scholarly journals Distinct Contributions of Working Memory and Attentional Control to Sentence Comprehension in Noise in Persons With Stroke

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Megan C. Fitzhugh ◽  
Arianna N. LaCroix ◽  
Corianne Rogalsky
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Background Noise ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Broadband Noise ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Informational Masking ◽  
Left Hemisphere Stroke

Purpose Sentence comprehension deficits are common following a left hemisphere stroke and have primarily been investigated under optimal listening conditions. However, ample work in neurotypical controls indicates that background noise affects sentence comprehension and the cognitive resources it engages. The purpose of this study was to examine how background noise affects sentence comprehension poststroke using both energetic and informational maskers. We further sought to identify whether sentence comprehension in noise abilities are related to poststroke cognitive abilities, specifically working memory and/or attentional control. Method Twenty persons with chronic left hemisphere stroke completed a sentence–picture matching task where they listened to sentences presented in three types of maskers: multispeakers, broadband noise, and silence (control condition). Working memory, attentional control, and hearing thresholds were also assessed. Results A repeated-measures analysis of variance identified participants to have the greatest difficulty with the multispeakers condition, followed by broadband noise and then silence. Regression analyses, after controlling for age and hearing ability, identified working memory as a significant predictor of listening engagement (i.e., mean reaction time) in broadband noise and multispeakers and attentional control as a significant predictor of informational masking effects (computed as a reaction time difference score where broadband noise is subtracted from multispeakers). Conclusions The results from this study indicate that background noise impacts sentence comprehension abilities poststroke and that these difficulties may arise due to deficits in the cognitive resources supporting sentence comprehension and not other factors such as age or hearing. These findings also highlight a relationship between working memory abilities and sentence comprehension in background noise. We further suggest that attentional control abilities contribute to sentence comprehension by supporting the additional demands associated with informational masking. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14984511

scholarly journals The domain-general multiple demand (MD) network does not support core aspects of language comprehension: a large-scale fMRI investigation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgeniia Diachek ◽  
Idan Blank ◽  
Matthew Siegelman ◽  
Josef Affourtit ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Network Language ◽  
Temporal Language

AbstractAside from the language-selective left-lateralized fronto-temporal network, language comprehension sometimes additionally recruits a domain-general bilateral fronto-parietal network implicated in executive functions: the multiple demand (MD) network. However, the nature of the MD network’s contributions to language comprehension remains debated. To illuminate the role of this network in language processing, we conducted a large-scale fMRI investigation using data from 30 diverse word and sentence comprehension experiments (481 unique participants, 678 scanning sessions). In line with prior findings, the MD network was active during many language tasks. Moreover, similar to the language-selective network, which is robustly lateralized to the left hemisphere, these responses were stronger in the left-hemisphere MD regions. However, in stark contrast with the language-selective network, the MD network responded more strongly (i) to lists of unconnected words than to sentences, and critically, (ii) in paradigms with an explicit task compared to passive comprehension paradigms. In fact, many passive comprehension tasks failed to elicit a response above the fixation baseline in the MD network, in contrast to strong responses in the language-selective network. In tandem, these results argue against a role for the MD network in core aspects of sentence comprehension like inhibiting irrelevant meanings or parses, keeping intermediate representations active in working memory, or predicting upcoming words or structures. These results align with recent evidence of relatively poor tracking of the linguistic signal by the MD regions during naturalistic comprehension, and instead suggest that the MD network’s engagement during language processing likely reflects effort associated with extraneous task demands.Significance StatementDomain-general executive processes, like working memory and cognitive control, have long been implicated in language comprehension, including in neuroimaging studies that have reported activation in domain-general multiple demand (MD) regions for linguistic manipulations. However, much prior evidence has come from paradigms where language interpretation is accompanied by extraneous tasks. Using a large fMRI dataset (30 experiments/481 participants/678 sessions), we demonstrate that MD regions are engaged during language comprehension in the presence of task demands, but not during passive reading/listening—conditions that strongly activate the fronto-temporal language network. These results present a fundamental challenge to proposals whereby linguistic computations, like inhibiting irrelevant meanings, keeping representations active in working memory, or predicting upcoming elements, draw on domain-general executive resources.

Rehabilitation of verbal working memory after left hemisphere stroke

Brain Injury ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (13) ◽  
pp. 1157-1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Vallat ◽  
P. Azouvi ◽  
H. Hardisson ◽  
R. Meffert ◽  
C. Tessier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Left Hemisphere Stroke

scholarly journals Children who stutter exchange linguistic accuracy for processing speed in sentence comprehension

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
TALITA FORTUNATO-TAVARES ◽  
PETER HOWELL ◽  
RICHARD G. SCHWARTZ ◽  
CLAUDIA R. FURQUIM DE ANDRADE
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Motor Reaction ◽  
Motor Reaction Time ◽  
Comprehension Task ◽  
Speed Accuracy ◽  
Manual Reaction Time

ABSTRACTComprehension of predicates and reflexives was examined in children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) who were between 9 years, 7 months and 10 years, 2 months. Demands on working memory and manual reaction time were also assessed in two experiments that employed a four-choice picture-selection sentence comprehension task. CWS were less accurate than CWNS on the attachment of predicates. For reflexives, there was no between-group difference in accuracy, but there was a difference in speed. The two constructions induced processing at different points on a speed–accuracy continuum with CWS sacrificing accuracy to respond fast with predicates, while they maintained accuracy of reflexives by responding slower relative to CWNS. Predicates made more demands on language than nonspeech motor reaction time, whereas the reverse was the case with reflexives for CWS compared to CWNS.

The influence of bilingualism on working memory event-related potentials

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
CASSANDRA MORRISON ◽  
FAROOQ KAMAL ◽  
VANESSA TALER
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Memory Event ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Cognitively Demanding Tasks

Bilingualism has been found to enhance the ability to store and manipulate information in working memory (WM). However, previous studies of WM function in bilingualism have been limited to behavioural measures, leaving questions unanswered regarding the effects of bilingualism on neural mechanisms employed during WM tasks. We recorded brain activity (event-related potentials; ERPs) while participants (23 English-speaking and 21 English–French bilinguals) performed an n-back WM task. Accuracy and reaction time were similar across groups, but monolinguals exhibited smaller P300 amplitudes relative to bilinguals, suggesting that bilinguals have more cognitive resources available to complete cognitively demanding tasks.

WAIS-IV Profiles in First-Ever Unilateral Ischemic Stroke Patients

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Theiling ◽  
Franz Petermann ◽  
Monika Daseking
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Ischemic Stroke ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Left Hemisphere Stroke ◽  
Right Hemisphere Stroke

This study aims to identify WAIS-IV profiles in unilateral ischemic stroke patients in rehabilitation (n = 107) compared to matched controls, to determine if patients demonstrate lateralized cognitive impairment, and to investigate whether aphasia has an additional effect on language and working memory subtests. Analyses revealed impairment in performance of stroke patients relative to controls, while effect of left-hemisphere stroke were large on subtests with language and processing speed demands, and of right-hemisphere stroke on subtests with visuo-spatial and processing speed demands. Aphasia had an additional effect on language, working memory and processing speed subtests. Findings confirm the pattern of cognitive deficits found with older versions of the WAIS and suggest that the WAIS-IV detects cognitive deficits in stroke patients.

scholarly journals Investigating the Role of Executive Resources across Aesthetic and Non-Aesthetic Judgments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ionela Bara ◽  
Richard J Binney ◽  
Richard Ramsey
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Similar Reaction ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Medium Type ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

Aesthetic judgments dominate much of daily life by guiding how we evaluate objects, people, and experiences in our environment. One key question that remains unanswered is the extent to which more specialised or largely general cognitive resources support aesthetic judgments. To investigate this question in the context of executive resources, we examined the extent to which a central working memory load produces similar or different reaction time interference on aesthetic compared to non-aesthetic judgments. Across three pre-registered experiments that used Bayesian multi-level modelling approaches (N>100 per experiment), we found clear evidence that a central working memory load produces similar reaction time interference on aesthetic judgments relative to non-aesthetic (motion) judgments. We also showed that this similarity in processing across aesthetic versus non-aesthetic judgments holds across variations in the form of art (people vs landscape; Exps. 1-3), medium type (artwork vs photographs; Exp. 2) and load content (art images vs letters; Exps. 1-3). These findings suggest that across a range of experimental contexts, as well as different processing streams in working memory (e.g., visual vs verbal), aesthetic and motion judgments commonly rely on a domain-general executive system, rather than a system that is more specifically tied to aesthetic judgments. In doing so, these findings shine new light on the cognitive architecture that supports aesthetic judgments, as well as how domain-general executive systems operate more generally in cognition.

Abnormal prefrontal activity subserving attentional control of emotion in remitted depressed patients during a working memory task with emotional distracters

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Kerestes ◽  
C. D. Ladouceur ◽  
S. Meda ◽  
P. J. Nathan ◽  
H. P. Blumberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Depressed Patients ◽  
The Right

BackgroundPatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) show deficits in processing of facial emotions that persist beyond recovery and cessation of treatment. Abnormalities in neural areas supporting attentional control and emotion processing in remitted depressed (rMDD) patients suggests that there may be enduring, trait-like abnormalities in key neural circuits at the interface of cognition and emotion, but this issue has not been studied systematically.MethodNineteen euthymic, medication-free rMDD patients (mean age 33.6 years; mean duration of illness 34 months) and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC; mean age 35.8 years) performed the Emotional Face N-Back (EFNBACK) task, a working memory task with emotional distracter stimuli. We used blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural activity in the dorsolateral (DLPFC) and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), ventral striatum and amygdala, using a region of interest (ROI) approach in SPM2.ResultsrMDD patients exhibited significantly greater activity relative to HC in the left DLPFC [Brodmann area (BA) 9/46] in response to negative emotional distracters during high working memory load. By contrast, rMDD patients exhibited significantly lower activity in the right DLPFC and left VLPFC compared to HC in response to positive emotional distracters during high working memory load. These effects occurred during accurate task performance.ConclusionsRemitted depressed patients may continue to exhibit attentional biases toward negative emotional information, reflected by greater recruitment of prefrontal regions implicated in attentional control in the context of negative emotional information.

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