scholarly journals Semantic and syntactic composition of minimal adjective-noun phrases in Dutch: an MEG study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold Kochari ◽  
Ashley Lewis ◽  
Jan-Mathijs Schoffelen ◽  
Herbert Schriefers
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Composition Effect ◽  
Multiple Regions ◽  
Processing Activity ◽  
Confirmatory Analysis ◽  
The Brain

AbstractThe possibility to combine smaller units of meaning (e.g., words) to create new and more complex meanings (e.g., phrases and sentences) is a fundamental feature of human language. In the present project, we investigated how the brain supports the semantic and syntactic composition of two-word adjective-noun phrases in Dutch, using magnetoencephalography (MEG). The present investigation followed up on previous studies reporting a composition effect in the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) when comparing neural activity at nouns combined with adjectives, as opposed to nouns in a non-compositional context. The first aim of the present study was to investigate whether this effect, as well as its modulation by noun specificity and adjective class, can also be observed in Dutch. A second aim was to investigate to what extent these effects may be driven by syntactic composition rather than primarily by semantic composition as was previously proposed. To this end, a novel condition was administered in which participants saw nouns combined with pseudowords lacking meaning but agreeing with the nouns in terms of grammatical gender, as real adjectives would. We failed to observe a composition effect or its modulation in both a confirmatory analysis (focused on the cortical region and time-window where it has previously been reported) and in exploratory analyses (where we tested multiple regions and an extended potential time-window of the effect). A syntactically driven composition effect was also not observed in our data. We do, however, successfully observe an independent, previously reported effect on single word processing in our data, confirming that our MEG data processing pipeline does meaningfully capture language processing activity by the brain. The failure to observe the composition effect in LATL is surprising given that it has been previously reported in multiple studies. Reviewing all previous studies investigating this effect, we propose that materials and a task involving imagery might be necessary for this effect to be observed. In addition, we identified substantial variability in the regions of interest analysed in previous studies, which warrants additional checks of robustness of the effect. Further research should identify limits and conditions under which this effect can be observed. The failure to observe specifically a syntactic composition effect in such minimal phrases is less surprising given that it has not been previously reported in MEG data.

Oral reading in bilingual aphasia: Evidence from Mongolian and Chinese

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRENDAN STUART WEEKES ◽  
I FAN SU ◽  
WENGANG YIN ◽  
XIHONG ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Oral Reading ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Word Comprehension ◽  
Bilingual Aphasia ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Cognitive Neuropsychological ◽  
The Brain

Cognitive neuropsychological studies of bilingual patients with aphasia have contributed to our understanding of how the brain processes different languages. The question we asked is whether differences in script have any impact on language processing in bilingual aphasic patients who speak languages with different writing systems: Chinese and Mongolian. We observed a pattern of greater impairment to written word comprehension and oral reading in L2 (Chinese) than in L1 (Mongolian) for two patients. We argue that differences in script have only a minimal effect on written word processing in bilingual aphasia when the age of acquisition, word frequency and imageability of lexical items is controlled. Our conclusion is that reading of familiar words in Mongolian and Chinese might not require independent cognitive systems or brain regions.

scholarly journals Traces of Meaning Itself: Encoding distributional word vectors in brain activity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jona Sassenhagen ◽  
Christian J. Fiebach
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Word Onset ◽  
Vector Representations

AbstractHow is semantic information stored in the human mind and brain? Some philosophers and cognitive scientists argue for vectorial representations of concepts, where the meaning of a word is represented as its position in a high-dimensional neural state space. At the intersection of natural language processing and artificial intelligence, a class of very successful distributional word vector models has developed that can account for classic EEG findings of language, i.e., the ease vs. difficulty of integrating a word with its sentence context. However, models of semantics have to account not only for context-based word processing, but should also describe how word meaning is represented. Here, we investigate whether distributional vector representations of word meaning can model brain activity induced by words presented without context. Using EEG activity (event-related brain potentials) collected while participants in two experiments (English, German) read isolated words, we encode and decode word vectors taken from the family of prediction-based word2vec algorithms. We find that, first, the position of a word in vector space allows the prediction of the pattern of corresponding neural activity over time, in particular during a time window of 300 to 500 ms after word onset. Second, distributional models perform better than a human-created taxonomic baseline model (WordNet), and this holds for several distinct vector-based models. Third, multiple latent semantic dimensions of word meaning can be decoded from brain activity. Combined, these results suggest that empiricist, prediction-based vectorial representations of meaning are a viable candidate for the representational architecture of human semantic knowledge.

scholarly journals Traces of Meaning Itself: Encoding Distributional Word Vectors in Brain Activity

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jona Sassenhagen ◽  
Christian J. Fiebach
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Word Onset ◽  
Vector Representations

How is semantic information stored in the human mind and brain? Some philosophers and cognitive scientists argue for vectorial representations of concepts, where the meaning of a word is represented as its position in a high-dimensional neural state space. At the intersection of natural language processing and artificial intelligence, a class of very successful distributional word vector models has developed that can account for classic EEG findings of language, that is, the ease versus difficulty of integrating a word with its sentence context. However, models of semantics have to account not only for context-based word processing, but should also describe how word meaning is represented. Here, we investigate whether distributional vector representations of word meaning can model brain activity induced by words presented without context. Using EEG activity (event-related brain potentials) collected while participants in two experiments (English and German) read isolated words, we encoded and decoded word vectors taken from the family of prediction-based Word2vec algorithms. We found that, first, the position of a word in vector space allows the prediction of the pattern of corresponding neural activity over time, in particular during a time window of 300 to 500 ms after word onset. Second, distributional models perform better than a human-created taxonomic baseline model (WordNet), and this holds for several distinct vector-based models. Third, multiple latent semantic dimensions of word meaning can be decoded from brain activity. Combined, these results suggest that empiricist, prediction-based vectorial representations of meaning are a viable candidate for the representational architecture of human semantic knowledge.

Word processing in the brain as revealed by neurophysiological imaging

2007 ◽  
pp. 118-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedemann Pulvermüller
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Psycholinguistic Variables ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Brain ◽  
The Universe

The advent of neuroimaging opened new research perspectives for the psycholinguist as it became possible to look at the neuronal mass activity that underlies language processing. Studies of brain correlates of psycholinguistic processes can complement behavioural results, and in some cases can lead to direct information about the basis of psycholinguistic processes. Even more importantly, the neuroscience move in psycholinguistics made it possible to advance language theorising to the level of the brain. This article discusses neurophysiological imaging with electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography. It examines behavioural and neurophysiological evidence in psycholinguistic research, focusing on lexical class membership and word frequency. The article also considers event-related potentials indicating language processing, early and late language potentials and their implications for psycholinguistics, the universe of psycholinguistic variables and its neurophysiological reality, and laterality of neurophysiological activity interpreted as the critical brain feature of language.

The Opposition of Surprisal and Semantic Similarity in the Prediction of Language Processing: Evidence from Eye-tracking Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Sun
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Semantic Similarity ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
Dynamic Approach

Expectations or predictions about upcoming content play an important role during language comprehension and processing. One important aspect of recent studies of language comprehension and processing concerns the estimation of the upcoming words in a sentence or discourse. Many studies have used eye-tracking data to explore computational and cognitive models for contextual word predictions and word processing. Eye-tracking data has previously been widely explored with a view to investigating the factors that influence word prediction. However, these studies are problematic on several levels, including the stimuli, corpora, statistical tools they applied. Although various computational models have been proposed for simulating contextual word predictions, past studies usually preferred to use a single computational model. The disadvantage of this is that it often cannot give an adequate account of cognitive processing in language comprehension. To avoid these problems, this study draws upon a massive natural and coherent discourse as stimuli in collecting the data on reading time. This study trains two state-of-art computational models (surprisal and semantic (dis)similarity from word vectors by linear discriminative learning (LDL)), measuring knowledge of both the syntagmatic and paradigmatic structure of language. We develop a `dynamic approach' to compute semantic (dis)similarity. It is the first time that these two computational models have been merged. Models are evaluated using advanced statistical methods. Meanwhile, in order to test the efficiency of our approach, one recently developed cosine method of computing semantic (dis)similarity based on word vectors data adopted is used to compare with our `dynamic' approach. The two computational and fixed-effect statistical models can be used to cross-verify the findings, thus ensuring that the result is reliable. All results support that surprisal and semantic similarity are opposed in the prediction of the reading time of words although both can make good predictions. Additionally, our `dynamic' approach performs better than the popular cosine method. The findings of this study are therefore of significance with regard to acquiring a better understanding how humans process words in a real-world context and how they make predictions in language cognition and processing.

Magnetoencephalography and the Cortical Dynamics of Language Processing

2019 ◽  
pp. 114-153
Author(s):  
Riitta Salmelin ◽  
Jan Kujala ◽  
Mia Liljeström
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Powerful Method ◽  
Cortical Dynamics ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Selection Of

When seeking to uncover the brain correlates of language processing, timing and location are of the essence. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) offers them both, with the highest sensitivity to cortical activity. MEG has shown its worth in revealing cortical dynamics of reading, speech perception, and speech production in adults and children, in unimpaired language processing as well as developmental and acquired language disorders. The MEG signals, once recorded, provide an extensive selection of measures for examination of neural processing. Like all other neuroimaging tools, MEG has its own strengths and limitations of which the user should be aware in order to make the best possible use of this powerful method and to generate meaningful and reliable scientific data. This chapter reviews MEG methodology and how MEG has been used to study the cortical dynamics of language.

Effects of the SNAP25 on Integration Ability of Brain Functions in Children With ADHD

2020 ◽  
pp. 108705472096456
Author(s):  
Yue Yang ◽  
Gang Peng ◽  
Hongwu Zeng ◽  
Diangang Fang ◽  
Linlin Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Window ◽  
Precentral Gyrus ◽  
Children With Adhd ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
Lingual Gyrus ◽  
Window Method ◽  
Central Gyrus ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Insight Into

Objective: The present study aimed to examine the effects of SNAP25 on the integration ability of intrinsic brain functions in children with ADHD, and whether the integration ability was associated with working memory (WM). Methods: A sliding time window method was used to calculate the spatial and temporal concordance among five rs-fMRI regional indices in 55 children with ADHD and 20 healthy controls. Results: The SNAP25 exhibited significant interaction effects with ADHD diagnosis on the voxel-wise concordance in the right posterior central gyrus, fusiform gyrus and lingual gyrus. Specifically, for children with ADHD, G-carriers showed increased voxel-wise concordance in comparison to TT homozygotes in the right precentral gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus. The voxel-wise concordance was also found to be related to WM. Conclusion: Our findings provided a new insight into the neural mechanisms of the brain function of ADHD children.

scholarly journals What is special about L3 processing?

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEES DE BOT ◽  
CAROL JAENSCH
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Third Language ◽  
The Core ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
Core Issue ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

While research on third language (L3) and multilingualism has recently shown remarkable growth, the fundamental question of what makes trilingualism special compared to bilingualism, and indeed monolingualism, continues to be evaded. In this contribution we consider whether there is such a thing as a true monolingual, and if there is a difference between dialects, styles, registers and languages. While linguistic and psycholinguistic studies suggest differences in the processing of a third, compared to the first or second language, neurolinguistic research has shown that generally the same areas of the brain are activated during language use in proficient multilinguals. It is concluded that while from traditional linguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives there are grounds to differentiate monolingual, bilingual and multilingual processing, a more dynamic perspective on language processing in which development over time is the core issue, leads to a questioning of the notion of languages as separate entities in the brain.

scholarly journals Sentence Reading: A Functional MRI Study at 4 Tesla

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 664-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Bavelier ◽  
D. Corina ◽  
P. Jezzard ◽  
S. Padmanabhan ◽  
V. P. Clark ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Blood Oxygenation ◽  
Anterior Portion ◽  
Individual Subject ◽  
Sentence Reading ◽  
Wernicke’S Area ◽  
Classical Language ◽  
Mri Study ◽  
Language Areas

In this study, changes in blood oxygenation and volume were monitored while monolingual right-handed subjects read English sentences. Our results confirm the role of the left peri-sylvian cortex in language processing. Interestingly, individual subject analyses reveal a pattern of activation characterized by several small, limited patches rather than a few large, anatomically well-circumscribed centers. Between-subject analyses confirm a lateralized pattern of activation and reveal active classical language areas including Broca's area, Wernicke's area, and the angular gyms. In addition they point to areas only more recently considered as language-relevant including the anterior portion of the superior temporal sulcus. This area has not been reliably observed in imaging studies of isolated word processing. This raises the hypothesis that activation in this area is dependent on processes specific to sentence reading.

scholarly journals N170 reflects visual familiarity and automatic sublexical phonological access in L2 written word processing

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Yen Na Yum ◽  
Sam-Po Law
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Repetition Detection ◽  
Korean Chinese ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Bilingual Readers

Abstract The literature has mixed reports on whether the N170, an early visual ERP response to words, signifies orthographic and/or phonological processing, and whether these effects are moderated by script and language expertise. In this study, native Chinese readers, Japanese–Chinese, and Korean–Chinese bilingual readers performed a one-back repetition detection task with single Chinese characters that differed in phonological regularity status. Results using linear mixed effects models showed that Korean–Chinese readers had bilateral N170 response, while native Chinese and Japanese–Chinese groups had left-lateralized N170, with stronger left lateralization in native Chinese than Japanese–Chinese readers. Additionally, across groups, irregular characters had bilateral increase in N170 amplitudes compared to regular characters. These results suggested that visual familiarity to a script rather than orthography-phonology mapping determined the left lateralization of the N170 response, while there was automatic access to sublexical phonology in the N170 time window in native and non-native readers alike.

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