scholarly journals Neural dynamics of the impact of font style on lexical decision making in adult dyslexia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léon Franzen ◽  
Marios G. Philiastides
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Good Reading ◽  
The Impact

Good reading comprehension is indispensable in many situations including contract-based transactions that have become so prevalent in our everyday lives. People with dyslexia often exhibit impairments in this important cognitive process. Although the effects of italics — a commonly used style for highlighting important content in a range of documents — and font in general, have been explored with behavioural measures, their impact on human brain dynamics remains poorly understood. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the specific effects of italics in a sentence reading lexical decision task in adult dyslexics and an age-matched non-dyslexia group. Overall, the performance of dyslexics was worse. Cluster-based event-related potential (ERP) analysis revealed that brain responses within the first 300 ms following the decision stimulus differed in amplitude and spatial distribution between dyslexics and non-dyslexics when processing italicised text. An initial ERP component over occipitotemporal electrode sites started to differ between the groups as early as 167 ms following the onset of short italicised decision words. A subsequent ERP component over centrofrontal electrodes showed differences lasting until about 300 ms post-stimulus onset. Inter-individual amplitude differences in this centrofrontal neural signal were predictive of behavioural performance across participants, further highlighting the role of fast post-sensory linguistic processes in lexical decision making. Crucially, our findings emphasise the importance of choosing font style carefully to optimise word processing and reading comprehension by everyone.

Are Emotions Abstract or Concrete?

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 315-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Xu ◽  
Chunyan Kang ◽  
Kaia Sword ◽  
Taomei Guo
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
N400 Amplitude ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Concrete Nouns ◽  
Emotion Concepts ◽  
Healthy Participants

Abstract. The ability to identify and communicate emotions is essential to psychological well-being. Yet research focusing exclusively on emotion concepts has been limited. This study examined nouns that represent emotions (e.g., pleasure, guilt) in comparison to nouns that represent abstract (e.g., wisdom, failure) and concrete entities (e.g., flower, coffin). Twenty-five healthy participants completed a lexical decision task. Event-related potential (ERP) data showed that emotion nouns elicited less pronounced N400 than both abstract and concrete nouns. Further, N400 amplitude differences between emotion and concrete nouns were evident in both hemispheres, whereas the differences between emotion and abstract nouns had a left-lateralized distribution. These findings suggest representational distinctions, possibly in both verbal and imagery systems, between emotion concepts versus other concepts, implications of which for theories of affect representations and for research on affect disorders merit further investigation.

scholarly journals Lateralızatıon of Non-Word Processıng in Monolınguals

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 185-190
Author(s):  
Filiz Mergen ◽  
Gulmira Kuruoglu
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Hemispheric Dominance ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Visual Hemifield ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence

A great bulk of research in the psycholinguistic literature has been dedicated to hemispheric organization of words. An overwhelming evidence suggests that the left hemisphere is primarily responsible for lexical processing. However, non-words, which look similar to real words but lack meaningful associations, is underrepresented in the laterality literature. This study investigated the lateralization of Turkish non-words. Fifty-three Turkish monolinguals performed a lexical decision task in a visual hemifield paradigm. An analysis of their response times revealed left-hemispheric dominance for non-words, adding further support to the literature. The accuracy of their answers, however, were comparable regardless of the field of presentation. The results were discussed in light of the psycholinguistic word processing views.

scholarly journals To stay or not to stay: The stability of choice perseveration in value-based decision making

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-217
Author(s):  
Ulrike Senftleben ◽  
Martin Schoemann ◽  
Matthias Rudolf ◽  
Stefan Scherbaum
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Cognitive Stability ◽  
Inter Trial Interval ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Onset Asynchrony

In real life, decisions are often naturally embedded in decision sequences. In contrast, in the laboratory, decisions are oftentimes analysed in isolation. Here, we investigated the influence of decision sequences in value-based decision making and whether the stability of such effects can be modulated. In our decision task, participants needed to collect rewards in a virtual two-dimensional world. We presented a series of two reward options that were either quick to collect but were smaller in value or took longer to collect but were larger in value. The subjective value of each option was driven by the options’ value and how quickly they could be reached. We manipulated the subjective values of the options so that one option became gradually less valuable over the course of a sequence, which allowed us to measure choice perseveration (i.e., how long participants stick to this option). In two experiments, we further manipulated the time interval between two trials (inter-trial interval), and the time delay between the onsets of both reward options (stimulus onset asynchrony). We predicted how these manipulations would affect choice perseveration using a computational attractor model. Our results indicate that both the inter-trial interval and the stimulus onset asynchrony modulate choice perseveration as predicted by the model. We discuss how our findings extend to research on cognitive stability and flexibility.

scholarly journals Faulty Suppression of Irrelevant Material in Patients with Thought Disorder Linked to Attenuated Frontotemporal Activation

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Arcuri ◽  
M. R. Broome ◽  
V. Giampietro ◽  
E. Amaro ◽  
T. T. J. Kircher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Thought Disorder ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Formal Thought Disorder ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Semantic Decision ◽  
Semantic Decision Task ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients

Formal thought disorder is a feature schizophrenia that manifests as disorganized, incoherent speech, and is associated with a poor clinical outcome. The neurocognitive basis of this symptom is unclear but it is thought to involve an impairment in semantic processing classically described as a loosening of meaningful associations. Using a paradigm derived from the n400 event-related, potential, we examined the extent to which regional activation during semantic processing is altered in schizophrenic patients with formal thought disorder. Ten healthy control and 18 schizophrenic participants (9 with and 9 without formal thought disorder) performed a semantic decision sentence task during an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment. We employed analysis of variance to estimate the main effects of semantic congruency and groups on activation and specific effects of formal thought disorder were addressed using post-hoc comparisons. We found that the frontotemporal network, normally engaged by a semantic decision task, was underactivated in schizophrenia, particularly in patients with FTD. This network is implicated in the inhibition of automatically primed stimuli and impairment of its function interferes with language processing and contributes to the production of incoherent speech.

Semantic Processing of Foveally and Parafoveally Presented Words in a Lexical Decision Task

1992 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis J. Fuentes ◽  
Pío Tudela
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Inhibitory Effects ◽  
Target Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Prime Target

Using a lexical decision task in which two primes appeared simultaneously in the visual field for 150 msec followed by a target word, two experiments examined semantic priming from attended and unattended primes as a function of both the separation between the primes in the visual field and the prime-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA). In the first experiment significant priming effects were found for both the attended and unattended prime words, though the effect was much greater for the attended words. In addition, and also for both attention conditions, priming showed a tendency to increase with increasing eccentricity (2.3°, 3.3°, and 4.3°) between the prime words in the visual field at the long (550 and 850 msec) but not at the short (250 msec) prime-target SOA. In the second experiment the prime stimuli were either two words (W-W) or one word and five Xs (W-X). We manipulated the degree of eccentricity (2° and 3.6°) between the prime stimuli and used a prime-target SOA of 850 msec. Again significant priming was found for both the attended and unattended words but only the W-W condition showed a decrement in priming as a function of the separation between the primes; this decrement came to produce negative priming for the unattended word at the narrow (2°) separation. These results are discussed in relation to the semantic processing of parafoveal words and the inhibitory effects of focused attention.

scholarly journals Dissociating the Impact of Movement Time and Energy Costs on Decision-Making and Action Initiation in Humans

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Saleri Lunazzi ◽  
Amélie J. Reynaud ◽  
David Thura
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Energy Expenditure ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Movement Initiation ◽  
Time Condition ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Action Initiation

Recent theories and data suggest that adapted behavior involves economic computations during which multiple trade-offs between reward value, accuracy requirement, energy expenditure, and elapsing time are solved so as to obtain rewards as soon as possible while spending the least possible amount of energy. However, the relative impact of movement energy and duration costs on perceptual decision-making and movement initiation is poorly understood. Here, we tested 31 healthy subjects on a perceptual decision-making task in which they executed reaching movements to report probabilistic choices. In distinct blocks of trials, the reaching duration (“Time” condition) and energy (“Effort” condition) costs were independently varied compared to a “Reference” block, while decision difficulty was maintained similar at the block level. Participants also performed a simple delayed-reaching (DR) task aimed at estimating movement initiation duration in each motor condition. Results in that DR task show that long duration movements extended reaction times (RTs) in most subjects, whereas energy-consuming movements led to mixed effects on RTs. In the decision task, about half of the subjects decreased their decision durations (DDs) in the Time condition, while the impact of energy on DDs were again mixed across subjects. Decision accuracy was overall similar across motor conditions. These results indicate that movement duration and, to a lesser extent, energy expenditure, idiosyncratically affect perceptual decision-making and action initiation. We propose that subjects who shortened their choices in the time-consuming condition of the decision task did so to limit a drop of reward rate.

scholarly journals Electrophysiological correlates of the interplay between low-level visual features and emotional content during word reading

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Schindler ◽  
Antonio Schettino ◽  
Gilles Pourtois
Keyword(s):  
Word Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Electrophysiological Study ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Low Level

Processing affectively charged visual stimuli typically results in increased amplitude of specific event-related potential (ERP) components. Low-level features similarly modulate electrophysiological responses, with amplitude changes proportional to variations in stimulus size and contrast. However, it remains unclear whether emotion-related amplifications during visual word processing are necessarily intertwined with changes in specific low-level features or, instead, may act independently.In this pre-registered electrophysiological study, we varied font size and contrast of neutral and negative words while participants were monitoring their semantic content. We examined ERP responses associated with early sensory and attentional processes as well as later stages of stimulus processing. Results showed amplitude modulations by low-level visual features early on following stimulus onset – i.e., P1 and N1 components –, while the LPP was independently modulated by these visual features. Independent effects of size and emotion were observed only at the level of the EPN. Here, larger EPN amplitudes for negative were observed only for small high contrast and large low contrast words. These results suggest that early increase in sensory processing at the EPN level for negative words is not automatic, but bound to specific combinations of low-level features, occurring presumably via attentional control processes.

On the limits of familiarity accounts in lexical decision: The case of repetition effects

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-383
Author(s):  
Manuel Perea ◽  
Ana Marcet ◽  
Marta Vergara-Martínez ◽  
Pablo Gomez
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Episodic Retrieval ◽  
Repetition Effects ◽  
Repeated Item ◽  
Evidence Accumulation ◽  
Initial Block ◽  
The Impact

Recent modelling accounts of the lexical decision task have suggested that the reading system performs evidence accumulation to carry out some functions. Evidence accumulation models have been very successful in accounting for effects in the lexical decision task, including the dissociation of repetition effects for words and nonwords (facilitative for words but inhibitory for nonwords). The familiarity of a repeated item triggers its recognition, which facilitates ‘word’ responses but hampers nonword rejection. However, reports of facilitative repetition effects for nonwords with several repetitions in short blocks challenge this hypothesis and favour models based on episodic retrieval. To shed light on the nature of the repetition effects for nonwords in lexical decision, we conducted four experiments to examine the impact of extra-lexical source of information—we induced the use of episodic retrieval traces via instructions and list composition. When the initial block was long, the repetition effect for nonwords was inhibitory, regardless of the instructions and list composition. However, the inhibitory effect was dramatically reduced when the initial block included two presentations of the stimuli and it was even facilitatory when the initial block was short. This composite pattern suggests that evidence accumulation models of lexical decision should take into account all sources of evidence—including episodic retrieval—during the process of lexical decision.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document