Neural Correlates of Morphological Processes in Hebrew

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atira Bick ◽  
Gadi Goelman ◽  
Ram Frost
Keyword(s):  
Imaging Study ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Statistical Correlation ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Orthographic Similarity ◽  
Distinct Process ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Semantic Properties

Is morphology a discrete and independent element of lexical structure or does it simply reflect a fine tuning of the system to the statistical correlation that exists among the orthographic and semantic properties of words? Imaging studies in English failed to show unequivocal morphological activation that is distinct from semantic or orthographic activation. Cognitive research in Hebrew has revealed that morphological decomposition is an important component of print processing. In Hebrew, morphological relatedness does not necessarily induce a clear semantic relatedness, thus, Hebrew provides a unique opportunity to investigate the neural substrates of morphological processing. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants were required to perform judgment tasks of morphological relatedness, semantic relatedness, rhyming, and orthographic similarity. Half of the morphologically related words were semantically related and half were semantically unrelated. This design was chosen to induce explicit morphological processing. We identified two locations involved in morphological processing: the left middle frontal gyrus and the left inferior parietal sulcus. Comparing locations of morphological related activation to the locations of semantic and orthographic related activation, we found that the areas neighbored but only partially overlapped. The similarity in activation between the two morphological conditions eliminates the possibility that morphological activation simply results from the semantic properties of the words. These results demonstrate the important role of morphological processing in reading and suggest that morphological analysis is a distinct process of visual word recognition.

scholarly journals Imaging Implicit Morphological Processing: Evidence from Hebrew

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 1955-1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atira S. Bick ◽  
Ram Frost ◽  
Gadi Goelman
Keyword(s):  
Masked Priming ◽  
Statistical Correlation ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Semantic Transparency ◽  
Lexical Structure ◽  
The Neural Networks ◽  
Distinct Aspect ◽  
The Brain

Is morphology a discrete and independent element of lexical structure or does it simply reflect a fine-tuning of the system to the statistical correlation that exists among orthographic and semantic properties of words? Hebrew provides a unique opportunity to examine morphological processing in the brain because of its rich morphological system. In an fMRI masked priming experiment, we investigated the neural networks involved in implicit morphological processing in Hebrew. In the lMFG and lIFG, activation was found to be significantly reduced when the primes were morphologically related to the targets. This effect was not influenced by the semantic transparency of the morphological prime, and was not found in the semantic or orthographic condition. Additional morphologically related decrease in activation was found in the lIPL, where activation was significantly modulated by semantic transparency. Our findings regarding implicit morphological processing suggest that morphology is an automatic and distinct aspect of visually processing words. These results also coincide with the behavioral data previously obtained demonstrating the central role of morphological processing in reading Hebrew.

scholarly journals The neural substrates of the warning effect: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

2013 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 230-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yumiko Yoshida ◽  
Hiroki C. Tanabe ◽  
Masamichi J. Hayashi ◽  
Hiroaki Kawamichi ◽  
Takanori Kochiyama ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Warning Effect

scholarly journals Scaling of Dynamics in the Earliest Stages of Walking

2007 ◽  
Vol 87 (11) ◽  
pp. 1458-1467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth G Holt ◽  
Elliot Saltzman ◽  
Chia-Ling Ho ◽  
Beverly D Ulrich
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Delays ◽  
Physical Therapist ◽  
Equations Of Motion ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Spring Stiffness ◽  
Kinematic Data ◽  
Ground Testing ◽  
Stage Process ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Isometric Muscle

Background and Purpose Although the description of mature walking is fairly well established, less is known about what is being learned in the process. Such knowledge is critical to the physical therapist who wants to teach children with developmental delays. The purpose of this experiment was to test the notion that learning to walk efficiently involves fine-tuning the body’s controllable stiffness (by co-contraction and isometric muscle contractions against gravity) to match (at a 1:1 scaling) the gravitational (pendular) stiffness of the swing leg. Subjects The study participants were 7 children with typical development and the newly emerged ability to walk 6 steps without falling (ages 11 months to 1 year 5 months at the onset of walking). Methods Pendular stiffness and spring stiffness were estimated from the equations of motion for a hybrid model with kinematic data as children walked over ground. Testing occurred once per month for the first 7 months of walking. Results After the first month of walking, children walked with greater spring stiffness than would be predicted by the model. The ratio began to approach the predicted value (1:1) as the months progressed. Discussion and Conclusion The results of this and a previous study of the pendular dynamics of gait suggest that learning to walk is a 2-stage process. The first stage involves the child’s discovery of how to conserve energy by inputting a particular muscular force at the correct moment in the cycle. The second stage involves the fine-tuning of the soft-tissue stiffness that takes advantage of the resonance characteristics of tissues. In order to address developmental delays, investigators must discover the dynamic resources used for the activity and attempt to foster their development. A number of interventions that probe this approach are discussed.

scholarly journals The neural substrates of writing: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Aphasiology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 647-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pelagie Beeson ◽  
Steven Rapcsak ◽  
Elena Plante ◽  
Jullyn Chargualaf ◽  
Anne Chung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging

scholarly journals Neural Basis of the Sound-Symbolic Crossmodal Correspondence Between Auditory Pseudowords and Visual Shapes

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-50
Author(s):  
Kelly McCormick ◽  
Simon Lacey ◽  
Randall Stilla ◽  
Lynne C. Nygaard ◽  
K. Sathian
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Blood Oxygenation ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Oxygenation Level ◽  
Crossmodal Correspondence ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Left Middle

Abstract Sound symbolism refers to the association between the sounds of words and their meanings, often studied using the crossmodal correspondence between auditory pseudowords, e.g., ‘takete’ or ‘maluma’, and pointed or rounded visual shapes, respectively. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants were presented with pseudoword–shape pairs that were sound-symbolically congruent or incongruent. We found no significant congruency effects in the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal when participants were attending to visual shapes. During attention to auditory pseudowords, however, we observed greater BOLD activity for incongruent compared to congruent audiovisual pairs bilaterally in the intraparietal sulcus and supramarginal gyrus, and in the left middle frontal gyrus. We compared this activity to independent functional contrasts designed to test competing explanations of sound symbolism, but found no evidence for mediation via language, and only limited evidence for accounts based on multisensory integration and a general magnitude system. Instead, we suggest that the observed incongruency effects are likely to reflect phonological processing and/or multisensory attention. These findings advance our understanding of sound-to-meaning mapping in the brain.

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