Training Course in Lithuania. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(2), 6-6.
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Wittenburg, P. (2010). Archiving and accessing language resources. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 22(17), 2354-2368. doi:10.1002/cpe.1605.
Abstract
Languages are among the most complex systems that evolution has created. With an unforeseen speed many of these unique results of evolution are currently disappearing: every two weeks one of the 6500 still spoken languages is dying and many are subject to extreme changes due to globalization. Experts understood the need to document the languages and preserve the cultural and linguistic treasures embedded in them for future generations. Also linguistic theory will need to consider the variation of the linguistic systems encoded in languages to improve our understanding of how human minds process language material, thus accessibility to all types of resources is increasingly crucial. Deeper insights into human language processing and a higher degree of integration and interoperability between resources will also improve our language processing technology. The DOBES programme is focussing on the documentation and preservation of language material. The Max Planck Institute developed the Language Archiving Technology to help researchers when creating, archiving and accessing language resources. The recently started CLARIN research infrastructure has as main goals to achieve a broad visibility and an easy
accessibility of language resources. -
Wittenburg, P., Dirksmeyer, R., Brugman, H., & Klaas, G. (2004). Digital formats for images, audio and video. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(1), 3-6.
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Wittenburg, P. (2004). International Expert Meeting on Access Management for Distributed Language Archives. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(3), 12-12.
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Wittenburg, P. (2004). Final review of INTERA. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(4), 11-12.
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Wittenburg, P. (2004). LinguaPax Forum on Language Diversity, Sustainability, and Peace. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(3), 13-13.
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Wittenburg, P. (2004). LREC conference 2004. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(3), 12-13.
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Wittenburg, P. (2004). News from the Archive of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(4), 12-12.
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Wurm, L. H., Ernestus, M., Schreuder, R., & Baayen, R. H. (2006). Dynamics of the auditory comprehension of prefixed words: Cohort entropies and conditional root uniqueness points. The Mental Lexicon, 1(1), 125-146.
Abstract
This auditory lexical decision study shows that cohort entropies, conditional root uniqueness points, and morphological family size all contribute to the dynamics of the auditory comprehension of prefixed words. Three entropy measures calculated for different positions in the stem of Dutch prefixed words revealed facilitation for higher entropies, except at the point of disambiguation, where we observed inhibition. Morphological family size was also facilitatory, but only for prefixed words in which the conditional root uniqueness point coincided with the conventional uniqueness point. For words with early conditional disambiguation, in contrast, only the morphologically related words that were onset-aligned with the target word facilitated lexical decision. -
Xiang, H.-D., Fonteijn, H. M., Norris, D. G., & Hagoort, P. (2010). Topographical functional connectivity pattern in the perisylvian language networks. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 549-560. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp119.
Abstract
We performed a resting-state functional connectivity study to investigate directly the functional correlations within the perisylvian language networks by seeding from 3 subregions of Broca's complex (pars opercularis, pars triangularis, and pars orbitalis) and their right hemisphere homologues. A clear topographical functional connectivity pattern in the left middle frontal, parietal, and temporal areas was revealed for the 3 left seeds. This is the first demonstration that a functional connectivity topology can be observed in the perisylvian language networks. The results support the assumption of the functional division for phonology, syntax, and semantics of Broca's complex as proposed by the memory, unification, and control (MUC) model and indicated a topographical functional organization in the perisylvian language networks, which suggests a possible division of labor for phonological, syntactic, and semantic function in the left frontal, parietal, and temporal areas. -
Zeshan, U. (2004). Interrogative constructions in sign languages - Cross-linguistic perspectives. Language, 80(1), 7-39.
Abstract
This article reports on results from a broad crosslinguistic study based on data from thirty-five signed languages around the world. The study is the first of its kind, and the typological generalizations presented here cover the domain of interrogative structures as they appear across a wide range of geographically and genetically distinct signed languages. Manual and nonmanual ways of marking basic types of questions in signed languages are investigated. As a result, it becomes clear that the range of crosslinguistic variation is extensive for some subparameters, such as the structure of question-word paradigms, while other parameters, such as the use of nonmanual expressions in questions, show more similarities across signed languages. Finally, it is instructive to compare the findings from signed language typology to relevant data from spoken languages at a more abstract, crossmodality level. -
Zeshan, U., Vasishta, M. N., & Sethna, M. (2005). Implementation of Indian Sign Language in educational settings. Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, 16(1), 16-40.
Abstract
This article reports on several sub-projects of research and development related to the use of Indian Sign Language in educational settings. In many countries around the world, sign languages are now recognised as the legitimate, full-fledged languages of the deaf communities that use them. In India, the development of sign language resources and their application in educational contexts, is still in its initial stages. The work reported on here, is the first principled and comprehensive effort of establishing educational programmes in Indian Sign Language at a national level. Programmes are of several types: a) Indian Sign Language instruction for hearing people; b) sign language teacher training programmes for deaf people; and c) educational materials for use in schools for the Deaf. The conceptual approach used in the programmes for deaf students is known as bilingual education, which emphasises the acquisition of a first language, Indian Sign Language, alongside the acquisition of spoken languages, primarily in their written form. -
Zeshan, U. (2004). Hand, head and face - negative constructions in sign languages. Linguistic Typology, 8(1), 1-58. doi:10.1515/lity.2004.003.
Abstract
This article presents a typology of negative constructions across a substantial number of sign languages from around the globe. After situating the topic within the wider context of linguistic typology, the main negation strategies found across sign languages are described. Nonmanual negation includes the use of head movements and facial expressions for negation and is of great importance in sign languages as well as particularly interesting from a typological point of view. As far as manual signs are concerned, independent negative particles represent the dominant strategy, but there are also instances of irregular negation in most sign languages. Irregular negatives may take the form of suppletion, cliticisation, affixing, or internal modification of a sign. The results of the study lead to interesting generalisations about similarities and differences between negatives in signed and spoken languages. -
Zhang, J., Bao, S., Furumai, R., Kucera, K. S., Ali, A., Dean, N. M., & Wang, X.-F. (2005). Protein phosphatase 5 is required for ATR-mediated checkpoint activation. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 25, 9910-9919. doi:10.1128/MCB.25.22.9910-9919.2005.
Abstract
In response to DNA damage or replication stress, the protein kinase ATR is activated and subsequently transduces genotoxic signals to cell cycle control and DNA repair machinery through phosphorylation of a number of downstream substrates. Very little is known about the molecular mechanism by which ATR is activated in response to genotoxic insults. In this report, we demonstrate that protein phosphatase 5 (PP5) is required for the ATR-mediated checkpoint activation. PP5 forms a complex with ATR in a genotoxic stress-inducible manner. Interference with the expression or the activity of PP5 leads to impairment of the ATR-mediated phosphorylation of hRad17 and Chk1 after UV or hydroxyurea treatment. Similar results are obtained in ATM-deficient cells, suggesting that the observed defect in checkpoint signaling is the consequence of impaired functional interaction between ATR and PP5. In cells exposed to UV irradiation, PP5 is required to elicit an appropriate S-phase checkpoint response. In addition, loss of PP5 leads to premature mitosis after hydroxyurea treatment. Interestingly, reduced PP5 activity exerts differential effects on the formation of intranuclear foci by ATR and replication protein A, implicating a functional role for PP5 in a specific stage of the checkpoint signaling pathway. Taken together, our results suggest that PP5 plays a critical role in the ATR-mediated checkpoint activation. -
Zhernakova, A., Elbers, C. C., Ferwerda, B., Romanos, J., Trynka, G., Dubois, P. C., De Kovel, C. G. F., Franke, L., Oosting, M., Barisani, D., Bardella, M. T., Joosten, L. A. B., Saavalainen, P., van Heel, D. A., Catassi, C., Netea, M. G., Wijmenga, C., & Finnish Celiac Dis Study, G. (2010). Evolutionary and Functional Analysis of Celiac Risk Loci Reveals SH2B3 as a Protective Factor against Bacterial Infection. American Journal of Human Genetics, 86(6), 970-977. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.05.004.
Abstract
Celiac disease (CD) is an intolerance to dietary proteins of wheat, barley, and rye. CD may have substantial morbidity, yet it is quite common with a prevalence of 1%-2% in Western populations. It is not clear why the CD phenotype is so prevalent despite its negative effects on human health, especially because appropriate treatment in the form of a gluten-free diet has only been available since the 1950s, when dietary gluten was discovered to be the triggering factor. The high prevalence of CD might suggest that genes underlying this disease may have been favored by the process of natural selection. We assessed signatures of selection for ten confirmed CD-associated loci in several genome-wide data sets, comprising 8154 controls from four European populations and 195 individuals from a North African population, by studying haplotype lengths via the integrated haplotype score (iHS) method. Consistent signs of positive selection for CD-associated derived alleles were observed in three loci: IL12A, IL18RAP, and SH2B3. For the SH2B3 risk allele, we also show a difference in allele frequency distribution (F(st)) between HapMap phase II populations. Functional investigation of the effect of the SH2B3 genotype in response to lipopolysaccharide and muramyl dipeptide revealed that carriers of the SH2B3 rs3184504*A risk allele showed stronger activation of the NOD2 recognition pathway. This suggests that SH2B3 plays a role in protection against bacteria infection, and it provides a possible explanation for the selective sweep on SH2B3, which occurred sometime between 1200 and 1700 years ago.Additional information
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000292971000251X#appd002 -
Zwitserlood, I., van den Bogaerde, B., & Terpstra, A. (2010). De Nederlandse Gebarentaal en het ERK. Levende Talen Magazine, 2010(5), 50-51.
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Zwitserlood, I. (2010). De Nederlandse Gebarentaal, het Corpus NGT en het ERK. Levende Talen Magazine, 2010(8), 44-45.
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Zwitserlood, I. (2010). Laat je vingers spreken: NGT en vingerspelling. Levende Talen Magazine, 2010(2), 46-47.
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Zwitserlood, I. (2010). Het Corpus NGT en de dagelijkse lespraktijk (2). Levende Talen Magazine, 2010(3), 47-48.
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Zwitserlood, I. (2010). Sign language lexicography in the early 21st century and a recently published dictionary of Sign Language of the Netherlands. International Journal of Lexicography, 23, 443-476. doi:10.1093/ijl/ecq031.
Abstract
Sign language lexicography has thus far been a relatively obscure area in the world of lexicography. Therefore, this article will contain background information on signed languages and the communities in which they are used, on the lexicography of sign languages, the situation in the Netherlands as well as a review of a sign language dictionary that has recently been published in the Netherlands. -
Zwitserlood, I., & Crasborn, O. (2010). Wat kunnen we leren uit een Corpus Nederlandse Gebarentaal? WAP Nieuwsbrief, 28(2), 16-18.
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Zwitserlood, I. (2010). Verlos ons van de glos. Levende Talen Magazine, 2010(7), 40-41.
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