Publications

Abstract

Purpose: The question of how and when English-speaking children acquire auxiliaries is the subject of extensive debate. Some researchers posit the existence of innately given Universal Grammar principles to guide acquisition, although some aspects of the auxiliary system must be learned from the input. Others suggest that auxiliaries can be learned without Universal Grammar, citing evidence of piecemeal learning in their support. This study represents a unique attempt to trace the development of auxiliary syntax by using a longitudinal elicitation methodology. Method: Twelve English-speaking children participated in 3 tasks designed to elicit auxiliary BE in declaratives and yes/no and wh-questions. They completed each task 6 times in total between the ages of 2;10 (years;months) and 3;6. Results: The children’s levels of correct use of 2 forms of BE (is,are) differed according to auxiliary form and sentence structure, and these relations changed over development. An analysis of the children’s errors also revealed complex interactions between these factors. Conclusion: These data are problematic for existing accounts of auxiliary acquisition and highlight the need for researchers working within both generativist and constructivist frameworks to develop more detailed theories of acquisition that directly predict the pattern of acquisition observed.

Abstract

Peak bone mass achieved in adolescence is a determinant of bone mass in later life. In order to identify genetic variants affecting bone mineral density (BMD), we performed a genome-wide association study of BMD and related traits in 1518 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). We compared results with a scan of 134 adults with high or low hip BMD. We identified associations with BMD in an area of chromosome 12 containing the Osterix (SP7) locus, a transcription factor responsible for regulating osteoblast differentiation (ALSPAC: P = 5.8 x 10(-4); Australia: P = 3.7 x 10(-4)). This region has previously shown evidence of association with adult hip and lumbar spine BMD in an Icelandic population, as well as nominal association in a UK population. A meta-analysis of these existing studies revealed strong association between SNPs in the Osterix region and adult lumbar spine BMD (P = 9.9 x 10(-11)). In light of these findings, we genotyped a further 3692 individuals from ALSPAC who had whole body BMD and confirmed the association in children as well (P = 5.4 x 10(-5)). Moreover, all SNPs were related to height in ALSPAC children, but not weight or body mass index, and when height was included as a covariate in the regression equation, the association with total body BMD was attenuated. We conclude that genetic variants in the region of Osterix are associated with BMD in children and adults probably through primary effects on growth.

Abstract

In Western Andalusian Spanish (WAS), [h + voiceless stop] clusters are realized as long pre- and postaspirated stops. This study investigates if a new class of stops (realized as geminates with variable degrees of pre- and postaspiration) has emerged in this dialect, or if postaspiration in these clusters results from articulatory overlap. An experiment was carried out in which WAS speakers produced [h + voiceless stop] clusters under changes in speech rate and stress location. The duration of postaspiration, measured as voice onset, did not show systematic effects of any of the experimental variables. Moreover, trade-offs were observed between voice onset and preaspiration plus closure durations. These results indicate that postaspiration in WAS [h + voiceless stop] clusters is the consequence of extensive articulatory overlap. It is further hypothesized that the lengthening of closures in WAS stops preceded by [h] results from a different gestural mechanism affecting all [hC] clusters in this dialect. From a broader perspective, since extensive overlap and consonantal lengthening do not occur in the [hC] clusters of other Spanish varieties, these findings lend support to the idea that intergestural coordination patterns can be dialect-specific.

Abstract

The labial–coronal effect has originally been described as a bias to initiate a word with a labial consonant–vowel–coronal consonant (LC) sequence. This bias has been explained with constraints on the human speech production system, and its perceptual correlates have motivated the suggestion of a perception–production link. However, previous studies exclusively considered languages in which LC sequences are globally more frequent than their counterpart. The current study examined the LC bias in speakers of Japanese, a language that has been claimed to possess more CL than LC sequences. We first conducted an analysis of Japanese corpora that qualified this claim, and identified a subgroup of consonants (plosives) exhibiting a CL bias. Second, focusing on this subgroup of consonants, we found diverging results for production and perception such that Japanese speakers exhibited an articulatory LC bias, but a perceptual CL bias. The CL perceptual bias, however, was modulated by language of presentation, and was only present for stimuli recorded by a Japanese, but not a French, speaker. A further experiment with native speakers of French showed the opposite effect, with an LC bias for French stimuli only. Overall, we find support for a universal, articulatory motivated LC bias in production, supporting a motor explanation of the LC effect, while perceptual biases are influenced by distributional frequencies of the native language.

Abstract

In British English, the phrase Canada aided can sound like Canada raided if the speaker
links the two vowels at the word boundary with an intrusive /r/. There are subtle phonetic
differences between an onset /r/ and an intrusive /r/, however. With cross-modal priming
and eye-tracking, we examine how native British English listeners and non-native
(Dutch) listeners deal with the lexical ambiguity arising from this language-specific
connected speech process. Together the results indicate that the presence of /r/ initially
activates competing words for both listener groups; however, the native listeners rapidly
exploit the phonetic cues and achieve correct lexical selection. In contrast, these
advanced L2 listeners to English failed to recover from the /r/-induced competition, and
failed to match native performance in either task. The /r/-intrusion process, which adds a
phoneme to speech input, thus causes greater difficulty for L2 listeners than connectedspeech
processes which alter or delete phonemes.

Abstract

Two artificial-language learning experiments directly compared English, French, and Dutch listeners’ use of suprasegmental cues for continuous-speech segmentation. In both experiments, listeners heard unbroken sequences of consonant-vowel syllables, composed of recurring three- and four-syllable “words.” These words were demarcated by(a) no cue other than transitional probabilities induced by their recurrence, (b) a consistent left-edge cue, or (c) a consistent right-edge cue. Experiment 1 examined a vowel lengthening cue. All three listener groups benefited from this cue in right-edge position; none benefited from it in left-edge position. Experiment 2 examined a pitch-movement cue. English listeners used this cue in left-edge position, French listeners used it in right-edge position, and Dutch listeners used it in both positions. These findings are interpreted as evidence of both language-universal and language-specific effects. Final lengthening is a language-universal effect expressing a more general (non-linguistic) mechanism. Pitch movement expresses prominence which has characteristically different placements across languages: typically at right edges in French, but at left edges in English and Dutch. Finally, stress realization in English versus Dutch encourages greater attention to suprasegmental variation by Dutch than by English listeners, allowing Dutch listeners to benefit from an informative pitch-movement cue even in an uncharacteristic position.

Abstract

In this paper, we present two novel perspectives on the function of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). First, a structured sequence processing perspective facilitates the search for functional segregation within the LIFG and provides a way to express common aspects across cognitive domains including language, music and action. Converging evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation studies suggests that the LIFG is engaged in sequential processing in artificial grammar learning, independently of particular stimulus features of the elements (whether letters, syllables or shapes are used to build up sequences). The LIFG has been repeatedly linked to processing of artificial grammars across all different grammars tested, whether they include non-adjacent dependencies or mere adjacent dependencies. Second, we apply the sequence processing perspective to understand how the functional segregation of semantics, syntax and phonology in the LIFG can be integrated in the general organization of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). Recently, it was proposed that the functional organization of the lateral PFC follows a rostro-caudal gradient, such that more abstract processing in cognitive control is subserved by more rostral regions of the lateral PFC. We explore the literature from the viewpoint that functional segregation within the LIFG can be embedded in a general rostro-caudal abstraction gradient in the lateral PFC. If the lateral PFC follows a rostro-caudal abstraction gradient, then this predicts that the LIFG follows the same principles, but this prediction has not yet been tested or explored in the LIFG literature. Integration might provide further insights into the functional architecture of the LIFG and the lateral PFC.

Abstract

A recent hypothesis in empirical brain research on language is that the fundamental difference between animal and human communication systems is captured by the distinction between finite-state and more complex phrase-structure grammars, such as context-free and context-sensitive grammars. However, the relevance of this distinction for the study of language as a neurobiological system has been questioned and it has been suggested that a more relevant and partly analogous distinction is that between non-adjacent and adjacent dependencies. Online memory resources are central to the processing of non-adjacent dependencies as information has to be maintained across intervening material. One proposal is that an external memory device in the form of a limited push-down stack is used to process non-adjacent dependencies. We tested this hypothesis in an artificial grammar learning paradigm where subjects acquired non-adjacent dependencies implicitly. Generally, we found no qualitative differences between the acquisition of non-adjacent dependencies and adjacent dependencies. This suggests that although the acquisition of non-adjacent dependencies requires more exposure to the acquisition material, it utilizes the same mechanisms used for acquiring adjacent dependencies. We challenge the push-down stack model further by testing its processing predictions for nested and crossed multiple non-adjacent dependencies. The push-down stack model is partly supported by the results, and we suggest that stack-like properties are some among many natural properties characterizing the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms that implement the online memory resources used in language and structured sequence processing.

Abstract

This study provides ERP and oscillatory dynamics data associated with the comprehension of narratives involving counterfactual events. Participants were given short stories describing an initial situation (“Marta wanted to plant flowers in her garden…”), followed by a critical sentence describing a new situation in either a factual (“Since she found a spade, she started to dig a hole”) or counterfactual format (“If she had found a spade, she would have started to dig a hole”), and then a continuation sentence that was either related to the initial situation (“she bought a spade”) or to the new one (“she planted roses”). The ERPs recorded for the continuation sentences related to the initial situation showed larger negativity after factuals than after counterfactuals, suggesting that the counterfactual's presupposition – the events did not occur – prevents updating the here-and-now of discourse. By contrast, continuation sentences related to the new situation elicited similar ERPs under both factual and counterfactual contexts, suggesting that counterfactuals also activate momentarily an alternative “as if” meaning. However, the reduction of gamma power following counterfactuals, suggests that the “as if” meaning is not integrated into the discourse, nor does it contribute to semantic unification processes.

Abstract

How does the brain respond to statements that clash with a person's value system? We recorded event-related brain potentials while respondents from contrasting political-ethical backgrounds completed an attitude survey on drugs, medical ethics, social conduct, and other issues. Our results show that value-based disagreement is unlocked by language extremely rapidly, within 200 to 250 ms after the first word that indicates a clash with the reader's value system (e.g., "I think euthanasia is an acceptable/unacceptable…"). Furthermore, strong disagreement rapidly influences the ongoing analysis of meaning, which indicates that even very early processes in language comprehension are sensitive to a person's value system. Our results testify to rapid reciprocal links between neural systems for language and for valuation.

Abstract

In normal conversation, speakers translate thoughts into words at high speed. To enable this speed, the retrieval of distinct types of linguistic knowledge has to be orchestrated with millisecond precision. The nature of this orchestration is still largely unknown. This report presents dynamic measures of the real-time activation of two basic types of linguistic knowledge, syntax and phonology. Electrophysiological data demonstrate that during noun-phrase production speakers retrieve the syntactic gender of a noun before its abstract phonological properties. This two-step process operates at high speed: the data show that phonological information is already available 40 milliseconds after syntactic properties have been retrieved.

Abstract

This paper presents a cognitive theory on the production and shaping of selfrepairs during speaking. In an extensive experimental study, a new technique is tried out: artificial elicitation of self-repairs. The data clearly indicate that two mechanisms for computing the shape of self-repairs should be distinguished. One is based on the repair strategy called reformulation, the second one on lemma substitution. W. Levelt’s (1983, Cognition, 14, 41- 104) well-formedness rule, which connects self-repairs to coordinate structures, is shown to apply only to reformulations. In case of lemma substitution, a totally different set of rules is at work. The linguistic unit of central importance in reformulations is the major syntactic constituent; in lemma substitutions it is a prosodic unit. the phonological phrase. A parametrization of the model yielded a very satisfactory fit between observed and reconstructed scores.

Abstract

When an adult claims he cannot sleep without his teddy bear, people tend to react surprised. Language interpretation is, thus, influenced by social context, such as who the speaker is. The present study reveals inter-individual differences in brain reactivity to social aspects of language. Whereas women showed brain reactivity when stereotype-based inferences about a speaker conflicted with the content of the message, men did not. This sex difference in social information processing can be explained by a specific cognitive trait, one’s ability to empathize. Individuals who empathize to a greater degree revealed larger N400 effects (as well as a larger increase in γ-band power) to socially relevant information. These results indicate that individuals with high-empathizing skills are able to rapidly integrate information about the speaker with the content of the message, as they make use of voice-based inferences about the speaker to process language in a top-down manner. Alternatively, individuals with lower empathizing skills did not use information about social stereotypes in implicit sentence comprehension, but rather took a more bottom-up approach to the processing of these social pragmatic sentences.

Abstract

An introductory study of the perception of stochastically specified events is reported. The initial problem was to determine whether the perceiver can split visual input data of this kind into random and determined components. The inability of subjects to do so with the stimulus material used (a filmlike sequence of dot patterns), led to the more general question of how subjects code this kind of visual material. To meet the difficulty of defining the subjects' responses, two experiments were designed. In both, patterns were presented as a rapid sequence of dots on a screen. The patterns were more or less disturbed by “noise,” i.e. the dots did not appear exactly at their proper places. In the first experiment the response was a rating on a semantic scale, in the second an identification from among a set of alternative patterns. The results of these experiments give some insight in the coding systems adopted by the subjects. First, noise appears to be detrimental to pattern recognition, especially to patterns with little spread. Second, this shows connections with the factors obtained from analysis of the semantic ratings, e.g. easily disturbed patterns show a large drop in the semantic regularity factor, when only a little noise is added.

Abstract

Grooming handclasp (GHC) behaviour was originally advocated as the first evidence of social culture in chimpanzees owing to the finding that some populations engaged in the behaviour and others do not. To date, however, the validity of this claim and the extent to which this social behaviour varies between groups is unclear. Here, we measured (i) variation, (ii) durability and (iii) expansion of the GHC behaviour in four chimpanzee communities that do not systematically differ in their genetic backgrounds and live in similar ecological environments. Ninety chimpanzees were studied for a total of 1029 h; 1394 GHC bouts were observed between 2010 and 2012. Critically, GHC style (defined by points of bodily contact) could be systematically linked to the chimpanzee’s group identity, showed temporal consistency both withinand between-groups, and could not be accounted for by the arm-length differential between partners. GHC has been part of the behavioural repertoire of the chimpanzees under study for more than 9 years (surpassing durability criterion) and spread across generations (surpassing expansion criterion). These results strongly indicate that chimpanzees’ social behaviour is not only motivated by innate predispositions and individual inclinations, but may also be partly cultural in nature.

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of whether noun incorporation is a syntactically base-generated or a syntactically derived construction. Focusing on so-called 'raised possessors' in West Greenlandic noun incorporating constructions and presenting some new data, I discuss some problems that arise if we use the derivational framework of Bittner and Hale (1996) to analyze them. I show that if we make the predication relations in noun incorporating constructions overt in their syntax and if we adopt a dynamic approach to semantics, a base-generated syntactic input enriched with a coindexation system is all that we need to arrive at an adequate semantic interpretation of these constructions.

Abstract

As a preliminary to further research on musical consonance an explanatory investigation was made on the different modes of judgment of musical intervals. This was done by way of a semantic differential. Subjects rated 23 intervals against 10 scales. In a factor analysis three factors appeared: pitch, evaluation and fusion. The relation between these factors and some physical characteristics has been investigated. The scale consonant-dissonant showed to be purely evaluative (in opposition to Stumpf's theory). This evaluative connotation is not in accordance with the musicological meaning of consonance. Suggestions to account for this difference have been given.

Abstract

During spoken language interpretation, listeners rapidly relate the meaning of each individual word to what has been said before. However, spoken words often contain spurious other words, like 'day' in 'daisy', or 'dean' in 'sardine'. Do listeners also relate the meaning of such unintended, spurious words to the prior context? We used ERPs to look for transient meaning-based N400 effects in sentences that were completely plausible at the level of words intended by the speaker, but contained an embedded word whose meaning clashed with the context. Although carrier words with an initial embedding ('day' in 'daisy') did not elicit an embedding-related N400 effect relative to matched control words without embedding, carrier words with a final embedding ('dean' in 'sardine') did elicit such an effect. Together with prior work from our lab and the results of a Shortlist B simulation, our findings suggest that listeners do semantically interpret embedded words, albeit not under all conditions. We explain the latter by assuming that the sense-making system adjusts its hypothesis for how to interpret the external input at every new syllable, in line with recent ideas of active sampling in perception.

Abstract

Research from the past decade has shown that understanding the meaning of words and utterances (i.e., abstracted symbols) engages the same systems we used to perceive and interact with the physical world in a content-specific manner. For example, understanding the word “grasp” elicits activation in the cortical motor network, that is, part of the neural substrate involved in planned and executing a grasping action. In the embodied literature, cortical motor activation during language comprehension is thought to reflect motor simulation underlying conceptual knowledge [note that outside the embodied framework, other explanations for the link between action and language are offered, e.g., Mahon, B. Z., & Caramazza, A. A critical look at the embodied cognition hypothesis and a new proposal for grouding conceptual content. Journal of Physiology, 102, 59–70, 2008; Hagoort, P. On Broca, brain, and binding: A new framework. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 416–423, 2005]. Previous research has supported the view that the coupling between language and action is flexible, and reading an action-related word form is not sufficient for cortical motor activation [Van Dam, W. O., van Dijk, M., Bekkering, H., & Rueschemeyer, S.-A. Flexibility in embodied lexical–semantic representations. Human Brain Mapping, doi: 10.1002/hbm.21365, 2011]. The current study goes one step further by addressing the necessity of action-related word forms for motor activation during language comprehension. Subjects listened to indirect requests (IRs) for action during an fMRI session. IRs for action are speech acts in which access to an action concept is required, although it is not explicitly encoded in the language. For example, the utterance “It is hot here!” in a room with a window is likely to be interpreted as a request to open the window. However, the same utterance in a desert will be interpreted as a statement. The results indicate (1) that comprehension of IR sentences activates cortical motor areas reliably more than comprehension of sentences devoid of any implicit motor information. This is true despite the fact that IR sentences contain no lexical reference to action. (2) Comprehension of IR sentences also reliably activates substantial portions of the theory of mind network, known to be involved in making inferences about mental states of others. The implications of these findings for embodied theories of language are discussed.

Abstract

In spontaneous speech, words may be realised shorter than in formal speech (e.g., English yesterday may be pronounced like [jɛʃeɩ]). Previous research has shown that context is required to understand highly reduced pronunciation variants. We investigated the extent to which listeners can predict low predictability reduced words on the basis of the semantic/syntactic and acoustic cues in their context. In four experiments, participants were presented with either the preceding context or the preceding and following context of reduced words, and either heard these fragments of conversational speech, or read their orthographic transcriptions. Participants were asked to predict the missing reduced word on the basis of the context alone, choosing from four plausible options. Participants made use of acoustic cues in the context, although casual speech typically has a high speech rate, and acoustic cues are much more unclear than in careful speech. Moreover, they relied on semantic/syntactic cues. Whenever there was a conflict between acoustic and semantic/syntactic contextual cues, measured as the word's probability given the surrounding words, listeners relied more heavily on acoustic cues. Further, context appeared generally insufficient to predict the reduced words, underpinning the significance of the acoustic characteristics of the reduced words themselves.

Abstract

Mixed languages are said to be the result of a process of intertwining (e.g. Bakker & Muysken 1995, Bakker 1997), a regular process in which the grammar of one language is combined with the lexicon of another. However, the outcome of this process differs from language pair to language pair. As far as morphosyntax is concerned, people have discussed these different outcomes and the reasons for them extensively, e.g. Bakker 1997 for Michif, Mous 2003 for Ma’a, Muysken 1997a for Media Lengua and 1997b for Callahuaya. The issue of phonology, however, has not generated a large debate. This paper compares the phonological systems of the mixed languages Media Lengua, Callahuaya, Mednyj Aleut, and Michif. It will be argued that the outcome of the process of intertwining, as far as phonology is concerned, is at least partly determined by the extent to which unmixed phonological domains exist.

Abstract

Geïllustreerde herpublicatie van de oratie, uitgesproken bij het aanvaarden van de leeropdracht Discourse, cognitie en communicatie op 30 september 2011 (Universiteit Utrecht). In tegenstelling tot de oorspronkelijke oratie-tekst bevat deze herpublicatie ook diverse illustraties en links. Daarnaast is er in twee aansluitende artikelen door vakgenoten op gereageerd (zie http://www.neerlandistiek.nl/12.01a/ en http://www.neerlandistiek.nl/12.01b/)

Abstract

Despite considerable research interest, it is still an open issue as to how morphologically complex words such as “car+s” are represented and processed in the brain. We studied the neural correlates of the processing of inflected nouns in the morphologically rich Finnish language. Previous behavioral studies in Finnish have yielded a robust inflectional processing cost, i.e., inflected words are harder to recognize than otherwise matched morphologically simple words. Theoretically this effect could stem either from decomposition of inflected words into a stem and a suffix at input level and/or from subsequent recombination at the semantic–syntactic level to arrive at an interpretation of the word. To shed light on this issue, we used magnetoencephalography to reveal the time course and localization of neural effects of morphological structure and frequency of written words. Ten subjects silently read high- and low-frequency Finnish words in inflected and monomorphemic form. Morphological complexity was accompanied by stronger and longerlasting activation of the left superior temporal cortex from 200 ms onwards. Earlier effects of morphology were not found, supporting the view that the well-established behavioral processing cost for inflected words stems from the semantic–syntactic level rather than from early decomposition. Since the effect of morphology was detected throughout the range of word frequencies employed, the majority of inflected Finnish words appears to be represented in decomposed form and only very high-frequency inflected words may acquire full-form representations.

Abstract

In a long-lag morphological priming experiment, Dutch (L1)-English (L2) bilinguals were asked to name pictures and read aloud words. A design using non-switch blocks, consisting solely of Dutch stimuli, and switch-blocks, consisting of Dutch primes and targets with intervening English trials, was administered. Target picture naming was facilitated by morphologically related primes in both non-switch and switch blocks with equal magnitude. These results contrast some assumptions of sustained reactive inhibition models. However, models that do not assume bilinguals having to reactively suppress all activation of the non-target language can account for these data. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract

This study investigates the acquisition of post-verbal (temporal) adverbials and post-verbal negation in L2 Dutch. It is based on previous findings for L2 French that post-verbal negation poses less of a problem for L2 learners than post-verbal adverbial placement (Hawkins, Towell, Bazergui, Second Language Research 9: 189-233, 1993; Herschensohn, Minimally raising the verb issue: 325-336, Cascadilla Press, 1998). The current data show that, at first sight, Moroccan and Turkish learners of Dutch also have fewer problems with post-verbal negation than with post-verbal adverbials. However, when a distinction is made between different types of adverbials, it seems that this holds for adverbials of position such as 'today' but not for adverbials of contrast such as 'again'. To account for this difference, it is argued that different types of adverbial occupy different positions in the L2 data for reasons of scope marking. Moreover, the placement of adverbials such as 'again' interacts with the acquisition of finiteness marking (resulting in post-verbal placement), while there is no such interaction between adverbials such as 'today' and finiteness marking.

Abstract

Neurodevelopmental disorders that disturb speech and language are highly heritable. Isolation of the underlying genetic risk factors has been hampered by complexity of the phenotype and potentially large number of contributing genes. One exception is the identification of rare heterozygous mutations of the FOXP2 gene in a monogenic syndrome characterised by impaired sequencing of articulatory gestures, disrupting speech (developmental verbal dyspraxia, DVD), as well as multiple deficits in expressive and receptive language. The protein encoded by FOXP2 belongs to a divergent subgroup of forkhead-box transcription factors, with a distinctive DNA-binding domain and motifs that mediate hetero- and homodimerisation. FOXP1, the most closely related member of this subgroup, can directly interact with FOXP2 and is co-expressed in neural structures relevant to speech and language disorders. Moreover, investigations of songbird orthologues indicate that combinatorial actions of the two proteins may play important roles in vocal learning, leading to the suggestion that human FOXP1 should be considered a strong candidate for involvement in DVD. Thus, in this study, we screened the entire coding region of FOXP1 (exons and flanking intronic sequence) for nucleotide changes in a panel of probands used earlier to detect novel mutations in FOXP2. A non-synonymous coding change was identified in a single proband, yielding a proline-to-alanine change (P215A). However, this was also found in a random control sample. Analyses of non-coding SNP changes did not find any correlation with affection status. We conclude that FOXP1 mutations are unlikely to represent a major cause of DVD.

Abstract

Childhood syndromes disturbing language development are common and display high degrees of heritability. In most cases, the underlying genetic architecture is likely to be complex, involving multiple chromosomal loci and substantial heterogeneity, which makes it difficult to track down the crucial genomic risk factors. Investigation of rare Mendelian phenotypes offers a complementary route for unravelling key neurogenetic pathways. The value of this approach is illustrated by the discovery that heterozygous FOXP2 (where FOX is forkhead box) mutations cause an unusual monogenic disorder, characterized by problems with articulating speech along with deficits in expressive and receptive language. FOXP2 encodes a regulatory protein, belonging to the forkhead box family of transcription factors, known to play important roles in modulating gene expression in development and disease. Functional genetics using human neuronal models suggest that the different FOXP2 isoforms generated by alternative splicing have distinct properties and may act to regulate each other's activity. Such investigations have also analysed the missense and nonsense mutations found in cases of speech and language disorder, showing that they alter intracellular localization, DNA binding and transactivation capacity of the mutated proteins. Moreover, in the brains of mutant mice, aetiological mutations have been found to disrupt the synaptic plasticity of Foxp2-expressing circuitry. Finally, although mutations of FOXP2 itself are rare, the downstream networks which it regulates in the brain appear to be broadly implicated in typical forms of language impairment. Thus, through ongoing identification of regulated targets and interacting co-factors, this gene is providing the first molecular entry points into neural mechanisms that go awry in language-related disorders

Abstract

Three experiments investigated semantic and syntactic effects in the production of phrases in Dutch. Bilingual participants were presented with English nouns and were asked to produce an adjective + noun phrase in Dutch including the translation of the noun. In 2 experiments, the authors blocked items by either semantic category or grammatical gender. Participants performed the task slower when the target nouns were of the same semantic category than when they were from different categories and faster when the target nouns had the same gender than when they had different genders. In a final experiment, both manipulations were crossed. The authors replicated the results of the first 2 experiments, and no interaction was found. These findings suggest a feedforward flow of activation between lexico-semantic and lexico-syntactic information.

Abstract

Graded interference effects were tested in a naming task, in parallel for objects and actions. Participants named either object or action pictures presented in the context of other pictures (blocks) that were either semantically very similar, or somewhat semantically similar or semantically dissimilar. We found that naming latencies for both object and action words were modulated by the semantic similarity between the exemplars in each block, providing evidence in both domains of graded semantic effects.

Abstract

How do we individuate body parts? Here, we investigated the effect of body segmentation between hand and arm in tactile and visual perception. In a first experiment, we showed that two tactile stimuli felt farther away when they were applied across the wrist than when they were applied within a single body part (palm or forearm), indicating a “category boundary effect”. In the following experiments, we excluded two hypotheses, which attributed tactile segmentation to other, nontactile factors. In Experiment 2, we showed that the boundary effect does not arise from motor cues. The effect was reduced during a motor task involving flexion and extension movements of the wrist joint. Action brings body parts together into functional units, instead of pulling them apart. In Experiments 3 and 4, we showed that the effect does not arise from perceptual cues of visual discontinuities. We did not find any segmentation effect for the visual percept of the body in Experiment 3, nor for a neutral shape in Experiment 4. We suggest that the mental representation of the body is structured in categorical body parts delineated by joints, and that this categorical representation modulates tactile spatial perception.

Abstract

The role of grammatical systems in profiling particular conceptual categories is used as a key in exploring questions concerning language specificity during the conceptualization phase in language production. This study focuses on the extent to which crosslinguistic differences in the concepts profiled by grammatical means in the domain of temporality (grammatical aspect) affect event conceptualization and distribution of attention when talking about motion events. The analyses, which cover native speakers of Standard Arabic, Czech, Dutch, English, German, Russian and Spanish, not only involve linguistic evidence, but also data from an eye tracking experiment and a memory test. The findings show that direction of attention to particular parts of motion events varies to some extent with the existence of grammaticized means to express imperfective/progressive aspect. Speakers of languages that do not have grammaticized aspect of this type are more likely to take a holistic view when talking about motion events and attend to as well as refer to endpoints of motion events, in contrast to speakers of aspect languages.

Abstract

First paragraph. Since its advent half a century ago, the field of sign language linguistics has had close ties to education and the empowerment of deaf communities, a union that is fittingly celebrated by Deaf around the world: The impact of language. With this fruitful relationship in mind, sign language researchers and deaf educators gathered in Philadelphia in 2008, and in the volume under review, Gaurav Mathur & Donna Jo Napoli (henceforth M&N) present a selection of papers from this conference, organised in two parts: ‘Sign languages: Creation, context, form’, and ‘Social issues/civil rights ’. Each of the chapters is accompanied by a response chapter on the same or a related topic. The first part of the volume focuses on the linguistics of sign languages and includes papers on the impact of language modality on morphosyntax, second language acquisition, and grammaticalisation, highlighting the fine balance that sign linguists need to strike when conducting methodologically sound research. The second part of the book includes accounts by deaf activists from countries including China, India, Japan, Kenya, South Africa and Sweden who are considered prominent figures in areas such as deaf education, politics, culture and international development.

Abstract

The eyebrows are used as conversational signals in face-to-face spoken interaction (Ekman, 1979). In Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT), the eyebrows are typically furrowed in content questions, and raised in polar questions (Coerts, 1992). On the other hand, these eyebrow positions are also associated with anger and surprise, respectively, in general human communication (Ekman, 1993). This overlap in the functional load of the eyebrow positions results in a potential conflict for NGT signers when combining these functions simultaneously. In order to investigate the effect of the simultaneous realization of both functions on the eyebrow position we elicited instances of both question types with neutral affect and with various affective states. The data were coded using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS: Ekman, Friesen, & Hager, 2002) for type of brow movement as well as for intensity. FACS allows for the coding of muscle groups, which are termed Action Units (AUs) and which produce facial appearance changes. The results show that linguistic and affective functions of eyebrows may influence each other in NGT. That is, in surprised polar questions and angry content question a phonetic enhancement takes place of raising and furrowing, respectively. In the items with contrasting eyebrow movements, the grammatical and affective AUs are either blended (occur simultaneously) or they are realized sequentially. Interestingly, the absence of eyebrow raising (marked by AU 1+2) in angry polar questions, and the presence of eyebrow furrowing (realized by AU 4) in surprised content questions suggests that in general AU 4 may be phonetically stronger than AU 1 and AU 2, independent of its linguistic or affective function.

Abstract

In a recent series of publications (Traxler et al. J Mem Lang 39:558–592, 1998; Van Gompel et al. J Mem Lang 52:284–307, 2005; see also Van Gompel et al. (In: Kennedy, et al.(eds) Reading as a perceptual process, Oxford, Elsevier pp 621–648, 2000); Van Gompel et al. J Mem Lang 45:225–258, 2001) eye tracking data are reported showing that globally ambiguous (GA) sentences are read faster than locally ambiguous (LA) counterparts. They argue that these data rule out “constraint-based” models where syntactic and conceptual processors operate concurrently and syntactic ambiguity resolution is accomplished by competition. Such models predict the opposite pattern of reading times. However, this argument against competition is valid only in conjunction with two standard assumptions in current constraint-based models of sentence comprehension: (1) that syntactic competitions (e.g., Which is the best attachment site of the incoming constituent?) are pooled together with conceptual competitions (e.g., Which attachment site entails the most plausible meaning?), and (2) that the duration of a competition is a function of the overall (pooled) quality score obtained by each competitor. We argue that it is not necessary to abandon competition as a successful basis for explaining parsing phenomena and that the above-mentioned reading time data can be accounted for by a parallel-interactive model with conceptual and syntactic processors that do not pool their quality scores together. Within the individual linguistic modules, decision-making can very well be competition-based.

Abstract

We introduce a novel computer implementation of the Unification-Space parser (Vosse & Kempen 2000) in the form of a localist neural network whose dynamics is based on interactive activation and inhibition. The wiring of the network is determined by Performance Grammar (Kempen & Harbusch 2003), a lexicalist formalism with feature unification as binding operation. While the network is processing input word strings incrementally, the evolving shape of parse trees is represented in the form of changing patterns of activation in nodes that code for syntactic properties of words and phrases, and for the grammatical functions they fulfill. The system is capable, at least in a qualitative and rudimentary sense, of simulating several important dynamic aspects of human syntactic parsing, including garden-path phenomena and reanalysis, effects of complexity (various types of clause embeddings), fault-tolerance in case of unification failures and unknown words, and predictive parsing (expectation-based analysis, surprisal effects). English is the target language of the parser described.

Abstract

Processing non-adjacent dependencies is considered to be one of the hallmarks of human language. Assuming that sequence-learning tasks provide a useful way to tap natural-language-processing mechanisms, we cross-modally combined serial reaction time and artificial-grammar learning paradigms to investigate the processing of multiple nested (A1A2A3B3B2B1) and crossed dependencies (A1A2A3B1B2B3), containing either three or two dependencies. Both reaction times and prediction errors highlighted problems with processing the middle dependency in nested structures (A1A2A3B3_B1), reminiscent of the ‘missing-verb effect’ observed in English and French, but not with crossed structures (A1A2A3B1_B3). Prior linguistic experience did not play a major role: native speakers of German and Dutch—which permit nested and crossed dependencies, respectively—showed a similar pattern of results for sequences with three dependencies. As for sequences with two dependencies, reaction times and prediction errors were similar for both nested and crossed dependencies. The results suggest that constraints on the processing of multiple non-adjacent dependencies are determined by the specific ordering of the non-adjacent dependencies (i.e. nested or crossed), as well as the number of non-adjacent dependencies to be resolved (i.e. two or three). Furthermore, these constraints may not be specific to language but instead derive from limitations on structured sequence learning.

Abstract

Rhyme processing is reflected in the electrophysiological signals of the brain as a negative deflection for non-rhyming as compared to rhyming stimuli around 450 ms after stimulus onset. Studies have shown that this N450 component is not solely sensitive to rhyme but also responds to other types of phonological overlap. In the present study, we examined whether the N450 component can be used to gain insight into the global similarity effect, indicating that rhyme judgment skills decrease when participants are presented with word pairs that share a phonological overlap but do not rhyme (e.g., bell–ball). We presented 20 adults with auditory rhyming, globally similar overlapping and unrelated word pairs. In addition to measuring behavioral responses by means of a yes/no button press, we also took EEG measures. The behavioral data showed a clear global similarity effect; participants judged overlapping pairs more slowly than unrelated pairs. However, the neural outcomes did not provide evidence that the N450 effect responds differentially to globally similar and unrelated word pairs, suggesting that globally similar and dissimilar non-rhyming pairs are processed in a similar fashion at the stage of early lexical access.

Abstract

Background. Rhyme awareness is one of the earliest forms of phonological awareness to develop and is assessed in many developmental studies by means of a simple rhyme task. The influence of more demanding experimental paradigms on rhyme judgment performance is often neglected. Addressing this issue may also shed light on whether rhyme processing is more global or analytical in nature. Aims. The aim of the present study was to examine whether lexical status and global similarity relations influenced rhyme judgments in kindergarten children and if so, if there is an interaction between these two factors. Sample. Participants were 41 monolingual Dutch-speaking preliterate kindergartners (average age 6.0 years) who had not yet received any formal reading education. Method. To examine the effects of lexical status and phonological similarity processing, the kindergartners were asked to make rhyme judgements on (pseudo) word targets that rhymed, phonologically overlapped or were unrelated to (pseudo) word primes. Results. Both a lexicality effect (pseudo-words were more difficult than words) and a global similarity effect (globally similar non-rhyming items were more difficult to reject than unrelated items) were observed. In addition, whereas in words the global similarity effect was only present in accuracy outcomes, in pseudo-words it was also observed in the response latencies. Furthermore, a large global similarity effect in pseudo-words correlated with a low score on short-term memory skills and grapheme knowledge. Conclusions. Increasing task demands led to a more detailed assessment of rhyme processing skills. Current assessment paradigms should therefore be extended with more demanding conditions. In light of the views on rhyme processing, we propose that a combination of global and analytical strategies is used to make a correct rhyme judgment.

Abstract

Disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) is a leading candidate susceptibility gene for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and recurrent major depression, which has been implicated in other psychiatric illnesses of neurodevelopmental origin, including autism. DISC1 was initially identified at the breakpoint of a balanced chromosomal translocation, t(1;11) (q42.1;14.3), in a family with a high incidence of psychiatric illness. Carriers of the translocation show a 50% reduction in DISC1 protein levels, suggesting altered DISC1 expression as a pathogenic mechanism in psychiatric illness. Altered DISC1 expression in the post-mortem brains of individuals with psychiatric illness and the frequent implication of non-coding regions of the gene by association analysis further support this assertion. Here, we provide the first characterisation of the DISC1 promoter region. Using dual luciferase assays, we demonstrate that a region -300bp to -177bp relative to the transcription start site (TSS) contributes positively to DISC1 promoter activity, whilst a region -982bp to -301bp relative to the TSS confers a repressive effect. We further demonstrate inhibition of DISC1 promoter activity and protein expression by FOXP2, a transcription factor implicated in speech and language function. This inhibition is diminished by two distinct FOXP2 point mutations, R553H and R328X, which were previously found in families affected by developmental verbal dyspraxia (DVD). Our work identifies an intriguing mechanistic link between neurodevelopmental disorders that have traditionally been viewed as diagnostically distinct but which do share varying degrees of phenotypic overlap.

Abstract

The relationship between the evoked responses (ERPs/ERFs) and the event-related changes in EEG/MEG power that can be observed during sentence-level language comprehension is as yet unclear. This study addresses a possible relationship between MEG power changes and the N400m component of the event-related field. Whole-head MEG was recorded while subjects listened to spoken sentences with incongruent (IC) or congruent (C) sentence endings. A clear N400m was observed over the left hemisphere, and was larger for the IC sentences than for the C sentences. A time–frequency analysis of power revealed a decrease in alpha and beta power over the left hemisphere in roughly the same time range as the N400m for the IC relative to the C condition. A linear regression analysis revealed a positive linear relationship between N400m and beta power for the IC condition, not for the C condition. No such linear relation was found between N400m and alpha power for either condition. The sources of the beta decrease were estimated in the LIFG, a region known to be involved in semantic unification operations. One source of the N400m was estimated in the left superior temporal region, which has been related to lexical retrieval. We interpret our data within a framework in which beta oscillations are inversely related to the engagement of task-relevant brain networks. The source reconstructions of the beta power suppression and the N400m effect support the notion of a dynamic communication between the LIFG and the left superior temporal region during language comprehension.

Abstract

Information structure facilitates communication between interlocutors by highlighting relevant information. It has previously been shown that information structure modulates the depth of semantic processing. Here we used event-related potentials to investigate whether information structure can modulate the depth of syntactic processing. In question-answer pairs, subtle (number agreement) or salient (phrase structure) syntactic violations were placed either in focus or out of focus through information structure marking. P600 effects to these violations reflect the depth of syntactic processing. For subtle violations, a P600 effect was observed in the focus condition, but not in the non-focus condition. For salient violations, comparable P600 effects were found in both conditions. These results indicate that information structure can modulate the depth of syntactic processing, but that this effect depends on the salience of the information. When subtle violations are not in focus, they are processed less elaborately. We label this phenomenon the Chomsky illusion.

Abstract

Gamma-band neuronal synchronization during sentence-level language comprehension has previously been linked with semantic unification. Here, we attempt to further narrow down the functional significance of gamma during language comprehension, by distinguishing between two aspects of semantic unification: successful integration of word meaning into the sentence context, and prediction of upcoming words. We computed event-related potentials (ERPs) and frequency band-specific electroencephalographic (EEG) power changes while participants read sentences that contained a critical word (CW) that was (1) both semantically congruent and predictable (high cloze, HC), (2) semantically congruent but unpredictable (low cloze, LC), or (3) semantically incongruent (and therefore also unpredictable; semantic violation, SV). The ERP analysis showed the expected parametric N400 modulation (HC < LC < SV). The time-frequency analysis showed qualitatively different results. In the gamma-frequency range, we observed a power increase in response to the CW in the HC condition, but not in the LC and the SV conditions. Additionally, in the theta frequency range we observed a power increase in the SV condition only. Our data provide evidence that gamma power increases are related to the predictability of an upcoming word based on the preceding sentence context, rather than to the integration of the incoming word’s semantics into the preceding context. Further, our theta band data are compatible with the notion that theta band synchronization in sentence comprehension might be related to the detection of an error in the language input.

Abstract

Next to propositional content, speakers distribute information in their utterances in such a way that listeners can make a distinction between new (focused) and given (non-focused) information. This is referred to as information structure. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the role of information structure in semantic processing. Following different questions in wh-question-answer pairs (e.g. What kind of vegetable did Ming buy for cooking today? /Who bought the vegetables for cooking today?), the answer sentences (e.g., Ming bought eggplant/beef to cook today.) contained a critical word, which was either semantically appropriate (eggplant) or inappropriate (beef), and either focus or non-focus. The results showed a full N400 effect only when the critical words were in focus position. In non-focus position a strongly reduced N400 effect was observed, in line with the well-known semantic illusion effect. The results suggest that information structure facilitates semantic processing by devoting more resources to focused information.

Abstract

Natural, spontaneous speech (and even quite careful speech) often shows extreme reduction in many speech segments, even resulting in apparent deletion of consonants. Where the flap ([(sic)]) allophone of /t/ and /d/ is expected in American English, one frequently sees an approximant-like or even vocalic pattern, rather than a clear flap. Still, the /t/ or /d/ is usually perceived, suggesting the acoustic characteristics of a reduced flap are sufficient for perception of a consonant. This paper identifies several acoustic characteristics of reduced flaps based on previous acoustic research (size of intensity dip, consonant duration, and F4 valley) and presents phonetic identification data for continua that manipulate these acoustic characteristics of reduction. The results indicate that the most obvious types of acoustic variability seen in natural flaps do affect listeners' percept of a consonant, but not sufficiently to completely account for the percept. Listeners are affected by the acoustic characteristics of consonant reduction, but they are also very skilled at evaluating variability along the acoustic dimensions that realize reduction.

Abstract

This article addresses revitalization of a dormant language whose prospective speakers live in scattered geographical areas. In comparison to increasing the usage of an endangered language, revitalizing a dormant language (one with no living speakers) requires different methods to gain knowledge of the language. Language teaching for a dormant language with a scattered community presents different problems from other teaching situations. In this article, we discuss the types of tasks that must be accomplished for dormant-language revitalization, with particular focus on development of teaching materials. We also address the role of computer technologies, arguing that each use of technology should be evaluated for how effectively it increases fluency. We discuss methods for achieving semi-fluency for the first new speakers of a dormant language, and for spreading the language through the community.

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that spoken-language processing is inhibited by violation of obligatory regressive assimilation. Weber (2001) replicated this inhibitory effect in a phoneme-monitoring study examining regressive place assimilation of nasals, but found facilitation for violation of progressive assimilation. German listeners detected the velar fricative [x] more quickly when fricative assimilation was violated (e.g., *[bIxt] or *[blInx@n]) than when no violation occurred (e.g., [baxt] or [blu:x@n]). It was argued that a combination of two factors caused facilitation:(1) progressive assimilation creates different restrictions for the monitoring target than regressive assimilation does, and (2) the sequences violating assimilation (e.g., *[Ix]) are novel for German listeners and therefore facilitate fricative detection (novel popout). The present study tested progressive assimilation violation in non-novel sequences using the palatal fricative [C]. Stimuli either violated fricative assimilation (e.g., *[ba:C@l ]) or did not (e.g., [bi: C@l ]). This manipulation does not create novel sequences: sequences like *[a:C] can occur across word boundaries, while *[Ix] cannot. No facilitation was found. However, violation also did not significantly inhibit processing. The results confirm that facilitation depends on the combination of progressive assimilation with novelty of the sequence.

Abstract

All words of the languages we know are stored in the mental lexicon. Psycholinguistic models describe in which format lexical knowledge is stored and how it is accessed when needed for language use. The present article summarizes key findings in spoken-word recognition by humans and describes how models of spoken-word recognition account for them. Although current models of spoken-word recognition differ considerably in the details of implementation, there is general consensus among them on at least three aspects: multiple word candidates are activated in parallel as a word is being heard, activation of word candidates varies with the degree of match between the speech signal and stored lexical representations, and activated candidate words compete for recognition. No consensus has been reached on other aspects such as the flow of information between different processing levels, and the format of stored prelexical and lexical representations. WIREs Cogn Sci 2012

Abstract

We present two eye-tracking experiments that investigate lexical frequency and semantic context constraints in spoken-word recognition in German. In both experiments, the pivotal words were pairs of nouns overlapping at onset but varying in lexical frequency. In Experiment 1, German listeners showed an expected frequency bias towards high-frequency competitors (e.g., Blume, ‘flower’) when instructed to click on low-frequency targets (e.g., Bluse, ‘blouse’). In Experiment 2, semantically constraining context increased the availability of appropriate low-frequency target words prior to word onset, but did not influence the availability of semantically inappropriate high-frequency competitors at the same time. Immediately after target word onset, however, the activation of high-frequency competitors was reduced in semantically constraining sentences, but still exceeded that of unrelated distractor words significantly. The results suggest that (1) semantic context acts to downgrade activation of inappropriate competitors rather than to exclude them from competition, and (2) semantic context influences spoken-word recognition, over and above anticipation of upcoming referents.

Abstract

A longstanding question in bilingualism is whether syntactic information is shared between the two language processing systems. We used an fMRI repetition suppression paradigm to investigate syntactic priming in reading comprehension in German–English late-acquisition bilinguals. In comparison to conventional subtraction analyses in bilingual experiments, repetition suppression has the advantage of being able to detect neuronal populations that are sensitive to properties that are shared by consecutive stimuli. In this study, we manipulated the syntactic structure between prime and target sentences. A sentence with a passive sentence structure in English was preceded either by a passive or by an active sentence in English or German. We looked for repetition suppression effects in left inferior frontal, left precentral and left middle temporal regions of interest. These regions were defined by a contrast of all non-target sentences in German and English versus the baseline of sentence-format consonant strings. We found decreases in activity (repetition suppression effects) in these regions of interest following the repetition of syntactic structure from the first to the second language and within the second language.
Moreover, a separate behavioural experiment using a word-by-word reading paradigm similar to the fMRI experiment showed faster reading times for primed compared to unprimed English target sentences regardless of whether they were preceded by an English or a German sentence of the same structure.
We conclude that there is interaction between the language processing systems and that at least some syntactic information is shared between a bilingual's languages with similar syntactic structures.

Abstract

Many explanations of the difficulties associated with interpreting object relative clauses appeal to the demands that object relatives make on working memory. MacDonald and Christiansen [MacDonald, M. C., & Christiansen, M. H. (2002). Reassessing working memory: Comment on Just and Carpenter (1992) and Waters and Caplan (1996). Psychological Review, 109, 35-54] pointed to variations in reading experience as a source of differences, arguing that the unique word order of object relatives makes their processing more difficult and more sensitive to the effects of previous experience than the processing of subject relatives. This hypothesis was tested in a large-scale study manipulating reading experiences of adults over several weeks. The group receiving relative clause experience increased reading speeds for object relatives more than for subject relatives, whereas a control experience group did not. The reading time data were compared to performance of a computational model given different amounts of experience. The results support claims for experience-based individual differences and an important role for statistical learning in sentence comprehension processes.

Abstract

Corrigendum to CNTNAP2 variants affect early language development in the general population A. J. O. Whitehouse, D. V. M. Bishop, Q. W. Ang, C. E. Pennell and S. E. Fisher Genes Brain Behav (2011) doi: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2011.00684.x. The authors have detected a typographical error in the Abstract of this paper. The error is in the fifth sentence, which reads: ‘‘On the basis of these findings, we performed analyses of four-marker haplotypes of rs2710102–rs759178–rs17236239–rs2538976 and identified significant association (haplotype TTAA, P = 0.049; haplotype GCAG,P = .0014).’’ Rather than ‘‘GCAG’’, the final haplotype should read ‘‘CGAG’’. This typographical error was made in the Abstract only and this has no bearing on the results or conclusions of the study, which remain unchanged. Reference Whitehouse, A. J. O., Bishop, D. V. M., Ang, Q. W., Pennell, C. E. & Fisher, S. E. (2011) CNTNAP2 variants affect early language development in the general population. Genes Brain Behav 10, 451–456. doi: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2011.00684.x.

Abstract

Beller, Bender, and Medin question the necessity of including social anthropology within the cognitive sciences. We argue that there is great scope for fruitful rapprochement while agreeing that there are obstacles (even if we might wish to debate some of those specifically identified by Beller and colleagues). We frame the general problem differently, however: not in terms of the problem of reconciling disciplines and research cultures, but rather in terms of the prospects for collaborative deployment of expertise (methodological and theoretical) in problem-driven research. For the purposes of illustration, our focus in this article is on the evolution of cooperation

Abstract

If motor imagery uses neural structures involved in action execution, then the neural correlates of imagining an action should differ between individuals who tend to execute the action differently. Here we report fMRI data showing that motor imagery is influenced by the way people habitually perform motor actions with their particular bodies; that is, motor imagery is ‘body-specific’ (Casasanto, 2009). During mental imagery for complex hand actions, activation of cortical areas involved in motor planning and execution was left-lateralized in right-handers but right-lateralized in left-handers. We conclude that motor imagery involves the generation of an action plan that is grounded in the participant’s motor habits, not just an abstract representation at the level of the action’s goal. People with different patterns of motor experience form correspondingly different neurocognitive representations of imagined actions.

Abstract

Recent years have seen a large amount of empirical studies related to ‘embodied cognition’. While interesting and valuable, there is something dissatisfying with the current state of affairs in this research domain. Hypotheses tend to be underspecified, testing in general terms for embodied versus disembodied processing. The lack of specificity of current hypotheses can easily lead to an erosion of the embodiment concept, and result in a situation in which essentially any effect is taken as positive evidence. Such erosion is not helpful to the field and does not do justice to the importance of embodiment. Here we want to take stock, and formulate directions for how it can be studied in a more fruitful fashion. As an example we will describe few example studies that have investigated the role of sensori-motor systems in the coding of meaning (‘embodied semantics’). Instead of focusing on the dichotomy between embodied and disembodied theories, we suggest that the field move forward and ask how and when sensori-motor systems and behavior are involved in cognition.

Abstract

Several studies indicate that both posterior superior temporal sulcus/middle temporal gyrus (pSTS/MTG) and left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) are involved in integrating information from different modalities. Here we investigated the respective roles of these two areas in integration of action and language information. We exploited the fact that the semantic relationship between language and different forms of action (i.e. co-speech gestures and pantomimes) is radically different. Speech and co-speech gestures are always produced together, and gestures are not unambiguously understood without speech. On the contrary, pantomimes are not necessarily produced together with speech and can be easily understood without speech. We presented speech together with these two types of communicative hand actions in matching or mismatching combinations to manipulate semantic integration load. Left and right pSTS/MTG were only involved in semantic integration of speech and pantomimes. Left IFG on the other hand was involved in integration of speech and co-speech gestures as well as of speech and pantomimes. Effective connectivity analyses showed that depending upon the semantic relationship between language and action, LIFG modulates activation levels in left pSTS.

This suggests that integration in pSTS/MTG involves the matching of two input streams for which there is a relatively stable common object representation, whereas integration in LIFG is better characterized as the on-line construction of a new and unified representation of the input streams. In conclusion, pSTS/MTG and LIFG are differentially involved in multimodal integration, crucially depending upon the semantic relationship between the input streams.

Abstract

It has been argued that we map observed actions onto our own motor system. Here we added to this issue by investigating whether hand preference influences the neural correlates of action observation of simple, essentially meaningless hand actions. Such an influence would argue for an intricate neural coupling between action production and action observation, which goes beyond effects of motor repertoire or explicit motor training, as has been suggested before. Indeed, parts of the human motor system exhibited a close coupling between action production and action observation. Ventral premotor and inferior and superior parietal cortices showed differential activation for left- and right-handers that was similar during action production as well as during action observation. This suggests that mapping observed actions onto the observer's own motor system is a core feature of action observation - at least for actions that do not have a clear goal or meaning. Basic differences in the way we act upon the world are not only reflected in neural correlates of action production, but can also influence the brain basis of action observation.

Abstract

We carried out the first study on the relationship between individual language aptitude and structural connectivity of language pathways in the adult brain. We measured four components of language aptitude (vocabulary learning, VocL; sound recognition, SndRec; sound-symbol correspondence, SndSym; and grammatical inferencing, GrInf) using the LLAMA language aptitude test (Meara, 2005). Spatial working memory (SWM), verbal working memory (VWM) and IQ were also measured as control factors. Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) was employed to investigate the structural connectivity of language pathways in the perisylvian language network. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on behavioural measures suggests that a general ability might be important to the first stages of L2 acquisition. It also suggested that VocL, SndSy and SWM are more closely related to general IQ than SndRec and VocL, and distinguished the tasks specifically designed to tap into L2 acquisition (VocL, SndRec,SndSym and GrInf) from more generic measures (IQ, SWM and VWM). Regression analysis suggested significant correlations between most of these behavioural measures and the structural connectivity of certain language pathways, i.e., VocL and BA47-Parietal pathway, SndSym and inter-hemispheric BA45 pathway, GrInf and BA45-Temporal pathway and BA6-Temporal pathway, IQ and BA44-Parietal pathway, BA47-Parietal pathway, BA47-Temporal pathway and inter-hemispheric BA45 pathway, SWM and inter-hemispheric BA6 pathway and BA47-Parietal pathway, and VWM and BA47-Temporal pathway. These results are discussed in relation to relevant findings in the literature.

Abstract

Four experiments investigated the role of the syllable in Chinese spoken word production. Chen, Chen and Ferrand (2003) reported a syllable priming effect when primes and targets shared the first syllable using a masked priming paradigm in Chinese. Our Experiment 1 was a direct replication of Chen et al.'s (2003) Experiment 3 employing CV (e. g., /ba2.ying2/, strike camp) and CVG (e. g., /bai2.shou3/, white haired) syllable types. Experiment 2 tested the syllable priming effect using different syllable types: e. g., CV (/qi4.qiu2/, balloon) and CVN (/qing1.ting2/, dragonfly). Experiment 3 investigated this issue further using line drawings of common objects as targets that were preceded either by a CV (e. g., /qi3/, attempt), or a CVN (e. g., /qing2/, affection) prime. Experiment 4 further examined the priming effect by a comparison between CV or CVN priming and an unrelated priming condition using CV-NX (e. g., /mi2.ni3/, mini) and CVN-CX (e. g., /min2.ju1/, dwellings) as target words. These four experiments consistently found that CV targets were named faster when preceded by CV primes than when they were preceded by CVG, CVN or unrelated primes, whereas CVG or CVN targets showed the reverse pattern. These results indicate that the priming effect critically depends on the match between the structure of the prime and that of the first syllable of the target. The effect obtained in this study was consistent across different stimuli and different tasks (word and picture naming), and provides more conclusive and consistent data regarding the role of the syllable in Chinese speech production.

Abstract

Semantic unification, the process by which small blocks of semantic information are combined into a coherent utterance, has been studied with various types of tasks. However, whether the brain activations reported in these studies are attributed to semantic unification per se or to other task-induced concomitant processes still remains unclear. The neural basis for semantic unification in sentence comprehension was examined using event-related potentials (ERP) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). The semantic unification load was manipulated by varying the goodness of fit between a critical word and its preceding context (in high cloze, low cloze and violation sentences). The sentences were presented in a serial visual presentation mode. The participants were asked to perform one of three tasks: semantic congruency judgment (SEM), silent reading for comprehension (READ), or font size judgment (FONT), in separate sessions. The ERP results showed a similar N400 amplitude modulation by the semantic unification load across all of the three tasks. The brain activations associated with the semantic unification load were found in the anterior left inferior frontal gyrus (aLIFG) in the FONT task and in a widespread set of regions in the other two tasks. These results suggest that the aLIFG activation reflects a semantic unification, which is different from other brain activations that may reflect task-specific strategic processing.

Abstract

How does language comprehension interact with motor activity? We investigated the conditions under which comprehending an action sentence affects people's balance. We performed two experiments to assess whether sentences describing forward or backward movement modulate the lateral movements made by subjects who made sensibility judgments about the sentences. In one experiment subjects were standing on a balance board and in the other they were seated on a balance board that was mounted on a chair. This allowed us to investigate whether the action compatibility effect (ACE) is robust and persists in the face of salient incompatibilities between sentence content and subject movement. Growth-curve analysis of the movement trajectories produced by the subjects in response to the sentences suggests that the ACE is indeed robust. Sentence content influenced movement trajectory despite salient inconsistencies between implied and actual movement. These results are interpreted in the context of the current discussion of embodied, or grounded, language comprehension and meaning representation.

Abstract

This paper explores the expression of multiple entities in Turkish Sign Language (Türk İşaret Dili; TİD), a less well-studied sign language. It aims to provide a comprehensive description of the ways and frequencies in which entity plurality in this language is expressed, both within and outside the noun phrase. We used a corpus that includes both elicited and spontaneous data from native signers. The results reveal that most of the expressions of multiple entities in TİD are iconic, spatial strategies (i.e. localization and spatial plural predicate inflection) none of which, we argue, should be considered as genuine plural marking devices with the main aim of expressing plurality. Instead, the observed devices for localization and predicate inflection allow for a plural interpretation when multiple locations in space are used. Our data do not provide evidence that TİD employs (productive) morphological plural marking (i.e. reduplication) on nouns, in contrast to some other sign languages and many spoken languages. We relate our findings to expression of multiple entities in other signed languages and in spoken languages and discuss these findings in terms of modality effects on expression of multiple entities in human language.

Abstract

The Corpus NGT