Oscillatory dynamics underlying noun and verb production in highly proficient bilinguals

AbstractWords representing objects (nouns) and words representing actions (verbs) are essential components of speech across languages. While there is evidence regarding the organizational principles governing neural representation of nouns and verbs in monolingual speakers, little is known about how this knowledge is represented in the bilingual brain. To address this gap, we recorded neuromagnetic signals while highly proficient Spanish–Basque bilinguals performed a picture-naming task and tracked the brain oscillatory dynamics underlying this process. We found theta (4–8 Hz) power increases and alpha–beta (8–25 Hz) power decreases irrespectively of the category and language at use in a time window classically associated to the controlled retrieval of lexico-semantic information. When comparing nouns and verbs within each language, we found theta power increases for verbs as compared to nouns in bilateral visual cortices and cognitive control areas including the left SMA and right middle temporal gyrus. In addition, stronger alpha–beta power decreases were observed for nouns as compared to verbs in visual cortices and semantic-related regions such as the left anterior temporal lobe and right premotor cortex. No differences were observed between categories across languages. Overall, our results suggest that noun and verb processing recruit partially different networks during speech production but that these category-based representations are similarly processed in the bilingual brain.

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Alpha/beta power decreases during episodic memory formation predict the magnitude of alpha/beta power decreases during subsequent retrieval

10.1101/2020.07.08.193763 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin J. Griffiths ◽

María Carmen Martín-Buro ◽

Bernhard P. Staresina ◽

Simon Hanslmayr ◽

Tobias Staudigl

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Memory Retrieval ◽

Spectral Power ◽

Learning Task ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Parameter Estimates ◽

Beta Activity ◽

Amount Of Information ◽

Beta Power ◽

Alpha Beta

AbstractEpisodic memory retrieval is characterised by the vivid reinstatement of information about a personally-experienced event. Growing evidence suggests that the reinstatement of such information is supported by reductions in the spectral power of alpha/beta activity. Given that the amount of information that can be recalled depends on the amount of information that was originally encoded, information-based accounts of alpha/beta activity would suggest that retrieval-related alpha/beta power decreases similarly depend upon decreases in alpha/beta power during encoding. To test this hypothesis, seventeen human participants completed a sequence-learning task while undergoing concurrent MEG recordings. Regression-based analyses were then used to estimate how alpha/beta power decreases during encoding predicted alpha/beta power decreases during retrieval, on a trial-by-trial basis. When subjecting these parameter estimates to group-level analysis, we find evidence to suggest that retrieval-related alpha/beta (7-15Hz) power decreases fluctuate as a function of encoding-related alpha/beta power decreases. These results suggest that retrieval-related alpha/beta power decreases are contingent on the decrease in alpha/beta power that arose during encoding. Subsequent analysis uncovered no evidence to suggest that these alpha/beta power decreases reflect stimulus identity, indicating that the contingency between encoding- and retrieval-related alpha/beta power reflects the reinstatement of a neurophysiological operation, rather than neural representation, during episodic memory retrieval.

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The neural dynamics of semantic diversity in spoken word recognition: The role of alpha-beta power

10.31234/osf.io/ks4x2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Priscila Borges

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Fixed Effects ◽

Information Needs ◽

Time Window ◽

Recognition Performance ◽

Spoken Word Recognition ◽

Spoken Word ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Beta Power ◽

Alpha Beta

Word recognition performance is significantly affected by semantic diversity (SemD), acorpus-based measure that indexes the degree to which the contexts associated with a word are similar in meaning. Due to the prominence of SemD as a determinant of behaviour, it is important to understand its neural correlates, but these remain underexplored. To address thisgap, this study examines whether and how SemD information is reflected in alpha-beta power dynamics during spoken word recognition. Given previous evidence linking stronger alpha-beta power decreases to semantically richer words, high-SemD words were predicted to elicit stronger alpha-beta power decreases relative to low-SemD words. Electroencephalographic data were recorded while 13 older adults performed a word-picture verification task. Average alpha-beta (10–20 Hz) power around 400–600 ms post-word onset served as the dependentvariable in linear mixed models whose fixed effects included SemD and other psycholinguistic variables. Results showed that SemD was not a significant predictor whenposterior sites were considered. However, when anterior sites and a later time window were examined, a significant effect of SemD was found, with higher scores predicting stronger alpha-beta power decreases. Additional analyses on event-related potential responses around 300–500 ms post-stimulus showed no effects of SemD. These findings provide the first insights into the electrophysiological signature of SemD and corroborate previous reports of stronger alpha-beta power decreases when more lexical-semantic information needs to beretrieved from memory. The null results are discussed in view of a few methodologicalaspects, which could be explored in future studies.

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Alpha/beta power decreases during episodic memory formation predict the magnitude of alpha/beta power decreases during subsequent retrieval

Neuropsychologia ◽

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107755 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 153 ◽

pp. 107755

Author(s):

Benjamin J. Griffiths ◽

María Carmen Martín-Buro ◽

Bernhard P. Staresina ◽

Simon Hanslmayr ◽

Tobias Staudigl

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Memory Formation ◽

Beta Power ◽

Alpha Beta

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Corticospinal Tract Microstructure Correlates With Beta Oscillatory Activity in the Primary Motor Cortex After Stroke

Stroke ◽

10.1161/strokeaha.121.034344 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Robert Schulz ◽

Marlene Bönstrup ◽

Stephanie Guder ◽

Jingchun Liu ◽

Benedikt Frey ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Motor Cortex ◽

Fractional Anisotropy ◽

Primary Motor Cortex ◽

Supplementary Motor Area ◽

Premotor Cortex ◽

Motor Impairment ◽

Motor Area ◽

Oscillatory Activity ◽

Premotor Area ◽

Beta Power

Background and Purpose: Cortical beta oscillations are reported to serve as robust measures of the integrity of the human motor system. Their alterations after stroke, such as reduced movement-related beta desynchronization in the primary motor cortex, have been repeatedly related to the level of impairment. However, there is only little data whether such measures of brain function might directly relate to structural brain changes after stroke. Methods: This multimodal study investigated 18 well-recovered patients with stroke (mean age 65 years, 12 males) by means of task-related EEG and diffusion-weighted structural MRI 3 months after stroke. Beta power at rest and movement-related beta desynchronization was assessed in 3 key motor areas of the ipsilesional hemisphere that are the primary motor cortex (M1), the ventral premotor area and the supplementary motor area. Template trajectories of corticospinal tracts (CST) originating from M1, premotor cortex, and supplementary motor area were used to quantify the microstructural state of CST subcomponents. Linear mixed-effects analyses were used to relate tract-related mean fractional anisotropy to EEG measures. Results: In the present cohort, we detected statistically significant reductions in ipsilesional CST fractional anisotropy but no alterations in EEG measures when compared with healthy controls. However, in patients with stroke, there was a significant association between both beta power at rest ( P =0.002) and movement-related beta desynchronization ( P =0.003) in M1 and fractional anisotropy of the CST specifically originating from M1. Similar structure-function relationships were neither evident for ventral premotor area and supplementary motor area, particularly with respect to their CST subcomponents originating from premotor cortex and supplementary motor area, in patients with stroke nor in controls. Conclusions: These data suggest there might be a link connecting microstructure of the CST originating from M1 pyramidal neurons and beta oscillatory activity, measures which have already been related to motor impairment in patients with stroke by previous reports.

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Cross-frequency Phase–Amplitude Coupling as a Mechanism for Temporal Orienting of Attention in Childhood

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01223 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 594-602 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Giovanni Mento ◽

Duncan E. Astle ◽

Gaia Scerif

Keyword(s):

Inverse Correlation ◽

Human Cognition ◽

Response Preparation ◽

Strongly Coupled ◽

Oscillatory Dynamics ◽

Beta Power ◽

Temporal Intervals ◽

Phase Amplitude ◽

Frequency Phase ◽

Temporal Orienting

Temporal orienting of attention operates by biasing the allocation of cognitive and motor resources in specific moments in time, resulting in the improved processing of information from expected compared with unexpected targets. Recent findings have shown that temporal orienting operates relatively early across development, suggesting that this attentional mechanism plays a core role for human cognition. However, the exact neurophysiological mechanisms allowing children to attune their attention over time are not well understood. In this study, we presented 8- to 12-year-old children with a temporal cueing task designed to test (1) whether anticipatory oscillatory dynamics predict children's behavioral performance on a trial-by-trial basis and (2) whether anticipatory oscillatory neural activity may be supported by cross-frequency phase–amplitude coupling as previously shown in adults. Crucially, we found that, similar to what has been reported in adults, children's ongoing beta rhythm was strongly coupled with their theta rhythm and that the strength of this coupling distinguished validly cued temporal intervals, relative to neutral cued trials. In addition, in long trials, there was an inverse correlation between oscillatory beta power and children's trial-by-trial reaction, consistent with oscillatory beta power reflecting better response preparation. These findings provide the first experimental evidence that temporal attention in children operates by exploiting oscillatory mechanism.

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Revisiting Persistent Neuronal Activity During Covert Spatial Attention

Frontiers in Neural Circuits ◽

10.3389/fncir.2021.679796 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Julian L. Amengual ◽

Suliann Ben Hamed

Keyword(s):

Spatial Attention ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Persistent Activity ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Multiple Sources ◽

Oscillatory Dynamics ◽

Attention Orienting ◽

Related Information ◽

Attention Tasks ◽

Reduction Methods

Persistent activity has been observed in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), in particular during the delay periods of visual attention tasks. Classical approaches based on the average activity over multiple trials have revealed that such an activity encodes the information about the attentional instruction provided in such tasks. However, single-trial approaches have shown that activity in this area is rather sparse than persistent and highly heterogeneous not only within the trials but also between the different trials. Thus, this observation raised the question of how persistent the actually persistent attention-related prefrontal activity is and how it contributes to spatial attention. In this paper, we review recent evidence of precisely deconstructing the persistence of the neural activity in the PFC in the context of attention orienting. The inclusion of machine-learning methods for decoding the information reveals that attention orienting is a highly dynamic process, possessing intrinsic oscillatory dynamics working at multiple timescales spanning from milliseconds to minutes. Dimensionality reduction methods further show that this persistent activity dynamically incorporates multiple sources of information. This novel framework reflects a high complexity in the neural representation of the attention-related information in the PFC, and how its computational organization predicts behavior.

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Alpha/beta power decreases track the fidelity of stimulus-specific information

10.1101/633107 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin J. Griffiths ◽

Stephen D. Mayhew ◽

Karen J. Mullinger ◽

João Jorge ◽

Ian Charest ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Memory Retrieval ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Memory Task ◽

Significant Negative Correlation ◽

Neuronal Firing ◽

Specific Information ◽

Beta Power ◽

Alpha Beta ◽

Task Irrelevant

AbstractMassed synchronised neuronal firing is detrimental to information processing. When networks of task-irrelevant neurons fire in unison, they mask the signal generated by task-critical neurons. On a macroscopic level, mass synchronisation of these neurons can contribute to the ubiquitous alpha/beta (8-30Hz) oscillations. Reductions in the amplitude of these oscillations, therefore, may reflect a boost in the processing of high-fidelity information within the cortex. Here, we test this hypothesis. Twenty-one participants completed an associative memory task while undergoing simultaneous EEG-fMRI recordings. Using representational similarity analysis, we quantified the amount of stimulus-specific information represented within the BOLD signal on every trial. When correlating this metric with concurrently-recorded alpha/beta power, we found a significant negative correlation which indicated that as alpha/beta power decreased, our metric of stimulus-specific information increased. This effect generalised across cognitive tasks, as the negative relationship could be observed during visual perception and episodic memory retrieval. Further analysis revealed that this effect could be better explained by alpha/beta power decreases providing favourable conditions for information processing, rather than directly representing stimulus-specific information. Together, these results indicate that alpha/beta power decreases parametrically track the fidelity of both externally-presented and internally-generated stimulus-specific information represented within the cortex.

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Memory Effects of Speech and Gesture Binding: Cortical and Hippocampal Activation in Relation to Subsequent Memory Performance

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21053 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 821-836 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Benjamin Straube ◽

Antonia Green ◽

Susanne Weis ◽

Anjan Chatterjee ◽

Tilo Kircher

Keyword(s):

Visual Information ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Premotor Cortex ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Semantic Integration ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Fmri Session ◽

Abstract Content

In human face-to-face communication, the content of speech is often illustrated by coverbal gestures. Behavioral evidence suggests that gestures provide advantages in the comprehension and memory of speech. Yet, how the human brain integrates abstract auditory and visual information into a common representation is not known. Our study investigates the neural basis of memory for bimodal speech and gesture representations. In this fMRI study, 12 participants were presented with video clips showing an actor performing meaningful metaphoric gestures (MG), unrelated, free gestures (FG), and no arm and hand movements (NG) accompanying sentences with an abstract content. After the fMRI session, the participants performed a recognition task. Behaviorally, the participants showed the highest hit rate for sentences accompanied by meaningful metaphoric gestures. Despite comparable old/new discrimination performances (d′) for the three conditions, we obtained distinct memory-related left-hemispheric activations in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the premotor cortex (BA 6), and the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), as well as significant correlations between hippocampal activation and memory performance in the metaphoric gesture condition. In contrast, unrelated speech and gesture information (FG) was processed in areas of the left occipito-temporal and cerebellar region and the right IFG just like the no-gesture condition (NG). We propose that the specific left-lateralized activation pattern for the metaphoric speech–gesture sentences reflects semantic integration of speech and gestures. These results provide novel evidence about the neural integration of abstract speech and gestures as it contributes to subsequent memory performance.

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Emotion and Brain Oscillations: High Arousal is Associated with Decreases in Alpha- and Lower Beta-Band Power

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhaa312 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

David Schubring ◽

Harald T Schupp

Keyword(s):

Stimulus Onset ◽

Emotional Stimulus ◽

Brain Oscillations ◽

Beta Band ◽

Viewing Condition ◽

Stimulus Processing ◽

Beta Power ◽

Picture Presentation ◽

Alpha Beta ◽

Task Conditions

Abstract The study of brain oscillations associated with emotional picture processing has revealed conflicting findings. Although many studies observed a decrease in power in the alpha- and lower beta band, some studies observed an increase. Accordingly, the main aim of the present research series was to further elucidate whether emotional stimulus processing is related to an increase or decrease in alpha/beta power. In Study 1, participants (N = 16) viewed briefly presented (150 ms) high-arousing erotic and low-arousing people pictures. Picture presentation included a passive viewing condition and an active picture categorization task. Study 2 (N = 16) replicated Study 1 with negative valence stimuli (mutilations). In Study 3 (N = 18), stimulus materials of Study 1 and 2 were used. The main finding is that high-arousing pictures (erotica and mutilations) are associated with a decrease of power in the alpha/beta band across studies and task conditions. The effect peaked in occipitoparietal sensors between 400 and 800 ms after stimulus onset. Furthermore, a late (>1000 ms) alpha/beta power increase to mutilation pictures was observed, possibly reflecting top–down inhibitory control processes. Overall, these findings suggest that brain oscillations in the alpha/beta-band may serve as a useful measure of emotional stimulus processing.

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Syntactic Unification Operations Are Reflected in Oscillatory Dynamics during On-line Sentence Comprehension

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21283 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (7) ◽

pp. 1333-1347 ◽

Cited By ~ 98

Author(s):

Marcel Bastiaansen ◽

Lilla Magyari ◽

Peter Hagoort

Keyword(s):

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Syntactic Structure ◽

Linear Increase ◽

Time Frequency ◽

Oscillatory Dynamics ◽

Word Category ◽

Gamma Frequency ◽

Sentence Level ◽

Beta Power ◽

Beta Frequency Band

There is growing evidence suggesting that synchronization changes in the oscillatory neuronal dynamics in the EEG or MEG reflect the transient coupling and uncoupling of functional networks related to different aspects of language comprehension. In this work, we examine how sentence-level syntactic unification operations are reflected in the oscillatory dynamics of the MEG. Participants read sentences that were either correct, contained a word category violation, or were constituted of random word sequences devoid of syntactic structure. A time–frequency analysis of MEG power changes revealed three types of effects. The first type of effect was related to the detection of a (word category) violation in a syntactically structured sentence, and was found in the alpha and gamma frequency bands. A second type of effect was maximally sensitive to the syntactic manipulations: A linear increase in beta power across the sentence was present for correct sentences, was disrupted upon the occurrence of a word category violation, and was absent in syntactically unstructured random word sequences. We therefore relate this effect to syntactic unification operations. Thirdly, we observed a linear increase in theta power across the sentence for all syntactically structured sentences. The effects are tentatively related to the building of a working memory trace of the linguistic input. In conclusion, the data seem to suggest that syntactic unification is reflected by neuronal synchronization in the lower-beta frequency band.

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