scholarly journals The processing of semantic complexity and co-speech gestures in schizophrenia: a naturalistic, multimodal fMRI study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Cuevas ◽  
Yifei He ◽  
Miriam Steines ◽  
Benjamin Straube

Schizophrenia is marked by aberrant processing of complex speech and gesture, which may contribute functionally to its impaired social communication. To date, extant neuroscientific studies of schizophrenia have largely investigated dysfunctional speech and gesture in isolation, and no prior research has examined how the two communicative channels may interact in more natural contexts. Here, we tested if patients with schizophrenia show aberrant neural processing of semantically complex story segments, and if speech-associated gestures (co-speech gestures) might modulate this effect. In a functional MRI study, we presented to 34 participants (16 patients and 18 matched-controls) an ecologically-valid retelling of a continuous story, performed via speech and spontaneous gestures. We split the entire story into ten-word segments, and measured the semantic complexity for each segment with idea density, a linguistic measure that is commonly used clinically to evaluate aberrant language dysfunction at semantic level. Per segment, the presence of numbers of gestures varied (n = 0, 1, +2). Our results suggest that, in comparison to controls, patients showed reduced activation for more complex segments in the bilateral middle frontal and inferior parietal regions. Importantly, this neural aberrance was reduced in segments presented with gestures. Thus, for the first time with a naturalistic multimodal stimulation paradigm, we show that gestures reduced group differences when processing a natural story, probably by facilitating the processing of semantically complex segments of the story in schizophrenia.

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoinette R. Miller ◽  
J. Peter Rosenfeld

Abstract University students were screened using items from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory and divided into high (n = 13) and low (n = 11) Psychopathic Personality Trait (PPT) groups. The P300 component of the event-related potential (ERP) was recorded as each group completed a two-block autobiographical oddball task, responding honestly during the first (Phone) block, in which oddball items were participants' home phone numbers, and then feigning amnesia in response to approximately 50% of items in the second (Birthday) block in which oddball items were participants' birthdates. Bootstrapping of peak-to-peak amplitudes correctly identified 100% of low PPT and 92% of high PPT participants as having intact recognition. Both groups demonstrated malingering-related P300 amplitude reduction. For the first time, P300 amplitude and topography differences were observed between honest and deceptive responses to Birthday items. No main between-group P300 effects resulted. Post-hoc analysis revealed between-group differences in a frontally located post-P300 component. Honest responses were associated with late frontal amplitudes larger than deceptive responses at frontal sites in the low PPT group only.


2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (S 2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Mohr ◽  
I Mangels ◽  
C Helmchen

2016 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
pp. 43-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca C. Groschwitz ◽  
Paul L. Plener ◽  
Georg Groen ◽  
Martina Bonenberger ◽  
Birgit Abler

NeuroImage ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1567-1577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afra Ritzl ◽  
John C Marshall ◽  
Peter H Weiss ◽  
Oliver Zafiris ◽  
Nadim J Shah ◽  
...  

Kavkaz-forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Л.Б. ДЗАПАРОВА

Проблемы теории и практики художественного перевода как феномена межкультурной коммуникации в наше время актуализируются в современной филологической науке. Расширяется исследовательское поле в этой области научного знания для переводоведов и всех, кто интересуется проблемами диалога культур. Выбор темы исследования обусловлен и прошедшим в этом году 95-летим юбилеем известного осетинского поэта, драматурга, литературоведа Нафи Григорьевича Джусойты. В статье рассматривается вклад народного писателя Осетии в теоретическое осмысление проблем художественного перевода; впер­вые анализируется одно из самых сложных для перевода стихотворений А.С. Пушкина «Пророк» в интерпретации Н. Джусойты. В частности, автором в статье представлен анализ опубликованных Джусойты на страницах центральных литературных журналов дискуссионных работ по наиболее актуальным проблемам переводоведения. В них Джусойты фокусирует внимание на вопросах верности перевода оригиналу, повышения качества подстрочников, новаторства и модер­низации классических произведений; обуславливает важность переводческого чтения в процессе постижения оригинала; определяет специфику поэтического перевода; выступает против украшательства в переводе, демонстрации на всесоюзном уровне слабых оригиналов и несовершенных переводов. В целом, Джусойты, полемизируя с известными теоретиками, предлагает свою концепцию перевода, начиная от выбора произведения и до конечного результата – текста на другом языке. Перед нами круг проблем, которые до сих пор волнуют специалистов по художественно­му переводу. Автором статьи также представлен сравнительно-сопоставительный анализ стихотворения А. Пушкина в оригинале и в переводческой интерпретации Н.Г. Джусойты. Сличение текстов на смысловом уровне показало стремление Джусойты найти художественные средства, которые помогают раскрыть основной образ. Но не везде раскрыт двуплановый смысл, запечатленный в лексических единицах исходного языка. The problems of the theory and practice of literary translation as a phenomenon of intercultural communication are still actualized in modern philological science. The research field in this area of scientific knowledge is expanding for translators and those interested in the problems of the dialogue of cultures. The choice of the research topic was also conditioned by the 95th anniversary of the famous Ossetian poet, playwright, literary critic Nafi Grigorievich Jusoyty, celebrated this year. The article examines the contribution of the people’s writer of Ossetia to the theoretical understanding of the problems of literary translation; for the first time one of the most difficult poems for translation by A.S. Pushkin’s «Prophet» in the interpretation of N. Jusoyty is reviewed. In particular, the author in the article presents an analysis of the discussion papers published by Jusoyty on the pages of central literary journals on the most pressing problems of translation studies. In them, Jusoyty focuses on the issues of closeness to the original, improving the quality of interlinear translations, innovation and modernization of classical works; determines the importance of translation reading in the process of comprehending the original; determines the specifics of poetic translation; opposes embellishment in translation, the demonstration of weak originals and imperfect translations at the all-Union level. In general, Jusoyty, arguing with well-known theorists, offers his own concept of translation, starting from the choice of a work and up to the final result – a text in another language. We are faced with a range of problems that still concern specialists in literary translation. The author of the article also presents a comparative analysis of A. Pushkin’s poem in the original and in t/he translation interpretation of N.G. Jusoyty. Comparison of the texts at the semantic level showed Jusoyty’s desire to find close artistic means that help to reveal the main image. But not everywhere is disclosed the two-dimensional meaning embodied in the lexical units of the source language.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 2287-2297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit Musel ◽  
Louise Kauffmann ◽  
Stephen Ramanoël ◽  
Coralie Giavarini ◽  
Nathalie Guyader ◽  
...  

Neurophysiological, behavioral, and computational data indicate that visual analysis may start with the parallel extraction of different elementary attributes at different spatial frequencies and follows a predominantly coarse-to-fine (CtF) processing sequence (low spatial frequencies [LSF] are extracted first, followed by high spatial frequencies [HSF]). Evidence for CtF processing within scene-selective cortical regions is, however, still lacking. In the present fMRI study, we tested whether such processing occurs in three scene-selective cortical regions: the parahippocampal place area (PPA), the retrosplenial cortex, and the occipital place area. Fourteen participants were subjected to functional scans during which they performed a categorization task of indoor versus outdoor scenes using dynamic scene stimuli. Dynamic scenes were composed of six filtered images of the same scene, from LSF to HSF or from HSF to LSF, allowing us to mimic a CtF or the reverse fine-to-coarse (FtC) sequence. Results showed that only the PPA was more activated for CtF than FtC sequences. Equivalent activations were observed for both sequences in the retrosplenial cortex and occipital place area. This study suggests for the first time that CtF sequence processing constitutes the predominant strategy for scene categorization in the PPA.


Biostatistics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanying Ma ◽  
Luo Xiao ◽  
Bowen Liu ◽  
Martin A Lindquist

Summary Motivated by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we propose a new functional mixed model for scalar on function regression. The model extends the standard scalar on function regression for repeated outcomes by incorporating subject-specific random functional effects. Using functional principal component analysis, the new model can be reformulated as a mixed effects model and thus easily fit. A test is also proposed to assess the existence of the subject-specific random functional effects. We evaluate the performance of the model and test via a simulation study, as well as on data from the motivating fMRI study of thermal pain. The data application indicates significant subject-specific effects of the human brain hemodynamics related to pain and provides insights on how the effects might differ across subjects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 181908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Brown ◽  
Peter Cockett ◽  
Ye Yuan

The current study represents a first attempt at examining the neural basis of dramatic acting. While all people play multiple roles in daily life—for example, ‘spouse' or ‘employee'—these roles are all facets of the ‘self' and thus of the first-person (1P) perspective. Compared to such everyday role playing, actors are required to portray other people and to adopt their gestures, emotions and behaviours. Consequently, actors must think and behave not as themselves but as the characters they are pretending to be. In other words, they have to assume a ‘fictional first-person' (Fic1P) perspective. In this functional MRI study, we sought to identify brain regions preferentially activated when actors adopt a Fic1P perspective during dramatic role playing. In the scanner, university-trained actors responded to a series of hypothetical questions from either their own 1P perspective or from that of Romeo (male participants) or Juliet (female participants) from Shakespeare's drama. Compared to responding as oneself, responding in character produced global reductions in brain activity and, particularly, deactivations in the cortical midline network of the frontal lobe, including the dorsomedial and ventromedial prefrontal cortices. Thus, portraying a character through acting seems to be a deactivation-driven process, perhaps representing a ‘loss of self'.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 20190134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Nahmad-Rohen ◽  
Misha Vorobyev

Behavioural contrast sensitivity in Octopus tetricus was measured in the range of 0.05–12 cycles per degree (cpd) using a fixation reflex. We show that the contrast sensitivity reaches its maximum (between 1 and 4%) at 0.3 cpd, and decreases to approximately half of the maximum value at the lowest spatial frequency. Reduction of sensitivity at low spatial frequency is a signature of lateral inhibition in visual systems. In vertebrates and insects, lateral inhibition helps to overcome the bottleneck of encoding information into spikes. In octopus, photoreceptors generate spikes themselves and are directly connected to the brain through their axons. Therefore, the neural processing occurring in the octopus brain cannot help overcome the bottleneck of encoding information into spikes. We conclude that, in octopus, either the lateral inhibition occurs in the brain after information has been encoded into spikes, or photoreceptors inhibit each other. This is the first time behavioural contrast sensitivity has been measured in a cephalopod.


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