scholarly journals An Electrophysiological Analysis of the Time Course of Conceptual and Syntactic Encoding during Tacit Picture Naming

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 510-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette M. Schmitt ◽  
Kolja Schiltz ◽  
Wanda Zaake ◽  
Marta Kutas ◽  
Thomas F. Münte

A central question in psycholinguistic research is when various types of information involved in speaking (conceptual/ semantic, syntactic, and phonological information) become available during the speech planning process. Competing theories attempt to distinguish between parallel and serial models. Here, we investigated the relative time courses of conceptual and syntactic encoding in a tacit picture-naming task via event-related brain potential (ERP) recordings. Participants viewed pictures and made dual-choice go/no-go decisions based on conceptual features (whether the depicted item was heavier or lighter than 500 g) and syntactic features (whether the picture's German name had feminine or masculine syntactic gender). In support of serial models of speech production, both the lateralized readiness potential, or LRP (related to response preparation), and the N200 (related to response inhibition) measures indicated that conceptual processing began approximately 80 msec earlier than syntactic processing.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Honari-Jahromi ◽  
Brea Chouinard ◽  
Esti Blanco-Elorrieta ◽  
Liina Pylkkänen ◽  
Alona Fyshe

ABSTRACTIn language, stored representations of lexical items combine into an infinitude of complex expressions. While the neuroscience of composition has begun to mature, we do not yet understand how the stored representations evolve and morph during composition. New decoding techniques allow us to crack open this very hard question: we can train a model to recognize a representation in one context or time-point and assess its accuracy in another. We combined the decoding approach with magnetoencephalography recorded during a picture naming task to investigate the temporal evolution of noun and adjective representations during speech planning. We tracked word representations as they combined into simple two-word phrases, using single words and two-word lists as non-combinatory controls. We found that nouns were generally more decodable than adjectives, suggesting that noun representations were stronger and/or more consistent across trials than those of adjectives. When training and testing across contexts and times, the representations of isolated nouns were recoverable when those nouns were embedded in phrases, but not so if they were embedded in lists. Adjective representations did not show a similar consistency across isolated and phrasal contexts. Noun representations in phrases also sustained over time in a way that was not observed for any other pairing of word class and context. These findings offer a new window into the temporal evolution and context sensitivity of word representations during composition, revealing a clear asymmetry between adjectives and nouns. The impact of phrasal contexts on the decodability of nouns may be due to the nouns’ status as head of phrase—an intriguing hypothesis for future research.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0242754
Author(s):  
Maryam Honari-Jahromi ◽  
Brea Chouinard ◽  
Esti Blanco-Elorrieta ◽  
Liina Pylkkänen ◽  
Alona Fyshe

In language, stored semantic representations of lexical items combine into an infinitude of complex expressions. While the neuroscience of composition has begun to mature, we do not yet understand how the stored representations evolve and morph during composition. New decoding techniques allow us to crack open this very hard question: we can train a model to recognize a representation in one context or time-point and assess its accuracy in another. We combined the decoding approach with magnetoencephalography recorded during a picture naming task to investigate the temporal evolution of noun and adjective representations during speech planning. We tracked semantic representations as they combined into simple two-word phrases, using single words and two-word lists as non-combinatory controls. We found that nouns were generally more decodable than adjectives, suggesting that noun representations were stronger and/or more consistent across trials than those of adjectives. When training and testing across contexts and times, the representations of isolated nouns were recoverable when those nouns were embedded in phrases, but not so if they were embedded in lists. Adjective representations did not show a similar consistency across isolated and phrasal contexts. Noun representations in phrases also sustained over time in a way that was not observed for any other pairing of word class and context. These findings offer a new window into the temporal evolution and context sensitivity of word representations during composition, revealing a clear asymmetry between adjectives and nouns. The impact of phrasal contexts on the decodability of nouns may be due to the nouns’ status as head of phrase—an intriguing hypothesis for future research.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1499-1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Laganaro ◽  
Stéphanie Morand ◽  
Armin Schnider

Impaired word production after brain damage can be due to impairment at lexical–semantic or at lexical–phonological levels of word encoding. These processes are thought to involve different brain regions and to have different time courses. The present study investigated the time course of electrophysiological correlates of anomia in 16 aphasic speakers, divided in two subgroups according to their anomic pattern (8 with lexical–semantic impairment and 8 with lexical–phonological impairment), in comparison to 16 healthy control subjects performing the same picture naming task. Differences in amplitudes and in topographic maps between groups were differently distributed when the whole heterogeneous group of aphasic patients was compared to the control group and when the two more homogeneous subgroups of anomic patients were analyzed. The entire aphasic group expressed different waveforms and topographic patterns than the control group starting about 100 msec after picture presentation. When two subgroups of aphasic patients are considered according to the underlying cognitive impairment, early event-related potential (ERP) abnormalities (100–250 msec) appeared only in the lexical–semantic subgroup, whereas later ERP abnormalities (300–450 msec) occurred only in the lexical–phonological subgroup. These results indicate that the time windows of ERP abnormalities vary depending on the underlying anomic impairment. Moreover, the findings give support to current hypotheses on the time course of processes involved in word production during picture naming.


Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3396 ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 579-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin W Tatler ◽  
Iain D Gilchrist ◽  
Jenny Rusted

Studies in change blindness re-enforce the suggestion that veridical, pictorial representations that survive multiple relocations of gaze are unlikely to be generated in the visual system. However, more abstract information may well be extracted and represented by the visual system. In this paper we study the types of information that are retained and the time courses over which these representations are constructed when participants view complex natural scenes. We find that such information is retained and that the resultant abstract representations encode a range of information. Different types of information are extracted and represented over different time courses. After several seconds of viewing natural scenes, our visual system is able to construct a complex information-rich representation.


1992 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Reuss ◽  
B Simon ◽  
C U Cotton

The mechanisms of apparent streaming potentials elicited across Necturus gallbladder epithelium by addition or removal of sucrose from the apical bathing solution were studied by assessing the time courses of: (a) the change in transepithelial voltage (Vms). (b) the change in osmolality at the cell surface (estimated with a tetrabutylammonium [TBA+]-selective microelectrode, using TBA+ as a tracer for sucrose), and (c) the change in cell impermeant solute concentration ([TMA+]i, measured with an intracellular double-barrel TMA(+)-selective microelectrode after loading the cells with TMA+ by transient permeabilization with nystatin). For both sucrose addition and removal, the time courses of Vms were the same as the time courses of the voltage signals produced by [TMA+]i, while the time courses of the voltage signals produced by [TBA+]o were much faster. These results suggest that the apparent streaming potentials are caused by changes of [NaCl] in the lateral intercellular spaces, whose time course reflects the changes in cell water volume (and osmolality) elicited by the alterations in apical solution osmolality. Changes in cell osmolality are slow relative to those of the apical solution osmolality, whereas lateral space osmolality follows cell osmolality rapidly, due to the large surface area of lateral membranes and the small volume of the spaces. Analysis of a simple mathematical model of the epithelium yields an apical membrane Lp in good agreement with previous measurements and suggests that elevations of the apical solution osmolality elicit rapid reductions in junctional ionic selectivity, also in good agreement with experimental determinations. Elevations in apical solution [NaCl] cause biphasic transepithelial voltage changes: a rapid negative Vms change of similar time course to that of a Na+/TBA+ bi-ionic potential and a slow positive Vms change of similar time course to that of the sucrose-induced apparent streaming potential. We conclude that the Vms changes elicited by addition of impermeant solute to the apical bathing solution are pseudo-streaming potentials, i.e., junctional diffusion potentials caused by salt concentration changes in the lateral intercellular spaces secondary to osmotic water flow from the cells to the apical bathing solution and from the lateral intercellular spaces to the cells. Our results do not support the notion of junctional solute-solvent coupling during transepithelial osmotic water flow.


1991 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Castellano ◽  
J López-Barneo

Voltage-gated Na+ and Ca2+ conductances of freshly dissociated septal neurons were studied in the whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique. All cells exhibited a large Na+ current with characteristic fast activation and inactivation time courses. Half-time to peak current at -20 mV was 0.44 +/- 0.18 ms and maximal activation of Na+ conductance occurred at 0 mV or more positive membrane potentials. The average value was 91 +/- 32 nS (approximately 11 mS cm-2). At all membrane voltages inactivation was well fitted by a single exponential that had a time constant of 0.44 +/- 0.09 ms at 0 mV. Recovery from inactivation was complete in approximately 900 ms at -80 mV but in only 50 ms at -120 mV. The decay of Na+ tail currents had a single time constant that at -80 mV was faster than 100 microseconds. Depolarization of septal neurons also elicited a Ca2+ current that peaked in approximately 6-8 ms. Maximal peak Ca2+ current was obtained at 20 mV, and with 10 mM external Ca2+ the amplitude was 0.35 +/- 0.22 nA. During a maintained depolarization this current partially inactivated in the course of 200-300 ms. The Ca2+ current was due to the activity of two types of conductances with different deactivation kinetics. At -80 mV the closing time constants of slow (SD) and fast (FD) deactivating channels were, respectively, 1.99 +/- 0.2 and 0.11 +/- 0.03 ms (25 degrees C). The two kinds of channels also differed in their activation voltage, inactivation time course, slope of the conductance-voltage curve, and resistance to intracellular dialysis. The proportion of SD and FD channels varied from cell to cell, which may explain the differential electrophysiological responses of intracellularly recorded septal neurons.


1980 ◽  
Vol 152 (5) ◽  
pp. 1302-1310 ◽  
Author(s):  
D S Pisetsky ◽  
G A McCarty ◽  
D V Peters

The quantitative expression of anti-DNA and anti-Sm antibodies has been investigated in autoimmune MRL-lpr/lpr and MRL-+/+ mice. Anti-Sm antibodies were detected in sera from 21/23 lpr/lpr and 10/16 +/+ mice, with individual animals showing striking variation in the time-course and magnitude of this autoantibody response. The peak antibody levels of the responding animals of each substrain did not differ significantly. For anti-DNA antibody, a different pattern of responsiveness was observed. Individual animals of each substrain produced very similar responses in terms of the magnitude and time-course of serum anti-DNA antibody. The differences in the peak levels of the two substrains were highly significant, with lpr/lpr mice demonstrating a much greater anti-DNA antibody response than +/+ mice. In lpr/lpr mice tested for both autoantibody systems, serum anti-DNA and anti-Sm antibodies showed distinct time-courses. These studies indicate that anti-DNA and anti-Sm antibodies are expressed independently in MRL mice, with the expression of anti-DNA, but not anti-Sm antibody markedly influenced by the presence of the 1pr gene. A fundamental difference in the mechanisms involved in the generation of anti-DNA and anti-Sm antibodies is suggested by the quantitative pattern of the two responses.


2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 176-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Haman ◽  
Andrea Zevenbergen ◽  
Melissa Andrus ◽  
Marta Chmielewska

Coining Compounds and Derivations - A Crosslinguistic Elicitation Study of Word-Formation Abilities of Preschool Children and Adults in Polish and English This paper examines word-formation abilities in coining compounds and derivatives in preschool children and adult speakers of two languages (English and Polish) differing in overall word-formation productivity and in favoring of particular word-formation patterns (compounding vs. derivation). An elicitation picture naming task was designed to assess these abilities across a range of word-formation categories. Adult speakers demonstrated well-developed word-formation skills in patterns both typical and non-typical for their native language. In contrast with adult results, preschool children predominantly coined innovations conforming to the general pattern of their language: Polish children favoring derivation and American children favoring compounding. The results show that although children are improving their wordformation skills during the preschool years, they need much more experience to come to the mature proficiency in using the variety of word-formation patterns available in their language.


Gesture ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 299-334
Author(s):  
Arianna Bello ◽  
Silvia Stefanini ◽  
Pasquale Rinaldi ◽  
Daniela Onofrio ◽  
Virginia Volterra

Abstract In early communicative development, children with Down syndrome (DS) make extensive use of gestures to compensate for articulatory difficulties. Here, we analyzed the symbolic strategies that underlie this gesture production, compared to that used by typically developing children. Using the same picture-naming task, 79 representational gestures produced by 10 children with DS and 42 representational gestures produced by 10 typically developing children of comparable developmental age (3;1 vs. 2;9, respectively) were collected. The gestures were analyzed and classified according to four symbolic strategies. The two groups performed all of the strategies, with no significant differences for either choice or frequency of the strategies used. The item analysis highlighted that some photographs tended to elicit the use of the same strategy in both groups. These results indicate that similar symbolic strategies are active in children with DS as in typically developing children, which suggests interesting similarities in their symbolic development.


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