Publications

Displaying 701 - 800 of 807
  • Ten Oever, S., Sack, A. T., Wheat, K. L., Bien, N., & Van Atteveldt, N. (2013). Audio-visual onset differences are used to determine syllable identity for ambiguous audio-visual stimulus pairs. Frontiers in Psychology, 4: 331. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00331.

    Abstract

    Content and temporal cues have been shown to interact during audio-visual (AV) speech identification. Typically, the most reliable unimodal cue is used more strongly to identify specific speech features; however, visual cues are only used if the AV stimuli are presented within a certain temporal window of integration (TWI). This suggests that temporal cues denote whether unimodal stimuli belong together, that is, whether they should be integrated. It is not known whether temporal cues also provide information about the identity of a syllable. Since spoken syllables have naturally varying AV onset asynchronies, we hypothesize that for suboptimal AV cues presented within the TWI, information about the natural AV onset differences can aid in speech identification. To test this, we presented low-intensity auditory syllables concurrently with visual speech signals, and varied the stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) of the AV pair, while participants were instructed to identify the auditory syllables. We revealed that specific speech features (e.g., voicing) were identified by relying primarily on one modality (e.g., auditory). Additionally, we showed a wide window in which visual information influenced auditory perception, that seemed even wider for congruent stimulus pairs. Finally, we found a specific response pattern across the SOA range for syllables that were not reliably identified by the unimodal cues, which we explained as the result of the use of natural onset differences between AV speech signals. This indicates that temporal cues not only provide information about the temporal integration of AV stimuli, but additionally convey information about the identity of AV pairs. These results provide a detailed behavioral basis for further neuro-imaging and stimulation studies to unravel the neurofunctional mechanisms of the audio-visual-temporal interplay within speech perception.
  • Tendolkar, I., Arnold, J., Petersson, K. M., Weis, S., Brockhaus-Dumke, A., Van Eijndhoven, P., Buitelaar, J., & Fernández, G. (2007). Probing the neural correlates of associative memory formation: A parametrically analyzed event-related functional MRI study. Brain Research, 1142, 159-168. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2007.01.040.

    Abstract

    The medial temporal lobe (MTL) is crucial for declarative memory formation, but the function of its subcomponents in associative memory formation remains controversial. Most functional imaging studies on this topic are based on a stepwise approach comparing a condition with and one without associative encoding. Extending this approach we applied additionally a parametric analysis by varying the amount of associative memory formation. We found a hippocampal subsequent memory effect of almost similar magnitude regardless of the amount of associations formed. By contrast, subsequent memory effects in rhinal and parahippocampal cortices were parametrically and positively modulated by the amount of associations formed. Our results indicate that the parahippocampal region supports associative memory formation as tested here and the hippocampus adds a general mnemonic operation. This pattern of results might suggest a new interpretation. Instead of having either a fixed division of labor between the hippocampus (associative memory formation) and the rhinal cortex (non-associative memory formation) or a functionally unitary MTL system, in which all substructures are contributing to memory formation in a similar way, we propose that the location where associations are formed within the MTL depends on the kind of associations bound: If visual single-dimension associations, as used here, can already be integrated within the parahippocampal region, the hippocampus might add a general purpose mnemonic operation only. In contrast, if associations have to be formed across widely distributed neocortical representations, the hippocampus may provide a binding operation in order to establish a coherent memory.
  • Terrill, A. (2007). [Review of ‘Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson, and Robin Hide, eds. 2005. Papuan pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking people]. Oceanic Linguistics, 46(1), 313-321. doi:10.1353/ol.2007.0025.
  • Thorin, J., Sadakata, M., Desain, P., & McQueen, J. M. (2018). Perception and production in interaction during non-native speech category learning. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 144(1), 92-103. doi:10.1121/1.5044415.

    Abstract

    Establishing non-native phoneme categories can be a notoriously difficult endeavour—in both speech perception and speech production. This study asks how these two domains interact in the course of this learning process. It investigates the effect of perceptual learning and related production practice of a challenging non-native category on the perception and/or production of that category. A four-day perceptual training protocol on the British English /æ/-/ɛ/ vowel contrast was combined with either related or unrelated production practice. After feedback on perceptual categorisation of the contrast, native Dutch participants in the related production group (N = 19) pronounced the trial's correct answer, while participants in the unrelated production group (N = 19) pronounced similar but phonologically unrelated words. Comparison of pre- and post-tests showed significant improvement over the course of training in both perception and production, but no differences between the groups were found. The lack of an effect of production practice is discussed in the light of previous, competing results and models of second-language speech perception and production. This study confirms that, even in the context of related production practice, perceptual training boosts production learning.
  • Tian, X., Ding, N., Teng, X., Bai, F., & Poeppel, D. (2018). Imagined speech influences perceived loudness of sound. Nature Human Behaviour, 2, 225-234. doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0305-8.

    Abstract

    The way top-down and bottom-up processes interact to shape our perception and behaviour is a fundamental question and remains highly controversial. How early in a processing stream do such interactions occur, and what factors govern such interactions? The degree of abstractness of a perceptual attribute (for example, orientation versus shape in vision, or loudness versus sound identity in hearing) may determine the locus of neural processing and interaction between bottom-up and internal information. Using an imagery-perception repetition paradigm, we find that imagined speech affects subsequent auditory perception, even for a low-level attribute such as loudness. This effect is observed in early auditory responses in magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography that correlate with behavioural loudness ratings. The results suggest that the internal reconstruction of neural representations without external stimulation is flexibly regulated by task demands, and that such top-down processes can interact with bottom-up information at an early perceptual stage to modulate perception.
  • Tilot, A. K., Kucera, K. S., Vino, A., Asher, J. E., Baron-Cohen, S., & Fisher, S. E. (2018). Rare variants in axonogenesis genes connect three families with sound–color synesthesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(12), 3168-3173. doi:10.1073/pnas.1715492115.

    Abstract

    Synesthesia is a rare nonpathological phenomenon where stimulation of one sense automatically provokes a secondary perception in another. Hypothesized to result from differences in cortical wiring during development, synesthetes show atypical structural and functional neural connectivity, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are unknown. The trait also appears to be more common among people with autism spectrum disorder and savant abilities. Previous linkage studies searching for shared loci of large effect size across multiple families have had limited success. To address the critical lack of candidate genes, we applied whole-exome sequencing to three families with sound–color (auditory–visual) synesthesia affecting multiple relatives across three or more generations. We identified rare genetic variants that fully cosegregate with synesthesia in each family, uncovering 37 genes of interest. Consistent with reports indicating genetic heterogeneity, no variants were shared across families. Gene ontology analyses highlighted six genes—COL4A1, ITGA2, MYO10, ROBO3, SLC9A6, and SLIT2—associated with axonogenesis and expressed during early childhood when synesthetic associations are formed. These results are consistent with neuroimaging-based hypotheses about the role of hyperconnectivity in the etiology of synesthesia and offer a potential entry point into the neurobiology that organizes our sensory experiences.

    Additional information

    Tilot_etal_2018SI.pdf
  • Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., & Liszkowski, U. (2007). A new look at infant pointing. Child Development, 78, 705-722. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01025.x.

    Abstract

    The current article proposes a new theory of infant pointing involving multiple layers of intentionality and shared intentionality. In the context of this theory, evidence is presented for a rich interpretation of prelinguistic communication, that is, one that posits that when 12-month-old infants point for an adult they are in some sense trying to influence her mental states. Moreover, evidence is also presented for a deeply social view in which infant pointing is best understood—on many levels and in many ways—as depending on uniquely human skills and motivations for cooperation and shared intentionality (e.g., joint intentions and attention with others). Children's early linguistic skills are built on this already existing platform of prelinguistic communication.
  • Tornero, D., Wattananit, S., Madsen, M. G., Koch, P., Wood, J., Tatarishvili, J., Mine, Y., Ge, R., Monni, E., Devaraju, K., Hevner, R. F., Bruestle, O., Lindval, O., & Kokaia, Z. (2013). Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cortical neurons integrate in stroke-injured cortex and improve functional recovery. Brain, 136(12), 3561-3577. doi:10.1093/brain/awt278.

    Abstract

    Stem cell-based approaches to restore function after stroke through replacement of dead neurons require the generation of specific neuronal subtypes. Loss of neurons in the cerebral cortex is a major cause of stroke-induced neurological deficits in adult humans. Reprogramming of adult human somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells is a novel approach to produce patient-specific cells for autologous transplantation. Whether such cells can be converted to functional cortical neurons that survive and give rise to behavioural recovery after transplantation in the stroke-injured cerebral cortex is not known. We have generated progenitors in vitro, expressing specific cortical markers and giving rise to functional neurons, from long-term self-renewing neuroepithelial-like stem cells, produced from adult human fibroblast-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. At 2 months after transplantation into the stroke-damaged rat cortex, the cortically fated cells showed less proliferation and more efficient conversion to mature neurons with morphological and immunohistochemical characteristics of a cortical phenotype and higher axonal projection density as compared with non-fated cells. Pyramidal morphology and localization of the cells expressing the cortex-specific marker TBR1 in a certain layered pattern provided further evidence supporting the cortical phenotype of the fated, grafted cells, and electrophysiological recordings demonstrated their functionality. Both fated and non-fated cell-transplanted groups showed bilateral recovery of the impaired function in the stepping test compared with vehicle-injected animals. The behavioural improvement at this early time point was most likely not due to neuronal replacement and reconstruction of circuitry. At 5 months after stroke in immunocompromised rats, there was no tumour formation and the grafted cells exhibited electrophysiological properties of mature neurons with evidence of integration in host circuitry. Our findings show, for the first time, that human skin-derived induced pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated to cortical neuronal progenitors, which survive, differentiate to functional neurons and improve neurological outcome after intracortical implantation in a rat stroke model.
  • Torreira, F., & Grice, M. (2018). Melodic constructions in Spanish: Metrical structure determines the association properties of intonational tones. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 48(1), 9-32. doi:10.1017/S0025100317000603.

    Abstract

    This paper explores phrase-length-related alternations in the association of tones to positions in metrical structure in two melodic constructions of Spanish. An imitation-and-completion task eliciting (a) the low–falling–rising contour and (b) the circumflex contour on intonation phrases (IPs) of one, two, and three prosodic words revealed that, although the focus structure and pragmatic context is constant across conditions, phrases containing one prosodic word differ in their nuclear (i.e. final) pitch accents and edge tones from phrases containing more than one prosodic word. For contour (a), short intonation phrases (e.g. [ Ma no lo ] IP ) were produced with a low accent followed by a high edge tone (L ∗ H% in ToBI notation), whereas longer phrases (e.g. [ El her ma no de la a m igadeMa no lo ] IP ‘Manolo’s friend’s brother’) had a low accent on the first stressed syllable, a rising accent on the last stressed syllable, and a low edge tone (L ∗ L+H ∗ L%). For contour (b), short phrases were produced with a high–rise (L+H ∗ ¡H%), whereas longer phrases were produced with an initial accentual rise followed by an upstepped rise–fall (L+H ∗ ¡H ∗ L%). These findings imply that the common practice of describing the structure of intonation contours as consisting of a constant nuclear pitch accent and following edge tone is not adequate for modeling Spanish intonation. To capture the observed melodic alternations, we argue for clearer separation between tones and metrical structure, whereby intonational tones do not necessarily have an intrinsic culminative or delimitative function (i.e. as pitch accents or as edge tones). Instead, this function results from melody-specific principles of tonal–metrical association.
  • Tribushinina, E., Mak, M., Dubinkina, E., & Mak, W. M. (2018). Adjective production by Russian-speaking children with developmental language disorder and Dutch–Russian simultaneous bilinguals: Disentangling the profiles. Applied Psycholinguistics, 39(5), 1033-1064. doi:10.1017/S0142716418000115.

    Abstract

    Bilingual children with reduced exposure to one or both languages may have language profiles that are
    apparently similar to those of children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Children with
    DLD receive enough input, but have difficulty using this input for acquisition due to processing deficits.
    The present investigation aims to determine aspects of adjective production that are differentially
    affected by reduced input (in bilingualism) and reduced intake (in DLD). Adjectives were elicited
    from Dutch–Russian simultaneous bilinguals with limited exposure to Russian and Russian-speaking
    monolinguals with andwithout DLD.Anantonymelicitation taskwas used to assess the size of adjective
    vocabularies, and a degree task was employed to compare the preferences of the three groups in the
    use of morphological, lexical, and syntactic degree markers. The results revealed that adjective–noun
    agreement is affected to the same extent by both reduced input and reduced intake. The size of adjective
    lexicons is also negatively affected by both, but more so by reduced exposure. However, production
    of morphological degree markers and learning of semantic paradigms are areas of relative strength in
    which bilinguals outperform monolingual children with DLD.We suggest that reduced input might be
    counterbalanced by linguistic and cognitive advantages of bilingualism
  • Tromp, J., Peeters, D., Meyer, A. S., & Hagoort, P. (2018). The combined use of Virtual Reality and EEG to study language processing in naturalistic environments. Behavior Research Methods, 50(2), 862-869. doi:10.3758/s13428-017-0911-9.

    Abstract

    When we comprehend language, we often do this in rich settings in which we can use many cues to understand what someone is saying. However, it has traditionally been difficult to design experiments with rich three-dimensional contexts that resemble our everyday environments, while maintaining control over the linguistic and non-linguistic information that is available. Here we test the validity of combining electroencephalography (EEG) and Virtual Reality (VR) to overcome this problem. We recorded electrophysiological brain activity during language processing in a well-controlled three-dimensional virtual audiovisual environment. Participants were immersed in a virtual restaurant, while wearing EEG equipment. In the restaurant participants encountered virtual restaurant guests. Each guest was seated at a separate table with an object on it (e.g. a plate with salmon). The restaurant guest would then produce a sentence (e.g. “I just ordered this salmon.”). The noun in the spoken sentence could either match (“salmon”) or mismatch (“pasta”) with the object on the table, creating a situation in which the auditory information was either appropriate or inappropriate in the visual context. We observed a reliable N400 effect as a consequence of the mismatch. This finding validates the combined use of VR and EEG as a tool to study the neurophysiological mechanisms of everyday language comprehension in rich, ecologically valid settings.
  • Trompenaars, T. (2018). Empathy for the inanimate. Linguistics in the Netherlands, 35, 125-138. doi:10.1075/avt.00009.tro.

    Abstract

    Narrative fiction may invite us to share the perspective of characters which are very much unlike ourselves. Inanimate objects featuring as protagonists or narrators are an extreme example of this. The way readers experience these characters was examined by means of a narrative immersion study. Participants (N = 200) judged narratives containing animate or inanimate characters in predominantly Agent or Experiencer roles. Narratives with inanimate characters were judged to be less emotionally engaging. This effect was influenced by the dominant thematic role associated with the character: inanimate Agents led to more defamiliarization compared to their animate counterparts than inanimate Experiencers. I argue for an integrated account of thematic roles and animacy in literary experience and linguistics in general.
  • Trompenaars, T., Hogeweg, L., Stoop, W., & De Hoop, H. (2018). The language of an inanimate narrator. Open Linguistics, 4, 707-721. doi:10.1515/opli-2018-0034.

    Abstract

    We show by means of a corpus study that the language used by the inanimate first person narrator in the novel Specht en zoon deviates from what we would expect on the basis of the fact that the narrator is inanimate, but at the same time also differsfrom the language of a human narrator in the novel De wijde blik on several linguistic dimensions. Whereas the human narrator is associated strongly with action verbs, preferring the Agent role, the inanimate narrator is much more limited to the Experiencer role, predominantly associated with cognition and sensory verbs. Our results show that animacy as a linguistic concept may be refined by taking into account the myriad ways in which an entity’s conceptual animacy may be expressed: we accept the conceptual animacy of the inanimate narrator despite its inability to act on its environment, showing this need not be a requirement for animacy
  • Trujillo, J. P., Simanova, I., Bekkering, H., & Ozyurek, A. (2018). Communicative intent modulates production and perception of actions and gestures: A Kinect study. Cognition, 180, 38-51. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2018.04.003.

    Abstract

    Actions may be used to directly act on the world around us, or as a means of communication. Effective communication requires the addressee to recognize the act as being communicative. Humans are sensitive to ostensive communicative cues, such as direct eye gaze (Csibra & Gergely, 2009). However, there may be additional cues present in the action or gesture itself. Here we investigate features that characterize the initiation of a communicative interaction in both production and comprehension.

    We asked 40 participants to perform 31 pairs of object-directed actions and representational gestures in more- or less- communicative contexts. Data were collected using motion capture technology for kinematics and video recording for eye-gaze. With these data, we focused on two issues. First, if and how actions and gestures are systematically modulated when performed in a communicative context. Second, if observers exploit such kinematic information to classify an act as communicative.

    Our study showed that during production the communicative context modulates space–time dimensions of kinematics and elicits an increase in addressee-directed eye-gaze. Naïve participants detected communicative intent in actions and gestures preferentially using eye-gaze information, only utilizing kinematic information when eye-gaze was unavailable.

    Our study highlights the general communicative modulation of action and gesture kinematics during production but also shows that addressees only exploit this modulation to recognize communicative intention in the absence of eye-gaze. We discuss these findings in terms of distinctive but potentially overlapping functions of addressee directed eye-gaze and kinematic modulations within the wider context of human communication and learning.
  • Tsuji, S., & Cristia, A. (2013). Fifty years of infant vowel discrimination research: What have we learned? Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 17(3), 1-11.
  • Turco, G., Dimroth, C., & Braun, B. (2013). Intonational means to mark verum focus in German and French. Language and Speech., 56(4), 461-491. doi:10.1177/0023830912460506.

    Abstract

    German and French differ in a number of aspects. Regarding the prosody-pragmatics interface, German is said to have a direct focus-to-accent mapping, which is largely absent in French – owing to strong structural constraints. We used a semi-spontaneous dialogue setting to investigate the intonational marking of Verum Focus, a focus on the polarity of an utterance in the two languages (e.g. the child IS tearing the banknote as an opposite claim to the child is not tearing the banknote). When Verum Focus applies to auxiliaries, pragmatic aspects (i.e. highlighting the contrast) directly compete with structural constraints (e.g. avoiding an accent on phonologically weak elements such as monosyllabic function words). Intonational analyses showed that auxiliaries were predominantly accented in German, as expected. Interestingly, we found a high number of (as yet undocumented) focal accents on phrase-initial auxiliaries in French Verum Focus contexts. When French accent patterns were equally distributed across information structural contexts, relative prominence (in terms of peak height) between initial and final accents was shifted towards initial accents in Verum Focus compared to non-Verum Focus contexts. Our data hence suggest that French also may mark Verum Focus by focal accents but that this tendency is partly overridden by strong structural constraints.
  • Ung, D. C., Iacono, G., Méziane, H., Blanchard, E., Papon, M.-A., Selten, M., van Rhijn, J.-R., Van Rhijn, J. R., Montjean, R., Rucci, J., Martin, S., Fleet, A., Birling, M.-C., Marouillat, S., Roepman, R., Selloum, M., Lux, A., Thépault, R.-A., Hamel, P., Mittal, K. and 7 moreUng, D. C., Iacono, G., Méziane, H., Blanchard, E., Papon, M.-A., Selten, M., van Rhijn, J.-R., Van Rhijn, J. R., Montjean, R., Rucci, J., Martin, S., Fleet, A., Birling, M.-C., Marouillat, S., Roepman, R., Selloum, M., Lux, A., Thépault, R.-A., Hamel, P., Mittal, K., Vincent, J. B., Dorseuil, O., Stunnenberg, H. G., Billuart, P., Nadif Kasri, N., Hérault, Y., & Laumonnier, F. (2018). Ptchd1 deficiency induces excitatory synaptic and cognitive dysfunctions in mouse. Molecular Psychiatry, 23, 1356-1367. doi:10.1038/mp.2017.39.

    Abstract

    Synapse development and neuronal activity represent fundamental processes for the establishment of cognitive function. Structural organization as well as signalling pathways from receptor stimulation to gene expression regulation are mediated by synaptic activity and misregulated in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). Deleterious mutations in the PTCHD1 (Patched domain containing 1) gene have been described in male patients with X-linked ID and/or ASD. The structure of PTCHD1 protein is similar to the Patched (PTCH1) receptor; however, the cellular mechanisms and pathways associated with PTCHD1 in the developing brain are poorly determined. Here we show that PTCHD1 displays a C-terminal PDZ-binding motif that binds to the postsynaptic proteins PSD95 and SAP102. We also report that PTCHD1 is unable to rescue the canonical sonic hedgehog (SHH) pathway in cells depleted of PTCH1, suggesting that both proteins are involved in distinct cellular signalling pathways. We find that Ptchd1 deficiency in male mice (Ptchd1−/y) induces global changes in synaptic gene expression, affects the expression of the immediate-early expression genes Egr1 and Npas4 and finally impairs excitatory synaptic structure and neuronal excitatory activity in the hippocampus, leading to cognitive dysfunction, motor disabilities and hyperactivity. Thus our results support that PTCHD1 deficiency induces a neurodevelopmental disorder causing excitatory synaptic dysfunction.

    Additional information

    mp201739x1.pdf
  • Valentin, B., Verga, L., Benoit, C.-E., Kotz, S. A., & Dalla Bella, S. (2018). Test-retest reliability of the battery for the assessment of auditory sensorimotor and timing abilities (BAASTA). Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 61(6), 395-400. doi:10.1016/j.rehab.2018.04.001.

    Abstract

    Perceptual and sensorimotor timing skills can be thoroughly assessed with the Battery for the Assessment of Auditory Sensorimotor and Timing Abilities (BAASTA). The battery has been used for testing rhythmic skills in healthy adults and patient populations (e.g., with Parkinson disease), showing sensitivity to timing and rhythm deficits. Here we assessed the test-retest reliability of the BAASTA in 20 healthy adults. Participants were tested twice with the BAASTA, implemented on a tablet interface, with a 2-week interval. They completed 4 perceptual tasks, namely, duration discrimination, anisochrony detection with tones and music, and the Beat Alignment Test (BAT). Moreover, they completed motor tasks via finger tapping, including unpaced and paced tapping with tones and music, synchronization-continuation, and adaptive tapping to a sequence with a tempo change. Despite high variability among individuals, the results showed good test-retest reliability in most tasks. A slight but significant improvement from test to retest was found in tapping with music, which may reflect a learning effect. In general, the BAASTA was found a reliable tool for evaluating timing and rhythm skills.
  • Van Turennout, M., Hagoort, P., & Brown, C. M. (1998). Brain activitity during speaking: From syntax to phonology in 40 milliseconds. Science, 280, 572-574.

    Abstract

    In normal conversation, speakers translate thoughts into words at high speed. To enable this speed, the retrieval of distinct types of linguistic knowledge has to be orchestrated with millisecond precision. The nature of this orchestration is still largely unknown. This report presents dynamic measures of the real-time activation of two basic types of linguistic knowledge, syntax and phonology. Electrophysiological data demonstrate that during noun-phrase production speakers retrieve the syntactic gender of a noun before its abstract phonological properties. This two-step process operates at high speed: the data show that phonological information is already available 40 milliseconds after syntactic properties have been retrieved.
  • Van Turennout, M., Hagoort, P., & Brown, C. M. (1998). Brain activity during speaking: From syntax to phonology in 40 milliseconds. Science, 280(5363), 572-574. doi:10.1126/science.280.5363.572.
  • Van Leeuwen, E. J. C., & Haun, D. B. M. (2013). Conformity in nonhuman primates: Fad or fact? Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 1-7. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.07.005.

    Abstract

    Majority influences have long been a subject of great interest for social psychologists and, more recently, for researchers investigating social influences in nonhuman primates. Although this empirical endeavor has culminated in the conclusion that some ape and monkey species show “conformist” tendencies, the current approach seems to suffer from two fundamental limitations: (a) majority influences have not been operationalized in accord with any of the existing definitions, thereby compromising the validity of cross-species comparisons, and (b) the results have not been systematically scrutinized in light of alternative explanations. In this review, we aim to address these limitations theoretically. First, we will demonstrate how the experimental designs used in nonhuman primate studies cannot test for conformity unambiguously and address alternative explanations and potential confounds for the presented results in the form of primacy effects, frequency exposure, and perception ambiguity. Second, we will show how majority influences have been defined differently across disciplines and, therefore, propose a set of definitions in order to streamline majority influence research, where conformist transmission and conformity will be put forth as operationalizations of the overarching denominator majority influences. Finally, we conclude with suggestions to foster the study of majority influences by clarifying the empirical scope of each proposed definition, exploring compatible research designs and highlighting how majority influences are inherently contingent on situational trade-offs.
  • Van den Broek, G., Takashima, A., Segers, E., & Verhoeven, L. (2018). Contextual Richness and Word Learning: Context Enhances Comprehension but Retrieval Enhances Retention. Language Learning, 68(2), 546-585. doi:10.1111/lang.12285.

    Abstract

    Learning new vocabulary from context typically requires multiple encounters during which word meaning can be retrieved from memory or inferred from context. We compared the effect of memory retrieval and context inferences on short‐ and long‐term retention in three experiments. Participants studied novel words and then practiced the words either in an uninformative context that required the retrieval of word meaning from memory (“I need the funguo”) or in an informative context from which word meaning could be inferred (“I want to unlock the door: I need the funguo”). The informative context facilitated word comprehension during practice. However, later recall of word form and meaning and word recognition in a new context were better after successful retrieval practice and retrieval practice with feedback than after context‐inference practice. These findings suggest benefits of retrieval during contextualized vocabulary learning whereby the uninformative context enhanced word retention by triggering memory retrieval.
  • Van Berkum, J. J. A. (1986). De cognitieve psychologie op zoek naar grondslagen. Kennis en Methode: Tijdschrift voor wetenschapsfilosofie en methodologie, X, 348-360.
  • Van Wijk, C., & Kempen, G. (1982). De ontwikkeling van syntactische formuleervaardigheid bij kinderen van 9 tot 16 jaar. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor de Psychologie en haar Grensgebieden, 37(8), 491-509.

    Abstract

    An essential phenomenon in the development towards syntactic maturity after early childhood is the increasing use of so-called sentence-combining transformations. Especially by using subordination, complex sentences are produced. The research reported here is an attempt to arrive at a more adequate characterization and explanation. Our starting point was an analysis of 280 texts written by Dutch-speaking pupils of the two highest grades of the primary school and the four lowest grades of three different types of secondary education. It was examined whether systematic shifts in the use of certain groups of so-called function words could be traced. We concluded that the development of the syntactic formulating ability can be characterized as an increase in connectivity: the use of all kinds of function words which explicitly mark logico-semantic relations between propositions. This development starts by inserting special adverbs and coordinating conjunctions resulting in various types of coordination. In a later stage, the syntactic patterning of the sentence is affected as well (various types of subordination). The increase in sentence complexity is only one aspect of the entire development. An explanation for the increase in connectivity is offered based upon a distinction between narrative and expository language use. The latter, but not the former, is characterized by frequent occurrence of connectives. The development in syntactic formulating ability includes a high level of skill in expository language use. Speed of development is determined by intensity of training, e.g. in scholastic and occupational settings.
  • Van Berkum, J. J. A. (1986). Doordacht gevoel: Emoties als informatieverwerking. De Psycholoog, 21(9), 417-423.
  • Van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Cronin, K. A., Schütte, S., Call, J., & Haun, D. B. M. (2013). Chimpanzees flexibly adjust their behaviour in order to maximize payoffs, not to conform to majorities. PLoS One, 8(11): e80945. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080945.

    Abstract

    Chimpanzees have been shown to be adept learners, both individually and socially. Yet, sometimes their conservative nature seems to hamper the flexible adoption of superior alternatives, even to the extent that they persist in using entirely ineffective strategies. In this study, we investigated chimpanzees’ behavioural flexibility in two different conditions under which social animals have been predicted to abandon personal preferences and adopt alternative strategies: i) under influence of majority demonstrations (i.e. conformity), and ii) in the presence of superior reward contingencies (i.e. maximizing payoffs). Unlike previous nonhuman primate studies, this study disentangled the concept of conformity from the tendency to maintain one’s first-learned strategy. Studying captive (n=16) and semi-wild (n=12) chimpanzees in two complementary exchange paradigms, we found that chimpanzees did not abandon their behaviour in order to match the majority, but instead remained faithful to their first-learned strategy (Study 1a and 1b). However, the chimpanzees’ fidelity to their first-learned strategy was overridden by an experimental upgrade of the profitability of the alternative strategy (Study 2). We interpret our observations in terms of chimpanzees’ relative weighing of behavioural options as a function of situation-specific trade-offs. More specifically, contrary to previous findings, chimpanzees in our study abandoned their familiar behaviour to maximize payoffs, but not to conform to a majority.
  • Van Berkum, J. J. A., Hijne, H., De Jong, T., Van Joolingen, W. R., & Njoo, M. (1991). Aspects of computer simulations in education. Education & Computing, 6(3/4), 231-239.

    Abstract

    Computer simulations in an instructional context can be characterized according to four aspects (themes): simulation models, learning goals, learning processes and learner activity. The present paper provides an outline of these four themes. The main classification criterion for simulation models is quantitative vs. qualitative models. For quantitative models a further subdivision can be made by classifying the independent and dependent variables as continuous or discrete. A second criterion is whether one of the independent variables is time, thus distinguishing dynamic and static models. Qualitative models on the other hand use propositions about non-quantitative properties of a system or they describe quantitative aspects in a qualitative way. Related to the underlying model is the interaction with it. When this interaction has a normative counterpart in the real world we call it a procedure. The second theme of learning with computer simulation concerns learning goals. A learning goal is principally classified along three dimensions, which specify different aspects of the knowledge involved. The first dimension, knowledge category, indicates that a learning goal can address principles, concepts and/or facts (conceptual knowledge) or procedures (performance sequences). The second dimension, knowledge representation, captures the fact that knowledge can be represented in a more declarative (articulate, explicit), or in a more compiled (implicit) format, each one having its own advantages and drawbacks. The third dimension, knowledge scope, involves the learning goal's relation with the simulation domain; knowledge can be specific to a particular domain, or generalizable over classes of domains (generic). A more or less separate type of learning goal refers to knowledge acquisition skills that are pertinent to learning in an exploratory environment. Learning processes constitute the third theme. Learning processes are defined as cognitive actions of the learner. Learning processes can be classified using a multilevel scheme. The first (highest) of these levels gives four main categories: orientation, hypothesis generation, testing and evaluation. Examples of more specific processes are model exploration and output interpretation. The fourth theme of learning with computer simulations is learner activity. Learner activity is defined as the ‘physical’ interaction of the learner with the simulations (as opposed to the mental interaction that was described in the learning processes). Five main categories of learner activity are distinguished: defining experimental settings (variables, parameters etc.), interaction process choices (deciding a next step), collecting data, choice of data presentation and metacontrol over the simulation.
  • Van Beek, G., Flecken, M., & Starren, M. (2013). Aspectual perspective taking in event construal in L1 and L2 Dutch. International review of applied linguistics, 51(2), 199-227. doi:10.1515/iral-2013-0009.

    Abstract

    The present study focuses on the role of grammatical aspect in event construal and its function in encoding the specificity of an event. We investigate whether advanced L2 learners (L1 German) acquire target-like patterns of use of progressive aspect in Dutch, a language in which use of aspect depends on specific situation types. We analyze use of progressive markers and patterns in information selection, relating to specific features of agents or actions in dynamic event scenes. L2 event descriptions are compared with L1 Dutch and L1 German data. The L2 users display the complex situation-dependent patterns of use of aspect in Dutch, but they do not select the aspectual viewpoint (aan he construction) to the same extent as native speakers. Moreover, the encoding of specificity of the events (mentioning of specific agent and action features) reflects L1 transfer, as well as target-like performance in specific domains.
  • Van Putten, S. (2013). [Review of the book The expression of information structure. A documentation of its diversity across Africa, ed. by Ines Fiedler and Anne Schwarz]. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 34, 183 -186. doi:10.1515/jall-2013-0005.

    Abstract

    This volume contains 13 papers dealing with various aspects of information structure in a wide variety of African languages. They form the proceedings of a workshop organized by the Collaborative Research Center on Information Structure (University of Potsdam and Humboldt University, Berlin). In the introduction, the editors define the main contribution of this volume in terms of “the spectrum of information-structural notions and phenomena discussed, the investigation of information structure in several relatively unfamiliar languages and the genealogical width of the African languages studied.” (vii–viii emphasis added). In this sense it complements the previous volume on information structure in African languages published by the Collaborative Research Center and the University of Amsterdam (Aboh, Hartmann & Zimmermann, 2007), which was more theoryoriented.
  • Van Berkum, J. J. A., Koornneef, A. W., Otten, M., & Nieuwland, M. S. (2007). Establishing reference in language comprehension: An electrophysiological perspective. Brain Research, 1146, 158-171. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2006.06.091.

    Abstract

    The electrophysiology of language comprehension has long been dominated by research on syntactic and semantic integration. However, to understand expressions like "he did it" or "the little girl", combining word meanings in accordance with semantic and syntactic constraints is not enough--readers and listeners also need to work out what or who is being referred to. We review our event-related brain potential research on the processes involved in establishing reference, and present a new experiment in which we examine when and how the implicit causality associated with specific interpersonal verbs affects the interpretation of a referentially ambiguous pronoun. The evidence suggests that upon encountering a singular noun or pronoun, readers and listeners immediately inspect their situation model for a suitable discourse entity, such that they can discriminate between having too many, too few, or exactly the right number of referents within at most half a second. Furthermore, our implicit causality findings indicate that a fragment like "David praised Linda because..." can immediately foreground a particular referent, to the extent that a subsequent "he" is at least initially construed as a syntactic error. In all, our brain potential findings suggest that referential processing is highly incremental, and not necessarily contingent upon the syntax. In addition, they demonstrate that we can use ERPs to relatively selectively keep track of how readers and listeners establish reference.
  • Van Rhijn, J. R., Fisher, S. E., Vernes, S. C., & Nadif Kasri, N. (2018). Foxp2 loss of function increases striatal direct pathway inhibition via increased GABA release. Brain Structure and Function, 223(9), 4211-4226. doi:10.1007/s00429-018-1746-6.

    Abstract

    Heterozygous mutations of the Forkhead-box protein 2 (FOXP2) gene in humans cause childhood apraxia of speech. Loss of Foxp2 in mice is known to affect striatal development and impair motor skills. However, it is unknown if striatal excitatory/inhibitory balance is affected during development and if the imbalance persists into adulthood. We investigated the effect of reduced Foxp2 expression, via a loss-of-function mutation, on striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs). Our data show that heterozygous loss of Foxp2 decreases excitatory (AMPA receptor-mediated) and increases inhibitory (GABA receptor-mediated) currents in D1 dopamine receptor positive MSNs of juvenile and adult mice. Furthermore, reduced Foxp2 expression increases GAD67 expression, leading to both increased presynaptic content and release of GABA. Finally, pharmacological blockade of inhibitory activity in vivo partially rescues motor skill learning deficits in heterozygous Foxp2 mice. Our results suggest a novel role for Foxp2 in the regulation of striatal direct pathway activity through managing inhibitory drive.

    Additional information

    429_2018_1746_MOESM1_ESM.docx
  • Van der Valk, R. J. P., Duijts, L., Timpson, N. J., Salam, M. T., Standl, M., Curtin, J. A., Genuneit, J., Kerhof, M., Kreiner-Møller, E., Cáceres, A., Gref, A., Liang, L. L., Taal, H. R., Bouzigon, E., Demenais, F., Nadif, R., Ober, C., Thompson, E. E., Estrada, K., Hofman, A. and 39 moreVan der Valk, R. J. P., Duijts, L., Timpson, N. J., Salam, M. T., Standl, M., Curtin, J. A., Genuneit, J., Kerhof, M., Kreiner-Møller, E., Cáceres, A., Gref, A., Liang, L. L., Taal, H. R., Bouzigon, E., Demenais, F., Nadif, R., Ober, C., Thompson, E. E., Estrada, K., Hofman, A., Uitterlinden, A. G., van Duijn, C., Rivadeneira, F., Li, X., Eckel, S. P., Berhane, K., Gauderman, W. J., Granell, R., Evans, D. M., St Pourcain, B., McArdle, W., Kemp, J. P., Smith, G. D., Tiesler, C. M. T., Flexeder, C., Simpson, A., Murray, C. S., Fuchs, O., Postma, D. S., Bønnelykke, K., Torrent, M., Andersson, M., Sleiman, P., Hakonarson, H., Cookson, W. O., Moffatt, M. F., Paternoster, L., Melén, E., Sunyer, J., Bisgaard, H., Koppelman, G. H., Ege, M., Custovic, A., Heinrich, J., Gilliland, F. D., Henderson, A. J., Jaddoe, V. W. V., de Jongste, J. C., & EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) Consortium (2013). Fraction of exhaled nitric oxide values in childhood are associated with 17q11.2-q12 and 17q12-q21 variants. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 134(1), 46-55. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2013.08.053.

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: The fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (Feno) value is a biomarker of eosinophilic airway inflammation and is associated with childhood asthma. Identification of common genetic variants associated with childhood Feno values might help to define biological mechanisms related to specific asthma phenotypes.
    OBJECTIVE: We sought to identify the genetic variants associated with childhood Feno values and their relation with asthma.
    METHODS: Feno values were measured in children age 5 to 15 years. In 14 genome-wide association studies (N = 8,858), we examined the associations of approximately 2.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with Feno values. Subsequently, we assessed whether significant SNPs were expression quantitative trait loci in genome-wide expression data sets of lymphoblastoid cell lines (n = 1,830) and were related to asthma in a previously published genome-wide association data set (cases, n = 10,365; control subjects: n = 16,110).
    RESULTS: We identified 3 SNPs associated with Feno values: rs3751972 in LYR motif containing 9 (LYRM9; P = 1.97 × 10(-10)) and rs944722 in inducible nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2; P = 1.28 × 10(-9)), both of which are located at 17q11.2-q12, and rs8069176 near gasdermin B (GSDMB; P = 1.88 × 10(-8)) at 17q12-q21. We found a cis expression quantitative trait locus for the transcript soluble galactoside-binding lectin 9 (LGALS9) that is in linkage disequilibrium with rs944722. rs8069176 was associated with GSDMB and ORM1-like 3 (ORMDL3) expression. rs8069176 at 17q12-q21, but not rs3751972 and rs944722 at 17q11.2-q12, were associated with physician-diagnosed asthma.
    CONCLUSION: This study identified 3 variants associated with Feno values, explaining 0.95% of the variance. Identification of functional SNPs and haplotypes in these regions might provide novel insight into the regulation of Feno values. This study highlights that both shared and distinct genetic factors affect Feno values and childhood asthma.
  • Van Stekelenburg, J., Anikina, N. C., Pouw, W., Petrovic, I., & Nederlof, N. (2013). From correlation to causation: The cruciality of a collectivity in the context of collective action. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 1(1), 161-187. doi:10.5964/jspp.v1i1.38.

    Abstract

    This paper discusses a longitudinal field study on collective action which aims to move beyond student samples and enhance mundane realism. First we provide a historical overview of the literature on the what (i.e., antecedents of collective action) and the how (i.e., the methods employed) of the social psychology of protest. This historical overview is substantiated with meta-analytical evidence on how these antecedents and methods changed over time. After the historical overview, we provide an empirical illustration of a longitudinal field study in a natural setting―a newly-built Dutch neighbourhood. We assessed changes in informal embeddedness, efficacy, identification, emotions, and grievances over time. Between t0 and t1 the residents protested against the plan to allow a mosque to carrying out their services in a community building in the neighbourhood. We examined the antecedents of protest before [t0] and after [t1] the protests, and whether residents participated or not. We show how a larger social network functions as a catalyst in steering protest participation. Our longitudinal field study replicates basic findings from experimental and survey research. However, it also shows that one antecedent in particular, which is hard to manipulate in the lab (i.e., the size of someone’s social network), proved to be of great importance. We suggest that in overcoming our most pertinent challenge―causality―we should not only remain in our laboratories but also go out and examine real-life situations with people situated in real-life social networks.
  • Van Wingen, G., Van Broekhoven, F., Verkes, R. J., Petersson, K. M., Bäckström, T., Buitelaar, J., & Fernández, G. (2007). How progesterone impairs memory for biologically salient stimuli in healthy young women. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(42), 11416-11423. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1715-07.2007.

    Abstract

    Progesterone, or rather its neuroactive metabolite allopregnanolone, modulates amygdala activity and thereby influences anxiety. Cognition and, in particular, memory are also altered by allopregnanolone. In the present study, we investigated whether allopregnanolone modulates memory for biologically salient stimuli by influencing amygdala activity, which in turn may affect neural processes in other brain regions. A single progesterone dose was administered orally to healthy young women in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, and participants were asked to memorize and recognize faces while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Progesterone decreased recognition accuracy without affecting reaction times. The imaging results show that the amygdala, hippocampus, and fusiform gyrus supported memory formation. Importantly, progesterone decreased responses to faces in the amygdala and fusiform gyrus duringmemoryencoding, whereas it increased hippocampal responses. The progesterone-induced decrease in neural activity in the amygdala and fusiform gyrus predicted the decrease in memory performance across subjects. However, progesterone did not modulate the differential activation between subsequently remembered and subsequently forgotten faces in these areas. A similar pattern of results was observed in the fusiform gyrus and prefrontal cortex during memory retrieval. These results suggest that allopregnanolone impairs memory by reducing the recruitment of those brain regions that support memory formation and retrieval. Given the important role of the amygdala in the modulation of memory, these results suggest that allopregnanolone alters memory by influencing amygdala activity, which in turn may affect memory processes in other brain regions
  • Van Berkum, J. J. A., De Goede, D., Van Alphen, P. M., Mulder, E. R., & Kerstholt, J. H. (2013). How robust is the language architecture? The case of mood. Frontiers in Psychology, 4: 505. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00505.

    Abstract

    In neurocognitive research on language, the processing principles of the system at hand are usually assumed to be relatively invariant. However, research on attention, memory, decision-making, and social judgment has shown that mood can substantially modulate how the brain processes information. For example, in a bad mood, people typically have a narrower focus of attention and rely less on heuristics. In the face of such pervasive mood effects elsewhere in the brain, it seems unlikely that language processing would remain untouched. In an EEG experiment, we manipulated the mood of participants just before they read texts that confirmed or disconfirmed verb-based expectations about who would be talked about next (e.g., that “David praised Linda because … ” would continue about Linda, not David), or that respected or violated a syntactic agreement rule (e.g., “The boys turns”). ERPs showed that mood had little effect on syntactic parsing, but did substantially affect referential anticipation: whereas readers anticipated information about a specific person when they were in a good mood, a bad mood completely abolished such anticipation. A behavioral follow-up experiment suggested that a bad mood did not interfere with verb-based expectations per se, but prevented readers from using that information rapidly enough to predict upcoming reference on the fly, as the sentence unfolds. In all, our results reveal that background mood, a rather unobtrusive affective state, selectively changes a crucial aspect of real-time language processing. This observation fits well with other observed interactions between language processing and affect (emotions, preferences, attitudes, mood), and more generally testifies to the importance of studying “cold” cognitive functions in relation to “hot” aspects of the brain.
  • Van Berkum, J. J. A., & De Jong, T. (1991). Instructional environments for simulations. Education & Computing, 6(3/4), 305-358.

    Abstract

    The use of computer simulations in education and training can have substantial advantages over other approaches. In comparison with alternatives such as textbooks, lectures, and tutorial courseware, a simulation-based approach offers the opportunity to learn in a relatively realistic problem-solving context, to practise task performance without stress, to systematically explore both realistic and hypothetical situations, to change the time-scale of events, and to interact with simplified versions of the process or system being simulated. However, learners are often unable to cope with the freedom offered by, and the complexity of, a simulation. As a result many of them resort to an unsystematic, unproductive mode of exploration. There is evidence that simulation-based learning can be improved if the learner is supported while working with the simulation. Constructing such an instructional environment around simulations seems to run counter to the freedom the learner is allowed to in ‘stand alone’ simulations. The present article explores instructional measures that allow for an optimal freedom for the learner. An extensive discussion of learning goals brings two main types of learning goals to the fore: conceptual knowledge and operational knowledge. A third type of learning goal refers to the knowledge acquisition (exploratory learning) process. Cognitive theory has implications for the design of instructional environments around simulations. Most of these implications are quite general, but they can also be related to the three types of learning goals. For conceptual knowledge the sequence and choice of models and problems is important, as is providing the learner with explanations and minimization of error. For operational knowledge cognitive theory recommends learning to take place in a problem solving context, the explicit tracing of the behaviour of the learner, providing immediate feedback and minimization of working memory load. For knowledge acquisition goals, it is recommended that the tutor takes the role of a model and coach, and that learning takes place together with a companion. A second source of inspiration for designing instructional environments can be found in Instructional Design Theories. Reviewing these shows that interacting with a simulation can be a part of a more comprehensive instructional strategy, in which for example also prerequisite knowledge is taught. Moreover, information present in a simulation can also be represented in a more structural or static way and these two forms of presentation provoked to perform specific learning processes and learner activities by tutor controlled variations in the simulation, and by tutor initiated prodding techniques. And finally, instructional design theories showed that complex models and procedures can be taught by starting with central and simple elements of these models and procedures and subsequently presenting more complex models and procedures. Most of the recent simulation-based intelligent tutoring systems involve troubleshooting of complex technical systems. Learners are supposed to acquire knowledge of particular system principles, of troubleshooting procedures, or of both. Commonly encountered instructional features include (a) the sequencing of increasingly complex problems to be solved, (b) the availability of a range of help information on request, (c) the presence of an expert troubleshooting module which can step in to provide criticism on learner performance, hints on the problem nature, or suggestions on how to proceed, (d) the option of having the expert module demonstrate optimal performance afterwards, and (e) the use of different ways of depicting the simulated system. A selection of findings is summarized by placing them under the four themes we think to be characteristic of learning with computer simulations (see de Jong, this volume).
  • Van der Zande, P., Jesse, A., & Cutler, A. (2013). Lexically guided retuning of visual phonetic categories. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134, 562-571. doi:10.1121/1.4807814.

    Abstract

    Listeners retune the boundaries between phonetic categories to adjust to individual speakers' productions. Lexical information, for example, indicates what an unusual sound is supposed to be, and boundary retuning then enables the speaker's sound to be included in the appropriate auditory phonetic category. In this study, it was investigated whether lexical knowledge that is known to guide the retuning of auditory phonetic categories, can also retune visual phonetic categories. In Experiment 1, exposure to a visual idiosyncrasy in ambiguous audiovisually presented target words in a lexical decision task indeed resulted in retuning of the visual category boundary based on the disambiguating lexical context. In Experiment 2 it was tested whether lexical information retunes visual categories directly, or indirectly through the generalization from retuned auditory phonetic categories. Here, participants were exposed to auditory-only versions of the same ambiguous target words as in Experiment 1. Auditory phonetic categories were retuned by lexical knowledge, but no shifts were observed for the visual phonetic categories. Lexical knowledge can therefore guide retuning of visual phonetic categories, but lexically guided retuning of auditory phonetic categories is not generalized to visual categories. Rather, listeners adjust auditory and visual phonetic categories to talker idiosyncrasies separately.
  • Van Bergen, G., & Bosker, H. R. (2018). Linguistic expectation management in online discourse processing: An investigation of Dutch inderdaad 'indeed' and eigenlijk 'actually'. Journal of Memory and Language, 103, 191-209. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2018.08.004.

    Abstract

    Interpersonal discourse particles (DPs), such as Dutch inderdaad (≈‘indeed’) and eigenlijk (≈‘actually’) are highly frequent in everyday conversational interaction. Despite extensive theoretical descriptions of their polyfunctionality, little is known about how they are used by language comprehenders. In two visual world eye-tracking experiments involving an online dialogue completion task, we asked to what extent inderdaad, confirming an inferred expectation, and eigenlijk, contrasting with an inferred expectation, influence real-time understanding of dialogues. Answers in the dialogues contained a DP or a control adverb, and a critical discourse referent was replaced by a beep; participants chose the most likely dialogue completion by clicking on one of four referents in a display. Results show that listeners make rapid and fine-grained situation-specific inferences about the use of DPs, modulating their expectations about how the dialogue will unfold. Findings further specify and constrain theories about the conversation-managing function and polyfunctionality of DPs.
  • Van Leeuwen, T. M., Hagoort, P., & Händel, B. F. (2013). Real color captures attention and overrides spatial cues in grapheme-color synesthetes but not in controls. Neuropsychologia, 51(10), 1802-1813. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.06.024.

    Abstract

    Grapheme-color synesthetes perceive color when reading letters or digits. We investigated oscillatory brain signals of synesthetes vs. controls using magnetoencephalography. Brain oscillations specifically in the alpha band (∼10 Hz) have two interesting features: alpha has been linked to inhibitory processes and can act as a marker for attention. The possible role of reduced inhibition as an underlying cause of synesthesia, as well as the precise role of attention in synesthesia is widely discussed. To assess alpha power effects due to synesthesia, synesthetes as well as matched controls viewed synesthesia-inducing graphemes, colored control graphemes, and non-colored control graphemes while brain activity was recorded. Subjects had to report a color change at the end of each trial which allowed us to assess the strength of synesthesia in each synesthete. Since color (synesthetic or real) might allocate attention we also included an attentional cue in our paradigm which could direct covert attention. In controls the attentional cue always caused a lateralization of alpha power with a contralateral decrease and ipsilateral alpha increase over occipital sensors. In synesthetes, however, the influence of the cue was overruled by color: independent of the attentional cue, alpha power decreased contralateral to the color (synesthetic or real). This indicates that in synesthetes color guides attention. This was confirmed by reaction time effects due to color, i.e. faster RTs for the color side independent of the cue. Finally, the stronger the observed color dependent alpha lateralization, the stronger was the manifestation of synesthesia as measured by congruency effects of synesthetic colors on RTs. Behavioral and imaging results indicate that color induces a location-specific, automatic shift of attention towards color in synesthetes but not in controls. We hypothesize that this mechanism can facilitate coupling of grapheme and color during the development of synesthesia.
  • Van Campen, A. D., Kunert, R., Van den Wildenberg, W. P. M., & Ridderinkhof, K. R. (2018). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over inferior frontal cortex impairs the suppression (but not expression) of action impulses during action conflict. Psychophysiology, 55(3): e13003. doi:10.1111/psyp.13003.

    Abstract

    In the recent literature, the effects of noninvasive neurostimulation on cognitive functioning appear to lack consistency and replicability. We propose that such effects may be concealed unless dedicated, sensitive, and process-specific dependent measures are used. The expression and subsequent suppression of response capture are often studied using conflict tasks. Response-time distribution analyses have been argued to provide specific measures of the susceptibility to make fast impulsive response errors, as well as the proficiency of the selective suppression of these impulses. These measures of response capture and response inhibition are particularly sensitive to experimental manipulations and clinical deficiencies that are typically obfuscated in commonly used overall performance analyses. Recent work using structural and functional imaging techniques links these behavioral outcome measures to the integrity of frontostriatal networks. These studies suggest that the presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA) is linked to the susceptibility to response capture whereas the right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) is associated with the selective suppression of action impulses. Here, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to test the causal involvement of these two cortical areas in response capture and inhibition in the Simon task. Disruption of rIFC function specifically impaired selective suppression of conflicting action tendencies, whereas the anticipated increase of fast impulsive errors after perturbing pre-SMA function was not confirmed. These results provide a proof of principle of the notion that the selection of appropriate dependent measures is perhaps crucial to establish the effects of neurostimulation on specific cognitive functions.
  • Van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Cohen, E., Collier-Baker, E., Rapold, C. J., Schäfer, M., Schütte, S., & Haun, D. B. M. (2018). The development of human social learning across seven societies. Nature Communications, 9: 2076. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04468-2.

    Abstract

    Social information use is a pivotal characteristic of the human species. Avoiding the cost of individual exploration, social learning confers substantial fitness benefits under a wide variety of environmental conditions, especially when the process is governed by biases toward relative superiority (e.g., experts, the majority). Here, we examine the development of social information use in children aged 4–14 years (n = 605) across seven societies in a standardised social learning task. We measured two key aspects of social information use: general reliance on social information and majority preference. We show that the extent to which children rely on social information depends on children’s cultural background. The extent of children’s majority preference also varies cross-culturally, but in contrast to social information use, the ontogeny of majority preference follows a U-shaped trajectory across all societies. Our results demonstrate both cultural continuity and diversity in the realm of human social learning.

    Additional information

    VanLeeuwen_etal_2018sup.pdf
  • Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2007). Some thoughts on the reason for the lesser status of typology in the USA as opposed to Europe. Linguistic Typology, 11(1), 253-257. doi:10.1515/LINGTY.2007.019.

    Abstract

    This article addresses the issue of the different status that typology has in American linguistics as opposed to European linguistics. The historical roots of the difference lie in both structural and generative linguistics, in the contrasts between post-Bloomfieldian structuralism in the US vs. Praguean structuralism in Europe, and in the extent of the influence of generative grammar on the two continents.
  • Van Wijk, C., & Kempen, G. (1982). Syntactische formuleervaardigheid en het schrijven van opstellen. Pedagogische Studiën, 59, 126-136.

    Abstract

    Meermalen is getracht om syntactische formuleenuuirdigheid direct en objectief te meten aan de hand van gesproken of geschreven teksten. Uitgangspunt hierbij vormde in de regel de syntactische complexiteit van de geproduceerde taaluitingen. Dit heeft echter niet geleid tot een plausibele, duidelijk omschreven en praktisch bruikbare index. N.a.v. een kritische bespreking van de notie complexiteit wordt in dit artikel als nieuw criterium voorgesteld de connectiviteit van de taaluitingen; de expliciete aanduiding van logiscli-scmantische relaties tussen proposities. Connectiviteit is gemakkelijk scoorbaar aan de hand van functiewoorden die verschillende vormen van nevenschikkend en onderschikkend zinsverband markeren. Deze nieuwe index ondetrangt de kritiek die op complexiteit gegeven kon worden, blijkt duidelijk te discrimineren tussen groepen leerlingen die van elkaar verschillen naar leeftijd en opleidingsniveau, en sluit aan bij recente taalpsychologische en sociolinguïstische theorie. Tot besluit worden enige onderwijskundige implicaties aangegeven.
  • Van Donkelaar, M. M. J., Hoogman, M., Pappa, I., Tiemeier, H., Buitelaar, J. K., Franke, B., & Bralten, J. (2018). Pleiotropic Contribution of MECOM and AVPR1A to Aggression and Subcortical Brain Volumes. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12: 61. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00061.

    Abstract

    Reactive and proactive subtypes of aggression have been recognized to help parse etiological heterogeneity of this complex phenotype. With a heritability of about 50%, genetic factors play a role in the development of aggressive behavior. Imaging studies implicate brain structures related to social behavior in aggression etiology, most notably the amygdala and striatum. This study aimed to gain more insight into the pathways from genetic risk factors for aggression to aggression phenotypes. To this end, we conducted genome-wide gene-based cross-trait meta-analyses of aggression with the volumes of amygdala, nucleus accumbens and caudate nucleus to identify genes influencing both aggression and aggression-related brain volumes. We used data of large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of: (a) aggressive behavior in children and adolescents (EAGLE, N = 18,988); and (b) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-based volume measures of aggression-relevant subcortical brain regions (ENIGMA2, N = 13,171). Second, the identified genes were further investigated in a sample of healthy adults (mean age (SD) = 25.28 (4.62) years; 43% male) who had genome-wide genotyping data and questionnaire data on aggression subtypes available (Brain Imaging Genetics, BIG, N = 501) to study their effect on reactive and proactive subtypes of aggression. Our meta-analysis identified two genes, MECOM and AVPR1A, significantly associated with both aggression risk and nucleus accumbens (MECOM) and amygdala (AVPR1A) brain volume. Subsequent in-depth analysis of these genes in healthy adults (BIG), including sex as an interaction term in the model, revealed no significant subtype-specific gene-wide associations. Using cross-trait meta-analysis of brain measures and psychiatric phenotypes, this study generated new hypotheses about specific links between genes, the brain and behavior. Results indicate that MECOM and AVPR1A may exert an effect on aggression through mechanisms involving nucleus accumbens and amygdala volumes, respectively.
  • Van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Cronin, K. A., & Haun, D. B. M. (2018). Population-specific social dynamics in chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(45), 11393-11400. doi:10.1073/pnas.1722614115.

    Abstract

    Understanding intraspecific variation in sociality is essential for characterizing the flexibility and evolution of social systems, yet its study in nonhuman animals is rare. Here, we investigated whether chimpanzees exhibit population-level differences in sociality that cannot be easily explained by differences in genetics or ecology. We compared social proximity and grooming tendencies across four semiwild populations of chimpanzees living in the same ecological environment over three consecutive years, using both linear mixed models and social network analysis. Results indicated temporally stable, population-level differences in dyadic-level sociality. Moreover, group cohesion measures capturing network characteristics beyond dyadic interactions (clustering, modularity, and social differentiation) showed population-level differences consistent with the dyadic indices. Subsequently, we explored whether the observed intraspecific variation in sociality could be attributed to cultural processes by ruling out alternative sources of variation including the influences of ecology, genetics, and differences in population demographics. We conclude that substantial variation in social behavior exists across neighboring populations of chimpanzees and that this variation is in part shaped by cultural processes.

    Additional information

    pnas.1722614115.sapp.pdf
  • Van der Veer, G. C., Bagnara, S., & Kempen, G. (1991). Preface. Acta Psychologica, 78, ix. doi:10.1016/0001-6918(91)90002-H.
  • Van de Ven, M., & Ernestus, M. (2018). The role of segmental and durational cues in the processing of reduced words. Language and Speech, 61(3), 358-383. doi:10.1177/0023830917727774.

    Abstract

    In natural conversations, words are generally shorter and they often lack segments. It is unclear to what extent such durational and segmental reductions affect word recognition. The present study investigates to what extent reduction in the initial syllable hinders word comprehension, which types of segments listeners mostly rely on, and whether listeners use word duration as a cue in word recognition. We conducted three experiments in Dutch, in which we adapted the gating paradigm to study the comprehension of spontaneously uttered conversational speech by aligning the gates with the edges of consonant clusters or vowels. Participants heard the context and some segmental and/or durational information from reduced target words with unstressed initial syllables. The initial syllable varied in its degree of reduction, and in half of the stimuli the vowel was not clearly present. Participants gave too short answers if they were only provided with durational information from the target words, which shows that listeners are unaware of the reductions that can occur in spontaneous speech. More importantly, listeners required fewer segments to recognize target words if the vowel in the initial syllable was absent. This result strongly suggests that this vowel hardly plays a role in word comprehension, and that its presence may even delay this process. More important are the consonants and the stressed vowel.
  • Van Uytvanck, D., Dukers, A., Ringersma, J., & Wittenburg, P. (2007). Using Google Earth to access language resources. Language Archive Newsletter, (9), 4-7.

    Abstract

    Over the past ten years Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have evolved from a highly specialised niche technology to one that is used daily by a wide range of people. This article describes geographic browsing of language archives, which provides intuitive exploration of resources and permits integration and correlation of information from different archives, even across different research disciplines. In order to facilitate both exploration and management of resources, digital language archives are organised according to criteria such as language name, research topic, project information, researchers, countries, or genres. A set of such criteria can form a tree-like classification scheme, such as in the MPI-IMDI archive, which in turn forms the main method of searching and querying the archive resources. Searching for information can be difficult for occasional users because effective use of these search-fields typically requires specialised knowledge. We assume that many non-specialist users of language resources will search by language name, language family, or geographic area, so that geographic navigation would offer a very powerful search method. We also assume that such users are familiar with maps, and that geographic browsing is more intuitive than browsing classification trees, so these users would prefer to start with a large scale map and then zoom in to find the data that interests them. Therefore, classification trees and geographic maps provide complementary methods for accessing language resources to meet the needs of different user groups. We selected Google Earth (GE) as a geographic browsing system and overlaid it with linguistic information. GE was chosen because it is available via the web, it has good navigation controls, it is familiar to many web users, and because the overlaid linguistic information can be formulated in XML, making it comparatively easy to interchange with other geographic systems.
  • Vanderauwera, J., De Vos, A., Forkel, S. J., Catani, M., Wouters, J., Vandermosten, M., & Ghesquière, P. (2018). Neural organization of ventral white matter tracts parallels the initial steps of reading development: A DTI tractography study. Brain and Language, 183, 32-40. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2018.05.007.

    Abstract

    Insight in the developmental trajectory of the neuroanatomical reading correlates is important to understand related cognitive processes and disorders. In adults, a dual pathway model has been suggested encompassing a dorsal phonological and a ventral orthographic white matter system. This dichotomy seems not present in pre-readers, and the specific role of ventral white matter in reading remains unclear. Therefore, the present longitudinal study investigated the relation between ventral white matter and cognitive processes underlying reading in children with a broad range of reading skills (n = 61). Ventral pathways of the reading network were manually traced using diffusion tractography: the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and uncinate fasciculus (UF). Pathways were examined pre-reading (5–6 years) and after two years of reading acquisition (7–8 years). Dimension reduction for the cognitive measures resulted in one component for pre-reading cognitive measures and a separate phonological and orthographic component for the early reading measures. Regression analyses revealed a relation between the pre-reading cognitive component and bilateral IFOF and left ILF. Interestingly, exclusively the left IFOF was related to the orthographic component, whereas none of the pathways was related to the phonological component. Hence, the left IFOF seems to serve as the lexical reading route, already in the earliest reading stages.
  • Vanlangendonck, F., Takashima, A., Willems, R. M., & Hagoort, P. (2018). Distinguishable memory retrieval networks for collaboratively and non-collaboratively learned information. Neuropsychologia, 111, 123-132. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.12.008.

    Abstract

    Learning often occurs in communicative and collaborative settings, yet almost all research into the neural basis of memory relies on participants encoding and retrieving information on their own. We investigated whether learning linguistic labels in a collaborative context at least partly relies on cognitively and neurally distinct representations, as compared to learning in an individual context. Healthy human participants learned labels for sets of abstract shapes in three different tasks. They came up with labels with another person in a collaborative communication task (collaborative condition), by themselves (individual condition), or were given pre-determined unrelated labels to learn by themselves (arbitrary condition). Immediately after learning, participants retrieved and produced the labels aloud during a communicative task in the MRI scanner. The fMRI results show that the retrieval of collaboratively generated labels as compared to individually learned labels engages brain regions involved in understanding others (mentalizing or theory of mind) and autobiographical memory, including the medial prefrontal cortex, the right temporoparietal junction and the precuneus. This study is the first to show that collaboration during encoding affects the neural networks involved in retrieval.
  • Vanlangendonck, F., Willems, R. M., & Hagoort, P. (2018). Taking common ground into account: Specifying the role of the mentalizing network in communicative language production. PLoS One, 13(10): e0202943. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0202943.
  • Varma, S., Daselaar, S. M., Kessels, R. P. C., & Takashima, A. (2018). Promotion and suppression of autobiographical thinking differentially affect episodic memory consolidation. PLoS One, 13(8): e0201780. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0201780.

    Abstract

    During a post-encoding delay period, the ongoing consolidation of recently acquired memories can suffer interference if the delay period involves encoding of new memories, or sensory stimulation tasks. Interestingly, two recent independent studies suggest that (i) autobiographical thinking also interferes markedly with ongoing consolidation of recently learned wordlist material, while (ii) a 2-Back task might not interfere with ongoing consolidation, possibly due to the suppression of autobiographical thinking. In this study, we directly compare these conditions against a quiet wakeful rest baseline to test whether the promotion (via familiar sound-cues) or suppression (via a 2-Back task) of autobiographical thinking during the post-encoding delay period can affect consolidation of studied wordlists in a negative or a positive way, respectively. Our results successfully replicate previous studies and show a significant interference effect (as compared to the rest condition) when learning is followed by familiar sound-cues that promote autobiographical thinking, whereas no interference effect is observed when learning is followed by the 2-Back task. Results from a post-experimental experience-sampling questionnaire further show significant differences in the degree of autobiographical thinking reported during the three post-encoding periods: highest in the presence of sound-cues and lowest during the 2-Back task. In conclusion, our results suggest that varying levels of autobiographical thought during the post-encoding period may modulate episodic memory consolidation.
  • Vaughn, C., & Brouwer, S. (2013). Perceptual integration of indexical information in bilingual speech. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 19: 060208. doi:10.1121/1.4800264.

    Abstract

    The present research examines how different types of indexical information, namely talker information and the language being spoken, are perceptually integrated in bilingual speech. Using a speeded classification paradigm (Garner, 1974), variability in characteristics of the talker (gender in Experiment 1 and specific talker in Experiment 2) and in the language being spoken (Mandarin vs. English) was manipulated. Listeners from two different language backgrounds, English monolinguals and Mandarin-English bilinguals, were asked to classify short, meaningful sentences obtained from different Mandarin-English bilingual talkers on these indexical dimensions. Results for the gender-language classification (Exp. 1) showed a significant, symmetrical interference effect for both listener groups, indicating that gender information and language are processed in an integral manner. For talker-language classification (Exp. 2), language interfered more with talker than vice versa for the English monolinguals, but symmetrical interference was found for the Mandarin-English bilinguals. These results suggest both that talker-specificity is not fully segregated from language-specificity, and that bilinguals exhibit more balanced classification along various indexical dimensions of speech. Currently, follow-up studies investigate this talker-language dependency for bilingual listeners who do not speak Mandarin in order to disentangle the role of bilingualism versus language familiarity.
  • Verdonschot, R. G., & Kinoshita, S. (2018). Mora or more? The phonological unit of Japanese word production in the Stroop color naming task. Memory & Cognition, 46(3), 410-425. doi:10.3758/s13421-017-0774-4.

    Abstract

    In English, Dutch, and other European languages, it is well established that the fundamental phonological unit in word production is the phoneme; in contrast, recent studies have shown that in Chinese it is the (atonal) syllable and in Japanese the mora. The present study investigated whether this cross-language variation in the size of the unit of word production is due to the type of script used in the language (i.e., alphabetic, morphosyllabic, or moraic). Capitalizing on the multiscriptal nature of Japanese, and using the Stroop color naming task, we show that the overlap in the initial mora between the color name and the written distractor facilitates color naming independent of script type. These results confirm the mora as the phonological unit of word production in Japanese, and establish the Stroop color naming task as a useful task for investigating the fundamental (or "proximate") phonological unit used in speech production.
  • Verdonschot, R. G., La Heij, W., Tamaoka, K., Kiyama, S., You, W.-P., & Schiller, N. O. (2013). The multiple pronunciations of Japanese kanji: A masked priming investigation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(10), 2023-2038. doi:10.1080/17470218.2013.773050.

    Abstract

    English words with an inconsistent grapheme-to-phoneme conversion or with more than one pronunciation (homographic heterophones; e.g., lead-/l epsilon d/, /lid/) are read aloud more slowly than matched controls, presumably due to competition processes. In Japanese kanji, the majority of the characters have multiple readings for the same orthographic unit: the native Japanese reading (KUN) and the derived Chinese reading (ON). This leads to the question of whether reading these characters also shows processing costs. Studies examining this issue have provided mixed evidence. The current study addressed the question of whether processing of these kanji characters leads to the simultaneous activation of their KUN and ON reading, This was measured in a direct way in a masked priming paradigm. In addition, we assessed whether the relative frequencies of the KUN and ON pronunciations (dominance ratio, measured in compound words) affect the amount of priming. The results of two experiments showed that: (a) a single kanji, presented as a masked prime, facilitates the reading of the (katakana transcriptions of) their KUN and ON pronunciations; however, (b) this was most consistently found when the dominance ratio was around 50% (no strong dominance towards either pronunciation) and when the dominance was towards the ON reading (high-ON group). When the dominance was towards the KUN reading (high-KUN group), no significant priming for the ON reading was observed. Implications for models of kanji processing are discussed.
  • Verdonschot, R. G., Nakayama, M., Zhang, Q., Tamaoka, K., & Schiller, N. O. (2013). The proximate phonological unit of Chinese-English bilinguals: Proficiency matters. PLoS One, 8(4): e61454. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061454.

    Abstract

    An essential step to create phonology according to the language production model by Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer is to assemble phonemes into a metrical frame. However, recently, it has been proposed that different languages may rely on different grain sizes of phonological units to construct phonology. For instance, it has been proposed that, instead of phonemes, Mandarin Chinese uses syllables and Japanese uses moras to fill the metrical frame. In this study, we used a masked priming-naming task to investigate how bilinguals assemble their phonology for each language when the two languages differ in grain size. Highly proficient Mandarin Chinese-English bilinguals showed a significant masked onset priming effect in English (L2), and a significant masked syllabic priming effect in Mandarin Chinese (L1). These results suggest that their proximate unit is phonemic in L2 (English), and that bilinguals may use different phonological units depending on the language that is being processed. Additionally, under some conditions, a significant sub-syllabic priming effect was observed even in Mandarin Chinese, which indicates that L2 phonology exerts influences on L1 target processing as a consequence of having a good command of English.

    Additional information

    English stimuli Chinese stimuli
  • Verga, L., & Kotz, S. A. (2013). How relevant is social interaction in second language learning? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7: 550. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00550.

    Abstract

    Verbal language is the most widespread mode of human communication, and an intrinsically social activity. This claim is strengthened by evidence emerging from different fields, which clearly indicates that social interaction influences human communication, and more specifically, language learning. Indeed, research conducted with infants and children shows that interaction with a caregiver is necessary to acquire language. Further evidence on the influence of sociality on language comes from social and linguistic pathologies, in which deficits in social and linguistic abilities are tightly intertwined, as is the case for Autism, for example. However, studies on adult second language (L2) learning have been mostly focused on individualistic approaches, partly because of methodological constraints, especially of imaging methods. The question as to whether social interaction should be considered as a critical factor impacting upon adult language learning still remains underspecified. Here, we review evidence in support of the view that sociality plays a significant role in communication and language learning, in an attempt to emphasize factors that could facilitate this process in adult language learning. We suggest that sociality should be considered as a potentially influential factor in adult language learning and that future studies in this domain should explicitly target this factor.
  • Verheijen, J., Van der Zee, J., Gijselinck, I., Van den Bossche, T., Dillen, L., Heeman, B., Gómez-Tortosa, E., Lladó, A., Sanchez-Valle, R., Graff, C., Pastor, P., Pastor, M. A., Benussi, L., Ghidoni, R., Binetti, G., Clarimon, J., De Mendonça, A., Gelpi, E., Tsolaki, M., Diehl-Schmid, J. and 12 moreVerheijen, J., Van der Zee, J., Gijselinck, I., Van den Bossche, T., Dillen, L., Heeman, B., Gómez-Tortosa, E., Lladó, A., Sanchez-Valle, R., Graff, C., Pastor, P., Pastor, M. A., Benussi, L., Ghidoni, R., Binetti, G., Clarimon, J., De Mendonça, A., Gelpi, E., Tsolaki, M., Diehl-Schmid, J., Nacmias, B., Almeida, M. R., Borroni, B., Matej, R., Ruiz, A., Engelborghs, S., Vandenberghe, R., De Deyn, P. P., Cruts, M., Van Broeckhoven, C., Sleegers, K., BELNEU Consortium, & EU EOD Consortium (2018). Common and rare TBK1 variants in early-onset Alzheimer disease in a European cohort. Neurobiology of Aging, 62, 245.e1-245.e7. doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2017.10.012.

    Abstract

    TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) loss-of-function (LoF) mutations are known to cause frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often combined with memory deficits early in the disease course. We performed targeted resequencing of TBK1 in 1253 early onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) patients from 8 European countries to investigate whether pathogenic TBK1 mutations are enriched among patients with clinical diagnosis of EOAD. Variant frequencies were compared against 2117 origin-matched controls. We identified only 1 LoF mutation (p.Thr79del) in a patient clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and a positive family history of ALS. We did not observe enrichment of rare variants in EOAD patients compared to controls, nor of rare variants affecting NFκB induction. Of 3 common coding variants, rs7486100 showed evidence of association (OR 1.46 [95% CI 1.13–1.9]; p-value 0.01). Homozygous carriers of the risk allele showed reduced expression of TBK1 (p-value 0.03). Our findings are not indicative of a significant role for TBK1 mutations in EOAD. The association between common variants in TBK1, disease risk and reduced TBK1 expression warrants follow-up in FTD/ALS cohorts. © 2017 The Author(s)

    Additional information

    Supplementary data
  • Verheijen, J., & Sleegers, K. (2018). Understanding Alzheimer Disease at the interface between genetics and transcriptomics. Trends in Genetics, 34(6), 434-447. doi:10.1016/j.tig.2018.02.007.

    Abstract

    Over 25 genes are known to affect the risk of developing Alzheimer disease (AD), the most common neurodegenerative dementia. However, mechanistic insights and improved disease management remains limited, due to difficulties in determining the functional consequences of genetic associations. Transcriptomics is increasingly being used to corroborate or enhance interpretation of genetic discoveries. These approaches, which include second and third generation sequencing, single-cell sequencing, and bioinformatics, reveal allele-specific events connecting AD risk genes to expression profiles, and provide converging evidence of pathophysiological pathways underlying AD. Simultaneously, they highlight brain region- and cell-type-specific expression patterns, and alternative splicing events that affect the straightforward relation between a genetic variant and AD, re-emphasizing the need for an integrated approach of genetics and transcriptomics in understanding AD. © 2018 The Authors
  • Verhoeven, V. J. M., Hysi, P. G., Wojciechowski, R., Fan, Q., Guggenheim, J. A., Höhn, R., MacGregor, S., Hewitt, A. W., Nag, A., Cheng, C.-Y., Yonova-Doing, E., Zhou, X., Ikram, M. K., Buitendijk, G. H. S., McMahon, G., Kemp, J. P., St Pourcain, B., Simpson, C. L., Mäkelä, K.-M., Lehtimäki, T. and 90 moreVerhoeven, V. J. M., Hysi, P. G., Wojciechowski, R., Fan, Q., Guggenheim, J. A., Höhn, R., MacGregor, S., Hewitt, A. W., Nag, A., Cheng, C.-Y., Yonova-Doing, E., Zhou, X., Ikram, M. K., Buitendijk, G. H. S., McMahon, G., Kemp, J. P., St Pourcain, B., Simpson, C. L., Mäkelä, K.-M., Lehtimäki, T., Kähönen, M., Paterson, A. D., Hosseini, S. M., Wong, H. S., Xu, L., Jonas, J. B., Pärssinen, O., Wedenoja, J., Yip, S. P., Ho, D. W. H., Pang, C. P., Chen, L. J., Burdon, K. P., Craig, J. E., Klein, B. E. K., Klein, R., Haller, T., Metspalu, A., Khor, C.-C., Tai, E.-S., Aung, T., Vithana, E., Tay, W.-T., Barathi, V. A., Chen, P., Li, R., Liao, J., Zheng, Y., Ong, R. T., Döring, A., Evans, D. M., Timpson, N. J., Verkerk, A. J. M. H., Meitinger, T., Raitakari, O., Hawthorne, F., Spector, T. D., Karssen, L. C., Pirastu, M., Murgia, F., Ang, W., Mishra, A., Montgomery, G. W., Pennell, C. E., Cumberland, P. M., Cotlarciuc, I., Mitchell, P., Wang, J. J., Schache, M., Janmahasatian, S., Janmahasathian, S., Igo, R. P., Lass, J. H., Chew, E., Iyengar, S. K., Gorgels, T. G. M. F., Rudan, I., Hayward, C., Wright, A. F., Polasek, O., Vatavuk, Z., Wilson, J. F., Fleck, B., Zeller, T., Mirshahi, A., Müller, C., Uitterlinden, A. G., Rivadeneira, F., Vingerling, J. R., Hofman, A., Oostra, B. A., Amin, N., Bergen, A. A. B., Teo, Y.-Y., Rahi, J. S., Vitart, V., Williams, C., Baird, P. N., Wong, T.-Y., Oexle, K., Pfeiffer, N., Mackey, D. A., Young, T. L., van Duijn, C. M., Saw, S.-M., Bailey-Wilson, J. E., Stambolian, D., Klaver, C. C., Hammond, C. J., Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia (CREAM), The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) Research Group, Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 (WTCCC2), & The Fuchs' Genetics Multi-Center Study Group (2013). Genome-wide meta-analyses of multiancestry cohorts identify multiple new susceptibility loci for refractive error and myopia. Nature Genetics, 45(3), 314-318. doi:10.1038/ng.2554.

    Abstract

    Refractive error is the most common eye disorder worldwide and is a prominent cause of blindness. Myopia affects over 30% of Western populations and up to 80% of Asians. The CREAM consortium conducted genome-wide meta-analyses, including 37,382 individuals from 27 studies of European ancestry and 8,376 from 5 Asian cohorts. We identified 16 new loci for refractive error in individuals of European ancestry, of which 8 were shared with Asians. Combined analysis identified 8 additional associated loci. The new loci include candidate genes with functions in neurotransmission (GRIA4), ion transport (KCNQ5), retinoic acid metabolism (RDH5), extracellular matrix remodeling (LAMA2 and BMP2) and eye development (SIX6 and PRSS56). We also confirmed previously reported associations with GJD2 and RASGRF1. Risk score analysis using associated SNPs showed a tenfold increased risk of myopia for individuals carrying the highest genetic load. Our results, based on a large meta-analysis across independent multiancestry studies, considerably advance understanding of the mechanisms involved in refractive error and myopia.
  • Verkerk, A., & Frostad, B. H. (2013). The encoding of manner predications and resultatives in Oceanic: A typological and historical overview. Oceanic Linguistics, 52, 1-35. doi:10.1353/ol.2013.0010.

    Abstract

    This paper is concerned with the encoding of resultatives and manner predications in Oceanic languages. Our point of departure is a typological overview of the encoding strategies and their geographical distribution, and we investigate their historical traits by the use of phylogenetic comparative methods. A full theory of the historical pathways is not always accessible for all the attested encoding strategies, given the data available for this study. However, tentative theories about the development and origin of the attested strategies are given. One of the most frequent strategy types used to encode both manner predications and resultatives has been given special emphasis. This is a construction in which a reex form of the Proto-Oceanic causative *pa-/*paka- modies the second verb in serial verb constructions

    Additional information

    52.1.verkerk_supp01.pdf
  • Verkerk, A. (2013). Scramble, scurry and dash: The correlation between motion event encoding and manner verb lexicon size in Indo-European. Language Dynamics and Change, 3, 169-217. doi:10.1163/22105832-13030202.

    Abstract

    In recent decades, much has been discovered about the different ways in which people can talk about motion (Talmy, 1985, 1991; Slobin, 1996, 1997, 2004). Slobin (1997) has suggested that satellite-framed languages typically have a larger and more diverse lexicon of manner of motion verbs (such as run, fly, and scramble) when compared to verb-framed languages. Slobin (2004) has claimed that larger manner of motion verb lexicons originate over time because codability factors increase the accessibility of manner in satellite-framed languages. In this paper I investigate the dependency between the use of the satellite-framed encoding construction and the size of the manner verb lexicon. The data used come from 20 Indo-European languages. The methodology applied is a range of phylogenetic comparative methods adopted from biology, which allow for an investigation of this dependency while taking into account the shared history between these 20 languages. The results provide evidence that Slobin’s hypothesis was correct, and indeed there seems to be a relationship between the use of the satellite-framed construction and the size of the manner verb lexicon
  • Vernes, S. C., Spiteri, E., Nicod, J., Groszer, M., Taylor, J. M., Davies, K. E., Geschwind, D., & Fisher, S. E. (2007). High-throughput analysis of promoter occupancy reveals direct neural targets of FOXP2, a gene mutated in speech and language disorders. American Journal of Human Genetics, 81(6), 1232-1250. doi:10.1086/522238.

    Abstract

    We previously discovered that mutations of the human FOXP2 gene cause a monogenic communication disorder, primarily characterized by difficulties in learning to make coordinated sequences of articulatory gestures that underlie speech. Affected people have deficits in expressive and receptive linguistic processing and display structural and/or functional abnormalities in cortical and subcortical brain regions. FOXP2 provides a unique window into neural processes involved in speech and language. In particular, its role as a transcription factor gene offers powerful functional genomic routes for dissecting critical neurogenetic mechanisms. Here, we employ chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with promoter microarrays (ChIP-chip) to successfully identify genomic sites that are directly bound by FOXP2 protein in native chromatin of human neuron-like cells. We focus on a subset of downstream targets identified by this approach, showing that altered FOXP2 levels yield significant changes in expression in our cell-based models and that FOXP2 binds in a specific manner to consensus sites within the relevant promoters. Moreover, we demonstrate significant quantitative differences in target expression in embryonic brains of mutant mice, mediated by specific in vivo Foxp2-chromatin interactions. This work represents the first identification and in vivo verification of neural targets regulated by FOXP2. Our data indicate that FOXP2 has dual functionality, acting to either repress or activate gene expression at occupied promoters. The identified targets suggest roles in modulating synaptic plasticity, neurodevelopment, neurotransmission, and axon guidance and represent novel entry points into in vivo pathways that may be disturbed in speech and language disorders.
  • Viebahn, M., McQueen, J. M., Ernestus, M., Frauenfelder, U. H., & Bürki, A. (2018). How much does orthography influence the processing of reduced word forms? Evidence from novel-word learning about French schwa deletion. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71(11), 2378-2394. doi:10.1177/1747021817741859.

    Abstract

    This study examines the influence of orthography on the processing of reduced word forms. For this purpose, we compared the impact of phonological variation with the impact of spelling-sound consistency on the processing of words that may be produced with or without the vowel schwa. Participants learnt novel French words in which the vowel schwa was present or absent in the first syllable. In Experiment 1, the words were consistently produced without schwa or produced in a variable manner (i.e., sometimes produced with and sometimes produced without schwa). In Experiment 2, words were always produced in a consistent manner, but an orthographic exposure phase was included in which words that were produced without schwa were either spelled with or without the letter . Results from naming and eye-tracking tasks suggest that both phonological variation and spelling-sound consistency influence the processing of spoken novel words. However, the influence of phonological variation outweighs the effect of spelling-sound consistency. Our findings therefore suggest that the influence of orthography on the processing of reduced word forms is relatively small.
  • von Stutterheim, C., Flecken, M., & Carroll, M. (2013). Introduction: Conceptualizing in a second language. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 51(2), 77-85. doi:10.1515/iral-2013-0004.
  • von Stutterheim, C., & Flecken, M. (Eds.). (2013). Principles of information organization in L2 discourse [Special Issue]. International Review of Applied linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL), 51(2).
  • Vonk, W., & Cozijn, R. (2007). Psycholinguïstiek: Een kwantitatieve wetenschap. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, 123, 55-69.
  • De Vos, J., Schriefers, H., Nivard, M. C., & Lemhöfer, K. (2018). A meta‐analysis and meta‐regression of incidental second language word learning from spoken input. Language Learning, 68(4), 906-941. doi:10.1111/lang.12296.

    Abstract

    We meta‐analyzed the effectiveness of incidental second language word learning from spoken input. Our sample contained 105 effect sizes from 32 primary studies employing meaning‐focused word‐learning activities with 1,964 participants with typical cognitive functioning. The random‐effects meta‐analysis yielded a mean effect size of g = 1.05, reflecting generally large vocabulary gains from spoken input in meaning‐focused activities. A meta‐regression with three substantive and two methodological predictors also revealed that adult participants outperformed children in terms of word learning and that interactive learning tasks were more effective than noninteractive ones. Furthermore, learning scores were higher when measured with recognition than with recall tests. Methodologically, the use of a no‐input control group seemed to protect against an overestimation of learning effects, evidenced by smaller effect sizes. Finally, whether a pretest–posttest design was used did not influence effect sizes. All data and the analysis script are publicly available.
  • De Vos, C., & Nyst, V.A.S (2018). Introduction: The time-depth and typology of rural sign languages. Sign Language Studies, 18(4), 477-487.
  • De Vos, J., Schriefers, H., & Lemhöfer, K. (2018). Noticing vocabulary holes aids incidental second language word learning: An experimental study. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22(3), 500-515. doi:10.1017/S1366728918000019.

    Abstract

    Noticing the hole (NTH) occurs when speakers want to say something, but realise they do not know the right word(s). Such awareness of lacking knowledge supposedly facilitates the acquisition of the unknown word(s) from later input (Swain, 1993). We tested this claim by experimentally inducing NTH in a second language (L2) for some participants (experimental), but not others (control). Then, in a price comparison game, all participants were exposed to spoken L2 input containing the to-be-learned words. They were unaware of taking part in an L2 study. Post-tests showed that participants who had noticed holes in their vocabulary had indeed learned more words compared to participants who had not. This held both for the experimental group as well as those participants in the control group who later reported to have noticed holes. Thus, when we become aware of vocabulary holes, the first step to improve our vocabulary is already taken.
  • De Vos, C. (2013). Sign-Spatiality in Kata Kolok: How a village sign language of Bali inscribes its signing space [Dissertation abstract]. Sign Language & Linguistics, 16(2), 277-284. doi:10.1075/sll.16.2.08vos.
  • De Vriend, F., Broeder, D., Depoorter, G., van Eerten, L., & Van Uytvanck, D. (2013). Creating & Testing CLARIN Metadata Components. Language Resources and Evaluation, 47(4), 1315-1326. doi:10.1007/s10579-013-9231-6.

    Abstract

    The CLARIN Metadata Infrastructure (CMDI) that is being developed in Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure (CLARIN) is a computer-supported framework that combines a flexible component approach with the explicit declaration of semantics. The goal of the Dutch CLARIN project “Creating & Testing CLARIN Metadata Components” was to create metadata components and profiles for a wide variety of existing resources housed at two data centres according to the CMDI specifications. In doing so the principles of the framework were tested. The results of the project are of benefit to other CLARIN-projects that are expected to adhere to the CMDI framework and its accompanying tools.
  • De Vries, C., Reijnierse, W. G., & Willems, R. M. (2018). Eye movements reveal readers’ sensitivity to deliberate metaphors during narrative reading. Scientific Study of Literature, 8(1), 135-164. doi:10.1075/ssol.18008.vri.

    Abstract

    Metaphors occur frequently in literary texts. Deliberate Metaphor Theory (DMT; e.g., Steen, 2017) proposes that metaphors that serve a communicative function as metaphor are radically different from metaphors that do not have this function. We investigated differences in processing between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphors, compared to non-metaphorical words in literary reading. Using the Deliberate Metaphor Identification Procedure (Reijnierse et al., 2018), we identified metaphors in two literary stories. Then, eye-tracking was used to investigate participants’ (N = 72) reading behavior. Deliberate metaphors were read slower than non-deliberate metaphors, and both metaphor types were read slower than non-metaphorical words. Differences were controlled for several psycholinguistic variables. Differences in reading behavior were related to individual differences in reading experience and absorption and appreciation of the story. These results are in line with predictions from DMT and underline the importance of distinguishing between metaphor types in the experimental study of literary reading.
  • Vromans, R. D., & Jongman, S. R. (2018). The interplay between selective and nonselective inhibition during single word production. PLoS One, 13(5): e0197313. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197313.

    Abstract

    The present study investigated the interplay between selective inhibition (the ability to suppress specific competing responses) and nonselective inhibition (the ability to suppress any inappropriate response) during single word production. To this end, we combined two well-established research paradigms: the picture-word interference task and the stop-signal task. Selective inhibition was assessed by instructing participants to name target pictures (e.g., dog) in the presence of semantically related (e.g., cat) or unrelated (e.g., window) distractor words. Nonselective inhibition was tested by occasionally presenting a visual stop-signal, indicating that participants should withhold their verbal response. The stop-signal was presented early (250 ms) aimed at interrupting the lexical selection stage, and late (325 ms) to influence the word-encoding stage of the speech production process. We found longer naming latencies for pictures with semantically related distractors than with unrelated distractors (semantic interference effect). The results further showed that, at both delays, stopping latencies (i.e., stop-signal RTs) were prolonged for naming pictures with semantically related distractors compared to pictures with unrelated distractors. Taken together, our findings suggest that selective and nonselective inhibition, at least partly, share a common inhibitory mechanism during different stages of the speech production process.

    Additional information

    Data available (link to Figshare)
  • Wagensveld, B., Segers, E., Van Alphen, P. M., & Verhoeven, L. (2013). The role of lexical representations and phonological overlap in rhyme judgments of beginning, intermediate and advanced readers. Learning and Individual Differences, 23, 64-71. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2012.09.007.

    Abstract

    Studies have shown that prereaders find globally similar non-rhyming pairs (i.e., bell–ball) difficult to judge. Although this effect has been explained as a result of ill-defined lexical representations, others have suggested that it is part of an innate tendency to respond to phonological overlap. In the present study we examined this effect over time. Beginning, intermediate and advanced readers were presented with a rhyme judgment task containing rhyming, phonologically similar, and unrelated non-rhyming pairs. To examine the role of lexical representations, participants were presented with both words and pseudowords. Outcomes showed that pseudoword processing was difficult for children but not for adults. The global similarity effect was present in both children and adults. The findings imply that holistic representations cannot explain the incapacity to ignore similarity relations during rhyming. Instead, the data provide more evidence for the idea that global similarity processing is part of a more fundamental innate phonological processing capacity.
  • Wagensveld, B., Van Alphen, P. M., Segers, E., Hagoort, P., & Verhoeven, L. (2013). The neural correlates of rhyme awareness in preliterate and literate children. Clinical Neurophysiology, 124, 1336-1345. doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2013.01.022.

    Abstract

    Objective Most rhyme awareness assessments do not encompass measures of the global similarity effect (i.e., children who are able to perform simple rhyme judgments get confused when presented with globally similar non-rhyming pairs). The present study examines the neural nature of this effect by studying the N450 rhyme effect. Methods Behavioral and electrophysiological responses of Dutch pre-literate kindergartners and literate second graders were recorded while they made rhyme judgments of word pairs in three conditions; phonologically rhyming (e.g., wijn-pijn), overlapping non-rhyming (e.g., pen-pijn) and unrelated non-rhyming pairs (e.g., boom-pijn). Results Behaviorally, both groups had difficulty judging overlapping but not rhyming and unrelated pairs. The neural data of second graders showed overlapping pairs were processed in a similar fashion as unrelated pairs; both showed a more negative deflection of the N450 component than rhyming items. Kindergartners did not show a typical N450 rhyme effect. However, some other interesting ERP differences were observed, indicating preliterates are sensitive to rhyme at a certain level. Significance Rhyme judgments of globally similar items rely on the same process as rhyme judgments of rhyming and unrelated items. Therefore, incorporating a globally similar condition in rhyme assessments may lead to a more in-depth measure of early phonological awareness skills. Highlights Behavioral and electrophysiological responses were recorded while (pre)literate children made rhyme judgments of rhyming, overlapping and unrelated words. Behaviorally both groups had difficulty judging overlapping pairs as non-rhyming while overlapping and unrelated neural patterns were similar in literates. Preliterates show a different pattern indicating a developing phonological system.
  • Wagner, A. (2013). Cross-language similarities and differences in the uptake of place information. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 133, 4256-4267. doi:10.1121/1.4802904.

    Abstract

    Cross-language differences in the use of coarticulatory cues for the identification of fricatives have been demonstrated in a phoneme detection task: Listeners with perceptually similar fricative pairs in their native phoneme inventories (English, Polish, Spanish) relied more on cues from vowels than listeners with perceptually more distinct fricative contrasts (Dutch and German). The present gating study further investigated these cross-language differences and addressed three questions. (1) Are there cross-language differences in informativeness of parts of the speech signal regarding place of articulation for fricative identification? (2) Are such cross-language differences fricative-specific, or do they extend to the perception of place of articulation for plosives? (3) Is such language-specific uptake of information based on cues preceding or following the consonantal constriction? Dutch, Italian, Polish, and Spanish listeners identified fricatives and plosives in gated CV and VC syllables. The results showed cross-language differences in the informativeness of coarticulatory cues for fricative identification: Spanish and Polish listeners extracted place of articulation information from shorter portions of VC syllables. No language-specific differences were found for plosives, suggesting that greater reliance on coarticulatory cues did not generalize to other phoneme types. The language-specific differences for fricatives were based on coarticulatory cues into the consonant.
  • Walters, J., Rujescu, D., Franke, B., Giegling, I., Vasquez, A., Hargreaves, A., Russo, G., Morris, D., Hoogman, M., Da Costa, A., Moskvina, V., Fernandez, G., Gill, M., Corvin, A., O'Donovan, M., Donohoe, G., & Owen, M. (2013). The role of the major histocompatibility complex region in cognition and brain structure: A schizophrenia GWAS follow-up. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 877-885. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.12020226.

    Abstract

    Objective The authors investigated the effects of recently identified genome-wide significant schizophrenia genetic risk variants on cognition and brain structure. Method A panel of six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was selected to represent genome-wide significant loci from three recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for schizophrenia and was tested for association with cognitive measures in 346 patients with schizophrenia and 2,342 healthy comparison subjects. Nominally significant results were evaluated for replication in an independent case-control sample. For SNPs showing evidence of association with cognition, associations with brain structural volumes were investigated in a large independent healthy comparison sample. Results Five of the six SNPs showed no significant association with any cognitive measure. One marker in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region, rs6904071, showed independent, replicated evidence of association with delayed episodic memory and was significant when both samples were combined. In the combined sample of up to 3,100 individuals, this SNP was associated with widespread effects across cognitive domains, although these additional associations were no longer significant after adjusting for delayed episodic memory. In the large independent structural imaging sample, the same SNP was also associated with decreased hippocampal volume. Conclusions The authors identified a SNP in the MHC region that was associated with cognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia and healthy comparison subjects. This SNP, rs6904071, showed a replicated association with episodic memory and hippocampal volume. These findings implicate the MHC region in hippocampal structure and functioning, consistent with the role of MHC proteins in synaptic development and function. Follow-up of these results has the potential to provide insights into the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and cognition.

    Additional information

    Hoogman_2013_JourAmePsy.supp.pdf
  • Wang, L., Bastiaansen, M. C. M., Yang, Y., & Hagoort, P. (2013). ERP evidence on the interaction between information structure and emotional salience of words. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 297-310. doi:10.3758/s13415-012-0146-2.

    Abstract

    Both emotional words and words focused by information structure can capture attention. This study examined the interplay between emotional salience and information structure in modulating attentional resources in the service of integrating emotional words into sentence context. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to affectively negative, neutral, and positive words, which were either focused or nonfocused in question–answer pairs, were evaluated during sentence comprehension. The results revealed an early negative effect (90–200 ms), a P2 effect, as well as an effect in the N400 time window, for both emotional salience and information structure. Moreover, an interaction between emotional salience and information structure occurred within the N400 time window over right posterior electrodes, showing that information structure influences the semantic integration only for neutral words, but not for emotional words. This might reflect the fact that the linguistic salience of emotional words can override the effect of information structure on the integration of words into context. The interaction provides evidence for attention–emotion interactions at a later stage of processing. In addition, the absence of interaction in the early time window suggests that the processing of emotional information is highly automatic and independent of context. The results suggest independent attention capture systems of emotional salience and information structure at the early stage but an interaction between them at a later stage, during the semantic integration of words.
  • Wang, L., Hagoort, P., & Jensen, O. (2018). Language prediction is reflected by coupling between frontal gamma and posterior alpha oscillations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 30(3), 432-447. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_01190.

    Abstract

    Readers and listeners actively predict upcoming words during language processing. These predictions might serve to support the unification of incoming words into sentence context and thus rely on interactions between areas in the language network. In the current magnetoencephalography study, participants read sentences that varied in contextual constraints so that the predictability of the sentence-final words was either high or low. Before the sentence-final words, we observed stronger alpha power suppression for the highly compared with low constraining sentences in the left inferior frontal cortex, left posterior temporal region, and visual word form area. Importantly, the temporal and visual word form area alpha power correlated negatively with left frontal gamma power for the highly constraining sentences. We suggest that the correlation between alpha power decrease in temporal language areas and left prefrontal gamma power reflects the initiation of an anticipatory unification process in the language network.
  • Wang, L., Hagoort, P., & Jensen, O. (2018). Gamma oscillatory activity related to language prediction. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 30(8), 1075-1085. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_01275.

    Abstract

    Using magnetoencephalography, the current study examined gamma activity associated with language prediction. Participants read high- and low-constraining sentences in which the final word of the sentence was either expected or unexpected. Although no consistent gamma power difference induced by the sentence-final words was found between the expected and unexpected conditions, the correlation of gamma power during the prediction and activation intervals of the sentence-final words was larger when the presented words matched with the prediction compared with when the prediction was violated or when no prediction was available. This suggests that gamma magnitude relates to the match between predicted and perceived words. Moreover, the expected words induced activity with a slower gamma frequency compared with that induced by unexpected words. Overall, the current study establishes that prediction is related to gamma power correlations and a slowing of the gamma frequency.
  • Wang, M., Shao, Z., Chen, Y., & Schiller, N. O. (2018). Neural correlates of spoken word production in semantic and phonological blocked cyclic naming. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33(5), 575-586. doi:10.1080/23273798.2017.1395467.

    Abstract

    The blocked cyclic naming paradigm has been increasingly employed to investigate the mechanisms underlying spoken word production. Semantic homogeneity typically elicits longer naming latencies than heterogeneity; however, it is debated whether competitive lexical selection or incremental learning underlies this effect. The current study manipulated both semantic and phonological homogeneity and used behavioural and electrophysiological measurements to provide evidence that can distinguish between the two accounts. Results show that naming latencies are longer in semantically homogeneous blocks, but shorter in phonologically homogeneous blocks, relative to heterogeneity. The semantic factor significantly modulates electrophysiological waveforms from 200 ms and the phonological factor from 350 ms after picture presentation. A positive component was demonstrated in both manipulations, possibly reflecting a task-related top-down bias in performing blocked cyclic naming. These results provide novel insights into the neural correlates of blocked cyclic naming and further contribute to the understanding of spoken word production.
  • Wang, L., Zhu, Z., Bastiaansen, M. C. M., Hagoort, P., & Yang, Y. (2013). Recognizing the emotional valence of names: An ERP study. Brain and Language, 125, 118-127. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2013.01.006.

    Abstract

    Unlike common nouns, person names refer to unique entities and generally have a referring function. We used event-related potentials to investigate the time course of identifying the emotional meaning of nouns and names. The emotional valence of names and nouns were manipulated separately. The results show early N1 effects in response to emotional valence only for nouns. This might reflect automatic attention directed towards emotional stimuli. The absence of such an effect for names supports the notion that the emotional meaning carried by names is accessed after word recognition and person identification. In addition, both names with negative valence and emotional nouns elicited late positive effects, which have been associated with evaluation of emotional significance. This positive effect started earlier for nouns than for names, but with similar durations. Our results suggest that distinct neural systems are involved in the retrieval of names’ and nouns’ emotional meaning.
  • Wang, L., & Chu, M. (2013). The role of beat gesture and pitch accent in semantic processing: An ERP study. Neuropsychologia, 51(13), 2847-2855. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.09.027.

    Abstract

    The present study investigated whether and how beat gesture (small baton-like hand movements used to emphasize information in speech) influences semantic processing as well as its interaction with pitch accent during speech comprehension. Event-related potentials were recorded as participants watched videos of a person gesturing and speaking simultaneously. The critical words in the spoken sentences were accompanied by a beat gesture, a control hand movement, or no hand movement, and were expressed either with or without pitch accent. We found that both beat gesture and control hand movement induced smaller negativities in the N400 time window than when no hand movement was presented. The reduced N400s indicate that both beat gesture and control movement facilitated the semantic integration of the critical word into the sentence context. In addition, the words accompanied by beat gesture elicited smaller negativities in the N400 time window than those accompanied by control hand movement over right posterior electrodes, suggesting that beat gesture has a unique role for enhancing semantic processing during speech comprehension. Finally, no interaction was observed between beat gesture and pitch accent, indicating that they affect semantic processing independently.
  • Wanke, K., Devanna, P., & Vernes, S. C. (2018). Understanding neurodevelopmental disorders: The promise of regulatory variation in the 3’UTRome. Biological Psychiatry, 83(7), 548-557. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.11.006.

    Abstract

    Neurodevelopmental disorders have a strong genetic component, but despite widespread efforts, the specific genetic factors underlying these disorders remain undefined for a large proportion of affected individuals. Given the accessibility of exome-sequencing, this problem has thus far been addressed from a protein-centric standpoint; however, protein-coding regions only make up ∼1-2% of the human genome. With the advent of whole-genome sequencing we are in the midst of a paradigm shift as it is now possible to interrogate the entire sequence of the human genome (coding and non-coding) to fill in the missing heritability of complex disorders. These new technologies bring new challenges, as the number of non-coding variants identified per individual can be overwhelming, making it prudent to focus on non-coding regions of known function, for which the effects of variation can be predicted and directly tested to assess pathogenicity. The 3’UTRome is a region of the non-coding genome that perfectly fulfils these criteria and is of high interest when searching for pathogenic variation related to complex neurodevelopmental disorders. Herein, we review the regulatory roles of the 3’UTRome as binding sites for microRNAs, RNA binding proteins or during alternative polyadenylation. We detail existing evidence that these regions contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders and outline strategies for identification and validation of novel putatively pathogenic variation in these regions. This evidence suggests that studying the 3’UTRome will lead to the identification of new risk factors, new candidate disease genes and a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms contributing to NDDs.

    Additional information

    1-s2.0-S0006322317321911-mmc1.pdf
  • Warmelink, L., Vrij, A., Mann, S., Leal, S., & Poletiek, F. H. (2013). The effects of unexpected questions on detecting familiar and unfamiliar lies. Psychiatry, Psychology and law, 20(1), 29-35. doi:10.1080/13218719.2011.619058.

    Abstract

    Previous research suggests that lie detection can be improved by asking the interviewee unexpected questions. The present experiment investigates the effect of two types of unexpected questions: background questions and detail questions, on detecting lies about topics with which the interviewee is (a) familiar or (b) unfamiliar. In this experiment, 66 participants read interviews in which interviewees answered background or detail questions, either truthfully or deceptively. Those who answered deceptively could be lying about a topic they were familiar with or about a topic they were unfamiliar with. The participants were asked to judge whether the interviewees were lying. The results revealed that background questions distinguished truths from both types of lies, while the detail questions distinguished truths from unfamiliar lies, but not from familiar lies. The implications of these findings are discussed.
  • Wassenaar, M., & Hagoort, P. (2007). Thematic role assignment in patients with Broca's aphasia: Sentence-picture matching electrified. Neuropsychologia, 45(4), 716-740. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.08.016.

    Abstract

    An event-related brain potential experiment was carried out to investigate on-line thematic role assignment during sentence–picture matching in patients with Broca's aphasia. Subjects were presented with a picture that was followed by an auditory sentence. The sentence either matched the picture or mismatched the visual information depicted. Sentences differed in complexity, and ranged from simple active semantically irreversible sentences to passive semantically reversible sentences. ERPs were recorded while subjects were engaged in sentence–picture matching. In addition, reaction time and accuracy were measured. Three groups of subjects were tested: Broca patients (N = 10), non-aphasic patients with a right hemisphere (RH) lesion (N = 8), and healthy aged-matched controls (N = 15). The results of this study showed that, in neurologically unimpaired individuals, thematic role assignment in the context of visual information was an immediate process. This in contrast to patients with Broca's aphasia who demonstrated no signs of on-line sensitivity to the picture–sentence mismatches. The syntactic contribution to the thematic role assignment process seemed to be diminished given the reduction and even absence of P600 effects. Nevertheless, Broca patients showed some off-line behavioral sensitivity to the sentence–picture mismatches. The long response latencies of Broca's aphasics make it likely that off-line response strategies were used.
  • Watson, L. M., Wong, M. M. K., Vowles, J., Cowley, S. A., & Becker, E. B. E. (2018). A simplified method for generating purkinje cells from human-induced pluripotent stem cells. The Cerebellum, 17(4), 419-427. doi:10.1007/s12311-017-0913-2.

    Abstract

    The establishment of a reliable model for the study of Purkinje cells in vitro is of particular importance, given their central role in cerebellar function and pathology. Recent advances in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology offer the opportunity to generate multiple neuronal subtypes for study in vitro. However, to date, only a handful of studies have generated Purkinje cells from human pluripotent stem cells, with most of these protocols proving challenging to reproduce. Here, we describe a simplified method for the reproducible generation of Purkinje cells from human iPSCs. After 21 days of treatment with factors selected to mimic the self-inductive properties of the isthmic organiser—insulin, fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), and the transforming growth factor β (TGFβ)-receptor blocker SB431542—hiPSCs could be induced to form En1-positive cerebellar progenitors at efficiencies of up to 90%. By day 35 of differentiation, subpopulations of cells representative of the two cerebellar germinal zones, the rhombic lip (Atoh1-positive) and ventricular zone (Ptf1a-positive), could be identified, with the latter giving rise to cells positive for Purkinje cell progenitor-specific markers, including Lhx5, Kirrel2, Olig2 and Skor2. Further maturation was observed following dissociation and co-culture of these cerebellar progenitors with mouse cerebellar cells, with 10% of human cells staining positive for the Purkinje cell marker calbindin by day 70 of differentiation. This protocol, which incorporates modifications designed to enhance cell survival and maturation and improve the ease of handling, should serve to make existing models more accessible, in order to enable future advances in the field.

    Additional information

    12311_2017_913_MOESM1_ESM.docx
  • Weekes, B. S., Abutalebi, J., Mak, H.-K.-F., Borsa, V., Soares, S. M. P., Chiu, P. W., & Zhang, L. (2018). Effect of monolingualism and bilingualism in the anterior cingulate cortex: a proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study in two centers. Letras de Hoje, 53(1), 5-12. doi:10.15448/1984-7726.2018.1.30954.

    Abstract

    Reports of an advantage of bilingualism on brain structure in young adult participants
    are inconsistent. Abutalebi et al. (2012) reported more efficient monitoring of conflict during the
    Flanker task in young bilinguals compared to young monolingual speakers. The present study
    compared young adult (mean age = 24) Cantonese-English bilinguals in Hong Kong and young
    adult monolingual speakers. We expected (a) differences in metabolites in neural tissue to result
    from bilingual experience, as measured by 1H-MRS at 3T, (b) correlations between metabolic
    levels and Flanker conflict and interference effects (c) different associations in bilingual and
    monolingual speakers. We found evidence of metabolic differences in the ACC due to bilingualism,
    specifically in metabolites Cho, Cr, Glx and NAA. However, we found no significant correlations
    between metabolic levels and conflict and interference effects and no significant evidence of
    differential relationships between bilingual and monolingual speakers. Furthermore, we found no
    evidence of significant differences in the mean size of conflict and interference effects between
    groups i.e. no bilingual advantage. Lower levels of Cho, Cr, Glx and NAA in bilingual adults
    compared to monolingual adults suggest that the brains of bilinguals develop greater adaptive
    control during conflict monitoring because of their extensive bilingual experience.
  • Whitmarsh, S., Udden, J., Barendregt, H., & Petersson, K. M. (2013). Mindfulness reduces habitual responding based on implicit knowledge: Evidence from artificial grammar learning. Consciousness and Cognition, (3), 833-845. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2013.05.007.

    Abstract

    Participants were unknowingly exposed to complex regularities in a working memory task. The existence of implicit knowledge was subsequently inferred from a preference for stimuli with similar grammatical regularities. Several affective traits have been shown to influence
    AGL performance positively, many of which are related to a tendency for automatic responding. We therefore tested whether the mindfulness trait predicted a reduction of grammatically congruent preferences, and used emotional primes to explore the influence of affect. Mindfulness was shown to correlate negatively with grammatically congruent responses. Negative primes were shown to result in faster and more negative evaluations.
    We conclude that grammatically congruent preference ratings rely on habitual responses, and that our findings provide empirical evidence for the non-reactive disposition of the mindfulness trait.
  • Willems, R. M., Ozyurek, A., & Hagoort, P. (2007). When language meets action: The neural integration of gesture and speech. Cerebral Cortex, 17(10), 2322-2333. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl141.

    Abstract

    Although generally studied in isolation, language and action often co-occur in everyday life. Here we investigated one particular form of simultaneous language and action, namely speech and gestures that speakers use in everyday communication. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we identified the neural networks involved in the integration of semantic information from speech and gestures. Verbal and/or gestural content could be integrated easily or less easily with the content of the preceding part of speech. Premotor areas involved in action observation (Brodmann area [BA] 6) were found to be specifically modulated by action information "mismatching" to a language context. Importantly, an increase in integration load of both verbal and gestural information into prior speech context activated Broca's area and adjacent cortex (BA 45/47). A classical language area, Broca's area, is not only recruited for language-internal processing but also when action observation is integrated with speech. These findings provide direct evidence that action and language processing share a high-level neural integration system.
  • Willems, R. M. (2013). Can literary studies contribute to cognitive neuroscience? Journal of literary semantics, 42(2), 217-222. doi:10.1515/jls-2013-0011.
  • Willems, R. M., & Hagoort, P. (2007). Neural evidence for the interplay between language, gesture, and action: A review. Brain and Language, 101(3), 278-289. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2007.03.004.

    Abstract

    Co-speech gestures embody a form of manual action that is tightly coupled to the language system. As such, the co-occurrence of speech and co-speech gestures is an excellent example of the interplay between language and action. There are, however, other ways in which language and action can be thought of as closely related. In this paper we will give an overview of studies in cognitive neuroscience that examine the neural underpinnings of links between language and action. Topics include neurocognitive studies of motor representations of speech sounds, action-related language, sign language and co-speech gestures. It will be concluded that there is strong evidence on the interaction between speech and gestures in the brain. This interaction however shares general properties with other domains in which there is interplay between language and action.
  • Willems, R. M. (2007). The neural construction of a Tinkertoy [‘Journal club’ review]. The Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 1509-1510. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0005-07.2007.
  • Winsvold, B. S., Palta, P., Eising, E., Page, C. M., The International Headache Genetics Consortium, Van den Maagdenberg, A. M. J. M., Palotie, A., & Zwart, J.-A. (2018). Epigenetic DNA methylation changes associated with headache chronification: A retrospective case-control study. Cephalalgia, 38(2), 312-322. doi:10.1177/0333102417690111.

    Abstract

    Background

    The biological mechanisms of headache chronification are poorly understood. We aimed to identify changes in DNA methylation associated with the transformation from episodic to chronic headache.
    Methods

    Participants were recruited from the population-based Norwegian HUNT Study. Thirty-six female headache patients who transformed from episodic to chronic headache between baseline and follow-up 11 years later were matched against 35 controls with episodic headache. DNA methylation was quantified at 485,000 CpG sites, and changes in methylation level at these sites were compared between cases and controls by linear regression analysis. Data were analyzed in two stages (Stages 1 and 2) and in a combined meta-analysis.
    Results

    None of the top 20 CpG sites identified in Stage 1 replicated in Stage 2 after multiple testing correction. In the combined meta-analysis the strongest associated CpG sites were related to SH2D5 and NPTX2, two brain-expressed genes involved in the regulation of synaptic plasticity. Functional enrichment analysis pointed to processes including calcium ion binding and estrogen receptor pathways.
    Conclusion

    In this first genome-wide study of DNA methylation in headache chronification several potentially implicated loci and processes were identified. The study exemplifies the use of prospectively collected population cohorts to search for epigenetic mechanisms of disease
  • Winter, B., Perlman, M., & Majid, A. (2018). Vision dominates in perceptual language: English sensory vocabulary is optimized for usage. Cognition, 179, 213-220. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2018.05.008.

    Abstract

    Researchers have suggested that the vocabularies of languages are oriented towards the communicative needs of language users. Here, we provide evidence demonstrating that the higher frequency of visual words in a large variety of English corpora is reflected in greater lexical differentiation—a greater number of unique words—for the visual domain in the English lexicon. In comparison, sensory modalities that are less frequently talked about, particularly taste and smell, show less lexical differentiation. In addition, we show that even though sensory language can be expected to change across historical time and between contexts of use (e.g., spoken language versus fiction), the pattern of visual dominance is a stable property of the English language. Thus, we show that across the board, precisely those semantic domains that are more frequently talked about are also more lexically differentiated, for perceptual experiences. This correlation between type and token frequencies suggests that the sensory lexicon of English is geared towards communicative efficiency.
  • Witteman, M. J., Weber, A., & McQueen, J. M. (2013). Foreign accent strength and listener familiarity with an accent co-determine speed of perceptual adaptation. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 75, 537-556. doi:10.3758/s13414-012-0404-y.

    Abstract

    We investigated how the strength of a foreign accent and varying types of experience with foreign-accented speech influence the recognition of accented words. In Experiment 1, native Dutch listeners with limited or extensive prior experience with German-accented Dutch completed a cross-modal priming experiment with strongly, medium, and weakly accented words. Participants with limited experience were primed by the medium and weakly accented words, but not by the strongly accented words. Participants with extensive experience were primed by all accent types. In Experiments 2 and 3, Dutch listeners with limited experience listened to a short story before doing the cross-modal priming task. In Experiment 2, the story was spoken by the priming task speaker and either contained strongly accented words or did not. Strongly accented exposure led to immediate priming by novel strongly accented words, while exposure to the speaker without strongly accented tokens led to priming only in the experiment’s second half. In Experiment 3, listeners listened to the story with strongly accented words spoken by a different German-accented speaker. Listeners were primed by the strongly accented words, but again only in the experiment’s second half. Together, these results show that adaptation to foreign-accented speech is rapid but depends on accent strength and on listener familiarity with those strongly accented words.
  • Womelsdorf, T., Schoffelen, J.-M., Oostenveld, R., Singer, W., Desimone, R., Engel, A. K., & Fries, P. (2007). Modulation of neuronal interactions through neuronal synchronization. Science, 316, 1609-1612. doi:10.1126/science.1139597.

    Abstract

    Brain processing depends on the interactions between neuronal groups. Those interactions are governed by the pattern of anatomical connections and by yet unknown mechanisms that modulate the effective strength of a given connection. We found that the mutual influence among neuronal groups depends on the phase relation between rhythmic activities within the groups. Phase relations supporting interactions between the groups preceded those interactions by a few milliseconds, consistent with a mechanistic role. These effects were specific in time, frequency, and space, and we therefore propose that the pattern of synchronization flexibly determines the pattern of neuronal interactions.
  • Wong, M. M. K., Hoekstra, S. D., Vowles, J., Watson, L. M., Fuller, G., Németh, A. H., Cowley, S. A., Ansorge, O., Talbot, K., & Becker, E. B. E. (2018). Neurodegeneration in SCA14 is associated with increased PKCγ kinase activity, mislocalization and aggregation. Acta Neuropathologica Communications, 6: 99. doi:10.1186/s40478-018-0600-7.

    Abstract

    Spinocerebellar ataxia type 14 (SCA14) is a subtype of the autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxias that is characterized by slowly progressive cerebellar dysfunction and neurodegeneration. SCA14 is caused by mutations in the PRKCG gene, encoding protein kinase C gamma (PKCγ). Despite the identification of 40 distinct disease-causing mutations in PRKCG, the pathological mechanisms underlying SCA14 remain poorly understood. Here we report the molecular neuropathology of SCA14 in post-mortem cerebellum and in human patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) carrying two distinct SCA14 mutations in the C1 domain of PKCγ, H36R and H101Q. We show that endogenous expression of these mutations results in the cytoplasmic mislocalization and aggregation of PKCγ in both patient iPSCs and cerebellum. PKCγ aggregates were not efficiently targeted for degradation. Moreover, mutant PKCγ was found to be hyper-activated, resulting in increased substrate phosphorylation. Together, our findings demonstrate that a combination of both, loss-of-function and gain-of-function mechanisms are likely to underlie the pathogenesis of SCA14, caused by mutations in the C1 domain of PKCγ. Importantly, SCA14 patient iPSCs were found to accurately recapitulate pathological features observed in post-mortem SCA14 cerebellum, underscoring their potential as relevant disease models and their promise as future drug discovery tools.

    Additional information

    additional file
  • Wright, S. E., & Windhouwer, M. (2013). ISOcat - im Reich der Datenkategorien. eDITion: Fachzeitschrift für Terminologie, 9(1), 8-12.

    Abstract

    Im ISOcat-Datenkategorie-Register (Data Category Registry, www.isocat.org) des Technischen Komitees ISO/TC 37 (Terminology and other language and content resources) werden Feldnamen und Werte für Sprachressourcen beschrieben. Empfohlene Feldnamen und zuverlässige Definitionen sollen dazu beitragen, dass Sprachdaten unabhängig von Anwendungen, Plattformen und Communities of Practice (CoP) wiederverwendet werden können. Datenkategorie-Gruppen (Data Category Selections) können eingesehen, ausgedruckt, exportiert und nach kostenloser Registrierung auch neu erstellt werden.

Share this page