Publications

Displaying 701 - 800 of 807
  • Thorgrimsson, G., Fawcett, C., & Liszkowski, U. (2015). 1- and 2-year-olds’ expectations about third-party communicative actions. Infant Behavior and Development, 39, 53-66. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2015.02.002.

    Abstract

    Infants expect people to direct actions toward objects, and they respond to actions directed to themselves, but do they have expectations about actions directed to third parties? In two experiments, we used eye tracking to investigate 1- and 2-year-olds’ expectations about communicative actions addressed to a third party. Experiment 1 presented infants with videos where an adult (the Emitter) either uttered a sentence or produced non-speech sounds. The Emitter was either face-to-face with another adult (the Recipient) or the two were back-to-back. The Recipient did not respond to any of the sounds. We found that 2-, but not 1-year-olds looked quicker and longer at the Recipient following speech than non-speech, suggesting that they expected her to respond to speech. These effects were specific to the face-to-face context. Experiment 2 presented 1-year-olds with similar face-to-face exchanges but modified to engage infants and minimize task demands. The infants looked quicker to the Recipient following speech than non-speech, suggesting that they expected a response to speech. The study suggests that by 1 year of age infants expect communicative actions to be directed at a third-party listener.
  • Tilot, A. K., Frazier, T. W. 2., & Eng, C. (2015). Balancing proliferation and connectivity in PTEN -associated Autism Spectrum Disorder. Neurotherapeutics, 13(3), 609-619. doi:10.1007/s13311-015-0356-8.

    Abstract

    Germline mutations in PTEN, which encodes a widely expressed phosphatase, was mapped to 10q23 and identified as the susceptibility gene for Cowden syndrome, characterized by macrocephaly and high risks of breast, thyroid, and other cancers. The phenotypic spectrum of PTEN mutations expanded to include autism with macrocephaly only 10 years ago. Neurological studies of patients with PTEN-associated autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show increases in cortical white matter and a distinctive cognitive profile, including delayed language development with poor working memory and processing speed. Once a germline PTEN mutation is found, and a diagnosis of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) hamartoma tumor syndrome made, the clinical outlook broadens to include higher lifetime risks for multiple cancers, beginning in childhood with thyroid cancer. First described as a tumor suppressor, PTEN is a major negative regulator of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway—controlling growth, protein synthesis, and proliferation. This canonical function combines with less well-understood mechanisms to influence synaptic plasticity and neuronal cytoarchitecture. Several excellent mouse models of Pten loss or dysfunction link these neural functions to autism-like behavioral abnormalities, such as altered sociability, repetitive behaviors, and phenotypes like anxiety that are often associated with ASD in humans. These models also show the promise of mTOR inhibitors as therapeutic agents capable of reversing phenotypes ranging from overgrowth to low social behavior. Based on these findings, therapeutic options for patients with PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome and ASD are coming into view, even as new discoveries in PTEN biology add complexity to our understanding of this master regulator.

    Additional information

    13311_2015_356_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
  • Todorovic, A., Schoffelen, J.-M., van Ede, F., Maris, E., & de Lange, F. P. (2015). Temporal expectation and attention jointly modulate auditory oscillatory activity in the beta band. PLoS One, 10(3): e0120288. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0120288.

    Abstract

    The neural response to a stimulus is influenced by endogenous factors such as expectation and attention. Current research suggests that expectation and attention exert their effects in opposite directions, where expectation decreases neural activity in sensory areas, while attention increases it. However, expectation and attention are usually studied either in isolation or confounded with each other. A recent study suggests that expectation and attention may act jointly on sensory processing, by increasing the neural response to expected events when they are attended, but decreasing it when they are unattended. Here we test this hypothesis in an auditory temporal cueing paradigm using magnetoencephalography in humans. In our study participants attended to, or away from, tones that could arrive at expected or unexpected moments. We found a decrease in auditory beta band synchrony to expected (versus unexpected) tones if they were unattended, but no difference if they were attended. Modulations in beta power were already evident prior to the expected onset times of the tones. These findings suggest that expectation and attention jointly modulate sensory processing.
  • Torreira, F., Bögels, S., & Levinson, S. C. (2015). Breathing for answering: The time course of response planning in conversation. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 284. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00284.

    Abstract

    In this study, we investigate the timing of pre-answer inbreaths in order to shed light on the time course of response planning and execution in conversational turn-taking. Using acoustic and inductive plethysmography recordings of seven dyadic conversations in Dutch, we show that pre-answer inbreaths in conversation typically begin briefly after the end of questions. We also show that the presence of a pre-answer inbreath usually co-occurs with substantially delayed answers, with a modal latency of 576 ms vs. 100 ms for answers not preceded by an inbreath. Based on previously reported minimal latencies for internal intercostal activation and the production of speech sounds, we propose that vocal responses, either in the form of a pre-utterance inbreath or of speech proper when an inbreath is not produced, are typically launched in reaction to information present in the last portion of the interlocutor’s turn. We also show that short responses are usually made on residual breath, while longer responses are more often preceded by an inbreath. This relation of inbreaths to answer length suggests that by the time an inbreath is launched, typically during the last few hundred milliseconds of the question, the length of the answer is often prepared to some extent. Together, our findings are consistent with a two-stage model of response planning in conversational turn-taking: early planning of content often carried out in overlap with the incoming turn, and late launching of articulation based on the identification of turn-final cues
  • Torreira, F. (2015). Melodic alternations in Spanish. In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (Ed.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2015) (pp. 946.1-5). Glasgow, UK: The University of Glasgow. Retrieved from http://www.icphs2015.info/pdfs/Papers/ICPHS0946.pdf.

    Abstract

    This article describes how the tonal elements of two common Spanish intonation contours –the falling statement and the low-rising-falling request– align with the segmental string in broad-focus utterances differing in number of prosodic words. Using an imitation-and-completion task, we show that (i) the last stressed syllable of the utterance, traditionally viewed as carrying the ‘nuclear’ accent, associates with either a high or a low tonal element depending on phrase length (ii) that certain tonal elements can be realized or omitted depending on the availability of specific metrical positions in their intonational phrase, and (iii) that the high tonal element of the request contour associates with either a stressed syllable or an intonational phrase edge depending on phrase length. On the basis of these facts, and in contrast to previous descriptions of Spanish intonation relying on obligatory and constant nuclear contours (e.g., L* L% for all neutral statements), we argue for a less constrained intonational morphology involving tonal units linked to the segmental string via contour-specific principles.
  • Torreira, F., & Valtersson, E. (2015). Phonetic and visual cues to questionhood in French conversation. Phonetica, 72, 20-42. doi:10.1159/000381723.

    Abstract

    We investigate the extent to which French polar questions and continuation statements, two types of utterances with similar morphosyntactic and intonational forms but different pragmatic functions, can be distinguished in conversational data based on phonetic and visual bodily information. We show that the two utterance types can be distinguished well over chance level by automatic classification models including several phonetic and visual cues. We also show that a considerable amount of relevant phonetic and visual information is present before the last portion of the utterances, potentially assisting early speech act recognition by addressees. These findings indicate that bottom-up phonetic and visual cues may play an important role during the production and recognition of speech acts alongside top-down contextual information.
  • Tourtouri, E. N., Delogu, F., & Crocker, M. W. (2015). ERP indices of situated reference in visual contexts. In D. Noelle, R. Dale, A. Warlaumont, J. Yoshimi, T. Matlock, C. D. Jennings, & P. P. Maglio (Eds.), Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2015) (pp. 2422-2427). Austin: Cognitive Science Society.

    Abstract

    Violations of the maxims of Quantity occur when utterances provide more (over-specified) or less (under-specified) information than strictly required for referent identification. While behavioural datasuggest that under-specified expressions lead to comprehension difficulty and communicative failure, there is no consensus as to whether over-specified expressions are also detrimental to comprehension. In this study we shed light on this debate, providing neurophysiological evidence supporting the view that extra information facilitates comprehension. We further present novel evidence that referential failure due to under-specification is qualitatively different from explicit cases of referential failure, when no matching referential candidate is available in the context.
  • Trenite, D., Volkers, L., Strengman, E., Schippers, H. M., Perquin, W., de Haan, G. J., Gkountidi, A. O., van't Slot, R., de Graaf, S. F., Jocic-Jakubi, B., Capovilla, G., Covanis, A., Parisi, P., Veggiotti, P., Brinciotti, M., Incorpora, G., Piccioli, M., Cantonetti, L., Berkovic, S. F., Scheffer, I. E. and 5 moreTrenite, D., Volkers, L., Strengman, E., Schippers, H. M., Perquin, W., de Haan, G. J., Gkountidi, A. O., van't Slot, R., de Graaf, S. F., Jocic-Jakubi, B., Capovilla, G., Covanis, A., Parisi, P., Veggiotti, P., Brinciotti, M., Incorpora, G., Piccioli, M., Cantonetti, L., Berkovic, S. F., Scheffer, I. E., Brilstra, E. H., Sonsma, A. C. M., Bader, A. J., De Kovel, C. G. F., & Koeleman, B. P. C. (2015). Clinical and genetic analysis of a family with two rare reflex epilepsies. Seizure-European Journal of Epilepsy, 29, 90-96. doi:10.1016/j.seizure.2015.03.020.

    Abstract

    Purpose: To determine clinical phenotypes, evolution and genetic background of a large family with a combination of two unusual forms of reflex epilepsies. Method: Phenotyping was performed in eighteen family members (10 F, 8 M) including standardized EEG recordings with intermittent photic stimulation (IPS). Genetic analyses (linkage scans, Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) and Functional studies) were performed using photoparoxysmal EEG responses (PPRs) as affection status. Results: The proband suffered from speaking induced jaw-jerks and increasing limb jerks evoked by flickering sunlight since about 50 years of age. Three of her family members had the same phenotype. Generalized PPRs were found in seven members (six above 50 years of age) with myoclonus during the PPR. Evolution was typical: Sensitivity to lights with migraine-like complaints around adolescence, followed by jerks evoked by lights and spontaneously with dropping of objects, and strong increase of light sensitivity and onset of talking induced jaw jerks around 50 years. Linkage analysis showed suggestive evidence for linkage to four genomic regions. All photosensitive family members shared a heterozygous R129C mutation in the SCNM1 gene that regulates splicing of voltage gated ion channels. Mutation screening of 134 unrelated PPR patients and 95 healthy controls, did not replicate these findings. Conclusion: This family presents a combination of two rare reflex epilepsies. Genetic analysis favors four genomic regions and points to a shared SCNM1 mutation that was not replicated in a general cohort of photosensitive subjects. Further genetic studies in families with similar combination of features are warranted. (C) 2015 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
  • Trilsbeek, P. (2004). Report from DoBeS training week. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(3), 12-12.
  • Trilsbeek, P., Broeder, D., Elbers, W., & Moreira, A. (2015). A sustainable archiving software solution for The Language Archive. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC).
  • Trilsbeek, P. (2004). DoBeS Training Course. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(2), 6-6.
  • Trujillo, J. P., Gerrits, N. J. H. M., Vriend, C., Berendse, H. W., van den Heuvel, O. A., & van der Werf, Y. (2015). Impaired planning in Parkinson's disease is reflected by reduced brain activation and connectivity. Human Brain Mapping, 36(9), 3703-3715. doi:10.1002/hbm.22873.
  • Trujillo, J. P., Gerrits, N. J. H. M., Veltman, D. J., Berendse, H. W., van der Werf, Y. D., & van den Heuvel, O. A. (2015). Reduced neural connectivity but increased task-related activity during working memory in de novo Parkinson patients. Human Brain Mapping, 36(4), 1554-1566. doi:10.1002/hbm.22723.

    Abstract

    Objective: Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) often suffer from impairments in executive functions, such as working memory deficits. It is widely held that dopamine depletion in the striatum contributes to these impairments through decreased activity and connectivity between task-related brain networks. We investigated this hypothesis by studying task-related network activity and connectivity within a sample of de novo patients with PD, versus healthy controls, during a visuospatial working memory task. Methods: Sixteen de novo PD patients and 35 matched healthy controls performed a visuospatial n-back task while we measured their behavioral performance and neural activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We constructed regions-of-interest in the bilateral inferior parietal cortex (IPC), bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and bilateral caudate nucleus to investigate group differences in task-related activity. We studied network connectivity by assessing the functional connectivity of the bilateral DLPFC and by assessing effective connectivity within the frontoparietal and the frontostriatal networks. Results: PD patients, compared with controls, showed trend-significantly decreased task accuracy, significantly increased task-related activity in the left DLPFC and a trend-significant increase in activity of the right DLPFC, left caudate nucleus, and left IPC. Furthermore, we found reduced functional connectivity of the DLPFC with other task-related regions, such as the inferior and superior frontal gyri, in the PD group, and group differences in effective connectivity within the frontoparietal network. Interpretation: These findings suggest that the increase in working memory-related brain activity in PD patients is compensatory to maintain behavioral performance in the presence of network deficits. Hum Brain Mapp 36:1554-1566, 2015. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
  • Tsuji, S., Mazuka, R., Cristia, A., & Fikkert, P. (2015). Even at 4 months, a labial is a good enough coronal, but not vice versa. Cognition, 134, 252-256. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2014.10.009.

    Abstract

    Numerous studies have revealed an asymmetry tied to the perception of coronal place of articulation: participants accept a labial mispronunciation of a coronal target, but not vice versa. Whether or not this asymmetry is based on language-general properties or arises from language-specific experience has been a matter of debate. The current study suggests a bias of the first type by documenting an early, cross-linguistic asymmetry related to coronal place of articulation. Japanese and Dutch 4- and 6-month-old infants showed evidence of discrimination if they were habituated to a labial and then tested on a coronal sequence, but not vice versa. This finding has important implications for both phonological theories and infant speech perception research

    Additional information

    Tsuji_etal_suppl_2014.xlsx
  • Udden, J., & Schoffelen, J.-M. (2015). Mother of all Unification Studies (MOUS). In A. E. Konopka (Ed.), Research Report 2013 | 2014 (pp. 21-22). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.2236748.
  • The UK10K Consortium (2015). The UK10K project identifies rare variants in health and disease. Nature, 526(7571), 82-89. doi:10.1038/nature14962.

    Abstract

    The contribution of rare and low-frequency variants to human traits is largely unexplored. Here we describe insights from sequencing whole genomes (low read depth, 7×) or exomes (high read depth, 80×) of nearly 10,000 individuals from population-based and disease collections. In extensively phenotyped cohorts we characterize over 24 million novel sequence variants, generate a highly accurate imputation reference panel and identify novel alleles associated with levels of triglycerides (APOB), adiponectin (ADIPOQ) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLR and RGAG1) from single-marker and rare variant aggregation tests. We describe population structure and functional annotation of rare and low-frequency variants, use the data to estimate the benefits of sequencing for association studies, and summarize lessons from disease-specific collections. Finally, we make available an extensive resource, including individual-level genetic and phenotypic data and web-based tools to facilitate the exploration of association results.
  • Unsworth, S., Persson, L., Prins, T., & De Bot, K. (2015). An investigation of factors affecting early foreign language learning in the Netherlands. Applied Linguistics, 36(5), 527-548. doi:10.1093/applin/amt052.
  • Van Alphen, P. M. (2004). Perceptual relevance of prevoicing in Dutch. PhD Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen. doi:10.17617/2.58551.

    Abstract

    In this dissertation the perceptual relevance of prevoicing in Dutch was investigated. Prevoicing is the presence of vocal fold vibration during the closure of initial voiced plosives (negative voice onset time). The presence or absence of prevoicing is generally used to describe the difference between voiced and voiceless Dutch plosives. The first experiment described in this dissertation showed that prevoicing is frequently absent in Dutch and that several factors affect the production of prevoicing. A detailed acoustic analysis of the voicing distinction identified several acoustic correlates of voicing. Prevoicing appeared to be by far the best predictor. Perceptual classification data revealed that prevoicing was indeed the strongest cue that listeners use when classifying plosives as voiced or voiceless. In the cases where prevoicing was absent, other acoustic cues influenced classification, such that some of these tokens were still perceived as being voiced. In the second part of this dissertation the influence of prevoicing variation on spoken-word recognition was examined. In several cross-modal priming experiments two types of prevoicing variation were contrasted: a difference between the presence and absence of prevoicing (6 versus 0 periods of prevoicing) and a difference in the amount of prevoicing (12 versus 6 periods). All these experiments indicated that primes with 12 and 6 periods of prevoicing had the same effect on lexical decisions to the visual targets. The primes without prevoicing had a different effect, but only when their voiceless counterparts were real words. Phonetic detail appears to influence lexical access only when it is useful: In Dutch, the presence versus absence of prevoicing is informative, while the amount of prevoicing is not.

    Additional information

    full text via Radboud Repository
  • Van den Brink, D., & Hagoort, P. (2004). The influence of semantic and syntactic context constraints on lexical selection and integration in spoken-word comprehension as revealed by ERPs. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(6), 1068-1084. doi:10.1162/0898929041502670.

    Abstract

    An event-related brain potential experiment was carried out to investigate the influence of semantic and syntactic context constraints on lexical selection and integration in spoken-word comprehension. Subjects were presented with constraining spoken sentences that contained a critical word that was either (a) congruent, (b) semantically and syntactically incongruent, but beginning with the same initial phonemes as the congruent critical word, or (c) semantically and syntactically incongruent, beginning with phonemes that differed from the congruent critical word. Relative to the congruent condition, an N200 effect reflecting difficulty in the lexical selection process was obtained in the semantically and syntactically incongruent condition where word onset differed from that of the congruent critical word. Both incongruent conditions elicited a large N400 followed by a left anterior negativity (LAN) time-locked to the moment of word category violation and a P600 effect. These results would best fit within a cascaded model of spoken-word processing, proclaiming an optimal use of contextual information during spokenword identification by allowing for semantic and syntactic processing to take place in parallel after bottom-up activation of a set of candidates, and lexical integration to proceed with a limited number of candidates that still match the acoustic input.
  • Van den Stock, J., Tamietto, M., Hervais-Adelman, A., Pegna, A. J., & de Gelder, B. (2015). Body recognition in a patient with bilateral primary visual cortex lesions [Correspondence]. Biological Psychiatry, 77(7), E31-E33. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.06.023.
  • Van Turennout, M., Hagoort, P., & Brown, C. M. (1998). Brain activitity during speaking: From syntax to phonology in 40 milliseconds. Science, 280, 572-574.

    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.
  • Van Turennout, M., Hagoort, P., & Brown, C. M. (1998). Brain activity during speaking: From syntax to phonology in 40 milliseconds. Science, 280(5363), 572-574. doi:10.1126/science.280.5363.572.
  • van der Valk, R. J. P., Kreiner-Møller, E., Kooijman, M. N., Guxens, M., Stergiakouli, E., Sääf, A., Bradfield, J. P., Geller, F., Hayes, M. G., Cousminer, D. L., Körner, A., Thiering, E., Curtin, J. A., Myhre, R., Huikari, V., Joro, R., Kerkhof, M., Warrington, N. M., Pitkänen, N., Ntalla, I. and 98 morevan der Valk, R. J. P., Kreiner-Møller, E., Kooijman, M. N., Guxens, M., Stergiakouli, E., Sääf, A., Bradfield, J. P., Geller, F., Hayes, M. G., Cousminer, D. L., Körner, A., Thiering, E., Curtin, J. A., Myhre, R., Huikari, V., Joro, R., Kerkhof, M., Warrington, N. M., Pitkänen, N., Ntalla, I., Horikoshi, M., Veijola, R., Freathy, R. M., Teo, Y.-Y., Barton, S. J., Evans, D. M., Kemp, J. P., St Pourcain, B., Ring, S. M., Davey Smith, G., Bergström, A., Kull, I., Hakonarson, H., Mentch, F. D., Bisgaard, H., Chawes, B., Stokholm, J., Waage, J., Eriksen, P., Sevelsted, A., Melbye, M., van Duijn, C. M., Medina-Gomez, C., Hofman, A., de Jongste, J. C., Taal, H. R., Uitterlinden, A. G., Armstrong, L. L., Eriksson, J., Palotie, A., Bustamante, M., Estivill, X., Gonzalez, J. R., Llop, S., Kiess, W., Mahajan, A., Flexeder, C., Tiesler, C. M. T., Murray, C. S., Simpson, A., Magnus, P., Sengpiel, V., Hartikainen, A.-L., Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, S., Lewin, A., Da Silva Couto Alves, A., Blakemore, A. I., Buxton, J. L., Kaakinen, M., Rodriguez, A., Sebert, S., Vaarasmaki, M., Lakka, T., Lindi, V., Gehring, U., Postma, D. S., Ang, W., Newnham, J. P., Lyytikäinen, L.-P., Pahkala, K., Raitakari, O. T., Panoutsopoulou, K., Zeggini, E., Boomsma, D. I., Groen-Blokhuis, M., Ilonen, J., Franke, L., Hirschhorn, J. N., Pers, T. H., Liang, L., Huang, J., Hocher, B., Knip, M., Saw, S.-M., Holloway, J. W., Melén, E., Grant, S. F. A., Feenstra, B., Lowe, W. L., Widén, E., Sergeyev, E., Grallert, H., Custovic, A., Jacobsson, B., Jarvelin, M.-R., Atalay, M., Koppelman, G. H., Pennell, C. E., Niinikoski, H., Dedoussis, G. V., Mccarthy, M. I., Frayling, T. M., Sunyer, J., Timpson, N. J., Rivadeneira, F., Bønnelykke, K., Jaddoe, V. W. V., & Early Growth Genetics (EGG) Consortium (2015). A novel common variant in DCST2 is associated with length in early life and height in adulthood. Human Molecular Genetics, 24(4), 1155-1168. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddu510.

    Abstract

    Common genetic variants have been identified for adult height, but not much is known about the genetics of skeletal growth in early life. To identify common genetic variants that influence fetal skeletal growth, we meta-analyzed 22 genome-wide association studies (Stage 1; N = 28 459). We identified seven independent top single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (P < 1 × 10(-6)) for birth length, of which three were novel and four were in or near loci known to be associated with adult height (LCORL, PTCH1, GPR126 and HMGA2). The three novel SNPs were followed-up in nine replication studies (Stage 2; N = 11 995), with rs905938 in DC-STAMP domain containing 2 (DCST2) genome-wide significantly associated with birth length in a joint analysis (Stages 1 + 2; β = 0.046, SE = 0.008, P = 2.46 × 10(-8), explained variance = 0.05%). Rs905938 was also associated with infant length (N = 28 228; P = 5.54 × 10(-4)) and adult height (N = 127 513; P = 1.45 × 10(-5)). DCST2 is a DC-STAMP-like protein family member and DC-STAMP is an osteoclast cell-fusion regulator. Polygenic scores based on 180 SNPs previously associated with human adult stature explained 0.13% of variance in birth length. The same SNPs explained 2.95% of the variance of infant length. Of the 180 known adult height loci, 11 were genome-wide significantly associated with infant length (SF3B4, LCORL, SPAG17, C6orf173, PTCH1, GDF5, ZNFX1, HHIP, ACAN, HLA locus and HMGA2). This study highlights that common variation in DCST2 influences variation in early growth and adult height.
  • Van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Kendal, R. L., Tennie, C., & Haun, D. B. M. (2015). Conformity and its look-a-likes. Animal Behaviour. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.07.030.
  • Van de Velde, M., Kempen, G., & Harbusch, K. (2015). Dative alternation and planning scope in spoken language: A corpus study on effects of verb bias in VO and OV clauses of Dutch. Lingua, 165, 92-108. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2015.07.006.

    Abstract

    The syntactic structure of main and subordinate clauses is determined to a considerable extent by verb biases. For example, some English and Dutch ditransitive verbs have a preference for the prepositional object dative, whereas others are typically used with the double object dative. In this study, we compare the effect of these biases on structure selection in (S)VO and (S)OV dative clauses in the Corpus of Spoken Dutch (CGN). This comparison allowed us to make inferences about the size of the advance planning scope during spontaneous speaking: If the verb is an obligatory component of clause-level advance planning scope, as is claimed by the hypothesis of hierarchical incrementality, then biases should exert their influence on structure choices, regardless of early (VO) or late (OV) position of the verb in the clause. Conversely, if planning proceeds in a piecemeal fashion, strictly guided by lexical availability, as claimed by linear incrementality, then the verb and its associated biases can only influence structure choices in VO sentences. We tested these predictions by analyzing structure choices in the CGN, using mixed logit models. Our results support a combination of linear and hierarchical incrementality, showing a significant influence of verb bias on structure choices in VO, and a weaker (but still significant) effect in OV clauses
  • Van Alphen, P. M., De Bree, E., Gerrits, E., De Jong, J., Wilsenach, C., & Wijnen, F. (2004). Early language development in children with a genetic risk of dyslexia. Dyslexia, 10, 265-288. doi:10.1002/dys.272.

    Abstract

    We report on a prospective longitudinal research programme exploring the connection between language acquisition deficits and dyslexia. The language development profile of children at-risk for dyslexia is compared to that of age-matched controls as well as of children who have been diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI). The experiments described concern the perception and production of grammatical morphology, categorical perception of speech sounds, phonological processing (non-word repetition), mispronunciation detection, and rhyme detection. The results of each of these indicate that the at-risk children as a group underperform in comparison to the controls, and that, in most cases, they approach the SLI group. It can be concluded that dyslexia most likely has precursors in language development, also in domains other than those traditionally considered conditional for the acquisition of literacy skills. The dyslexia-SLI connection awaits further, particularly qualitative, analyses.
  • Van de Geer, J. P., & Levelt, W. J. M. (1963). Detection of visual patterns disturbed by noise: An exploratory study. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 15, 192-204. doi:10.1080/17470216308416324.

    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.
  • Van den Brink, D. (2004). Contextual influences on spoken-word processing: An electrophysiological approach. PhD Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen. doi:10.17617/2.57773.

    Abstract

    The aim of this thesis was to gain more insight into spoken-word comprehension and the influence of sentence-contextual information on these processes using ERPs. By manipulating critical words in semantically constraining sententes, in semantic or syntactic sense, and examining the consequences in the electrophysiological signal (e.g., elicitation of ERP components such as the N400, N200, LAN, and P600), three questions were tackled: I At which moment is context information used in the spoken-word recognition process? II What is the temporal relationship between lexical selection and integration of the meaning of a spoken word into a higher-order level representeation of the preceding sentence? III What is the time course of the processing of different sources of linguistic information obtained from the context, such as phonological, semantic and syntactic information, during spoken-word comprehension? From the results of this thesis it can be concluded that sentential context already exerts an influence on spoken-word processing at approximately 200 ms after word onset. In addition, semantic integration is attempted before a spoken word can be selected on the basis of the acoustic signal, i.e. before lexical selection is completed. Finally, knowledge of the syntactic category of a word is not needed before semantic integration can take place. These findings, therefore, were interpreted as providing evidence for an account of cascaded spoken-word processing that proclaims an optimal use of contextual information during spoken-word identification. Optimal use is accomplished by allowing for semantic and syntactic processing to take place in parallel after bottom-up activation of a set of candidates, and lexical integration to proceed with a limited number of candidates that still match the acoustic input

    Additional information

    full text via Radboud Repository
  • Van Alphen, P. M., & Smits, R. (2004). Acoustical and perceptual analysis of the voicing distinction in Dutch initial plosives: The role of prevoicing. Journal of Phonetics, 32(4), 455-491. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2004.05.001.

    Abstract

    Three experiments investigated the voicing distinction in Dutch initial labial and alveolar plosives. The difference between voiced and voiceless Dutch plosives is generally described in terms of the presence or absence of prevoicing (negative voice onset time). Experiment 1 showed, however, that prevoicing was absent in 25% of voiced plosive productions across 10 speakers. The production of prevoicing was influenced by place of articulation of the plosive, by whether the plosive occurred in a consonant cluster or not, and by speaker sex. Experiment 2 was a detailed acoustic analysis of the voicing distinction, which identified several acoustic correlates of voicing. Prevoicing appeared to be by far the best predictor. Perceptual classification data revealed that prevoicing was indeed the strongest cue that listeners use when classifying plosives as voiced or voiceless. In the cases where prevoicing was absent, other acoustic cues influenced classification, such that some of these tokens were still perceived as being voiced. These secondary cues were different for the two places of articulation. We discuss the paradox raised by these findings: although prevoicing is the most reliable cue to the voicing distinction for listeners, it is not reliably produced by speakers.
  • Van de Velde, M. (2015). Incrementality and flexibility in sentence production. PhD Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen.
  • Van den Bos, E., & Poletiek, F. H. (2015). Learning simple and complex artificial grammars in the presence of a semantic reference field: Effects on performance and awareness. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 158. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00158.

    Abstract

    This study investigated whether the negative effect of complexity on artificial grammar learning could be compensated by adding semantics. Participants were exposed to exemplars from a simple or a complex finite state grammar presented with or without a semantic reference field. As expected, performance on a grammaticality judgment test was higher for the simple grammar than for the complex grammar. For the simple grammar, the results also showed that participants presented with a reference field and instructed to decode the meaning of each exemplar (decoding condition) did better than participants who memorized the exemplars without semantic referents (memorize condition). Contrary to expectations, however, there was no significant difference between the decoding condition and the memorize condition for the complex grammar. These findings indicated that the negative effect of complexity remained, despite the addition of semantics. To clarify how the presence of a reference field influenced the learning process, its effects on the acquisition of two types of knowledge (first- and second-order dependencies) and on participants’ awareness of their knowledge were examined. The results tentatively suggested that the reference field enhanced the learning of second-order dependencies. In addition, participants in the decoding condition realized when they had knowledge relevant to making a grammaticality judgment, whereas participants in the memorize condition demonstrated some knowledge of which they were unaware. These results are in line with the view that the reference field enhanced structure learning by making certain dependencies more salient. Moreover, our findings stress the influence of complexity on artificial grammar learning

    Additional information

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  • van der Ven, F., Takashima, A., Segers, E., & Verhoeven, L. (2015). Learning Word Meanings: Overnight Integration and Study Modality Effects. PLoS One, 10. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0124926.

    Abstract

    According to the complementary learning systems (CLS) account of word learning, novel words are rapidly acquired (learning system 1), but slowly integrated into the mental lexicon (learning system 2). This two-step learning process has been shown to apply to novel word forms. In this study, we investigated whether novel word meanings are also gradually integrated after acquisition by measuring the extent to which newly learned words were able to prime semantically related words at two different time points. In addition, we investigated whether modality at study modulates this integration process. Sixty-four adult participants studied novel words together with written or spoken definitions. These words did not prime semantically related words directly following study, but did so after a 24-hour delay. This significant increase in the magnitude of the priming effect suggests that semantic integration occurs over time. Overall, words that were studied with a written definition showed larger priming effects, suggesting greater integration for the written study modality. Although the process of integration, reflected as an increase in the priming effect over time, did not significantly differ between study modalities, words studied with a written definition showed the most prominent positive effect after a 24-hour delay. Our data suggest that semantic integration requires time, and that studying in written format benefits semantic integration more than studying in spoken format. These findings are discussed in light of the CLS theory of word learning.
  • Van Geenhoven, V. (1998). On the Argument Structure of some Noun Incorporating Verbs in West Greenlandic. In M. Butt, & W. Geuder (Eds.), The Projection of Arguments - Lexical and Compositional Factors (pp. 225-263). Stanford, CA, USA: CSLI Publications.
  • Van Valin Jr., R. D. (1998). The acquisition of WH-questions and the mechanisms of language acquisition. In M. Tomasello (Ed.), The new psychology of language: Cognitive and functional approaches to language structure (pp. 221-249). Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum.
  • Van de Geer, J. P., Levelt, W. J. M., & Plomp, R. (1962). The connotation of musical consonance. Acta Psychologica, 20, 308-319.

    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.
  • Van Heugten, M., Bergmann, C., & Cristia, A. (2015). The Effects of Talker Voice and Accent on Young Children's Speech Perception. In S. Fuchs, D. Pape, C. Petrone, & P. Perrier (Eds.), Individual Differences in Speech Production and Perception (pp. 57-88). Bern: Peter Lang.

    Abstract

    Within the first few years of life, children acquire many of the building blocks of their native language. This not only involves knowledge about the linguistic structure of spoken language, but also knowledge about the way in which this linguistic structure surfaces in their speech input. In this chapter, we review how infants and toddlers cope with differences between speakers and accents. Within the context of milestones in early speech perception, we examine how voice and accent characteristics are integrated during language processing, looking closely at the advantages and disadvantages of speaker and accent familiarity, surface-level deviation between two utterances, variability in the input, and prior speaker exposure. We conclude that although deviation from the child’s standard can complicate speech perception early in life, young listeners can overcome these additional challenges. This suggests that early spoken language processing is flexible and adaptive to the listening situation at hand.
  • Van Berkum, J. J. A. (2004). Sentence comprehension in a wider discourse: Can we use ERPs to keep track of things? In M. Carreiras, Jr., & C. Clifton (Eds.), The on-line study of sentence comprehension: eyetracking, ERPs and beyond (pp. 229-270). New York: Psychology Press.
  • Van Leeuwen, E. J. C. (2015). Social learning dynamics in chimpanzees: Reflections on animal culture. PhD Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen.
  • Van Rhijn, J. R., & Vernes, S. C. (2015). Retinoic acid signaling: A new piece in the spoken language puzzle. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 1816. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01816.

    Abstract

    Speech requires precise motor control and rapid sequencing of highly complex vocal musculature. Despite its complexity, most people produce spoken language effortlessly. This is due to activity in distributed neuronal circuitry including cortico-striato-thalamic loops that control speech-motor output. Understanding the neuro-genetic mechanisms that encode these pathways will shed light on how humans can effortlessly and innately use spoken language and could elucidate what goes wrong in speech-language disorders.
    FOXP2 was the first single gene identified to cause speech and language disorder. Individuals with FOXP2 mutations display a severe speech deficit that also includes receptive and expressive language impairments. The underlying neuro-molecular mechanisms controlled by FOXP2, which will give insight into our capacity for speech-motor control, are only beginning to be unraveled. Recently FOXP2 was found to regulate genes involved in retinoic acid signaling and to modify the cellular response to retinoic acid, a key regulator of brain development. Herein we explore the evidence that FOXP2 and retinoic acid signaling function in the same pathways. We present evidence at molecular, cellular and behavioral levels that suggest an interplay between FOXP2 and retinoic acid that may be important for fine motor control and speech-motor output.
    We propose that retinoic acid signaling is an exciting new angle from which to investigate how neurogenetic mechanisms can contribute to the (spoken) language ready brain.
  • Van den Boomen, C., Fahrenfort, J. J., Snijders, T. M., & Kemner, C. (2015). Segmentation precedes face categorization under suboptimal conditions. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 667. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00667.

    Abstract

    Both categorization and segmentation processes play a crucial role in face perception. However, the functional relation between these subprocesses is currently unclear. The present study investigates the temporal relation between segmentation-related and category-selective responses in the brain, using electroencephalography (EEG). Surface segmentation and category content were both manipulated using texture-defined objects, including faces. This allowed us to study brain activity related to segmentation and to categorization. In the main experiment, participants viewed texture-defined objects for a duration of 800 ms. EEG results revealed that segmentation-related responses precede category-selective responses. Three additional experiments revealed that the presence and timing of categorization depends on stimulus properties and presentation duration. Photographic objects were presented for a long and short (92 ms) duration and evoked fast category-selective responses in both cases. On the other hand, presentation of texture-defined objects for a short duration only evoked segmentation-related but no category-selective responses. Category-selective responses were much slower when evoked by texture-defined than by photographic objects. We suggest that in case of categorization of objects under suboptimal conditions, such as when low-level stimulus properties are not sufficient for fast object categorization, segmentation facilitates the slower categorization process
  • Van Bommel, T., O'Dwyer, C., Zuidgeest, T. W. M., & Poletiek, F. H. (2015). When the reaper becomes a salesman: The influence of terror management on product preferences. Journal of Economic and Financial Studies, 3(5), 33-42. doi:10.18533/jefs.v3i05.121.

    Abstract

    The present research investigates how consumer choice is affected by Terror Management Theory’s proposition of Mortality Salience increasing one’s cultural worldview defense and self-esteem striving. The study builds empirically upon prior theorizing by Arndt, Solomon, Kasser and Sheldon (2004). During an experiment, we manipulated Mortality Salience and measured product preferences for conspicuousness and familiarity. Participants primed with death were more likely to choose conspicuous products, corroborating previous research of mortality salience raising materialistic tendencies. In addition, participants showed a tendency to prefer familiar brands. These results are in line with the Terror Management Theory framework.
  • Van Rooij, D., Hartman, C. A., Van Donkelaar, M. M. J., Bralten, J., von Rhein, D., Hakobjan, M., Franke, B., Heslenfeld, D. J., Oosterlaan, J., Rommelse, N., Buitelaar, J. K., & Hoekstra, P. J. (2015). Variation in serotonin neurotransmission genes affects neural activation during response inhibition in adolescents and young adults with ADHD and healthy controls. The world journal of biological Psychiatry, 16(8), 625-34. doi:10.3109/15622975.2015.1067371.

    Abstract

    OBJECTIVES: Deficits in response inhibition have been associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Given the role of serotonin in ADHD and impulsivity, we postulated that genetic variants within the serotonin pathway might influence response inhibition. METHODS: We measured neural activation during stop-signal task performance in adolescents with ADHD (N = 185), their unaffected siblings (N = 111), and healthy controls (N = 124), and investigated the relationship of two serotonin gene polymorphisms (the rs6296 SNP of the HTR1B gene and HTTLPR variants of the 5-HTT gene) with the neural correlates of response inhibition. RESULTS: The whole-brain analyses demonstrated large scale neural activation differences in the inferior and medial frontal and temporal/parietal regions of the response inhibition network between the different variants of both the HTR1B and 5HTT genes. Activation in these regions was significantly associated with stop-task performance, but not with ADHD diagnosis or severity. No associations were found between HTR1B and 5HTT variants and ADHD or ADHD-related neural activation. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide novel evidence that serotonin may play an important role in the neurobiology of response inhibition. Although response inhibition is strongly linked to ADHD, serotonin linked genetic variants associated with response inhibition and its neural correlates do not explain variance of the ADHD phenotype.
  • Veenstra, A., Meyer, A. S., & Acheson, D. J. (2015). Effects of parallel planning on agreement production. Acta Psychologica, 162, 29-39. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.09.011.

    Abstract

    An important issue in current psycholinguistics is how the time course of utterance planning affects the generation of grammatical structures. The current study investigated the influence of parallel activation of the components of complex noun phrases on the generation of subject-verb agreement. Specifically, the lexical interference account (Gillespie, M. and Pearlmutter, N. J., 2011b and Solomon, E. S. and Pearlmutter, N. J., 2004) predicts more agreement errors (i.e., attraction) for subject phrases in which the head and local noun mismatch in number (e.g., the apple next to the pears) when nouns are planned in parallel than when they are planned in sequence. We used a speeded picture description task that yielded sentences such as the apple next to the pears is red. The objects mentioned in the noun phrase were either semantically related or unrelated. To induce agreement errors, pictures sometimes mismatched in number. In order to manipulate the likelihood of parallel processing of the objects and to test the hypothesized relationship between parallel processing and the rate of agreement errors, the pictures were either placed close together or far apart. Analyses of the participants' eye movements and speech onset latencies indicated slower processing of the first object and stronger interference from the related (compared to the unrelated) second object in the close than in the far condition. Analyses of the agreement errors yielded an attraction effect, with more errors in mismatching than in matching conditions. However, the magnitude of the attraction effect did not differ across the close and far conditions. Thus, spatial proximity encouraged parallel processing of the pictures, which led to interference of the associated conceptual and/or lexical representation, but, contrary to the prediction, it did not lead to more attraction errors.
  • Verbeek, N. E., van der Maas, N. A. T., Sonsma, A. C. M., Ippel, E., Bondt, P., Hagebeuk, E., Jansen, F. E., Geesink, H. H., Braun, K. P., de Louw, A., Augustijn, P. B., Neuteboom, R. F., Schieving, J. H., Stroink, H., Vermeulen, R. J., Nicolai, J., Brouwer, O. F., Van Kempen, M., De Kovel, C. G. F., Kemmeren, J. M. and 5 moreVerbeek, N. E., van der Maas, N. A. T., Sonsma, A. C. M., Ippel, E., Bondt, P., Hagebeuk, E., Jansen, F. E., Geesink, H. H., Braun, K. P., de Louw, A., Augustijn, P. B., Neuteboom, R. F., Schieving, J. H., Stroink, H., Vermeulen, R. J., Nicolai, J., Brouwer, O. F., Van Kempen, M., De Kovel, C. G. F., Kemmeren, J. M., Koeleman, B. P. C., Knoers, N. V., Lindhout, D., Gunning, W. B., & Brilstra, E. H. (2015). Effect of vaccinations on seizure risk and disease course in Dravet syndrome. Neurology, 85(7), 596-603. doi:10.1212/wnl.0000000000001855.

    Abstract

    Objective: To study the effect of vaccination-associated seizure onset on disease course and estimate the risk of subsequent seizures after infant pertussis combination and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccinations in Dravet syndrome (DS). Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from hospital medical files, child health clinics, and the vaccination register for children with DS and pathogenic SCN1A mutations. Seizures within 24 hours after infant whole-cell, acellular, or nonpertussis combination vaccination or within 5 to 12 days after MMR vaccination were defined as "vaccination-associated." Risks of vaccination-associated seizures for the different vaccines were analyzed in univariable and in multivariable logistic regression for pertussis combination vaccines and by a self-controlled case series analysis using parental seizure registries for MMR vaccines. Disease courses of children with and without vaccination-associated seizure onset were compared. Results: Children who had DS (n = 77) with and without vaccination-associated seizure onset (21% and 79%, respectively) differed in age at first seizure (median 3.7 vs 6.1 months, p < 0.001) but not in age at first nonvaccination-associated seizure, age at first report of developmental delay, or cognitive outcome. The risk of subsequent vaccination-associated seizures was significantly lower for acellular pertussis (9%; odds ratio 0.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.05-0.71) and nonpertussis (8%; odds ratio 0.11, 95% CI 0.02-0.59) than whole-cell pertussis (37%; reference) vaccines. Self-controlled case series analysis showed an increased incidence rate ratio of seizures of 2.3 (95% CI 1.5-3.4) within the risk period of 5 to 12 days following MMR vaccination. Conclusions: Our results suggest that vaccination-associated earlier seizure onset does not alter disease course in DS, while the risk of subsequent vaccination-associated seizures is probably vaccine-specific.
  • Verdonschot, R. G., Lai, J., Chen, F., Tamaoka, K., & Schiller, N. O. (2015). Constructing initial phonology in Mandarin Chinese: Syllabic or subsyllabic? A masked priming investigation. Japanese Psychological Research, 57(1), 61-68. doi:10.1111/jpr.12064.

    Abstract

    Recent research has put forward the idea that Chinese speech production is governed by the syllable as the fundamental phonological unit. However, it may be that onset priming might be more difficult to obtain in Mandarin Chinese. Therefore, in this study, the degree of overlap between prime and target was increased from C to CV (i.e., extending beyond the phoneme) as well as whether primes and targets had an overlapping structure (CV vs. CVN). Subsyllabic priming effects were found (i.e., onset + vowel overlap but not purely onset overlap), contrasting with the claim that the syllable is the compulsory building block in the initial construction of Mandarin Chinese phonology.
  • Verdonschot, R. G., & Tamaoka, K. (2015). Editorial: The production of speech sounds across languages. Japanese Psychological Research, 57(1), 1-3. doi:10.1111/jpr.12073.
  • Verdonschot, R. G., Guillemaud, H., Rabenarivo, H., & Tamaoka, K. (2015). The Microsoft KINECT: A novel tool for psycholinguistic research. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 5, 291-301. doi:10.4236/ojml.2015.53026.

    Abstract

    The Microsoft KINECT is a 3D sensing device originally developed for the XBOX. The Microsoft KINECT opens up many exciting new opportunities for conducting experimental research on human behavior. We investigated some of these possibilities within the field of psycholinguistics (specifically: language production) by creating software, using C#, allowing for the KINECT to be used in a typical psycholinguistic experimental setting. The results of a naming experiment using this software confirmed that the KINECT was able to measure the effects of a robust psycholinguistic variable (word frequency) on naming latencies. However, although the current version of the software is able to measure psycholinguistic variables of interest, we also discuss several points where the software can still stand to be improved. The main aim of this paper is to make the software freely available for assessment and use by the psycholinguistic community and to illustrate the KINECT as a potentially valuable tool for investigating human behavior, especially in the field of psycholinguistics.
  • Verdonschot, R. G., & Tamaoka, K. (Eds.). (2015). The production of speech sounds across languages [Special Issue]. Japanese Psychological Research, 57(1).
  • Verga, L. (2015). Learning together or learning alone: Investigating the role of social interaction in second language word learning. PhD Thesis, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
  • Verga, L., Bigand, E., & Kotz, S. A. (2015). Play along: Effects of music and social interaction on word learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 1316. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01316.

    Abstract

    Learning new words is an increasingly common necessity in everyday life. External factors, among which music and social interaction are particularly debated, are claimed to facilitate this task. Due to their influence on the learner’s temporal behavior, these stimuli are able to drive the learner’s attention to the correct referent of new words at the correct point in time. However, do music and social interaction impact learning behavior in the same way? The current study aims to answer this question. Native German speakers (N = 80) were requested to learn new words (pseudo-words) during a contextual learning game. This learning task was performed alone with a computer or with a partner, with or without music. Results showed that music and social interaction had a different impact on the learner’s behavior: Participants tended to temporally coordinate their behavior more with a partner than with music, and in both cases more than with a computer. However, when both music and social interaction were present, this temporal coordination was hindered. These results suggest that while music and social interaction do influence participants’ learning behavior, they have a different impact. Moreover, impaired behavior when both music and a partner are present suggests that different mechanisms are employed to coordinate with the two types of stimuli. Whether one or the other approach is more efficient for word learning, however, is a question still requiring further investigation, as no differences were observed between conditions in a retrieval phase, which took place immediately after the learning session. This study contributes to the literature on word learning in adults by investigating two possible facilitating factors, and has important implications for situations such as music therapy, in which music and social interaction are present at the same time.
  • Verhees, M. W. F. T., Chwilla, D. J., Tromp, J., & Vissers, C. T. W. M. (2015). Contributions of emotional state and attention to the processing of syntactic agreement errors: evidence from P600. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 388. doi:10.3389%2Ffpsyg.2015.00388.

    Abstract

    The classic account of language is that language processing occurs in isolation from other cognitive systems, like perception, motor action, and emotion. The central theme of this paper is the relationship between a participant’s emotional state and language comprehension. Does emotional context affect how we process neutral words? Recent studies showed that processing of word meaning – traditionally conceived as an automatic process – is affected by emotional state. The influence of emotional state on syntactic processing is less clear. One study reported a mood-related P600 modulation, while another study did not observe an effect of mood on syntactic processing. The goals of this study were: First, to clarify whether and if so how mood affects syntactic processing. Second, to shed light on the underlying mechanisms by separating possible effects of mood from those of attention on syntactic processing. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read syntactically correct or incorrect sentences. Mood (happy vs. sad) was manipulated by presenting film clips. Attention was manipulated by directing attention to syntactic features vs. physical features. The mood induction was effective. Interactions between mood, attention and syntactic correctness were obtained, showing that mood and attention modulated P600. The mood manipulation led to a reduction in P600 for sad as compared to happy mood when attention was directed at syntactic features. The attention manipulation led to a reduction in P600 when attention was directed at physical features compared to syntactic features for happy mood. From this we draw two conclusions: First, emotional state does affect syntactic processing. We propose mood-related differences in the reliance on heuristics as the underlying mechanism. Second, attention can contribute to emotion-related ERP effects in syntactic language processing. Therefore, future studies on the relation between language and emotion will have to control for effects of attention
  • Verhoef, T., Roberts, S. G., & Dingemanse, M. (2015). Emergence of systematic iconicity: Transmission, interaction and analogy. In D. Noelle, R. Dale, A. S. Warlaumont, J. Yoshimi, T. Matlock, C. D. Jennings, & P. P. Maglio (Eds.), Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2015) (pp. 2481-2486). Austin, Tx: Cognitive Science Society.

    Abstract

    Languages combine arbitrary and iconic signals. How do iconic signals emerge and when do they persist? We present an experimental study of the role of iconicity in the emergence of structure in an artificial language. Using an iterated communication game in which we control the signalling medium as well as the meaning space, we study the evolution of communicative signals in transmission chains. This sheds light on how affordances of the communication medium shape and constrain the mappability and transmissibility of form-meaning pairs. We find that iconic signals can form the building blocks for wider compositional patterns
  • Verhoeven, L., Baayen, R. H., & Schreuder, R. (2004). Orthographic constraints and frequency effects in complex word identification. Written Language and Literacy, 7(1), 49-59.

    Abstract

    In an experimental study we explored the role of word frequency and orthographic constraints in the reading of Dutch bisyllabic words. Although Dutch orthography is highly regular, several deviations from a one-to-one correspondence occur. In polysyllabic words, the grapheme E may represent three different vowels: /ε /, /e/, or /œ /. In the experiment, skilled adult readers were presented lists of bisyllabic words containing the vowel E in the initial syllable and the same grapheme or another vowel in the second syllable. We expected word frequency to be related to word latency scores. On the basis of general word frequency data, we also expected the interpretation of the initial syllable as a stressed /e/ to be facilitated as compared to the interpretation of an unstressed /œ /. We found a strong negative correlation between word frequency and latency scores. Moreover, for words with E in either syllable we found a preference for a stressed /e/ interpretation, indicating a lexical frequency effect. The results are discussed with reference to a parallel dual-route model of word decoding.
  • Verkerk, A. (2015). Where do all the motion verbs come from? The speed of development of manner verbs and path verbs in Indo-European. Diachronica, 32(1), 69-104. doi:10.1075/dia.32.1.03ver.

    Abstract

    The last four decades have seen huge progress in the description and analysis of cross-linguistic diversity in the encoding of motion (Talmy 1985, 1991, Slobin 1996, 2004). Comparisons between satellite-framed and verb-framed languages suggest that satellite-framed languages typically have a larger manner of motion verb lexicon (swim, dash), while verb-framed languages typically have a larger path of motion verb lexicon (enter, cross) (Slobin 2004, Verkerk 2013, 2014b). This paper investigates how differences between the motion verb lexicons of satellite-framed and verb-framed languages emerge. Phylogenetic comparative methods adopted from biology and an etymological study are used to investigate manner verb lexicons and path verb lexicons in an Indo-European dataset. I show that manner verbs and path verbs typically have different types of etymological origins and that manner verbs emerge faster in satellite-framed subgroups, while path verbs emerge faster in verb-framed subgroups.
  • Viebahn, M., Ernestus, M., & McQueen, J. M. (2015). Syntactic predictability in the recognition of carefully and casually produced speech. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41(6), 1684-1702. doi:10.1037/a0039326.
  • Vigliocco, G., Vinson, D. P., Indefrey, P., Levelt, W. J. M., & Hellwig, F. M. (2004). Role of grammatical gender and semantics in German word production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30(2), 483-497. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.30.2.483.

    Abstract

    Semantic substitution errors (e.g., saying "arm" when "leg" is intended) are among the most common types of errors occurring during spontaneous speech. It has been shown that grammatical gender of German target nouns is preserved in the errors (E. Marx, 1999). In 3 experiments, the authors explored different accounts of the grammatical gender preservation effect in German. In all experiments, semantic substitution errors were induced using a continuous naming paradigm. In Experiment 1, it was found that gender preservation disappeared when speakers produced bare nouns. Gender preservation was found when speakers produced phrases with determiners marked for gender (Experiment 2) but not when the produced determiners were not marked for gender (Experiment 3). These results are discussed in the context of models of lexical retrieval during production.
  • Villanueva, P., Nudel, R., Hoischen, A., Fernández, M. A., Simpson, N. H., Gilissen, C., Reader, R. H., Jara, L., Echeverry, M., Francks, C., Baird, G., Conti-Ramsden, G., O’Hare, A., Bolton, P., Hennessy, E. R., the SLI Consortium, Palomino, H., Carvajal-Carmona Veltman J.A., L., Veltman, J. A., Cazier, J.-B. and 3 moreVillanueva, P., Nudel, R., Hoischen, A., Fernández, M. A., Simpson, N. H., Gilissen, C., Reader, R. H., Jara, L., Echeverry, M., Francks, C., Baird, G., Conti-Ramsden, G., O’Hare, A., Bolton, P., Hennessy, E. R., the SLI Consortium, Palomino, H., Carvajal-Carmona Veltman J.A., L., Veltman, J. A., Cazier, J.-B., De Barbieri, Z., Fisher, S. E., & Newbury, D. (2015). Exome sequencing in an admixed isolated population indicates NFXL1 variants confer a risk for Specific Language Impairment. PLoS Genetics, 11(3): e1004925. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004925.
  • Voermans, N. C., Petersson, K. M., Daudey, L., Weber, B., Van Spaendonck, K. P., Kremer, H. P. H., & Fernández, G. (2004). Interaction between the Human Hippocampus and the Caudate Nucleus during Route Recognition. Neuron, 43, 427-435. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.07.009.

    Abstract

    Navigation through familiar environments can rely upon distinct neural representations that are related to different memory systems with either the hippo-campus or the caudate nucleus at their core. However,it is a fundamental question whether and how these systems interact during route recognition. To address this issue, we combined a functional neuroimaging approach with a naturally occurring, well-controlled humanmodel of caudate nucleus dysfunction (i.e., pre-clinical and early-stage Huntington’s disease). Our results reveal a noncompetitive interaction so that the hippocampus compensates for gradual caudate nucleus dysfunction with a gradual activity increase,maintaining normal behavior. Furthermore, we revealed an interaction between medial temporal and caudate activity in healthy subjects, which was adaptively modified in Huntington patients to allow compensatory hippocampal processing. Thus, the two memory systems contribute in a noncompetitive, co operative manner to route recognition, which enables Polthe hippocampus to compensate seamlessly for the functional degradation of the caudate nucleus
  • Von Stutterheim, C., & Klein, W. (2004). Die Gesetze des Geistes sind metrisch: Hölderlin und die Sprachproduktion. In H. Schwarz (Ed.), Fenster zur Welt: Deutsch als Fremdsprachenphilologie (pp. 439-460). München: Iudicium.
  • 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 Vos, C., & Pfau, R. (2015). Sign Language Typology: The contribution of rural sign languages. Annual Review of Linguistics, 1, 265-288. doi:10.1146/annurev-linguist-030514-124958.

    Abstract

    Since the 1990s, the field of sign language typology has shown that sign languages exhibit typological variation at all relevant levels of linguistic description. These initial typological comparisons were heavily skewed toward the urban sign languages of developed countries, mostly in the Western world. This review reports on the recent contributions made by rural signing varieties, that is, sign languages that have evolved in village communities, often in developing countries, due to a high incidence of deafness. With respect to a number of structural properties, rural sign languages fit into previously established typological classifications. However, they also exhibit unique and typologically marked features that challenge received views on possible sign languages. At the same time, the shared features of geographically dispersed rural signing varieties provide a unique window into the social dynamics that may shape the structures of modern human languages.
  • De Vos, C. (2015). The Kata Kolok pointing system: Morphemization and syntactic integration. Topics in Cognitive Science, 7(1), 150-168. doi:10.1111/tops.12124.

    Abstract

    Signed utterances are densely packed with pointing signs, reaching a frequency of one in six signs in spontaneous conversations (de Vos, 2012; Johnston, 2013a; Morford & MacFarlane, 2003). These pointing signs attain a wide range of functions and are formally highly diversified. Based on corpus analysis of spontaneous pointing signs in Kata Kolok, a rural signing variety of Bali, this paper argues that the full meaning potentials of pointing signs come about through the integration of a varied set of linguistic and extralinguistic cues. Taking this hybrid nature of point- ing phenomena into account, it is argued that pointing signs may become an intrinsic aspect of sign language grammars through two mechanisms: morphemization and syntactic integration. Although not entailed in this research, this approach could implicate that some highly systema- tized pointing systems of speaking communities may to a degree be grammatical as well.

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  • De Vos, C., Torreira, F., & Levinson, S. C. (2015). Turn-timing in signed conversations: Coordinating stroke-to-stroke turn boundaries. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 268. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00268.

    Abstract

    In spoken interactions, interlocutors carefully plan and time their utterances, minimising gaps and overlaps between consecutive turns. Cross-linguistic comparison has indicated that spoken languages vary only minimally in terms of turn-timing, and language acquisition research has shown pre-linguistic vocal turn-taking in the first half year of life. These observations suggest that the turn-taking system may provide a fundamental basis for our linguistic capacities. The question remains however to what extent our capacity for rapid turn-taking is determined by modality constraints. The avoidance of overlapping turns could be motivated by the difficulty of hearing and speaking at the same time. If so, turn-taking in sign might show greater toleration for overlap. Alternatively, signed conversations may show a similar distribution of turn-timing as spoken languages, thus avoiding both gaps and overlaps. To address this question we look at turn-timing in question-answer sequences in spontaneous conversations of Sign Language of the Netherlands. The findings indicate that although there is considerable overlap in two or more signers' articulators in conversation, when proper allowance is made for onset preparation, post-utterance retraction and the intentional holding of signs for response, turn-taking latencies in sign look remarkably like those reported for spoken language. This is consistent with the possibility that, at least with regard to responses to questions, speakers and signers follow similar time courses in planning and producing their utterances in on-going conversation. This suggests that turn-taking systems may well be a shared cognitive infrastructure underlying all modern human languages, both spoken and signed.
  • Wain, L. V., Shrine, N., Miller, S., Jackson, V. E., Ntalla, I., Artigas, M. S., Billington, C. K., Kheirallah, A. K., Allen, R., Cook, J. P., Probert, K., Obeidat, M., Bossé, Y., Hao, K., Postma, D. S., Paré, P. D., Ramasamy, A., UK Brain Expression Consortium (UKBEC), Mägi, R., Mihailov, E., Reinmaa, E. and 20 moreWain, L. V., Shrine, N., Miller, S., Jackson, V. E., Ntalla, I., Artigas, M. S., Billington, C. K., Kheirallah, A. K., Allen, R., Cook, J. P., Probert, K., Obeidat, M., Bossé, Y., Hao, K., Postma, D. S., Paré, P. D., Ramasamy, A., UK Brain Expression Consortium (UKBEC), Mägi, R., Mihailov, E., Reinmaa, E., Melén, E., O’Connell, J., Frangou, E., Delaneau, O., OxGSK, C., Freeman, C., Petkova, D., McCarthy, M., Sayers, I., Deloukas, P., Hubbard, R., Pavord, I., Hansell, A. L., Thomson, N. C., Zeggini, E., Morris, A. P., Marchini, J., Strachan, D. P., Tobin, M. D., & Hall, I. P. (2015). Novel insights into the genetics of smoking behaviour, lung function, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (UK BiLEVE): a genetic association study in UK Biobank. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 3(10), 769-781. doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(15)00283-0.

    Abstract

    Understanding the genetic basis of airflow obstruction and smoking behaviour is key to determining the pathophysiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We used UK Biobank data to study the genetic causes of smoking behaviour and lung health.

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  • 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.
  • Wang, L., Bastiaansen, M. C. M., & Yang, Y. (2015). ERP responses to person names as a measure of trait inference in person perception. Social Neuroscience, 10, 89-99. doi:10.1080/17470919.2014.944995.

    Abstract

    Using event-related potentials (ERPs), this study examines how trait information inferred from behaviors is associated with person names. In linguistic discourses, person names were associated with descriptions of either positive or negative behaviors. In a subsequent explicit evaluation task, the previously described person names were presented in isolation, and the participants were asked to judge the emotional valence of these names. We found that the names associated with positive descriptions elicited a larger positivity in the ERP than the names associated with negative descriptions. The results indicate that the emotional valence of person names attached to person perception can be dynamically influenced by short descriptions of the target person, probably due to trait inference based on the provided behavioral descriptions

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  • Wanrooij, K., De Vos, J., & Boersma, P. (2015). Distributional vowel training may not be effective for Dutch adults. In Scottish consortium for ICPhS 2015, M. Wolters, J. Livingstone, B. Beattie, R. Smith, M. MacMahon, J. Stuart-Smith, & J. Scobbie (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2015). Glasgow: University of Glasgow.

    Abstract

    Distributional vowel training for adults has been reported as “effective” for Spanish and Bulgarian learners of Dutch vowels, in studies using a behavioural task. A recent study did not yield a similar clear learning effect for Dutch learners of the English vowel contrast /æ/~/ε/, as measured with event-related potentials (ERPs). The present study aimed to examine the possibility that the latter result was related to the method. As in the ERP study, we tested whether distributional training improved Dutch adult learners’ perception of English /æ/~/ε/. However, we measured behaviour instead of ERPs, in a design identical to that used in the previous studies with Spanish learners. The results do not support an effect of distributional training and thus “replicate” the ERP study. We conclude that it remains unclear whether distributional vowel training is effective for Dutch adults.
  • 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.
  • Warrier, V., Chakrabarti, B., Murphy, L., Chan, A., Craig, I., Mallya, U., Lakatošová, S., Rehnstrom, K., Peltonen, L., Wheelwright, S., Allison, C., Fisher, S. E., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2015). A pooled genome-wide association study of Asperger Syndrome. PLoS One, 10(7): e0131202. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131202.

    Abstract

    Asperger Syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, alongside the presence of unusually repetitive, restricted interests and stereotyped behaviour. Individuals with AS have no delay in cognitive and language development. It is a subset of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC), which are highly heritable and has a population prevalence of approximately 1%. Few studies have investigated the genetic basis of AS. To address this gap in the literature, we performed a genome-wide pooled DNA association study to identify candidate loci in 612 individuals (294 cases and 318 controls) of Caucasian ancestry, using the Affymetrix GeneChip Human Mapping version 6.0 array. We identified 11 SNPs that had a p-value below 1x10-5. These SNPs were independently genotyped in the same sample. Three of the SNPs (rs1268055, rs7785891 and rs2782448) were nominally significant, though none remained significant after Bonferroni correction. Two of our top three SNPs (rs7785891 and rs2782448) lie in loci previously implicated in ASC. However, investigation of the three SNPs in the ASC genome-wide association dataset from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium indicated that these three SNPs were not significantly associated with ASC. The effect sizes of the variants were modest, indicating that our study was not sufficiently powered to identify causal variants with precision.
  • Warrington, N. M., Howe, L. D., Paternoster, L., Kaakinen, M., Herrala, S., Huikari, V., Wu, Y. Y., Kemp, J. P., Timpson, N. J., St Pourcain, B., Smith, G. D., Tilling, K., Jarvelin, M.-R., Pennell, C. E., Evans, D. M., Lawlor, D. A., Briollais, L., & Palmer, L. J. (2015). A genome-wide association study of body mass index across early life and childhood. International Journal of Epidemiology, 44(2), 700-712. doi:10.1093/ije/dyv077.

    Abstract

    Background: Several studies have investigated the effect of known adult body mass index (BMI) associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on BMI in childhood. There has been no genome-wide association study (GWAS) of BMI trajectories over childhood.
    Methods: We conducted a GWAS meta-analysis of BMI trajectories from 1 to 17 years of age in 9377 children (77 967 measurements) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study. Genome-wide significant loci were examined in a further 3918 individuals (48 530 measurements) from Northern Finland. Linear mixed effects models with smoothing splines were used in each cohort for longitudinal modelling of BMI.
    Results: A novel SNP, downstream from the FAM120AOS gene on chromosome 9, was detected in the meta-analysis of ALSPAC and Raine. This association was driven by a difference in BMI at 8 years (T allele of rs944990 increased BMI; PSNP = 1.52 × 10−8), with a modest association with change in BMI over time (PWald(Change) = 0.006). Three known adult BMI-associated loci (FTO, MC4R and ADCY3) and one childhood obesity locus (OLFM4) reached genome-wide significance (PWald < 1.13 × 10−8) with BMI at 8 years and/or change over time.
    Conclusions: This GWAS of BMI trajectories over childhood identified a novel locus that warrants further investigation. We also observed genome-wide significance with previously established obesity loci, making the novel observation that these loci affected both the level and the rate of change in BMI. We have demonstrated that the use of repeated measures data can increase power to allow detection of genetic loci with smaller sample sizes.
  • Warrington, N. M., Zhu, G., Dy, V., Heath, A. C., Madden, P. A. F., Hemani, G., Kemp, J. P., McMahon, G., St Pourcain, B., Timpson, N. J., Taylor, C. M., Golding, J., Lawlor, D. A., Steer, C., Montgomery, G. W., Martin, N. G., Smith, G. D., Evans, D. M., & Whitfield, J. B. (2015). Genome-wide association study of blood lead shows multiple associations near ALAD. Human Molecular Genetics, 24(13), 3871-3879. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddv112.

    Abstract

    Exposure to high levels of environmental lead, or biomarker evidence of high body lead content, is associated with anaemia, developmental and neurological deficits in children, and increased mortality in adults. Adverse effects of lead still occur despite substantial reduction in environmental exposure. There is genetic variation between individuals in blood lead concentration but the polymorphisms contributing to this have not been defined. We measured blood or erythrocyte lead content, and carried out genome-wide association analysis, on population-based cohorts of adult volunteers from Australia and UK (N = 5433). Samples from Australia were collected in two studies, in 1993–1996 and 2002–2005 and from UK in 1991–1992. One locus, at ALAD on chromosome 9, showed consistent association with blood lead across countries and evidence for multiple independent allelic effects. The most significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs1805313 (P = 3.91 × 10−14 for lead concentration in a meta-analysis of all data), is known to have effects on ALAD expression in blood cells but other SNPs affecting ALAD expression did not affect blood lead. Variants at 12 other loci, including ABO, showed suggestive associations (5 × 10−6 >} P {> 5 × 10−8). Identification of genetic polymorphisms affecting blood lead reinforces the view that genetic factors, as well as environmental ones, are important in determining blood lead levels. The ways in which ALAD variation affects lead uptake or distribution are still to be determined.
  • 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.
  • Watson, L. M., Wong, M. M. K., & Becker, E. B. E. (2015). Induced pluripotent stem cell technology for modelling and therapy of cerebellar ataxia. Open Biology, 5: 150056. doi:10.1098/rsob.150056.

    Abstract

    Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has emerged as an important tool in understanding, and potentially reversing, disease pathology. This is particularly true in the case of neurodegenerative diseases, in which the affected cell types are not readily accessible for study. Since the first descriptions of iPSC-based disease modelling, considerable advances have been made in understanding the aetiology and progression of a diverse array of neurodegenerative conditions, including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. To date, however, relatively few studies have succeeded in using iPSCs to model the neurodegeneration observed in cerebellar ataxia. Given the distinct neurodevelopmental phenotypes associated with certain types of ataxia, iPSC-based models are likely to provide significant insights, not only into disease progression, but also to the development of early-intervention therapies. In this review, we describe the existing iPSC-based disease models of this heterogeneous group of conditions and explore the challenges associated with generating cerebellar neurons from iPSCs, which have thus far hindered the expansion of this research.
  • 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. (1998). Listening to nonnative language which violates native assimilation rules. In D. Duez (Ed.), Proceedings of the European Scientific Communication Association workshop: Sound patterns of Spontaneous Speech (pp. 101-104).

    Abstract

    Recent studies using phoneme detection tasks have shown that spoken-language processing is neither facilitated nor interfered with by optional assimilation, but is inhibited by violation of obligatory assimilation. Interpretation of these results depends on an assessment of their generality, specifically, whether they also obtain when listeners are processing nonnative language. Two separate experiments are presented in which native listeners of German and native listeners of Dutch had to detect a target fricative in legal monosyllabic Dutch nonwords. All of the nonwords were correct realisations in standard Dutch. For German listeners, however, half of the nonwords contained phoneme strings which violate the German fricative assimilation rule. Whereas the Dutch listeners showed no significant effects, German listeners detected the target fricative faster when the German fricative assimilation was violated than when no violation occurred. The results might suggest that violation of assimilation rules does not have to make processing more difficult per se.
  • Weber, A., & Paris, G. (2004). The origin of the linguistic gender effect in spoken-word recognition: Evidence from non-native listening. In K. Forbus, D. Gentner, & T. Tegier (Eds.), Proceedings of the 26th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Abstract

    Two eye-tracking experiments examined linguistic gender effects in non-native spoken-word recognition. French participants, who knew German well, followed spoken instructions in German to click on pictures on a computer screen (e.g., Wo befindet sich die Perle, “where is the pearl”) while their eye movements were monitored. The name of the target picture was preceded by a gender-marked article in the instructions. When a target and a competitor picture (with phonologically similar names) were of the same gender in both German and French, French participants fixated competitor pictures more than unrelated pictures. However, when target and competitor were of the same gender in German but of different gender in French, early fixations to the competitor picture were reduced. Competitor activation in the non-native language was seemingly constrained by native gender information. German listeners showed no such viewing time difference. The results speak against a form-based account of the linguistic gender effect. They rather support the notion that the effect originates from the grammatical level of language processing.
  • Weber, A., & Mueller, K. (2004). Word order variation in German main clauses: A corpus analysis. In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Computational Linguistics.

    Abstract

    In this paper, we present empirical data from a corpus study on the linear order of subjects and objects in German main clauses. The aim was to establish the validity of three well-known ordering constraints: given complements tend to occur before new complements, definite before indefinite, and pronoun before full noun phrase complements. Frequencies of occurrences were derived for subject-first and object-first sentences from the German Negra corpus. While all three constraints held on subject-first sentences, results for object-first sentences varied. Our findings suggest an influence of grammatical functions on the ordering of verb complements.
  • Whelpton, M., Guðmundsdóttir Beck, þ., & Jordan, F. (2015). The semantics and morphology of household container names in Icelandic and Dutch. Language Sciences, 49, 67-81. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2014.07.014.

    Abstract

    In this paper, we report an experiment on the naming of household containers in Dutch and Icelandic carried out as part of the Evolution of Semantic Systems project (EoSS; Majid et al., 2011). This naming experiment allows us to support and elaborate on a hypothesis by Malt et al. (2003) that productive morphology in the naming domain can have an influence on boundary placement within the extensional space. Specifically, we demonstrate that the Dutch diminutive -(t)je favours a cut between small items versus others, whereas Icelandic, which does not use the diminutive in this domain, favours a cut between large items and others. This is not a typological effect, as Dutch and Icelandic are both Germanic languages and both have diminutive morphology available in principle. We find no evidence that the diminutive produces a proliferation of terms and/or fine-grained nesting within the extensional domain. Rather, the Dutch diminutive favours a more even distribution of terms across the space whereas Icelandic favours broad inclusive terms with a number of narrower specialist terms. Further, the extensional space defined by the diminutive is not associated with its own clear prototypical exemplar. Using evidence from compounding and modification, we also consider which semantic features are prominent in differentiating categories within the domain. By far the most prominent in both languages is the inferred contents of the container. Other than contents, however, the languages differ in the range and prominence of features such as intended usage or material of composition. Our results demonstrate that in order to understand the processes that produce semantic divisions of basic object classes, we should consider fine-grained analyses of closely related languages alongside analyses of typologically different languages.
  • Widlok, T. (2004). Ethnography in language Documentation. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(3), 4-6.
  • Willems, R. M. (Ed.). (2015). Cognitive neuroscience of natural language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Willems, R. M. (2015). Cognitive neuroscience of natural language use: Introduction. In Cognitive neuroscience of natural language use (pp. 1-7). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • De Wit, S. J., van der Werf, Y. D., Mataix-Cols, D., Trujillo, J. P., van Oppen, P., Veltman, D. J., & van den Heuvel, O. A. (2015). Emotion regulation before and after transcranial magnetic stimulation in obsessive compulsive disorder. Psychological Medicine, 45(14), 3059-3073. doi:10.1017/S0033291715001026.

    Abstract

    Impaired emotion regulation may underlie exaggerated emotional reactivity in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), yet instructed emotion regulation has never been studied in the disorder. METHOD: This study aimed to assess the neural correlates of emotion processing and regulation in 43 medication-free OCD patients and 38 matched healthy controls, and additionally test if these can be modulated by stimulatory (patients) and inhibitory (controls) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Participants performed an emotion regulation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after a single session of randomly assigned real or sham rTMS. Effect of group and rTMS were assessed on self-reported distress ratings and brain activity in frontal-limbic regions of interest. RESULTS: Patients had higher distress ratings than controls during emotion provocation, but similar rates of distress reduction after voluntary emotion regulation. OCD patients compared with controls showed altered amygdala responsiveness during symptom provocation and diminished left dlPFC activity and frontal-amygdala connectivity during emotion regulation. Real v. sham dlPFC stimulation differentially modulated frontal-amygdala connectivity during emotion regulation in OCD patients. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that the increased emotional reactivity in OCD may be due to a deficit in emotion regulation caused by a failure of cognitive control exerted by the dorsal frontal cortex. Modulatory rTMS over the left dlPFC may influence automatic emotion regulation capabilities by influencing frontal-limbic connectivity.
  • Wittek, A. (1998). Learning verb meaning via adverbial modification: Change-of-state verbs in German and the adverb "wieder" again. In A. Greenhill, M. Hughes, H. Littlefield, & H. Walsh (Eds.), Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 779-790). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
  • Witteman, M. J., Bardhan, N. P., Weber, A., & McQueen, J. M. (2015). Automaticity and stability of adaptation to foreign-accented speech. Language and Speech, 52(2), 168-189. doi:10.1177/0023830914528102.

    Abstract

    In three cross-modal priming experiments we asked whether adaptation to a foreign-accented speaker is automatic, and whether adaptation can be seen after a long delay between initial exposure and test. Dutch listeners were exposed to a Hebrew-accented Dutch speaker with two types of Dutch words: those that contained [ɪ] (globally accented words), and those in which the Dutch [i] was shortened to [ɪ] (specific accent marker words). Experiment 1, which served as a baseline, showed that native Dutch participants showed facilitatory priming for globally accented, but not specific accent, words. In experiment 2, participants performed a 3.5-minute phoneme monitoring task, and were tested on their comprehension of the accented speaker 24 hours later using the same cross-modal priming task as in experiment 1. During the phoneme monitoring task, listeners were asked to detect a consonant that was not strongly accented. In experiment 3, the delay between exposure and test was extended to 1 week. Listeners in experiments 2 and 3 showed facilitatory priming for both globally accented and specific accent marker words. Together, these results show that adaptation to a foreign-accented speaker can be rapid and automatic, and can be observed after a prolonged delay in testing.
  • Wittenburg, P., Skiba, R., & Trilsbeek, P. (2004). Technology and Tools for Language Documentation. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(4), 3-4.
  • Wittenburg, P. (2004). The IMDI metadata concept. In S. F. Ferreira (Ed.), Workingmaterial on Building the LR&E Roadmap: Joint COCOSDA and ICCWLRE Meeting, (LREC2004). Paris: ELRA - European Language Resources Association.
  • Wittenburg, P. (2004). Training Course in Lithuania. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(2), 6-6.
  • Wittenburg, P., Brugman, H., Broeder, D., & Russel, A. (2004). XML-based language archiving. In Workshop Proceedings on XML-based Richly Annotaded Corpora (LREC2004) (pp. 63-69). Paris: ELRA - European Language Resources Association.
  • Wittenburg, P., Gulrajani, G., Broeder, D., & Uneson, M. (2004). Cross-disciplinary integration of metadata descriptions. In M. Lino, M. Xavier, F. Ferreira, R. Costa, & R. Silva (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC2004) (pp. 113-116). Paris: ELRA - European Language Resources Association.
  • Wittenburg, P., Dirksmeyer, R., Brugman, H., & Klaas, G. (2004). Digital formats for images, audio and video. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(1), 3-6.
  • Wittenburg, P., Johnson, H., Buchhorn, M., Brugman, H., & Broeder, D. (2004). Architecture for distributed language resource management and archiving. In M. Lino, M. Xavier, F. Ferreira, R. Costa, & R. Silva (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC2004) (pp. 361-364). Paris: ELRA - European Language Resources Association.
  • Wittenburg, P. (2004). International Expert Meeting on Access Management for Distributed Language Archives. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(3), 12-12.
  • Wittenburg, P. (2004). Final review of INTERA. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(4), 11-12.
  • Wittenburg, P. (2004). LinguaPax Forum on Language Diversity, Sustainability, and Peace. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(3), 13-13.
  • Wittenburg, P. (2004). LREC conference 2004. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(3), 12-13.
  • Wittenburg, P. (2004). News from the Archive of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Language Archive Newsletter, 1(4), 12-12.
  • Li, Q., Wojciechowski, R., Simpson, C. L., Hysi, P. G., Verhoeven, V. J. M., Ikram, M. K., Höhn, R., Vitart, V., Hewitt, A. W., Oexle, K., Mäkelä, K.-M., MacGregor, S., Pirastu, M., Fan, Q., Cheng, C.-Y., St Pourcain, B., McMahon, G., Kemp, J. P., Northstone, K., Rahi, J. S. and 69 moreLi, Q., Wojciechowski, R., Simpson, C. L., Hysi, P. G., Verhoeven, V. J. M., Ikram, M. K., Höhn, R., Vitart, V., Hewitt, A. W., Oexle, K., Mäkelä, K.-M., MacGregor, S., Pirastu, M., Fan, Q., Cheng, C.-Y., St Pourcain, B., McMahon, G., Kemp, J. P., Northstone, K., Rahi, J. S., Cumberland, P. M., Martin, N. G., Sanfilippo, P. G., Lu, Y., Wang, Y. X., Hayward, C., Polašek, O., Campbell, H., Bencic, G., Wright, A. F., Wedenoja, J., Zeller, T., Schillert, A., Mirshahi, A., Lackner, K., Yip, S. P., Yap, M. K. H., Ried, J. S., Gieger, C., Murgia, F., Wilson, J. F., Fleck, B., Yazar, S., Vingerling, J. R., Hofman, A., Uitterlinden, A., Rivadeneira, F., Amin, N., Karssen, L., Oostra, B. A., Zhou, X., Teo, Y.-Y., Tai, E. S., Vithana, E., Barathi, V., Zheng, Y., Siantar, R. G., Neelam, K., Shin, Y., Lam, J., Yonova-Doing, E., Venturini, C., Hosseini, S. M., Wong, H.-S., Lehtimäki, T., Kähönen, M., Raitakari, O., Timpson, N. J., Evans, D. M., Khor, C.-C., Aung, T., Young, T. L., Mitchell, P., Klein, B., van Duijn, C. M., Meitinger, T., Jonas, J. B., Baird, P. N., Mackey, D. A., Wong, T. Y., Saw, S.-M., Pärssinen, O., Stambolian, D., Hammond, C. J., Klaver, C. C. W., Williams, C., Paterson, A. D., Bailey-Wilson, J. E., & Guggenheim, J. A. (2015). Genome-wide association study for refractive astigmatism reveals genetic co-determination with spherical equivalent refractive error: the CREAM consortium. Human Genetics, 134, 131-146. doi:10.1007/s00439-014-1500-y.

    Abstract

    To identify genetic variants associated with refractive astigmatism in the general population, meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies were performed for: White Europeans aged at least 25 years (20 cohorts, N = 31,968); Asian subjects aged at least 25 years (7 cohorts, N = 9,295); White Europeans aged <25 years (4 cohorts, N = 5,640); and all independent individuals from the above three samples combined with a sample of Chinese subjects aged <25 years (N = 45,931). Participants were classified as cases with refractive astigmatism if the average cylinder power in their two eyes was at least 1.00 diopter and as controls otherwise. Genome-wide association analysis was carried out for each cohort separately using logistic regression. Meta-analysis was conducted using a fixed effects model. In the older European group the most strongly associated marker was downstream of the neurexin-1 (NRXN1) gene (rs1401327, P = 3.92E−8). No other region reached genome-wide significance, and association signals were lower for the younger European group and Asian group. In the meta-analysis of all cohorts, no marker reached genome-wide significance: The most strongly associated regions were, NRXN1 (rs1401327, P = 2.93E−07), TOX (rs7823467, P = 3.47E−07) and LINC00340 (rs12212674, P = 1.49E−06). For 34 markers identified in prior GWAS for spherical equivalent refractive error, the beta coefficients for genotype versus spherical equivalent, and genotype versus refractive astigmatism, were highly correlated (r = −0.59, P = 2.10E−04). This work revealed no consistent or strong genetic signals for refractive astigmatism; however, the TOX gene region previously identified in GWAS for spherical equivalent refractive error was the second most strongly associated region. Analysis of additional markers provided evidence supporting widespread genetic co-susceptibility for spherical and astigmatic refractive errors.
  • Wolf, M. C. (2015). Het verschil tussen hardop en stillezen wat betreft leessnelheid en tekstbegrip en de invloed hierop van fonologisch bewustzijn, benoemsnelheid en visuele aandachtsspanne. Student Undergraduate Research E-journal, 1(1), 261-264. Retrieved from http://journals.library.tudelft.nl/index.php/sure/article/view/1025.

    Abstract

    In het onderwijs wordt aangenomen dat hardop en stillezen dezelfde processen zijn. In dit onderzoek wordt gekeken naar het verschil tussen hardop en stillezen wat betreft leessnelheid en tekstbegrip bij 90 kinderen uit groep 4. Ook wordt de invloed van de cognitieve vaardigheden fonologisch bewustzijn, benoemsnelheid en visuele aandachtsspanne op de verschillende leesmodi onderzocht. De participanten lazen stil sneller, maar begrepen de tekst beter hardop. De cognitieve vaardigheden correleerden met hardop en stillezen wat betreft leessnelheid, maar hingen in beide leesmodi niet samen met tekstbegrip. Hoewel hardop en stillezen samenhangen, onderstrepen deze bevindingen dat het verschillende leesmodi zijn.
  • Xiang, H., Van Leeuwen, T. M., Dediu, D., Roberts, L., Norris, D. G., & Hagoort, P. (2015). L2-proficiency-dependent laterality shift in structural connectivity of brain language pathways. Brain Connectivity, 5(6), 349-361. doi:10.1089/brain.2013.0199.

    Abstract

    Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and a longitudinal language learning approach were applied to investigate the relationship between the achieved second language (L2) proficiency during L2 learning and the reorganization of structural connectivity between core language areas. Language proficiency tests and DTI scans were obtained from German students before and after they completed an intensive 6-week course of the Dutch language. In the initial learning stage, with increasing L2 proficiency, the hemispheric dominance of the BA6-temporal pathway (mainly along the arcuate fasciculus) shifted from the left to the right hemisphere. With further increased proficiency, however, lateralization dominance was again found in the left BA6-temporal pathway. This result is consistent with reports in the literature that imply a stronger involvement of the right hemisphere in L2-processing especially for less proficient L2-speakers. This is the first time that a L2-proficiency-dependent laterality shift in structural connectivity of language pathways during L2 acquisition has been observed to shift from left to right, and back to left hemisphere dominance with increasing L2-proficiency. We additionally find that changes in fractional anisotropy values after the course are related to the time elapsed between the two scans. The results suggest that structural connectivity in (at least part of) the perisylvian language network may be subject to fast dynamic changes following language learning
  • Zeshan, U. (2004). Basic English course taught in Indian Sign Language (Ali Yavar Young National Institute for Hearing Handicapped, Ed.). National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped: Mumbai.

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