Publications

Displaying 301 - 400 of 459
  • Pippucci, T., Magi, A., Gialluisi, A., & Romeo, G. (2014). Detection of runs of homozygosity from whole exome sequencing data: State of the art and perspectives for clinical, population and epidemiological studies. Human Heredity, 77, 63-72. doi:10.1159/000362412.

    Abstract

    Runs of homozygosity (ROH) are sizeable stretches of homozygous genotypes at consecutive polymorphic DNA marker positions, traditionally captured by means of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping. With the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, a number of methods initially devised for the analysis of SNP array data (those based on sliding-window algorithms such as PLINK or GERMLINE and graphical tools like HomozygosityMapper) or specifically conceived for NGS data have been adopted for the detection of ROH from whole exome sequencing (WES) data. In the latter group, algorithms for both graphical representation (AgileVariantMapper, HomSI) and computational detection (H3M2) of WES-derived ROH have been proposed. Here we examine these different approaches and discuss available strategies to implement ROH detection in WES analysis. Among sliding-window algorithms, PLINK appears to be well-suited for the detection of ROH, especially of the long ones. As a method specifically tailored for WES data, H3M2 outperforms existing algorithms especially on short and medium ROH. We conclude that, notwithstanding the irregular distribution of exons, WES data can be used with some approximation for unbiased genome-wide analysis of ROH features, with promising applications to homozygosity mapping of disease genes, comparative analysis of populations and epidemiological studies based on consanguinity
  • Poellmann, K., Bosker, H. R., McQueen, J. M., & Mitterer, H. (2014). Perceptual adaptation to segmental and syllabic reductions in continuous spoken Dutch. Journal of Phonetics, 46, 101-127. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2014.06.004.

    Abstract

    This study investigates if and how listeners adapt to reductions in casual continuous speech. In a perceptual-learning variant of the visual-world paradigm, two groups of Dutch participants were exposed to either segmental (/b/ → [ʋ]) or syllabic (ver- → [fː]) reductions in spoken Dutch sentences. In the test phase, both groups heard both kinds of reductions, but now applied to different words. In one of two experiments, the segmental reduction exposure group was better than the syllabic reduction exposure group in recognizing new reduced /b/-words. In both experiments, the syllabic reduction group showed a greater target preference for new reduced ver-words. Learning about reductions was thus applied to previously unheard words. This lexical generalization suggests that mechanisms compensating for segmental and syllabic reductions take place at a prelexical level, and hence that lexical access involves an abstractionist mode of processing. Existing abstractionist models need to be revised, however, as they do not include representations of sequences of segments (corresponding e.g. to ver-) at the prelexical level.
  • Poellmann, K., Mitterer, H., & McQueen, J. M. (2014). Use what you can: Storage, abstraction processes and perceptual adjustments help listeners recognize reduced forms. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 437. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00437.

    Abstract

    Three eye-tracking experiments tested whether native listeners recognized reduced Dutch words better after having heard the same reduced words, or different reduced words of the same reduction type and whether familiarization with one reduction type helps listeners to deal with another reduction type. In the exposure phase, a segmental reduction group was exposed to /b/-reductions (e.g., "minderij" instead of "binderij", 'book binder') and a syllabic reduction group was exposed to full-vowel deletions (e.g., "p'raat" instead of "paraat", 'ready'), while a control group did not hear any reductions. In the test phase, all three groups heard the same speaker producing reduced-/b/ and deleted-vowel words that were either repeated (Experiments 1 & 2) or new (Experiment 3), but that now appeared as targets in semantically neutral sentences. Word-specific learning effects were found for vowel-deletions but not for /b/-reductions. Generalization of learning to new words of the same reduction type occurred only if the exposure words showed a phonologically consistent reduction pattern (/b/-reductions). In contrast, generalization of learning to words of another reduction type occurred only if the exposure words showed a phonologically inconsistent reduction pattern (the vowel deletions; learning about them generalized to recognition of the /b/-reductions). In order to deal with reductions, listeners thus use various means. They store reduced variants (e.g., for the inconsistent vowel-deleted words) and they abstract over incoming information to build up and apply mapping rules (e.g., for the consistent /b/-reductions). Experience with inconsistent pronunciations leads to greater perceptual flexibility in dealing with other forms of reduction uttered by the same speaker than experience with consistent pronunciations.
  • Poletiek, F. H. (1998). De geest van de jury. Psychologie en Maatschappij, 4, 376-378.
  • St Pourcain, B., Cents, R. A., Whitehouse, A. J., Haworth, C. M., Davis, O. S., O’Reilly, P. F., Roulstone, S., Wren, Y., Ang, Q. W., Velders, F. P., Evans, D. M., Kemp, J. P., Warrington, N. M., Miller, L., Timpson, N. J., Ring, S. M., Verhulst, F. C., Hofman, A., Rivadeneira, F., Meaburn, E. L. and 12 moreSt Pourcain, B., Cents, R. A., Whitehouse, A. J., Haworth, C. M., Davis, O. S., O’Reilly, P. F., Roulstone, S., Wren, Y., Ang, Q. W., Velders, F. P., Evans, D. M., Kemp, J. P., Warrington, N. M., Miller, L., Timpson, N. J., Ring, S. M., Verhulst, F. C., Hofman, A., Rivadeneira, F., Meaburn, E. L., Price, T. S., Dale, P. S., Pillas, D., Yliherva, A., Rodriguez, A., Golding, J., Jaddoe, V. W., Jarvelin, M.-R., Plomin, R., Pennell, C. E., Tiemeier, H., & Davey Smith, G. (2014). Common variation near ROBO2 is associated with expressive vocabulary in infancy. Nature Communications, 5: 4831. doi:10.1038/ncomms5831.
  • St Pourcain, B., Skuse, D. H., Mandy, W. P., Wang, K., Hakonarson, H., Timpson, N. J., Evans, D. M., Kemp, J. P., Ring, S. M., McArdle, W. L., Golding, J., & Smith, G. D. (2014). Variability in the common genetic architecture of social-communication spectrum phenotypes during childhood and adolescence. Molecular Autism, 5: 18. doi:10.1186/2040-2392-5-18.

    Abstract

    Background Social-communication abilities are heritable traits, and their impairments overlap with the autism continuum. To characterise the genetic architecture of social-communication difficulties developmentally and identify genetic links with the autistic dimension, we conducted a genome-wide screen of social-communication problems at multiple time-points during childhood and adolescence. Methods Social-communication difficulties were ascertained at ages 8, 11, 14 and 17 years in a UK population-based birth cohort (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children; N ≤ 5,628) using mother-reported Social Communication Disorder Checklist scores. Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis (GCTA) was conducted for all phenotypes. The time-points with the highest GCTA heritability were subsequently analysed for single SNP association genome-wide. Type I error in the presence of measurement relatedness and the likelihood of observing SNP signals near known autism susceptibility loci (co-location) were assessed via large-scale, genome-wide permutations. Association signals (P ≤ 10−5) were also followed up in Autism Genetic Resource Exchange pedigrees (N = 793) and the Autism Case Control cohort (Ncases/Ncontrols = 1,204/6,491). Results GCTA heritability was strongest in childhood (h2(8 years) = 0.24) and especially in later adolescence (h2(17 years) = 0.45), with a marked drop during early to middle adolescence (h2(11 years) = 0.16 and h2(14 years) = 0.08). Genome-wide screens at ages 8 and 17 years identified for the latter time-point evidence for association at 3p22.2 near SCN11A (rs4453791, P = 9.3 × 10−9; genome-wide empirical P = 0.011) and suggestive evidence at 20p12.3 at PLCB1 (rs3761168, P = 7.9 × 10−8; genome-wide empirical P = 0.085). None of these signals contributed to risk for autism. However, the co-location of population-based signals and autism susceptibility loci harbouring rare mutations, such as PLCB1, is unlikely to be due to chance (genome-wide empirical Pco-location = 0.007). Conclusions Our findings suggest that measurable common genetic effects for social-communication difficulties vary developmentally and that these changes may affect detectable overlaps with the autism spectrum.

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  • Pouw, W., Van Gog, T., & Paas, F. (2014). An embedded and embodied cognition review of instructional manipulatives. Educational Psychology Review, 26, 51-72. doi:10.1007/s10648-014-9255-5.

    Abstract

    Recent literature on learning with instructional manipulatives seems to call for a moderate view on the effects of perceptual and interactive richness of instructional manipulatives on learning. This “moderate view” holds that manipulatives’ perceptual and interactive richness may compromise learning in two ways: (1) by imposing a very high cognitive load on the learner, and (2) by hindering drawing of symbolic inferences that are supposed to play a key role in transfer (i.e., application of knowledge to new situations in the absence of instructional manipulatives). This paper presents a contrasting view. Drawing on recent insights from Embedded Embodied perspectives on cognition, it is argued that (1) perceptual and interactive richness may provide opportunities for alleviating cognitive load (Embedded Cognition), and (2) transfer of learning is not reliant on decontextualized knowledge but may draw on previous sensorimotor experiences of the kind afforded by perceptual and interactive richness of manipulatives (Embodied Cognition). By negotiating the Embedded Embodied Cognition view with the moderate view, implications for research are derived.
  • Pouw, W., De Nooijer, J. A., Van Gog, T., Zwaan, R. A., & Paas, F. (2014). Toward a more embedded/extended perspective on the cognitive function of gestures. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 359. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00359.

    Abstract

    Gestures are often considered to be demonstrative of the embodied nature of the mind (Hostetter and Alibali, 2008). In this article, we review current theories and research targeted at the intra-cognitive role of gestures. We ask the question how can gestures support internal cognitive processes of the gesturer? We suggest that extant theories are in a sense disembodied, because they focus solely on embodiment in terms of the sensorimotor neural precursors of gestures. As a result, current theories on the intra-cognitive role of gestures are lacking in explanatory scope to address how gestures-as-bodily-acts fulfill a cognitive function. On the basis of recent theoretical appeals that focus on the possibly embedded/extended cognitive role of gestures (Clark, 2013), we suggest that gestures are external physical tools of the cognitive system that replace and support otherwise solely internal cognitive processes. That is gestures provide the cognitive system with a stable external physical and visual presence that can provide means to think with. We show that there is a considerable amount of overlap between the way the human cognitive system has been found to use its environment, and how gestures are used during cognitive processes. Lastly, we provide several suggestions of how to investigate the embedded/extended perspective of the cognitive function of gestures.
  • Praamstra, P., Stegeman, D. F., Cools, A. R., Meyer, A. S., & Horstink, M. W. I. M. (1998). Evidence for lateral premotor and parietal overactivity in Parkinson's disease during sequential and bimanual movements: A PET study. Brain, 121, 769-772. doi:10.1093/brain/121.4.769.
  • Presciuttini, S., Gialluisi, A., Barbuti, S., Curcio, M., Scatena, F., Carli, G., & Santarcangelo, E. L. (2014). Hypnotizability and Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) polymorphysms in Italians. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7: 929. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00929.

    Abstract

    Higher brain dopamine content depending on lower activity of Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) in subjects with high hypnotizability scores (highs) has been considered responsible for their attentional characteristics. However, the results of the previous genetic studies on association between hypnotizability and the COMT single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4680 (Val158Met) were inconsistent. Here, we used a selective genotyping approach to re-evaluate the association between hypnotizability and COMT in the context of a two-SNP haplotype analysis, considering not only the Val158Met polymorphism, but also the closely located rs4818 SNP. An Italian sample of 53 highs, 49 low hypnotizable subjects (lows), and 57 controls, were genotyped for a segment of 805 bp of the COMT gene, including Val158Met and the closely located rs4818 SNP. Our selective genotyping approach had 97.1% power to detect the previously reported strongest association at the significance level of 5%. We found no evidence of association at the SNP, haplotype, and diplotype levels. Thus, our results challenge the dopamine-based theory of hypnosis and indirectly support recent neuropsychological and neurophysiological findings reporting the lack of any association between hypnotizability and focused attention abilities.
  • Rahmany, R., Marefat, H., & Kidd, E. (2014). Resumptive elements aid comprehension of object relative clauses: evidence from Persian. Journal of Child Language, 41(4), 937-48. doi:10.1017/s0305000913000147.
  • Ravignani, A., Bowling, D. L., & Fitch, W. T. (2014). Chorusing, synchrony, and the evolutionary functions of rhythm. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 1118. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01118.

    Abstract

    A central goal of biomusicology is to understand the biological basis of human musicality. One approach to this problem has been to compare core components of human musicality (relative pitch perception, entrainment, etc.) with similar capacities in other animal species. Here we extend and clarify this comparative approach with respect to rhythm. First, whereas most comparisons between human music and animal acoustic behavior have focused on spectral properties (melody and harmony), we argue for the central importance of temporal properties, and propose that this domain is ripe for further comparative research. Second, whereas most rhythm research in non-human animals has examined animal timing in isolation, we consider how chorusing dynamics can shape individual timing, as in human music and dance, arguing that group behavior is key to understanding the adaptive functions of rhythm. To illustrate the interdependence between individual and chorusing dynamics, we present a computational model of chorusing agents relating individual call timing with synchronous group behavior. Third, we distinguish and clarify mechanistic and functional explanations of rhythmic phenomena, often conflated in the literature, arguing that this distinction is key for understanding the evolution of musicality. Fourth, we expand biomusicological discussions beyond the species typically considered, providing an overview of chorusing and rhythmic behavior across a broad range of taxa (orthopterans, fireflies, frogs, birds, and primates). Finally, we propose an “Evolving Signal Timing” hypothesis, suggesting that similarities between timing abilities in biological species will be based on comparable chorusing behaviors. We conclude that the comparative study of chorusing species can provide important insights into the adaptive function(s) of rhythmic behavior in our “proto-musical” primate ancestors, and thus inform our understanding of the biology and evolution of rhythm in human music and language.
  • Ravignani, A. (2014). Chronometry for the chorusing herd: Hamilton's legacy on context-dependent acoustic signalling—a comment on Herbers (2013). Biology Letters, 10(1): 20131018. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.1018.
  • Ravignani, A., Martins, M., & Fitch, W. T. (2014). Vocal learning, prosody, and basal ganglia: Don't underestimate their complexity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37(6), 570-571. doi:10.1017/S0140525X13004184.

    Abstract

    In response to: Brain mechanisms of acoustic communication in humans and nonhuman primates: An evolutionary perspective

    Abstract:
    Ackermann et al.'s arguments in the target article need sharpening and rethinking at both mechanistic and evolutionary levels. First, the authors' evolutionary arguments are inconsistent with recent evidence concerning nonhuman animal rhythmic abilities. Second, prosodic intonation conveys much more complex linguistic information than mere emotional expression. Finally, human adults' basal ganglia have a considerably wider role in speech modulation than Ackermann et al. surmise.
  • Redmann, A., FitzPatrick, I., Hellwig, F. M., & Indefrey, P. (2014). The use of conceptual components in language production: an ERP study. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 363. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00363.

    Abstract

    According to frame-theory, concepts can be represented as structured frames that contain conceptual attributes (e.g., "color") and their values (e.g., "red"). A particular color value can be seen as a core conceptual component for (high color-diagnostic; HCD) objects (e.g., bananas) which are strongly associated with a typical color, but less so for (low color-diagnostic; LCD) objects (e.g., bicycles) that exist in many different colors. To investigate whether the availability of a core conceptual component (color) affects lexical access in language production, we conducted two experiments on the naming of visually presented HCD and LCD objects. Experiment 1 showed that, when naming latencies were matched for colored HCD and LCD objects, achromatic HCD objects were named more slowly than achromatic LCD objects. In Experiment 2 we recorded ERPs while participants performed a picture-naming task, in which achromatic target pictures were either preceded by an appropriately colored box (primed condition) or a black and white checkerboard (unprimed condition). We focused on the P2 component, which has been shown to reflect difficulty of lexical access in language production. Results showed that HCD resulted in slower object-naming and a more pronounced P2. Priming also yielded a more positive P2 but did not result in an RT difference. ERP waveforms on the P1, P2 and N300 components showed a priming by color-diagnosticity interaction, the effect of color priming being stronger for HCD objects than for LCD objects. The effect of color-diagnosticity on the P2 component suggests that the slower naming of achromatic HCD objects is (at least in part) due to more difficult lexical retrieval. Hence, the color attribute seems to affect lexical retrieval in HCD words. The interaction between priming and color-diagnosticity indicates that priming with a feature hinders lexical access, especially if the feature is a core feature of the target object.
  • Reesink, G. (2014). Topic management and clause combination in the Papuan language Usan. In R. Van Gijn, J. Hammond, D. Matic, S. van Putten, & A.-V. Galucio (Eds.), Information Structure and Reference Tracking in Complex Sentences. (pp. 231-262). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This chapter describes topic management in the Papuan language Usan. The notion of ‘topic’ is defined by its pre-theoretical meaning ‘what someone’s speech is about’. This notion cannot be restricted to simple clausal or sentential constructions, but requires the wider context of long stretches of natural text. The tracking of a topic is examined in its relationship to clause combining mechanisms. Coordinating clause chaining with its switch reference mechanism is contrasted with subordinating strategies called ‘domain-creating’ constructions. These different strategies are identified by language-specific signals, such as intonation and morphosyntactic cues like nominalizations and scope of negation and other modalities.
  • Roberts, S. G., Dediu, D., & Moisik, S. R. (2014). How to speak Neanderthal. New Scientist, 222(2969), 40-41. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(14)60970-2.
  • Roberts, S. G. (2014). Monolingual Biases in Simulations of Cultural Transmission. In V. Dignum, & F. Dignum (Eds.), Perspectives on Culture and Agent-based Simulations (pp. 111-125). Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-01952-9_7.

    Abstract

    Recent research suggests that the evolution of language is affected by the inductive biases of its learners. I suggest that there is an implicit assumption that one of these biases is to expect a single linguistic system in the input. Given the prevalence of bilingual cultures, this may not be a valid abstraction. This is illustrated by demonstrating that the ‘minimal naming game’ model, in which a shared lexicon evolves in a population of agents, includes an implicit mutual exclusivity bias. Since recent research suggests that children raised in bilingual cultures do not exhibit mutual exclusivity, the individual learning algorithm of the agents is not as abstract as it appears to be. A modification of this model demonstrates that communicative success can be achieved without mutual exclusivity. It is concluded that complex cultural phenomena, such as bilingualism, do not necessarily result from complex individual learning mechanisms. Rather, the cultural process itself can bring about this complexity.
  • Roberts, S. G., & Quillinan, J. (2014). The Chimp Challenge: Working memory in chimps and humans. In L. McCrohon, B. Thompson, T. Verhoef, & H. Yamauchi (Eds.), The Past, Present and Future of Language Evolution Research: Student volume of the 9th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (pp. 31-39). Tokyo: EvoLang9 Organising Committee.

    Abstract

    Matsuzawa (2012) presented work at Evolang demonstrating the working memory abilities of chimpanzees. (Inoue & Matsuzawa, 2007) found that chimpanzees can correctly remember the location of 9 randomly arranged numerals displayed for 210ms - shorter than an average human eye saccade. Humans, however, perform poorly at this task. Matsuzawa suggests a semantic link hypothesis: while chimps have good visual, eidetic memory, humans are good at symbolic associations. The extra information in the semantic, linguistic links that humans possess increase the load on working memory and make this task difficult for them. We were interested to see if a wider search could find humans that matched the performance of the chimpanzees. We created an online version of the experiment and challenged people to play. We also attempted to run a non-semantic version of the task to see if this made the task easier. We found that, while humans can perform better than Inoue and Matsuzawa (2007) suggest, chimpanzees can perform better still. We also found no evidence to support the semantic link hypothesis.
  • Rodenas-Cuadrado, P., Ho, J., & Vernes, S. C. (2014). Shining a light on CNTNAP2: Complex functions to complex disorders. European Journal of Human Genetics, 22(2), 171-178. doi:10.1038/ejhg.2013.100.

    Abstract

    The genetic basis of complex neurological disorders involving language are poorly understood, partly due to the multiple additive genetic risk factors that are thought to be responsible. Furthermore, these conditions are often syndromic in that they have a range of endophenotypes that may be associated with the disorder and that may be present in different combinations in patients. However, the emergence of individual genes implicated across multiple disorders has suggested that they might share similar underlying genetic mechanisms. The CNTNAP2 gene is an excellent example of this, as it has recently been implicated in a broad range of phenotypes including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), schizophrenia, intellectual disability, dyslexia and language impairment. This review considers the evidence implicating CNTNAP2 in these conditions, the genetic risk factors and mutations that have been identified in patient and population studies and how these relate to patient phenotypes. The role of CNTNAP2 is examined in the context of larger neurogenetic networks during development and disorder, given what is known regarding the regulation and function of this gene. Understanding the role of CNTNAP2 in diverse neurological disorders will further our understanding of how combinations of individual genetic risk factors can contribute to complex conditions
  • Roelofs, A., Meyer, A. S., & Levelt, W. J. M. (1998). A case for the lemma/lexeme distinction in models of speaking: Comment on Caramazza and Miozzo (1997). Cognition, 69(2), 219-230. doi:10.1016/S0010-0277(98)00056-0.

    Abstract

    In a recent series of papers, Caramazza and Miozzo [Caramazza, A., 1997. How many levels of processing are there in lexical access? Cognitive Neuropsychology 14, 177-208; Caramazza, A., Miozzo, M., 1997. The relation between syntactic and phonological knowledge in lexical access: evidence from the 'tip-of-the-tongue' phenomenon. Cognition 64, 309-343; Miozzo, M., Caramazza, A., 1997. On knowing the auxiliary of a verb that cannot be named: evidence for the independence of grammatical and phonological aspects of lexical knowledge. Journal of Cognitive Neuropsychology 9, 160-166] argued against the lemma/lexeme distinction made in many models of lexical access in speaking, including our network model [Roelofs, A., 1992. A spreading-activation theory of lemma retrieval in speaking. Cognition 42, 107-142; Levelt, W.J.M., Roelofs, A., Meyer, A.S., 1998. A theory of lexical access in speech production. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, (in press)]. Their case was based on the observations that grammatical class deficits of brain-damaged patients and semantic errors may be restricted to either spoken or written forms and that the grammatical gender of a word and information about its form can be independently available in tip-of-the-tongue stales (TOTs). In this paper, we argue that though our model is about speaking, not taking position on writing, extensions to writing are possible that are compatible with the evidence from aphasia and speech errors. Furthermore, our model does not predict a dependency between gender and form retrieval in TOTs. Finally, we argue that Caramazza and Miozzo have not accounted for important parts of the evidence motivating the lemma/lexeme distinction, such as word frequency effects in homophone production, the strict ordering of gender and pho neme access in LRP data, and the chronometric and speech error evidence for the production of complex morphology.
  • Roelofs, A., & Meyer, A. S. (1998). Metrical structure in planning the production of spoken words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24, 922-939. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.24.4.922.

    Abstract

    According to most models of speech production, the planning of spoken words involves the independent retrieval of segments and metrical frames followed by segment-to-frame association. In some models, the metrical frame includes a specification of the number and ordering of consonants and vowels, but in the word-form encoding by activation and verification (WEAVER) model (A. Roelofs, 1997), the frame specifies only the stress pattern across syllables. In 6 implicit priming experiments, on each trial, participants produced 1 word out of a small set as quickly as possible. In homogeneous sets, the response words shared word-initial segments, whereas in heterogeneous sets, they did not. Priming effects from shared segments depended on all response words having the same number of syllables and stress pattern, but not on their having the same number of consonants and vowels. No priming occurred when the response words had only the same metrical frame but shared no segments. Computer simulations demonstrated that WEAVER accounts for the findings.
  • Roelofs, A. (1998). Rightward incrementality in encoding simple phrasal forms in speech production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24, 904-921. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.24.4.904.

    Abstract

    This article reports 7 experiments investigating whether utterances are planned in a parallel or rightward incremental fashion during language production. The experiments examined the role of linear order, length, frequency, and repetition in producing Dutch verb–particle combinations. On each trial, participants produced 1 utterance out of a set of 3 as quickly as possible. The responses shared part of their form or not. For particle-initial infinitives, facilitation was obtained when the responses shared the particle but not when they shared the verb. For verb-initial imperatives, however, facilitation was obtained for the verbs but not for the particles. The facilitation increased with length, decreased with frequency, and was independent of repetition. A simple rightward incremental model accounts quantitatively for the results.
  • Rojas-Berscia, L. M. (2014). Towards an ontological theory of language: Radical minimalism, memetic linguistics and linguistic engineering, prolegomena. Ianua: Revista Philologica Romanica, 14(2), 69-81.

    Abstract

    In contrast to what has happened in other sciences, the establishment of what is the study object of linguistics as an autonomous discipline has not been resolved yet. Ranging from external explanations of language as a system (Saussure 1916), the existence of a mental innate language capacity or UG (Chomsky 1965, 1981, 1995), the cognitive complexity of the mental language capacity and the acquisition of languages in use (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008; Croft & Cruse 2004; Evans & Levinson 2009) most, if not all, theoretical approaches have provided explanations that somehow isolated our discipline from developments in other major sciences, such as physics and evolutionary biology. In the present article I will present some of the basic issues regarding the current debate in the discipline, in order to identify some problems regarding the modern assumptions on language. Furthermore, a new proposal on how to approach linguistic phenomena will be given, regarding what I call «the main three» basic problems our discipline has to face ulteriorly. Finally, some preliminary ideas on a new paradigm of Linguistics which tries to answer these three basic problems will be presented, mainly based in the recently-born formal theory called Radical Minimalism (Krivochen 2011a, 2011b) and what I dub Memetic Linguistics and Linguistic Engineering
  • Roorda, D., Kalkman, G., Naaijer, M., & Van Cranenburgh, A. (2014). LAF-Fabric: A data analysis tool for linguistic annotation framework with an application to the Hebrew Bible. Computational linguistics in the Netherlands, 4, 105-120.

    Abstract

    The Linguistic Annotation Framework (LAF) provides a general, extensible stand-o markup system for corpora. This paper discusses LAF-Fabric, a new tool to analyse LAF resources in general with an extension to process the Hebrew Bible in particular. We rst walk through the history of the Hebrew Bible as text database in decennium-wide steps. Then we describe how LAF-Fabric may serve as an analysis tool for this corpus. Finally, we describe three analytic projects/work ows that benet from the new LAF representation: 1) the study of linguistic variation: extract cooccurrence data of common nouns between the books of the Bible (Martijn Naaijer); 2) the study of the grammar of Hebrew poetry in the Psalms: extract clause typology (Gino Kalkman); 3) construction of a parser of classical Hebrew by Data Oriented Parsing: generate tree structures from the database (Andreas van Cranenburgh).
  • Rossi, G. (2014). When do people not use language to make requests? In P. Drew, & E. Couper-Kuhlen (Eds.), Requesting in social interaction (pp. 301-332). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Abstract

    In everyday joint activities (e.g. playing cards, preparing potatoes, collecting empty plates), participants often request others to pass, move or otherwise deploy objects. In order to get these objects to or from the requestee, requesters need to manipulate them, for example by holding them out, reaching for them, or placing them somewhere. As they perform these manual actions, requesters may or may not accompany them with language (e.g. Take this potato and cut it or Pass me your plate). This study shows that adding or omitting language in the design of a request is influenced in the first place by a criterion of recognition. When the requested action is projectable from the advancement of an activity, presenting a relevant object to the requestee is enough for them to understand what to do; when, on the other hand, the requested action is occasioned by a contingent development of the activity, requesters use language to specify what the requestee should do. This criterion operates alongside a perceptual criterion, to do with the affordances of the visual and auditory modality. When the requested action is projectable but the requestee is not visually attending to the requester’s manual behaviour, the requester can use just enough language to attract the requestee’s attention and secure immediate recipiency. This study contributes to a line of research concerned with the organisation of verbal and nonverbal resources for requesting. Focussing on situations in which language is not – or only minimally – used, it demonstrates the role played by visible bodily behaviour and by the structure of everyday activities in the formation and understanding of requests.
  • Roswandowitz, C., Mathias, S. R., Hintz, F., Kreitewolf, J., Schelinski, S., & von Kriegstein, K. (2014). Two cases of selective developmental voice-recognition impairments. Current Biology, 24(19), 2348-2353. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.08.048.

    Abstract

    Recognizing other individuals is an essential skill in humans and in other species [1, 2 and 3]. Over the last decade, it has become increasingly clear that person-identity recognition abilities are highly variable. Roughly 2% of the population has developmental prosopagnosia, a congenital deficit in recognizing others by their faces [4]. It is currently unclear whether developmental phonagnosia, a deficit in recognizing others by their voices [5], is equally prevalent, or even whether it actually exists. Here, we aimed to identify cases of developmental phonagnosia. We collected more than 1,000 data sets from self-selected German individuals by using a web-based screening test that was designed to assess their voice-recognition abilities. We then examined potentially phonagnosic individuals by using a comprehensive laboratory test battery. We found two novel cases of phonagnosia: AS, a 32-year-old female, and SP, a 32-year-old male; both are otherwise healthy academics, have normal hearing, and show no pathological abnormalities in brain structure. The two cases have comparable patterns of impairments: both performed at least 2 SDs below the level of matched controls on tests that required learning new voices, judging the familiarity of famous voices, and discriminating pitch differences between voices. In both cases, only voice-identity processing per se was affected: face recognition, speech intelligibility, emotion recognition, and musical ability were all comparable to controls. The findings confirm the existence of developmental phonagnosia as a modality-specific impairment and allow a first rough prevalence estimate.

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  • Rowbotham, S., Wardy, A. J., Lloyd, D. M., Wearden, A., & Holler, J. (2014). Increased pain intensity is associated with greater verbal communication difficulty and increased production of speech and co-speech gestures. PLoS One, 9(10): e110779. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110779.

    Abstract

    Effective pain communication is essential if adequate treatment and support are to be provided. Pain communication is often multimodal, with sufferers utilising speech, nonverbal behaviours (such as facial expressions), and co-speech gestures (bodily movements, primarily of the hands and arms that accompany speech and can convey semantic information) to communicate their experience. Research suggests that the production of nonverbal pain behaviours is positively associated with pain intensity, but it is not known whether this is also the case for speech and co-speech gestures. The present study explored whether increased pain intensity is associated with greater speech and gesture production during face-to-face communication about acute, experimental pain. Participants (N = 26) were exposed to experimentally elicited pressure pain to the fingernail bed at high and low intensities and took part in video-recorded semi-structured interviews. Despite rating more intense pain as more difficult to communicate (t(25) = 2.21, p = .037), participants produced significantly longer verbal pain descriptions and more co-speech gestures in the high intensity pain condition (Words: t(25) = 3.57, p = .001; Gestures: t(25) = 3.66, p = .001). This suggests that spoken and gestural communication about pain is enhanced when pain is more intense. Thus, in addition to conveying detailed semantic information about pain, speech and co-speech gestures may provide a cue to pain intensity, with implications for the treatment and support received by pain sufferers. Future work should consider whether these findings are applicable within the context of clinical interactions about pain.
  • Rowbotham, S., Holler, J., Lloyd, D., & Wearden, A. (2014). Handling pain: The semantic interplay of speech and co-speech hand gestures in the description of pain sensations. Speech Communication, 57, 244-256. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2013.04.002.

    Abstract

    Pain is a private and subjective experience about which effective communication is vital, particularly in medical settings. Speakers often represent information about pain sensation in both speech and co-speech hand gestures simultaneously, but it is not known whether gestures merely replicate spoken information or complement it in some way. We examined the representational contribution
    of gestures in a range of consecutive analyses. Firstly, we found that 78% of speech units containing pain sensation were accompanied by gestures, with 53% of these gestures representing pain sensation. Secondly, in 43% of these instances, gestures represented pain sensation information that was not contained in speech, contributing additional, complementary information to the pain sensation message.
    Finally, when applying a specificity analysis, we found that in contrast with research in different domains of talk, gestures did not make the pain sensation information in speech more specific. Rather, they complemented the verbal pain message by representing different
    aspects of pain sensation, contributing to a fuller representation of pain sensation than speech alone. These findings highlight the importance of gestures in communicating about pain sensation and suggest that this modality provides additional information to supplement and clarify the often ambiguous verbal pain message

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  • Rowland, C. F., Noble, C. H., & Chan, A. (2014). Competition all the way down: How children learn word order cues to sentence meaning. In B. MacWhinney, A. Malchukov, & E. Moravcsik (Eds.), Competing Motivations in Grammar and Usage (pp. 125-143). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Abstract

    Most work on competing cues in language acquisition has focussed on what happens when cues compete within a certain construction. There has been far less work on what happens when constructions themselves compete. The aim of the present chapter was to explore how the acquisition mechanism copes when constructions compete in a language. We present three experimental studies, all of which focus on the acquisition of the syntactic function of word order as a marker of the Theme-Recipient relation in ditransitives (form-meaning mapping). In Study 1 we investigated how quickly English children acquire form-meaning mappings when there are two competing structures in the language. We demonstrated that English speaking 4-year- olds, but not 3-year-olds, correctly interpreted both preposition al and double object datives, assigning Theme and Recipient participant roles on the basis of word order cues. There was no advantage for the double object dative despite its greater frequency in child directed speech. In Study 2 we looked at acquisition in a language which has no dative alternation –Welsh–to investigate how quickly children acquire form-meaning mapping when there is no competing structure. We demonstrated that Welsh children (Study 2) acquired the prepositional dative at age 3 years, which was much earlier than English children. Finally, in Study 3 we examined bei2 (give) ditransitives in Cantonese, to investigate what happens when there is no dative alternation (as in Welsh), but when the child hears alternative, and possibly competing, word orders in the input. Like the English 3-year-olds, the Cantonese 3-year-olds had not yet acquired the word order marking constraints of bei2 ditransitives. We conclude that there is not only competition between cues but competition between constructions in language acquisition. We suggest an extension to the competition model (Bates & MacWhinney, 1982) whereby generalisations take place across constructions as easily as they take place within constructions, whenever there are salient similarities to form the basis of the generalisation.
  • Sadakata, M., & McQueen, J. M. (2014). Individual aptitude in Mandarin lexical tone perception predicts effectiveness of high-variability training. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 1318. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01318.

    Abstract

    Although the high-variability training method can enhance learning of non-native speech categories, this can depend on individuals’ aptitude. The current study asked how general the effects of perceptual aptitude are by testing whether they occur with training materials spoken by native speakers and whether they depend on the nature of the to-be-learned material. Forty-five native Dutch listeners took part in a five-day training procedure in which they identified bisyllabic Mandarin pseudowords (e.g., asa) pronounced with different lexical tone combinations. The training materials were presented to different groups of listeners at three levels of variability: low (many repetitions of a limited set of words recorded by a single speaker), medium (fewer repetitions of a more variable set of words recorded by 3 speakers) and high (similar to medium but with 5 speakers). Overall, variability did not influence learning performance, but this was due to an interaction with individuals’ perceptual aptitude: increasing variability hindered improvements in performance for low-aptitude perceivers while it helped improvements in performance for high-aptitude perceivers. These results show that the previously observed interaction between individuals’ aptitude and effects of degree of variability extends to natural tokens of Mandarin speech. This interaction was not found, however, in a closely-matched study in which native Dutch listeners were trained on the Japanese geminate/singleton consonant contrast. This may indicate that the effectiveness of high-variability training depends not only on individuals’ aptitude in speech perception but also on the nature of the categories being acquired.
  • Sanchis-Trilles, G., Alabau, V., Buck, C., Carl, M., Casacuberta, F., García Martínez, M., Germann, U., González Rubio, J., Hill, R. L., Koehn, P., Leiva, L. A., Mesa-Lao, B., Ortiz Martínez, D., Saint-Amand, H., Tsoukala, C., & Vidal, E. (2014). Interactive translation prediction versus conventional post-editing in practice: a study with the CasMaCat workbench. Machine Translation, 28(3-4), 217-235. doi:10.1007/s10590-014-9157-9.

    Abstract

    We conducted a field trial in computer-assisted professional translation to compare interactive translation prediction (ITP) against conventional post-editing (PE) of machine translation (MT) output. In contrast to the conventional PE set-up, where an MT system first produces a static translation hypothesis that is then edited by a professional (hence “post-editing”), ITP constantly updates the translation hypothesis in real time in response to user edits. Our study involved nine professional translators and four reviewers working with the web-based CasMaCat workbench. Various new interactive features aiming to assist the post-editor/translator were also tested in this trial. Our results show that even with little training, ITP can be as productive as conventional PE in terms of the total time required to produce the final translation. Moreover, translation editors working with ITP require fewer key strokes to arrive at the final version of their translation.

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  • Schertz, J., & Ernestus, M. (2014). Variability in the pronunciation of non-native English the: Effects of frequency and disfluencies. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 10, 329-345. doi:10.1515/cllt-2014-0024.

    Abstract

    This study examines how lexical frequency and planning problems can predict phonetic variability in the function word ‘the’ in conversational speech produced by non-native speakers of English. We examined 3180 tokens of ‘the’ drawn from English conversations between native speakers of Czech or Norwegian. Using regression models, we investigated the effect of following word frequency and disfluencies on three phonetic parameters: vowel duration, vowel quality, and consonant quality. Overall, the non-native speakers showed variation that is very similar to the variation displayed by native speakers of English. Like native speakers, Czech speakers showed an effect of frequency on vowel durations, which were shorter in more frequent word sequences. Both groups of speakers showed an effect of frequency on consonant quality: the substitution of another consonant for /ð/ occurred more often in the context of more frequent words. The speakers in this study also showed a native-like allophonic distinction in vowel quality, in which /ði/ occurs more often before vowels and /ðə/ before consonants. Vowel durations were longer in the presence of following disfluencies, again mirroring patterns in native speakers, and the consonant quality was more likely to be the target /ð/ before disfluencies, as opposed to a different consonant. The fact that non-native speakers show native-like sensitivity to lexical frequency and disfluencies suggests that these effects are consequences of a general, non-language-specific production mechanism governing language planning. On the other hand, the non-native speakers in this study did not show native-like patterns of vowel quality in the presence of disfluencies, suggesting that the pattern attested in native speakers of English may result from language-specific processes separate from the general production mechanisms
  • Schijven, D., Sousa, V. C., Roelofs, J., Olivier, B., & Olivier, J. D. A. (2014). Serotonin 1A receptors and sexual behavior in a genetic model of depression. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, 121, 82-87. doi:10.1016/j.pbb.2013.12.012.

    Abstract

    The Flinder Sensitive Line (FSL) is a rat strain that displays distinct behavioral and neurochemical features of major depression. Chronic selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are able to reverse these symptoms in FSL rats. It is well known that several abnormalities in the serotonergic system have been found in FSL rats, including increased 5-HT brain tissue levels and reduced 5-HT synthesis. SSRIs are known to exert (part of) their effects by desensitization of the 5-HT1A receptor and FSL rats appear to have lower 5-HT1A receptor densities compared with Flinder Resistant Line (FRL) rats. We therefore studied the sensitivity of this receptor on the sexual behavior performance in both FRL and FSL rats. First, basal sexual performance was studied after saline treatment followed by treatment of two different doses of the 5-HT1A receptor agonist ±8-OH-DPAT. Finally we measured the effect of a 5-HT1A receptor antagonist to check for specificity of the 5-HT1A receptor activation. Our results show that FSL rats have higher ejaculation frequencies compared with FRL rats which do not fit with a more depressive-like phenotype. Moreover FRL rats are more sensitive to effects of ±8-OH-DPAT upon EL and IF than FSL rats. The blunted response of FSL rats to the effects of ±8-OH-DPAT may be due to lower densities of 5-HT1A receptors.
  • Schiller, N. O. (1998). The effect of visually masked syllable primes on the naming latencies of words and pictures. Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 484-507. doi:10.1006/jmla.1998.2577.

    Abstract

    To investigate the role of the syllable in Dutch speech production, five experiments were carried out to examine the effect of visually masked syllable primes on the naming latencies for written words and pictures. Targets had clear syllable boundaries and began with a CV syllable (e.g., ka.no) or a CVC syllable (e.g., kak.tus), or had ambiguous syllable boundaries and began with a CV[C] syllable (e.g., ka[pp]er). In the syllable match condition, bisyllabic Dutch nouns or verbs were preceded by primes that were identical to the target’s first syllable. In the syllable mismatch condition, the prime was either shorter or longer than the target’s first syllable. A neutral condition was also included. None of the experiments showed a syllable priming effect. Instead, all related primes facilitated the naming of the targets. It is concluded that the syllable does not play a role in the process of phonological encoding in Dutch. Because the amount of facilitation increased with increasing overlap between prime and target, the priming effect is accounted for by a segmental overlap hypothesis.
  • Schoffelen, J.-M., & Gross, J. (2014). Studying dynamic neural interactions with MEG. In S. Supek, & C. J. Aine (Eds.), Magnetoencephalography: From signals to dynamic cortical networks (pp. 405-427). Berlin: Springer.
  • Schoot, L., Menenti, L., Hagoort, P., & Segaert, K. (2014). A little more conversation - The influence of communicative context on syntactic priming in brain and behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 208. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00208.

    Abstract

    We report on an fMRI syntactic priming experiment in which we measure brain activity for participants who communicate with another participant outside the scanner. We investigated whether syntactic processing during overt language production and comprehension is influenced by having a (shared) goal to communicate. Although theory suggests this is true, the nature of this influence remains unclear. Two hypotheses are tested: i. syntactic priming effects (fMRI and RT) are stronger for participants in the communicative context than for participants doing the same experiment in a non-communicative context, and ii. syntactic priming magnitude (RT) is correlated with the syntactic priming magnitude of the speaker’s communicative partner. Results showed that across conditions, participants were faster to produce sentences with repeated syntax, relative to novel syntax. This behavioral result converged with the fMRI data: we found repetition suppression effects in the left insula extending into left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47/45), left middle temporal gyrus (BA 21), left inferior parietal cortex (BA 40), left precentral gyrus (BA 6), bilateral precuneus (BA 7), bilateral supplementary motor cortex (BA 32/8) and right insula (BA 47). We did not find support for the first hypothesis: having a communicative intention does not increase the magnitude of syntactic priming effects (either in the brain or in behavior) per se. We did find support for the second hypothesis: if speaker A is strongly/weakly primed by speaker B, then speaker B is primed by speaker A to a similar extent. We conclude that syntactic processing is influenced by being in a communicative context, and that the nature of this influence is bi-directional: speakers are influenced by each other.
  • Schreiweis, C., Bornschein, U., Burguière, E., Kerimoglu, C., Schreiter, S., Dannemann, M., Goyal, S., Rea, E., French, C. A., Puliyadi, R., Groszer, M., Fisher, S. E., Mundry, R., Winter, C., Hevers, W., Pääbo, S., Enard, W., & Graybiel, A. M. (2014). Humanized Foxp2 accelerates learning by enhancing transitions from declarative to procedural performance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111, 14253-14258. doi:10.1073/pnas.1414542111.

    Abstract

    The acquisition of language and speech is uniquely human, but how genetic changes might have adapted the nervous system to this capacity is not well understood. Two human-specific amino acid substitutions in the transcription factor forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) are outstanding mechanistic candidates, as they could have been positively selected during human evolution and as FOXP2 is the sole gene to date firmly linked to speech and language development. When these two substitutions are introduced into the endogenous Foxp2 gene of mice (Foxp2hum), cortico-basal ganglia circuits are specifically affected. Here we demonstrate marked effects of this humanization of Foxp2 on learning and striatal neuroplasticity. Foxp2hum/hum mice learn stimulus–response associations faster than their WT littermates in situations in which declarative (i.e., place-based) and procedural (i.e., response-based) forms of learning could compete during transitions toward proceduralization of action sequences. Striatal districts known to be differently related to these two modes of learning are affected differently in the Foxp2hum/hum mice, as judged by measures of dopamine levels, gene expression patterns, and synaptic plasticity, including an NMDA receptor-dependent form of long-term depression. These findings raise the possibility that the humanized Foxp2 phenotype reflects a different tuning of corticostriatal systems involved in declarative and procedural learning, a capacity potentially contributing to adapting the human brain for speech and language acquisition.

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  • Segaert, K., Weber, K., Cladder-Micus, M., & Hagoort, P. (2014). The influence of verb-bound syntactic preferences on the processing of syntactic structures. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(5), 1448-1460. doi:10.1037/a0036796.

    Abstract

    Speakers sometimes repeat syntactic structures across sentences, a phenomenon called syntactic priming. We investigated the influence of verb-bound syntactic preferences on syntactic priming effects in response choices and response latencies for German ditransitive sentences. In the response choices we found inverse preference effects: There were stronger syntactic priming effects for primes in the less preferred structure, given the syntactic preference of the prime verb. In the response latencies we found positive preference effects: There were stronger syntactic priming effects for primes in the more preferred structure, given the syntactic preference of the prime verb. These findings provide further support for the idea that syntactic processing is lexically guided.
  • Senft, G. (1998). Body and mind in the Trobriand Islands. Ethos, 26, 73-104. doi:10.1525/eth.1998.26.1.73.

    Abstract

    This article discusses how the Trobriand Islanders speak about body and mind. It addresses the following questions: do the linguistic datafit into theories about lexical universals of body-part terminology? Can we make inferences about the Trobrianders' conceptualization of psychological and physical states on the basis of these data? If a Trobriand Islander sees these idioms as external manifestations of inner states, then can we interpret them as a kind of ethnopsychological theory about the body and its role for emotions, knowledge, thought, memory, and so on? Can these idioms be understood as representation of Trobriand ethnopsychological theory?
  • Senft, G. (1998). 'Noble Savages' and the 'Islands of Love': Trobriand Islanders in 'Popular Publications'. In J. Wassmann (Ed.), Pacific answers to Western hegemony: Cultural practices of identity construction (pp. 119-140). Oxford: Berg Publishers.
  • Senft, G. (1998). [Review of the book Anthropological linguistics: An introduction by William A. Foley]. Linguistics, 36, 995-1001.
  • Senft, G. (1998). Zeichenkonzeptionen in Ozeanien. In R. Posner, T. Robering, & T.. Sebeok (Eds.), Semiotics: A handbook on the sign-theoretic foundations of nature and culture (Vol. 2) (pp. 1971-1976). Berlin: de Gruyter.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1983). Auxiliary system in Sranan. In F. Heny, & B. Richards (Eds.), Linguistic categories: Auxiliaries and related puzzles / Vol. two, The scope, order, and distribution of English auxiliary verbs (pp. 219-251). Dordrecht: Reidel.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1998). [Review of the book Adverbial subordination; A typology and history of adverbial subordinators based on European languages by Bernd Kortmann]. Cognitive Linguistics, 9(3), 317-319. doi:10.1515/cogl.1998.9.3.315.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1998). [Review of the book The Dutch pendulum: Linguistics in the Netherlands 1740-1900 by Jan Noordegraaf]. Bulletin of the Henry Sweet Society, 31, 46-50.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1983). [Review of the book The inheritance of presupposition by J. Dinsmore]. Journal of Semantics, 2(3/4), 356-358. doi:10.1093/semant/2.3-4.356.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1983). [Review of the book Thirty million theories of grammar by J. McCawley]. Journal of Semantics, 2(3/4), 325-341. doi:10.1093/semant/2.3-4.325.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1983). In memoriam Jan Voorhoeve. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 139(4), 403-406.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1963). Naar aanleiding van Dr. F. Balk-Smit Duyzentkunst "De Grammatische Functie". Levende Talen, 219, 179-186.
  • Seuren, P. A. M., & Jaspers, D. (2014). Logico-cognitive structure in the lexicon. Language, 90(3), 607-643. doi:10.1353/lan.2014.0058.

    Abstract

    This study is a prolegomenon to a formal theory of the natural growth of conceptual and lexical fields. Negation, in the various forms in which it occurs in language, is found to be a powerful indicator. Other than in standard logic, natural language negation selects its complement within universes of discourse that are, for practical and functional reasons, restricted in various ways and to different degrees. It is hypothesized that a system of cognitive principles drives recursive processes of universe restriction, which in turn affects logical relations within the restricted universes. This approach provides a new perspective in which to view the well-known clashes between standard logic and natural logical intuitions. Lexicalization in language, especially the morphological incorporation of negation, is limited to highly restricted universes, which explains, for example, why a dog can be said not to be a Catholic, but also not to be a non-Catholic. Cognition is taken to restrict the universe of discourse to contrary pairs, splitting up one or both of the contraries into further subuniverses as a result of further cognitive activity. It is shown how a logically sound square of opposition , expanded to a hexagon (Jacoby 1950, 1960, Sesmat 1951, Blanché 1952, 1953, 1966), is generated by a hierarchy of universe restrictions, defining the notion ‘natural’ for logical systems. The logical hexagon contains two additional vertices, one for ‘some but not all’ (the Y-type) and one for ‘either all or none’ (the U-type), and incorporates both the classic square and the Hamiltonian triangle of contraries . Some is thus considered semantically ambiguous, representing two distinct quantifiers. The pragmaticist claim that the language system contains only the standard logical ‘some perhaps all’ and that the ‘some but not all’ meaning is pragmatically derived from the use of the system is rejected. Four principles are proposed according to which negation selects a complement from the subuniverses at hand. On the basis of these principles and of the logico-cognitive system proposed, the well-known nonlexicalization not only of *nall and *nand but also of many other nonlogical cases found throughout the lexicons of languages is analyzed and explained
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1998). Obituary. Herman Christiaan Wekker 1943–1997. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 13(1), 159-162.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1983). Overwegingen bij de spelling van het Sranan en een spellingsvoorstel. OSO, 2(1), 67-81.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2014). The cognitive ontogenesis of predicate logid. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 55, 499-532. doi:10.1215/00294527-2798718.

    Abstract

    Since Aristotle and the Stoa, there has been a clash, worsened by modern predicate logic, between logically defined operator meanings and natural intuitions. Pragmatics has tried to neutralize the clash by an appeal to the Gricean conversational maxims. The present study argues that the pragmatic attempt has been unsuccessful. The “softness” of the Gricean explanation fails to do justice to the robustness of the intuitions concerned, leaving the relation between the principles evoked and the observed facts opaque. Moreover, there are cases where the Gricean maxims fail to apply. A more adequate solution consists in the devising of a sound natural logic, part of the innate cognitive equipment of mankind. This account has proved successful in conjunction with a postulated cognitive mechanism in virtue of which the universe of discourse (Un) is stepwise and recursively restricted, so that the negation selects different complements according to the degree of restrictedness of Un. This mechanism explains not only the discrepancies between natural logical intuitions and known logical systems; it also accounts for certain systematic lexicalization gaps in the languages of the world. Finally, it is shown how stepwise restriction of Un produces the ontogenesis of natural predicate logic, while at the same time resolving the intuitive clashes with established logical systems that the Gricean maxims sought to explain
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1998). Towards a discourse-semantic account of donkey anaphora. In S. Botley, & T. McEnery (Eds.), New Approaches to Discourse Anaphora: Proceedings of the Second Colloquium on Discourse Anaphora and Anaphor Resolution (DAARC2) (pp. 212-220). Lancaster: Universiy Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language, Lancaster University.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2014). Universe restriction in the logic of language. In J. Hoeksema, & D. Gilbers (Eds.), Black Book: A Festschrift in Honor of Frans Zwarts (pp. 282-300). Groningen: University of Groningen.
  • Sha, L., Wu, X., Yao, Y., Wen, B., Feng, J., Sha, Z., Wang, X., Xing, X., Dou, W., Jin, L., Li, W., Wang, N., Shen, Y., Wang, J., Wu, L., & Xu, Q. (2014). Notch Signaling Activation Promotes Seizure Activity in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. Molecular Neurobiology, 49(2), 633-644.

    Abstract

    Notch signaling in the nervous system is often regarded as a developmental pathway. However, recent studies have suggested that Notch is associated with neuronal discharges. Here, focusing on temporal lobe epilepsy, we found that Notch signaling was activated in the kainic acid (KA)-induced epilepsy model and in human epileptogenic tissues. Using an acute model of seizures, we showed that DAPT, an inhibitor of Notch, inhibited ictal activity. In contrast, pretreatment with exogenous Jagged1 to elevate Notch signaling before KA application had proconvulsant effects. In vivo, we demonstrated that the impacts of activated Notch signaling on seizures can in part be attributed to the regulatory role of Notch signaling on excitatory synaptic activity in CA1 pyramidal neurons. In vitro, we found that DAPT treatment impaired synaptic vesicle endocytosis in cultured hippocampal neurons. Taken together, our findings suggest a correlation between aberrant Notch signaling and epileptic seizures. Notch signaling is up-regulated in response to seizure activity, and its activation further promotes neuronal excitation of CA1 pyramidal neurons in acute seizures.
  • Shao, Z., Roelofs, A., Acheson, D. J., & Meyer, A. S. (2014). Electrophysiological evidence that inhibition supports lexical selection in picture naming. Brain Research, 1586, 130-142. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2014.07.009.

    Abstract

    We investigated the neural basis of inhibitory control during lexical selection. Participants overtly named pictures while response times (RTs) and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The difficulty of lexical selection was manipulated by using object and action pictures with high name agreement (few response candidates) versus low name agreement (many response candidates). To assess the involvement of inhibition, we conducted delta plot analyses of naming RTs and examined the N2 component of the ERP. We found longer mean naming RTs and a larger N2 amplitude in the low relative to the high name agreement condition. For action naming we found a negative correlation between the slopes of the slowest delta segment and the difference in N2 amplitude between the low and high name agreement conditions. The converging behavioral and electrophysiological evidence suggests that selective inhibition is engaged to reduce competition during lexical selection in picture naming.
  • Shao, Z., Roelofs, A., & Meyer, A. S. (2014). Predicting naming latencies for action pictures: Dutch norms. Behavior Research Methods, 46, 274-283. doi:10.3758/s13428-013-0358-6.

    Abstract

    The present study provides Dutch norms for age of acquisition, familiarity, imageability, image agreement, visual complexity, word frequency, and word length (in syllables) for 124 line drawings of actions. Ratings were obtained from 117 Dutch participants. Word frequency was determined on the basis of the SUBTLEX-NL corpus (Keuleers, Brysbaert, & New, Behavior Research Methods, 42, 643–650, 2010). For 104 of the pictures, naming latencies and name agreement were determined in a separate naming experiment with 74 native speakers of Dutch. The Dutch norms closely corresponded to the norms for British English. Multiple regression analysis showed that age of acquisition, imageability, image agreement, visual complexity, and name agreement were significant predictors of naming latencies, whereas word frequency and word length were not. Combined with the results of a principal-component analysis, these findings suggest that variables influencing the processes of conceptual preparation and lexical selection affect latencies more strongly than do variables influencing word-form encoding.

    Additional information

    Shao_Behav_Res_2013_Suppl_Mat.doc
  • Shao, Z., Janse, E., Visser, K., & Meyer, A. S. (2014). What do verbal fluency tasks measure? Predictors of verbal fluency performance in older adults. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 772. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00772.

    Abstract

    This study examined the contributions of verbal ability and executive control to verbal fluency performance in older adults (n=82). Verbal fluency was assessed in letter and category fluency tasks, and performance on these tasks was related to indicators of vocabulary size, lexical access speed, updating, and inhibition ability. In regression analyses the number of words produced in both fluency tasks was predicted by updating ability, and the speed of the first response was predicted by vocabulary size and, for category fluency only, lexical access speed. These results highlight the hybrid character of both fluency tasks, which may limit their usefulness for research and clinical purposes.
  • Shayan, S., Ozturk, O., Bowerman, M., & Majid, A. (2014). Spatial metaphor in language can promote the development of cross-modal mappings in children. Developmental Science, 17(4), 636-643. doi:10.1111/desc.12157.

    Abstract

    Pitch is often described metaphorically: for example, Farsi and Turkish speakers use a ‘thickness’ metaphor (low sounds are ‘thick’ and high sounds are ‘thin’), while German and English speakers use a height metaphor (‘low’, ‘high’). This study examines how child and adult speakers of Farsi, Turkish, and German map pitch and thickness using a cross-modal association task. All groups, except for German children, performed significantly better than chance. German-speaking adults’ success suggests the pitch-to-thickness association can be learned by experience. But the fact that German children were at chance indicates that this learning takes time. Intriguingly, Farsi and Turkish children's performance suggests that learning cross-modal associations can be boosted through experience with consistent metaphorical mappings in the input language
  • Shkaravska, O., & Van Eekelen, M. (2014). Univariate polynomial solutions of algebraic difference equations. Journal of Symbolic Computation, 60, 15-28. doi:10.1016/j.jsc.2013.10.010.

    Abstract

    Contrary to linear difference equations, there is no general theory of difference equations of the form G(P(x−τ1),…,P(x−τs))+G0(x)=0, with τi∈K, G(x1,…,xs)∈K[x1,…,xs] of total degree D⩾2 and G0(x)∈K[x], where K is a field of characteristic zero. This article is concerned with the following problem: given τi, G and G0, find an upper bound on the degree d of a polynomial solution P(x), if it exists. In the presented approach the problem is reduced to constructing a univariate polynomial for which d is a root. The authors formulate a sufficient condition under which such a polynomial exists. Using this condition, they give an effective bound on d, for instance, for all difference equations of the form G(P(x−a),P(x−a−1),P(x−a−2))+G0(x)=0 with quadratic G, and all difference equations of the form G(P(x),P(x−τ))+G0(x)=0 with G having an arbitrary degree.
  • Sidnell, J., & Enfield, N. J. (2014). Deixis and the interactional foundations of reference. In Y. Huang (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of pragmatics.
  • Sidnell, J., Kockelman, P., & Enfield, N. J. (2014). Community and social life. In N. J. Enfield, P. Kockelman, & J. Sidnell (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic anthropology (pp. 481-483). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sidnell, J., Enfield, N. J., & Kockelman, P. (2014). Interaction and intersubjectivity. In N. J. Enfield, P. Kockelman, & J. Sidnell (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic anthropology (pp. 343-345). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sidnell, J., & Enfield, N. J. (2014). The ontology of action, in interaction. In N. J. Enfield, P. Kockelman, & J. Sidnell (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic anthropology (pp. 423-446). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Silva, S., Branco, P., Barbosa, F., Marques-Teixeira, J., Petersson, K. M., & Castro, S. L. (2014). Musical phrase boundaries, wrap-up and the closure positive shift. Brain Research, 1585, 99-107. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2014.08.025.

    Abstract

    We investigated global integration (wrap-up) processes at the boundaries of musical phrases by comparing the effects of well and non-well formed phrases on event-related potentials time-locked to two boundary points: the onset and the offset of the boundary pause. The Closure Positive Shift, which is elicited at the boundary offset, was not modulated by the quality of phrase structure (well vs. non-well formed). In contrast, the boundary onset potentials showed different patterns for well and non-well formed phrases. Our results contribute to specify the functional meaning of the Closure Positive Shift in music, shed light on the large-scale structural integration of musical input, and raise new hypotheses concerning shared resources between music and language.
  • Silva, S., Barbosa, F., Marques-Teixeira, J., Petersson, K. M., & Castro, S. L. (2014). You know when: Event-related potentials and theta/beat power indicate boundary prediction in music. Journal of Integrative Neuroscience, 13(1), 19-34. doi:10.1142/S0219635214500022.

    Abstract

    Neuroscientific and musicological approaches to music cognition indicate that listeners familiarized in the Western tonal tradition expect a musical phrase boundary at predictable time intervals. However, phrase boundary prediction processes in music remain untested. We analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related induced power changes at the onset and offset of a boundary pause. We made comparisons with modified melodies, where the pause was omitted and filled by tones. The offset of the pause elicited a closure positive shift (CPS), indexing phrase boundary detection. The onset of the filling tones elicited significant increases in theta and beta powers. In addition, the P2 component was larger when the filling tones started than when they ended. The responses to boundary omission suggest that listeners expected to hear a boundary pause. Therefore, boundary prediction seems to coexist with boundary detection in music segmentation.
  • Simanova, I., Hagoort, P., Oostenveld, R., & Van Gerven, M. A. J. (2014). Modality-independent decoding of semantic information from the human brain. Cerebral Cortex, 24, 426-434. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhs324.

    Abstract

    An ability to decode semantic information from fMRI spatial patterns has been demonstrated in previous studies mostly for 1 specific input modality. In this study, we aimed to decode semantic category independent of the modality in which an object was presented. Using a searchlight method, we were able to predict the stimulus category from the data while participants performed a semantic categorization task with 4 stimulus modalities (spoken and written names, photographs, and natural sounds). Significant classification performance was achieved in all 4 modalities. Modality-independent decoding was implemented by training and testing the searchlight method across modalities. This allowed the localization of those brain regions, which correctly discriminated between the categories, independent of stimulus modality. The analysis revealed large clusters of voxels in the left inferior temporal cortex and in frontal regions. These voxels also allowed category discrimination in a free recall session where subjects recalled the objects in the absence of external stimuli. The results show that semantic information can be decoded from the fMRI signal independently of the input modality and have clear implications for understanding the functional mechanisms of semantic memory.
  • Simon, E., & Sjerps, M. J. (2014). Developing non-native vowel representations: a study on child second language acquisition. COPAL: Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 5, 693-708.

    Abstract

    This study examines what stage 9‐12‐year‐old Dutch‐speaking children have reached in the development of their L2 lexicon, focusing on its phonological specificity. Two experiments were carried out with a group of Dutch‐speaking children and adults learning English. In a first task, listeners were asked to judge Dutch words which were presented with either the target Dutch vowel or with an English vowel synthetically inserted. The second experiment was a mirror of the first, i.e. with English words and English or Dutch vowels inserted. It was examined to what extent the listeners accepted substitutions of Dutch vowels by English ones, and vice versa. The results of the experiments suggest that the children have not reached the same degree of phonological specificity of L2 words as the adults. Children not only experience a strong influence of their native vowel categories when listening to L2 words, they also apply less strict criteria.
  • Simon, E., Sjerps, M. J., & Fikkert, P. (2014). Phonological representations in children’s native and non-native lexicon. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17(1), 3-21. doi:10.1017/S1366728912000764.

    Abstract

    This study investigated the phonological representations of vowels in children's native and non-native lexicons. Two experiments were mispronunciation tasks (i.e., a vowel in words was substituted by another vowel from the same language). These were carried out by Dutch-speaking 9–12-year-old children and Dutch-speaking adults, in their native (Experiment 1, Dutch) and non-native (Experiment 2, English) language. A third experiment tested vowel discrimination. In Dutch, both children and adults could accurately detect mispronunciations. In English, adults, and especially children, detected substitutions of native vowels (i.e., vowels that are present in the Dutch inventory) by non-native vowels more easily than changes in the opposite direction. Experiment 3 revealed that children could accurately discriminate most of the vowels. The results indicate that children's L1 categories strongly influenced their perception of English words. However, the data also reveal a hint of the development of L2 phoneme categories.

    Additional information

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  • Simpson, N. H., Addis, L., Brandler, W. M., Slonims, V., Clark, A., Watson, J., Scerri, T. S., Hennessy, E. R., Stein, J., Talcott, J., Conti-Ramsden, G., O'Hare, A., Baird, G., Fairfax, B. P., Knight, J. C., Paracchini, S., Fisher, S. E., Newbury, D. F., & The SLI Consortium (2014). Increased prevalence of sex chromosome aneuploidies in specific language impairment and dyslexia. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 56, 346-353. doi:10.1111/dmcn.12294.

    Abstract

    Aim Sex chromosome aneuploidies increase the risk of spoken or written language disorders but individuals with specific language impairment (SLI) or dyslexia do not routinely undergo cytogenetic analysis. We assess the frequency of sex chromosome aneuploidies in individuals with language impairment or dyslexia. Method Genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping was performed in three sample sets: a clinical cohort of individuals with speech and language deficits (87 probands: 61 males, 26 females; age range 4 to 23 years), a replication cohort of individuals with SLI, from both clinical and epidemiological samples (209 probands: 139 males, 70 females; age range 4 to 17 years), and a set of individuals with dyslexia (314 probands: 224 males, 90 females; age range 7 to 18 years). Results In the clinical language-impaired cohort, three abnormal karyotypic results were identified in probands (proband yield 3.4%). In the SLI replication cohort, six abnormalities were identified providing a consistent proband yield (2.9%). In the sample of individuals with dyslexia, two sex chromosome aneuploidies were found giving a lower proband yield of 0.6%. In total, two XYY, four XXY (Klinefelter syndrome), three XXX, one XO (Turner syndrome), and one unresolved karyotype were identified. Interpretation The frequency of sex chromosome aneuploidies within each of the three cohorts was increased over the expected population frequency (approximately 0.25%) suggesting that genetic testing may prove worthwhile for individuals with language and literacy problems and normal non-verbal IQ. Early detection of these aneuploidies can provide information and direct the appropriate management for individuals.
  • Slobin, D. I., Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I., Kopecka, A., & Majid, A. (2014). Manners of human gait: A crosslinguistic event-naming study. Cognitive Linguistics, 25, 701-741. doi:10.1515/cog-2014-0061.

    Abstract

    Crosslinguistic studies of expressions of motion events have found that Talmy's binary typology of verb-framed and satellite-framed languages is reflected in language use. In particular, Manner of motion is relatively more elaborated in satellite-framed languages (e.g., in narrative, picture description, conversation, translation). The present research builds on previous controlled studies of the domain of human motion by eliciting descriptions of a wide range of manners of walking and running filmed in natural circumstances. Descriptions were elicited from speakers of two satellite-framed languages (English, Polish) and three verb-framed languages (French, Spanish, Basque). The sampling of events in this study resulted in four major semantic clusters for these five languages: walking, running, non-canonical gaits (divided into bounce-and-recoil and syncopated movements), and quadrupedal movement (crawling). Counts of verb types found a broad tendency for satellite-framed languages to show greater lexical diversity, along with substantial within group variation. Going beyond most earlier studies, we also examined extended descriptions of manner of movement, isolating types of manner. The following categories of manner were identified and compared: attitude of actor, rate, effort, posture, and motor patterns of legs and feet. Satellite-framed speakers tended to elaborate expressive manner verbs, whereas verb-framed speakers used modification to add manner to neutral motion verbs
  • Sloetjes, H. (2014). ELAN: Multimedia annotation application. In J. Durand, U. Gut, & G. Kristoffersen (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Corpus Phonology (pp. 305-320). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Smeets, C. J. L. M., & Verbeek, D. (2014). Review Cerebellar ataxia and functional genomics: Identifying the routes to cerebellar neurodegeneration. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta: BBA, 1842(10), 2030-2038. doi:10.1016/j.bbadis.2014.04.004.

    Abstract

    Cerebellar ataxias are progressive neurodegenerative disorders characterized by atrophy of the cerebellum leading to motor dysfunction, balance problems, and limb and gait ataxia. These include among others, the dominantly inherited spinocerebellar ataxias, recessive cerebellar ataxias such as Friedreich's ataxia, and X-linked cerebellar ataxias. Since all cerebellar ataxias display considerable overlap in their disease phenotypes, common pathological pathways must underlie the selective cerebellar neurodegeneration. Therefore, it is important to identify the molecular mechanisms and routes to neurodegeneration that cause cerebellar ataxia. In this review, we discuss the use of functional genomic approaches including whole-exome sequencing, genome-wide gene expression profiling, miRNA profiling, epigenetic profiling, and genetic modifier screens to reveal the underlying pathogenesis of various cerebellar ataxias. These approaches have resulted in the identification of many disease genes, modifier genes, and biomarkers correlating with specific stages of the disease. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: From Genome to Function.
  • Smith, A. C., Monaghan, P., & Huettig, F. (2014). Modelling language – vision interactions in the hub and spoke framework. In J. Mayor, & P. Gomez (Eds.), Computational Models of Cognitive Processes: Proceedings of the 13th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW13). (pp. 3-16). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.

    Abstract

    Multimodal integration is a central characteristic of human cognition. However our understanding of the interaction between modalities and its influence on behaviour is still in its infancy. This paper examines the value of the Hub & Spoke framework (Plaut, 2002; Rogers et al., 2004; Dilkina et al., 2008; 2010) as a tool for exploring multimodal interaction in cognition. We present a Hub and Spoke model of language–vision information interaction and report the model’s ability to replicate a range of phonological, visual and semantic similarity word-level effects reported in the Visual World Paradigm (Cooper, 1974; Tanenhaus et al, 1995). The model provides an explicit connection between the percepts of language and the distribution of eye gaze and demonstrates the scope of the Hub-and-Spoke architectural framework by modelling new aspects of multimodal cognition.
  • Smith, A. C., Monaghan, P., & Huettig, F. (2014). Literacy effects on language and vision: Emergent effects from an amodal shared resource (ASR) computational model. Cognitive Psychology, 75, 28-54. doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2014.07.002.

    Abstract

    Learning to read and write requires an individual to connect additional orthographic representations to pre-existing mappings between phonological and semantic representations of words. Past empirical results suggest that the process of learning to read and write (at least in alphabetic languages) elicits changes in the language processing system, by either increasing the cognitive efficiency of mapping between representations associated with a word, or by changing the granularity of phonological processing of spoken language, or through a combination of both. Behavioural effects of literacy have typically been assessed in offline explicit tasks that have addressed only phonological processing. However, a recent eye tracking study compared high and low literate participants on effects of phonology and semantics in processing measured implicitly using eye movements. High literates’ eye movements were more affected by phonological overlap in online speech than low literates, with only subtle differences observed in semantics. We determined whether these effects were due to cognitive efficiency and/or granularity of speech processing in a multimodal model of speech processing – the amodal shared resource model (ASR, Smith, Monaghan, & Huettig, 2013). We found that cognitive efficiency in the model had only a marginal effect on semantic processing and did not affect performance for phonological processing, whereas fine-grained versus coarse-grained phonological representations in the model simulated the high/low literacy effects on phonological processing, suggesting that literacy has a focused effect in changing the grain-size of phonological mappings.
  • Smits, R. (1998). A model for dependencies in phonetic categorization. Proceedings of the 16th International Congress on Acoustics and the 135th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, 2005-2006.

    Abstract

    A quantitative model of human categorization behavior is proposed, which can be applied to 4-alternative forced-choice categorization data involving two binary classifications. A number of processing dependencies between the two classifications are explicitly formulated, such as the dependence of the location, orientation, and steepness of the class boundary for one classification on the outcome of the other classification. The significance of various types of dependencies can be tested statistically. Analyses of a data set from the literature shows that interesting dependencies in human speech recognition can be uncovered using the model.
  • Spada, D., Verga, L., Iadanza, A., Tettamanti, M., & Perani, D. (2014). The auditory scene: An fMRI study on melody and accompaniment in professional pianists. NeuroImage, 102(2), 764-775. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.08.036.

    Abstract

    The auditory scene is a mental representation of individual sounds extracted from the summed sound waveform reaching the ears of the listeners. Musical contexts represent particularly complex cases of auditory scenes. In such a scenario, melody may be seen as the main object moving on a background represented by the accompaniment. Both melody and accompaniment vary in time according to harmonic rules, forming a typical texture with melody in the most prominent, salient voice. In the present sparse acquisition functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the interplay between melody and accompaniment in trained pianists, by observing the activation responses elicited by processing: (1) melody placed in the upper and lower texture voices, leading to, respectively, a higher and lower auditory salience; (2) harmonic violations occurring in either the melody, the accompaniment, or both. The results indicated that the neural activation elicited by the processing of polyphonic compositions in expert musicians depends upon the upper versus lower position of the melodic line in the texture, and showed an overall greater activation for the harmonic processing of melody over accompaniment. Both these two predominant effects were characterized by the involvement of the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, among other associative brain regions. We discuss the prominent role of the posterior medial cortex in the processing of melodic and harmonic information in the auditory stream, and propose to frame this processing in relation to the cognitive construction of complex multimodal sensory imagery scenes.
  • Stergiakouli, E., Gaillard, R., Tavaré, J. M., Balthasar, N., Loos, R. J., Taal, H. R., Evans, D. M., Rivadeneira, F., St Pourcain, B., Uitterlinden, A. G., Kemp, J. P., Hofman, A., Ring, S. M., Cole, T. J., Jaddoe, V. W. V., Davey Smith, G., & Timpson, N. J. (2014). Genome-wide association study of height-adjusted BMI in childhood identifies functional variant in ADCY3. Obesity, 22(10), 2252-2259. doi:10.1002/oby.20840.

    Abstract

    OBJECTIVE: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of BMI are mostly undertaken under the assumption that "kg/m(2) " is an index of weight fully adjusted for height, but in general this is not true. The aim here was to assess the contribution of common genetic variation to a adjusted version of that phenotype which appropriately accounts for covariation in height in children. METHODS: A GWAS of height-adjusted BMI (BMI[x] = weight/height(x) ), calculated to be uncorrelated with height, in 5809 participants (mean age 9.9 years) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) was performed. RESULTS: GWAS based on BMI[x] yielded marked differences in genomewide results profile. SNPs in ADCY3 (adenylate cyclase 3) were associated at genome-wide significance level (rs11676272 (0.28 kg/m(3.1) change per allele G (0.19, 0.38), P = 6 × 10(-9) ). In contrast, they showed marginal evidence of association with conventional BMI [rs11676272 (0.25 kg/m(2) (0.15, 0.35), P = 6 × 10(-7) )]. Results were replicated in an independent sample, the Generation R study. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of BMI[x] showed differences to that of conventional BMI. The association signal at ADCY3 appeared to be driven by a missense variant and it was strongly correlated with expression of this gene. Our work highlights the importance of well understood phenotype use (and the danger of convention) in characterising genetic contributions to complex traits.

    Additional information

    oby20840-sup-0001-suppinfo.docx
  • Stine-Morrow, E., Payne, B., Roberts, B., Kramer, A., Morrow, D., Payne, L., Hill, P., Jackson, J., Gao, X., Noh, S., Janke, M., & Parisi, J. (2014). Training versus engagement as paths to cognitive enrichment with aging. Psychology and Aging, 29, 891-906. doi:10.1037/a0038244.

    Abstract

    While a training model of cognitive intervention targets the improvement of particular skills through instruction and practice, an engagement model is based on the idea that being embedded in an intellectually and socially complex environment can impact cognition, perhaps even broadly, without explicit instruction. We contrasted these 2 models of cognitive enrichment by randomly assigning healthy older adults to a home-based inductive reasoning training program, a team-based competitive program in creative problem solving, or a wait-list control. As predicted, those in the training condition showed selective improvement in inductive reasoning. Those in the engagement condition, on the other hand, showed selective improvement in divergent thinking, a key ability exercised in creative problem solving. On average, then, both groups appeared to show ability-specific effects. However, moderators of change differed somewhat for those in the engagement and training interventions. Generally, those who started either intervention with a more positive cognitive profile showed more cognitive growth, suggesting that cognitive resources enabled individuals to take advantage of environmental enrichment. Only in the engagement condition did initial levels of openness and social network size moderate intervention effects on cognition, suggesting that comfort with novelty and an ability to manage social resources may be additional factors contributing to the capacity to take advantage of the environmental complexity associated with engagement. Collectively, these findings suggest that training and engagement models may offer alternative routes to cognitive resilience in late life

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  • Stivers, T. (1998). Prediagnostic commentary in veterinarian-client interaction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 31(2), 241-277. doi:10.1207/s15327973rlsi3102_4.
  • Stolk, A., Noordzij, M. L., Verhagen, L., Volman, I., Schoffelen, J.-M., Oostenveld, R., Hagoort, P., & Toni, I. (2014). Cerebral coherence between communicators marks the emergence of meaning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111, 18183-18188. doi:10.1073/pnas.1414886111.

    Abstract

    How can we understand each other during communicative interactions? An influential suggestion holds that communicators are primed by each other’s behaviors, with associative mechanisms automatically coordinating the production of communicative signals and the comprehension of their meanings. An alternative suggestion posits that mutual understanding requires shared conceptualizations of a signal’s use, i.e., “conceptual pacts” that are abstracted away from specific experiences. Both accounts predict coherent neural dynamics across communicators, aligned either to the occurrence of a signal or to the dynamics of conceptual pacts. Using coherence spectral-density analysis of cerebral activity simultaneously measured in pairs of communicators, this study shows that establishing mutual understanding of novel signals synchronizes cerebral dynamics across communicators’ right temporal lobes. This interpersonal cerebral coherence occurred only within pairs with a shared communicative history, and at temporal scales independent from signals’ occurrences. These findings favor the notion that meaning emerges from shared conceptualizations of a signal’s use.
  • Stolk, A., Noordzij, M. L., Volman, I., Verhagen, L., Overeem, S., van Elswijk, G., Bloem, B., Hagoort, P., & Toni, I. (2014). Understanding communicative actions: A repetitive TMS study. Cortex, 51, 25-34. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2013.10.005.

    Abstract

    Despite the ambiguity inherent in human communication, people are remarkably efficient in establishing mutual understanding. Studying how people communicate in novel settings provides a window into the mechanisms supporting the human competence to rapidly generate and understand novel shared symbols, a fundamental property of human communication. Previous work indicates that the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is involved when people understand the intended meaning of novel communicative actions. Here, we set out to test whether normal functioning of this cerebral structure is required for understanding novel communicative actions using inhibitory low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). A factorial experimental design contrasted two tightly matched stimulation sites (right pSTS vs. left MT+, i.e. a contiguous homotopic task-relevant region) and tasks (a communicative task vs. a visual tracking task that used the same sequences of stimuli). Overall task performance was not affected by rTMS, whereas changes in task performance over time were disrupted according to TMS site and task combinations. Namely, rTMS over pSTS led to a diminished ability to improve action understanding on the basis of recent communicative history, while rTMS over MT+ perturbed improvement in visual tracking over trials. These findings qualify the contributions of the right pSTS to human communicative abilities, showing that this region might be necessary for incorporating previous knowledge, accumulated during interactions with a communicative partner, to constrain the inferential process that leads to action understanding.
  • Stolker, C. J. J. M., & Poletiek, F. H. (1998). Smartengeld - Wat zijn we eigenlijk aan het doen? Naar een juridische en psychologische evaluatie. In F. Stadermann (Ed.), Bewijs en letselschade (pp. 71-86). Lelystad, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Vermande.
  • Suppes, P., Böttner, M., & Liang, L. (1998). Machine Learning of Physics Word Problems: A Preliminary Report. In A. Aliseda, R. van Glabbeek, & D. Westerståhl (Eds.), Computing Natural Language (pp. 141-154). Stanford, CA, USA: CSLI Publications.
  • Swaab, T. Y., Brown, C. M., & Hagoort, P. (1998). Understanding ambiguous words in sentence contexts: Electrophysiological evidence for delayed contextual selection in Broca's aphasia. Neuropsychologia, 36(8), 737-761. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(97)00174-7.

    Abstract

    This study investigates whether spoken sentence comprehension deficits in Broca's aphasics results from their inability to access the subordinate meaning of ambiguous words (e.g. bank), or alternatively, from a delay in their selection of the contextually appropriate meaning. Twelve Broca's aphasics and twelve elderly controls were presented with lexical ambiguities in three context conditions, each followed by the same target words. In the concordant condition, the sentence context biased the meaning of the sentence final ambiguous word that was related to the target. In the discordant condition, the sentence context biased the meaning of the sentence final ambiguous word that was incompatible with the target.In the unrelated condition, the sentence-final word was unambiguous and unrelated to the target. The task of the subjects was to listen attentively to the stimuli The activational status of the ambiguous sentence-final words was inferred from the amplitude of the N399 to the targets at two inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) (100 ms and 1250 ms). At the short ISI, the Broca's aphasics showed clear evidence of activation of the subordinate meaning. In contrast to elderly controls, however, the Broca's aphasics were not successful at selecting the appropriate meaning of the ambiguity in the short ISI version of the experiment. But at the long ISI, in accordance with the performance of the elderly controls, the patients were able to successfully complete the contextual selection process. These results indicate that Broca's aphasics are delayed in the process of contextual selection. It is argued that this finding of delayed selection is compatible with the idea that comprehension deficits in Broca's aphasia result from a delay in the process of integrating lexical information.
  • De Swart, P., & Van Bergen, G. (2014). Unscrambling the lexical nature of weak definites. In A. Aguilar-Guevara, B. Le Bruyn, & J. Zwarts (Eds.), Weak referentiality (pp. 287-310). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    We investigate how the lexical nature of weak definites influences the phenomenon of direct object scrambling in Dutch. Earlier experiments have indicated that weak definites are more resistant to scrambling than strong definites. We examine how the notion of weak definiteness used in this experimental work can be reduced to lexical connectedness. We explore four different ways of quantifying the relation between a direct object and the verb. Our results show that predictability of a verb given the object (verb cloze probability) provides the best fit to the weak/strong distinction used in the earlier experiments
  • Swift, M. (1998). [Book review of LOUIS-JACQUES DORAIS, La parole inuit: Langue, culture et société dans l'Arctique nord-américain]. Language in Society, 27, 273-276. doi:10.1017/S0047404598282042.

    Abstract

    This volume on Inuit speech follows the evolution of a native language of the North American Arctic, from its historical roots to its present-day linguistic structure and patterns of use from Alaska to Greenland. Drawing on a wide range of research from the fields of linguistics, anthropology, and sociology, Dorais integrates these diverse perspectives in a comprehensive view of native language development, maintenance, and use under conditions of marginalization due to social transition.
  • Takashima, A., Wagensveld, B., Van Turennout, M., Zwitserlood, P., Hagoort, P., & Verhoeven, L. (2014). Training-induced neural plasticity in visual-word decoding and the role of syllables. Neuropsychologia, 61, 299-314. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.06.017.

    Abstract

    To investigate the neural underpinnings of word decoding, and how it changes as a function of repeated exposure, we trained Dutch participants repeatedly over the course of a month of training to articulate a set of novel disyllabic input strings written in Greek script to avoid the use of familiar orthographic representations. The syllables in the input were phonotactically legal combinations but non-existent in the Dutch language, allowing us to assess their role in novel word decoding. Not only trained disyllabic pseudowords were tested but also pseudowords with recombined patterns of syllables to uncover the emergence of syllabic representations. We showed that with extensive training, articulation became faster and more accurate for the trained pseudowords. On the neural level, the initial stage of decoding was reflected by increased activity in visual attention areas of occipito-temporal and occipito-parietal cortices, and in motor coordination areas of the precentral gyrus and the inferior frontal gyrus. After one month of training, memory representations for holistic information (whole word unit) were established in areas encompassing the angular gyrus, the precuneus and the middle temporal gyrus. Syllabic representations also emerged through repeated training of disyllabic pseudowords, such that reading recombined syllables of the trained pseudowords showed similar brain activation to trained pseudowords and were articulated faster than novel combinations of letter strings used in the trained pseudowords.
  • Takashima, A., Bakker, I., Van Hell, J. G., Janzen, G., & McQueen, J. M. (2014). Richness of information about novel words influences how episodic and semantic memory networks interact during lexicalization. NeuroImage, 84, 265-278. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.08.023.

    Abstract

    The complementary learning systems account of declarative memory suggests two distinct memory networks, a fast-mapping, episodic system involving the hippocampus, and a slower semantic memory system distributed across the neocortex in which new information is gradually integrated with existing representations. In this study, we investigated the extent to which these two networks are involved in the integration of novel words into the lexicon after extensive learning, and how the involvement of these networks changes after 24 hours. In particular, we explored whether having richer information at encoding influences the lexicalization trajectory. We trained participants with two sets of novel words, one where exposure was only to the words’ phonological forms (the form-only condition), and one where pictures of unfamiliar objects were associated with the words’ phonological forms (the picture-associated condition). A behavioral measure of lexical competition (indexing lexicalization) indicated stronger competition effects for the form-only words. Imaging (fMRI) results revealed greater involvement of phonological lexical processing areas immediately after training in the form-only condition, suggesting tight connections were formed between novel words and existing lexical entries already at encoding. Retrieval of picture-associated novel words involved the episodic/hippocampal memory system more extensively. Although lexicalization was weaker in the picture-associated condition, overall memory strength was greater when tested after a 24 hours’ delay, probably due to the availability of both episodic and lexical memory networks to aid retrieval. It appears that, during lexicalization of a novel word, the relative involvement of different memory networks differs according to the richness of the information about that word available at encoding.
  • Tamaoka, K., Saito, N., Kiyama, S., Timmer, K., & Verdonschot, R. G. (2014). Is pitch accent necessary for comprehension by native Japanese speakers? - An ERP investigation. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 27(1), 31-40. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2013.08.001.

    Abstract

    Not unlike the tonal system in Chinese, Japanese habitually attaches pitch accents to the production of words. However, in contrast to Chinese, few homophonic word-pairs are really distinguished by pitch accents (Shibata & Shibata, 1990). This predicts that pitch accent plays a small role in lexical selection for Japanese language comprehension. The present study investigated whether native Japanese speakers necessarily use pitch accent in the processing of accent-contrasted homophonic pairs (e.g., ame [LH] for 'candy' and ame [HI] for 'rain') measuring electroencephalographic (EEG) potentials. Electrophysiological evidence (i.e., N400) was obtained when a word was semantically incorrect for a given context but not for incorrectly accented homophones. This suggests that pitch accent indeed plays a minor role when understanding Japanese. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
  • Tanner, D., Nicol, J., & Brehm, L. (2014). The time-course of feature interference in agreement comprehension: Multiple mechanisms and asymmetrical attraction. Journal of Memory and Language, 76, 195-215. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2014.07.003.

    Abstract

    Attraction interference in language comprehension and production may be as a result of common or different processes. In the present paper, we investigate attraction interference during language comprehension, focusing on the contexts in which interference arises and the time-course of these effects. Using evidence from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and sentence judgment times, we show that agreement attraction in comprehension is best explained as morphosyntactic interference during memory retrieval. This stands in contrast to attraction as a message-level process involving the representation of the subject NP's number features, which is a strong contributor to attraction in production. We thus argue that the cognitive antecedents of agreement attraction in comprehension are non-identical with those of attraction in production, and moreover, that attraction in comprehension is primarily a consequence of similarity-based interference in cue-based memory retrieval processes. We suggest that mechanisms responsible for attraction during language comprehension are a subset of those involved in language production.
  • Ten Oever, S., Schroeder, C. E., Poeppel, D., Van Atteveldt, N., & Zion-Golumbic, E. (2014). Rhythmicity and cross-modal temporal cues facilitate detection. Neuropsychologia, 63, 43-50. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.08.008.

    Abstract

    Temporal structure in the environment often has predictive value for anticipating the occurrence of forthcoming events. In this study we investigated the influence of two types of predictive temporal information on the perception of near-threshold auditory stimuli: 1) intrinsic temporal rhythmicity within an auditory stimulus stream and 2) temporally-predictive visual cues. We hypothesized that combining predictive temporal information within- and across-modality should decrease the threshold at which sounds are detected, beyond the advantage provided by each information source alone. Two experiments were conducted in which participants had to detect tones in noise. Tones were presented in either rhythmic or random sequences and were preceded by a temporally predictive visual signal in half of the trials. We show that detection intensities are lower for rhythmic (vs. random) and audiovisual (vs. auditory-only) presentation, independent from response bias, and that this effect is even greater for rhythmic audiovisual presentation. These results suggest that both types of temporal information are used to optimally process sounds that occur at expected points in time (resulting in enhanced detection), and that multiple temporal cues are combined to improve temporal estimates. Our findings underscore the flexibility and proactivity of the perceptual system which uses within- and across-modality temporal cues to anticipate upcoming events and process them optimally. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
  • Terwisscha van Scheltinga, A. F., Bakker, S. C., Van Haren, N. E., Boos, H. B., Schnack, H. G., Cahn, W., Hoogman, M., Zwiers, M. P., Fernandez, G., Franke, B., Hulshoff Pol, H. E., & Kahn, R. S. (2014). Association study of fibroblast growth factor genes and brain volumes in schizophrenic patients and healthy controls. Psychiatric Genetics, 24, 283-284. doi:10.1097/YPG.0000000000000057.
  • Theakston, A., Coates, A., & Holler, J. (2014). Handling agents and patients: Representational cospeech gestures help children comprehend complex syntactic constructions. Developmental Psychology, 50(7), 1973-1984. doi:10.1037/a0036694.

    Abstract

    Gesture is an important precursor of children’s early language development, for example, in the transition to multiword speech and as a predictor of later language abilities. However, it is unclear whether gestural input can influence children’s comprehension of complex grammatical constructions. In Study 1, 3- (M = 3 years 5 months) and 4-year-old (M = 4 years 6 months) children witnessed 2-participant actions described using the infrequent object-cleft-construction (OCC; It was the dog that the cat chased). Half saw an experimenter accompanying her descriptions with gestures representing the 2 participants and indicating the direction of action; the remaining children did not witness gesture. Children who witnessed gestures showed better comprehension of the OCC than those who did not witness gestures, both in and beyond the immediate physical context, but this benefit was restricted to the oldest 4-year-olds. In Study 2, a further group of older 4-year-old children (M = 4 years 7 months) witnessed the same 2-participant actions described by an experimenter and accompanied by gestures, but the gesture represented only the 2 participants and not the direction of the action. Again, a benefit of gesture was observed on subsequent comprehension of the OCC. We interpret these findings as demonstrating that representational cospeech gestures can help children comprehend complex linguistic structures by highlighting the roles played by the participants in the event.

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  • Thompson, P. M., Stein, J. L., Medland, S. E., Hibar, D. P., Vasquez, A. A., Renteria, M. E., Toro, R., Jahanshad, N., Schumann, G., Franke, B., Wright, M. J., Martin, N. G., Agartz, I., Alda, M., Alhusaini, S., Almasy, L., Almeida, J., Alpert, K., Andreasen, N. C., Andreassen, O. A. and 269 moreThompson, P. M., Stein, J. L., Medland, S. E., Hibar, D. P., Vasquez, A. A., Renteria, M. E., Toro, R., Jahanshad, N., Schumann, G., Franke, B., Wright, M. J., Martin, N. G., Agartz, I., Alda, M., Alhusaini, S., Almasy, L., Almeida, J., Alpert, K., Andreasen, N. C., Andreassen, O. A., Apostolova, L. G., Appel, K., Armstrong, N. J., Aribisala, B., Bastin, M. E., Bauer, M., Bearden, C. E., Bergmann, Ø., Binder, E. B., Blangero, J., Bockholt, H. J., Bøen, E., Bois, C., Boomsma, D. I., Booth, T., Bowman, I. J., Bralten, J., Brouwer, R. M., Brunner, H. G., Brohawn, D. G., Buckner, R. L., Buitelaar, J., Bulayeva, K., Bustillo, J. R., Calhoun, V. D., Cannon, D. M., Cantor, R. M., Carless, M. A., Caseras, X., Cavalleri, G. L., Chakravarty, M. M., Chang, K. D., Ching, C. R. K., Christoforou, A., Cichon, S., Clark, V. P., Conrod, P., Coppola, G., Crespo-Facorro, B., Curran, J. E., Czisch, M., Deary, I. J., de Geus, E. J. C., den Braber, A., Delvecchio, G., Depondt, C., de Haan, L., de Zubicaray, G. I., Dima, D., Dimitrova, R., Djurovic, S., Dong, H., Donohoe, G., Duggirala, R., Dyer, T. D., Ehrlich, S., Ekman, C. J., Elvsåshagen, T., Emsell, L., Erk, S., Espeseth, T., Fagerness, J., Fears, S., Fedko, I., Fernández, G., Fisher, S. E., Foroud, T., Fox, P. T., Francks, C., Frangou, S., Frey, E. M., Frodl, T., Frouin, V., Garavan, H., Giddaluru, S., Glahn, D. C., Godlewska, B., Goldstein, R. Z., Gollub, R. L., Grabe, H. J., Grimm, O., Gruber, O., Guadalupe, T., Gur, R. E., Gur, R. C., Göring, H. H. H., Hagenaars, S., Hajek, T., Hall, G. B., Hall, J., Hardy, J., Hartman, C. A., Hass, J., Hatton, S. N., Haukvik, U. K., Hegenscheid, K., Heinz, A., Hickie, I. B., Ho, B.-C., Hoehn, D., Hoekstra, P. J., Hollinshead, M., Holmes, A. J., Homuth, G., Hoogman, M., Hong, L. E., Hosten, N., Hottenga, J.-J., Pol, H. E. H., Hwang, K. S., Jr, C. R. J., Jenkinson, M., Johnston, C., Jönsson, E. G., Kahn, R. S., Kasperaviciute, D., Kelly, S., Kim, S., Kochunov, P., Koenders, L., Krämer, B., Kwok, J. B. J., Lagopoulos, J., Laje, G., Landen, M., Landman, B. A., Lauriello, J., Lawrie, S. M., Lee, P. H., Le Hellard, S., Lemaître, H., Leonardo, C. D., Li, C.-s., Liberg, B., Liewald, D. C., Liu, X., Lopez, L. M., Loth, E., Lourdusamy, A., Luciano, M., Macciardi, F., Machielsen, M. W. J., MacQueen, G. M., Malt, U. F., Mandl, R., Manoach, D. S., Martinot, J.-L., Matarin, M., Mather, K. A., Mattheisen, M., Mattingsdal, M., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., McDonald, C., McIntosh, A. M., McMahon, F. J., McMahon, K. L., Meisenzahl, E., Melle, I., Milaneschi, Y., Mohnke, S., Montgomery, G. W., Morris, D. W., Moses, E. K., Mueller, B. A., Maniega, S. M., Mühleisen, T. W., Müller-Myhsok, B., Mwangi, B., Nauck, M., Nho, K., Nichols, T. E., Nilsson, L.-G., Nugent, A. C., Nyberg, L., Olvera, R. L., Oosterlaan, J., Ophoff, R. A., Pandolfo, M., Papalampropoulou-Tsiridou, M., Papmeyer, M., Paus, T., Pausova, Z., Pearlson, G. D., Penninx, B. W., Peterson, C. P., Pfennig, A., Phillips, M., Pike, G. B., Poline, J.-B., Potkin, S. G., Pütz, B., Ramasamy, A., Rasmussen, J., Rietschel, M., Rijpkema, M., Risacher, S. L., Roffman, J. L., Roiz-Santiañez, R., Romanczuk-Seiferth, N., Rose, E. J., Royle, N. A., Rujescu, D., Ryten, M., Sachdev, P. S., Salami, A., Satterthwaite, T. D., Savitz, J., Saykin, A. J., Scanlon, C., Schmaal, L., Schnack, H. G., Schork, A. J., Schulz, S. C., Schür, R., Seidman, L., Shen, L., Shoemaker, J. M., Simmons, A., Sisodiya, S. M., Smith, C., Smoller, J. W., Soares, J. C., Sponheim, S. R., Sprooten, E., Starr, J. M., Steen, V. M., Strakowski, S., Strike, L., Sussmann, J., Sämann, P. G., Teumer, A., Toga, A. W., Tordesillas-Gutierrez, D., Trabzuni, D., Trost, S., Turner, J., Van den Heuvel, M., van der Wee, N. J., van Eijk, K., van Erp, T. G. M., van Haren, N. E. M., van Ent, D. ‘., van Tol, M.-J., Hernández, M. C. V., Veltman, D. J., Versace, A., Völzke, H., Walker, R., Walter, H., Wang, L., Wardlaw, J. M., Weale, M. E., Weiner, M. W., Wen, W., Westlye, L. T., Whalley, H. C., Whelan, C. D., White, T., Winkler, A. M., Wittfeld, K., Woldehawariat, G., Wolf, C., Zilles, D., Zwiers, M. P., Thalamuthu, A., Schofield, P. R., Freimer, N. B., Lawrence, N. S., & Drevets, W. (2014). The ENIGMA Consortium: Large-scale collaborative analyses of neuroimaging and genetic data. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 8(2), 153-182. doi:10.1007/s11682-013-9269-5.

    Abstract

    The Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium is a collaborative network of researchers working together on a range of large-scale studies that integrate data from 70 institutions worldwide. Organized into Working Groups that tackle questions in neuroscience, genetics, and medicine, ENIGMA studies have analyzed neuroimaging data from over 12,826 subjects. In addition, data from 12,171 individuals were provided by the CHARGE consortium for replication of findings, in a total of 24,997 subjects. By meta-analyzing results from many sites, ENIGMA has detected factors that affect the brain that no individual site could detect on its own, and that require larger numbers of subjects than any individual neuroimaging study has currently collected. ENIGMA’s first project was a genome-wide association study identifying common variants in the genome associated with hippocampal volume or intracranial volume. Continuing work is exploring genetic associations with subcortical volumes (ENIGMA2) and white matter microstructure (ENIGMA-DTI). Working groups also focus on understanding how schizophrenia, bipolar illness, major depression and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affect the brain. We review the current progress of the ENIGMA Consortium, along with challenges and unexpected discoveries made on the way
  • Thorgrimsson, G., Fawcett, C., & Liszkowski, U. (2014). Infants’ expectations about gestures and actions in third-party interactions. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 321. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00321.

    Abstract

    We investigated 14-month-old infants’ expectations toward a third party addressee of communicative gestures and an instrumental action. Infants’ eye movements were tracked as they observed a person (the Gesturer) point, direct a palm-up request gesture, or reach toward an object, and another person (the Addressee) respond by grasping it. Infants’ looking patterns indicate that when the Gesturer pointed or used the palm-up request, infants anticipated that the Addressee would give the object to the Gesturer, suggesting that they ascribed a motive of request to the gestures. In contrast, when the Gesturer reached for the object, and in a control condition where no action took place, the infants did not anticipate the Addressee’s response. The results demonstrate that infants’ recognition of communicative gestures extends to others’ interactions, and that infants can anticipate how third-party addressees will respond to others’ gestures.
  • Tilot, A. K., Gaugler, M. K., Yu, Q., Romigh, T., Yu, W., Miller, R. H., Frazier, T. W., & Eng, C. (2014). Germline disruption of Pten localization causes enhanced sex-dependent social motivation and increased glial production. Human Molecular Genetics, 23(12), 3212-3227. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddu031.

    Abstract

    PTEN Hamartoma Tumor Syndrome (PHTS) is an autosomal-dominant genetic condition underlying a subset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with macrocephaly. Caused by germline mutations in PTEN, PHTS also causes increased risks of multiple cancers via dysregulation of the PI3K and MAPK signaling pathways. Conditional knockout models have shown that neural Pten regulates social behavior, proliferation and cell size. Although much is known about how the intracellular localization of PTEN regulates signaling in cancer cell lines, we know little of how PTEN localization influences normal brain physiology and behavior. To address this, we generated a germline knock-in mouse model of cytoplasm-predominant Pten and characterized its behavioral and cellular phenotypes. The homozygous Ptenm3m4 mice have decreased total Pten levels including a specific drop in nuclear Pten and exhibit region-specific increases in brain weight. The Ptenm3m4 model displays sex-specific increases in social motivation, poor balance and normal recognition memory—a profile reminiscent of some individuals with high functioning ASD. The cytoplasm-predominant protein caused cellular hypertrophy limited to the soma and led to increased NG2 cell proliferation and accumulation of glia. The animals also exhibit significant astrogliosis and microglial activation, indicating a neuroinflammatory phenotype. At the signaling level, Ptenm3m4 mice show brain region-specific differences in Akt activation. These results demonstrate that differing alterations to the same autism-linked gene can cause distinct behavioral profiles. The Ptenm3m4 model is the first murine model of inappropriately elevated social motivation in the context of normal cognition and may expand the range of autism-related behaviors replicated in animal models.
  • Tooley, K., Konopka, A. E., & Watson, D. (2014). Can intonational phrase structure be primed (like syntactic structure)? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(2), 348-363. doi:10.1037/a0034900.

    Abstract

    In 3 experiments, we investigated whether intonational phrase structure can be primed. In all experiments, participants listened to sentences in which the presence and location of intonational phrase boundaries were manipulated such that the recording included either no intonational phrase boundaries, a boundary in a structurally dispreferred location, a boundary in a preferred location, or boundaries in both locations. In Experiment 1, participants repeated the sentences to test whether they would reproduce the prosodic structure they had just heard. Experiments 2 and 3 used a prime–target paradigm to evaluate whether the intonational phrase structure heard in the prime sentence might influence that of a novel target sentence. Experiment 1 showed that participants did repeat back sentences that they had just heard with the original intonational phrase structure, yet Experiments 2 and 3 found that exposure to intonational phrase boundaries on prime trials did not influence how a novel target sentence was prosodically phrased. These results suggest that speakers may retain the intonational phrasing of a sentence, but this effect is not long-lived and does not generalize across unrelated sentences. Furthermore, these findings provide no evidence that intonational phrase structure is formulated during a planning stage that is separate from other sources of linguistic information.

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