scholarly journals Dynamics of Word Production in the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Tanja Atanasova ◽  
Raphaël Fargier ◽  
Pascal Zesiger ◽  
Marina Laganaro

Changes in word production occur across the lifespan. Previous studies have shown electrophysiological, temporal, and functional differences between children and adults accompanying behavioral changes in picture-naming tasks ( Laganaro, Tzieropoulos, Fraunfelder, & Zesiger, 2015 ). Thus, a shift toward adult-like processes in referential word production occurs somewhere between the ages of 13 and 20. Our aim was to investigate when and how children develop adult-like behavior and brain activation in word production. Toward this aim, performance and event-related potentials (ERP) in a referential word production task were recorded and compared for two groups of adolescents (aged 14 to 16 and 17 to 18), children (aged 10 to 13), and young adults (aged 20 to 30). Both groups of adolescents displayed adult-like production latencies, which were longer only for children, while accuracy was lower in the younger adolescents and in children, compared to adults. ERP waveform analysis and topographic pattern analysis revealed significant intergroup differences in key time-windows on stimulus-locked ERPs, both early (150–220 ms)—associated with pre-linguistic processes—and late (280–330 ms)—associated with lexical processes. The results indicate that brain activation underlying referential word production is completely adult-like in 17-year-old adolescents, whereas an intermediate pattern is still observed in adolescents aged 14 to 16 years old, although their production speed, but not their accuracy, is already adult-like.

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Dumay ◽  
Abdelrhani Benraïss ◽  
Brian Barriol ◽  
Cécile Colin ◽  
Monique Radeau ◽  
...  

Phonological priming between bisyllabic (CV.CVC) spoken items was examined using both behavioral (reaction times, RTs) and electrophysiological (event-related potentials, ERPs) measures. Word and pseudoword targets were preceded by pseudoword primes. Different types of final phonological overlap between prime and target were compared. Critical pairs shared the last syllable, the rime or the coda, while unrelated pairs were used as controls. Participants performed a target shadowing task in Experiment 1 and a delayed lexical decision task in Experiment 2. RTs were measured in the first experiment and ERPs were recorded in the second experiment. The RT experiment was carried out under two presentation conditions. In Condition 1 both primes and targets were presented auditorily, while in Condition 2 the primes were presented visually and the targets auditorily. Priming effects were found in the unimodal condition only. RTs were fastest for syllable overlap, intermediate for rime overlap, and slowest for coda overlap and controls that did not differ from one another. ERPs were recorded under unimodal auditory presentation. ERP results showed that the amplitude of the auditory N400 component was smallest for syllable overlap, intermediate for rime overlap, and largest for coda overlap and controls that did not differ from one another. In both experiments, the priming effects were larger for word than for pseudoword targets. These results are best explained by the combined influences of nonlexical and lexical processes, and a comparison of the reported effects with those found in monosyllables suggests the involvement of rime and syllable representations.


Author(s):  
Shozo Tobimatsu

There are two major parallel pathways in humans: the parvocellular (P) and magnocellular (M) pathways. The former has excellent spatial resolution with color selectivity, while the latter shows excellent temporal resolution with high contrast sensitivity. Visual stimuli should be tailored to answer specific clinical and/or research questions. This chapter examines the neural mechanisms of face perception using event-related potentials (ERPs). Face stimuli of different spatial frequencies were used to investigate how low-spatial-frequency (LSF) and high-spatial-frequency (HSF) components of the face contribute to the identification and recognition of the face and facial expressions. The P100 component in the occipital area (Oz), the N170 in the posterior temporal region (T5/T6) and late components peaking at 270-390 ms (T5/T6) were analyzed. LSF enhanced P100, while N170 was augmented by HSF irrespective of facial expressions. This suggested that LSF is important for global processing of facial expressions, whereas HSF handles featural processing. There were significant amplitude differences between positive and negative LSF facial expressions in the early time windows of 270-310 ms. Subsequently, the amplitudes among negative HSF facial expressions differed significantly in the later time windows of 330–390 ms. Discrimination between positive and negative facial expressions precedes discrimination among different negative expressions in a sequential manner based on parallel visual channels. Interestingly, patients with schizophrenia showed decreased spatial frequency sensitivities for face processing. Taken together, the spatially filtered face images are useful for exploring face perception and recognition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
GABRIELLA VIGLIOCCO ◽  
YE ZHANG ◽  
NICOLA DEL MASCHIO ◽  
ROSANNA TODD ◽  
JYRKI TUOMAINEN

abstractOnomatopoeia is widespread across the world’s languages. They represent a relatively simple iconic mapping: the phonological/phonetic properties of the word evokes acoustic related features of referents. Here, we explore the EEG correlates of processing onomatopoeia in English. Participants were presented with a written cue-word (e.g., leash) and then with a spoken target-word. The target-word was either an onomatopoeia (e.g., bark), a sound-related but arbitrary word (e.g., melody), or another arbitrary word (e.g., bike). Participants judged whether the cue- and the target-word were similar in meaning. We analysed Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) in different time-windows: (i) early (100–200 and 200–250 ms) to assess differences in processing at the form-level; (ii) the N400 time-window (300–500 ms) in order to establish if there are differences in semantic processing across our word-types; and (iii) late (600–900 ms) to assess post-lexical effects. We found that onomatopoeia differed from the other words in the N400 time-window: when cue and target were unrelated, onomatopoeic words led to greater negativity which can be accounted for in terms of enhanced semantic activation of onomatopoeia which leads to greater salience of the mismatch. We discuss results in the context of a growing body of literature investigating iconicity in language processing and development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Mitsuhiko Ishikawa ◽  
Shoji Itakura ◽  
Hiroki C. Tanabe

Limited use of contextual information has been suggested as a way of understanding cognition in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it has also been argued that individuals with ASD may have difficulties inferring others’ mental states. Here, we examined how individuals with different levels of autistic traits respond to contextual deviations by measuring event-related potentials that reflect context usage. The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was used to quantify autistic-like traits in 28 university students, and 19 participants were defined as Low or High AQ groups. To additionally examine inferences about mental state, two belief conditions (with or without false belief) were included. Participants read short stories in which the final sentence included either an expected or an unexpected word and rated the word’s degree of deviation from expectation. P300 waveform analysis revealed that unexpected words were associated with larger P300 waveforms for the Low AQ group, but smaller P300 responses in the High AQ group. Additionally, AQ social skill subscores were positively correlated with evaluation times in the Unexpected condition, whether a character’s belief was false or not. This suggests that autistic traits can affect responses to unexpected events, possibly because of decreased availability of context information.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762199519
Author(s):  
Sebastian Schindler ◽  
Anne Höhner ◽  
Robert Moeck ◽  
Maximilian Bruchmann ◽  
Thomas Straube

Dyadic interactions are associated with the exchange of personality-related messages, which can be congruent or incongruent with one’s self-view. In the current preregistered study ( N = 52), we investigated event-related potentials (ERPs) toward real social evaluations in order to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of congruent and incongruent evaluative feedback. Participants interacted first, and then during an electroencephalogram (EEG) session, they received evaluations from their interaction partner that were either congruent or incongruent with their own ratings. Findings show potentiated processing of self-related incongruent negative evaluations at early time points (N1) followed by increased processing of both incongruent negative and positive evaluations at midlatency time windows (early posterior negativity) and a prioritized processing of self-related incongruent positive evaluations at late time points (feedback-related P3, late positive potential). These findings reveal that, after real social interactions, evaluative feedback about oneself that violates one’s self-view modulates all processing stages with an early negativity and a late positivity bias.


2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (11) ◽  
pp. 2377-2391 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. P. Horan ◽  
G. Hajcak ◽  
J. K. Wynn ◽  
M. F. Green

BackgroundAlthough several aspects of emotion seem to be intact in schizophrenia, there is emerging evidence that patients show an impaired ability to adaptively regulate their emotions. This event-related potential (ERP) study examined whether schizophrenia is associated with impaired neural responses to appraisal frames, that is when negative stimuli are presented in a less negative context.MethodThirty-one schizophrenia out-patients and 27 healthy controls completed a validated picture-viewing task with three conditions: (1) neutral pictures preceded by neutral descriptions (‘Neutral’), (2) unpleasant pictures preceded by negative descriptions (‘Preappraised negative’), and (3) unpleasant pictures preceded by more neutral descriptions (‘Preappraised neutral’). Analyses focused on the late positive potential (LPP), an index of facilitated attention to emotional stimuli that is reduced following cognitive emotion regulation strategies, during four time windows from 300 to 2000 ms post-picture onset.ResultsReplicating prior studies, controls showed smaller LPP in Preappraised neutral and Neutral versus Preappraised negative conditions throughout the 300–2000-ms time period. By contrast, patients showed (a) larger LPP in Preappraised neutral and Preappraised negative versus Neutral conditions in the initial period (300–600 ms) and (b) an atypical pattern of larger LPP to Preappraised neutral versus Preappraised negative and Neutral conditions in the 600–1500-ms epochs.ConclusionsModulation of neural responses by a cognitive emotion regulation strategy seems to be impaired in schizophrenia during the first 2 s after exposure to unpleasant stimuli.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoye Sun ◽  
Willem J. M. I. Verbeke ◽  
Frank Belschak ◽  
Jan van Strien ◽  
Lei Wang

The dual-process theory is a significant theory in both organizational theory and social psychology and two conjectures about this theory are considered in this manuscript; the default-interventionist vs. parallel-competitive account. Our research goal is to empirically investigate these two views. In concrete terms, by using event-related potentials (ERPs), we seek to study the fine-grained brain processes and self-reported feelings involved in managers’ evaluations of target employees within an economic context (firing employees) vs. a social network context (excluding employees). Using the stereotype content model categories, each target employee has high (or low) warmth and high (or low) levels of competence. In the fine-grained ERP analysis of the brain process, we focus on three time windows of interest: novelty detection (N2) and goal violation detection (N400) at the unconscious level, and we then evaluate conscious emotional arousal (late positive potential, LPP). Finally, we focus on the self-reported feelings when having to fire or exclude target employees. As goal pursuit theory predicts, the brain dynamics and self-reported measures differ widely across the two organizational contexts; in concrete terms, processes at a later stage overrule early stages depending on the context. This implies that the data bespeaks more for the parallel-competitive account than the default-interventionist account. We discuss the implications of these findings for research in management and management practice.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsey Cnudde ◽  
Sophia van Hees ◽  
Sage Brown ◽  
Gwen van der Wijk ◽  
Penny M. Pexman ◽  
...  

Visual word recognition is perceived to remain relatively stable throughout adulthood, but recent research suggests the system involved is malleable, with evidence of behavioural changes after lexical decision task (LDT) practice. The potential for, and extent of, neural changes have yet to be elucidated in this context. If identified, these neural changes could be due to processes associated with learning, where performance that is initially effortful becomes efficient and supported by an optimized task network. Replicating the British Lexicon Project, participants completed 16 hours of LDT learning over several days. We recorded EEG at three intervals to track neural change during LDT learning and assessed event-related potentials and brain signal complexity. We found that response times decreased during LDT learning, and there was evidence of neural change through N170, P200, N400, and LPC amplitudes across the EEG sessions, suggesting alterations to both the general cognitive and specific lexical processes involved in LDT performance. We also found widespread complexity decreases alongside localized increases, suggesting that processing became more automatic with specific increases in processing flexibility. These findings suggest that the visual word recognition system is dynamic, and has the potential for plastic changes to support more efficient and automatic task performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. e2011796118
Author(s):  
Julia W. Y. Kam ◽  
Zachary C. Irving ◽  
Caitlin Mills ◽  
Shawn Patel ◽  
Alison Gopnik ◽  
...  

Humans spend much of their lives engaging with their internal train of thoughts. Traditionally, research focused on whether or not these thoughts are related to ongoing tasks, and has identified reliable and distinct behavioral and neural correlates of task-unrelated and task-related thought. A recent theoretical framework highlighted a different aspect of thinking—how it dynamically moves between topics. However, the neural correlates of such thought dynamics are unknown. The current study aimed to determine the electrophysiological signatures of these dynamics by recording electroencephalogram (EEG) while participants performed an attention task and periodically answered thought-sampling questions about whether their thoughts were 1) task-unrelated, 2) freely moving, 3) deliberately constrained, and 4) automatically constrained. We examined three EEG measures across different time windows as a function of each thought type: stimulus-evoked P3 event-related potentials and non–stimulus-evoked alpha power and variability. Parietal P3 was larger for task-related relative to task-unrelated thoughts, whereas frontal P3 was increased for deliberately constrained compared with unconstrained thoughts. Frontal electrodes showed enhanced alpha power for freely moving thoughts relative to non-freely moving thoughts. Alpha-power variability was increased for task-unrelated, freely moving, and unconstrained thoughts. Our findings indicate distinct electrophysiological patterns associated with task-unrelated and dynamic thoughts, suggesting these neural measures capture the heterogeneity of our ongoing thoughts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem Verbeke ◽  
Rumen Pozharliev

<p>Past physiological evidence, indicates that inferences on the mind of another person (i.e., goals, intentions, beliefs), is a well-defined brain process characterized by specific temporal and spatial properties. This study investigated brain responses during passive viewing (consumers’ role) of branded products (i.e., chocolates, chips, non alcoholic beverages) and preference inferences (sales consultants’ role) from eye-related information. Using EEG methods, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants passively viewed pictures of branded products versus when they tried to infer others’ product preferences from eye-related information. ERP amplitudes were examined in two time windows, corresponding to the P3 component and the late positive potential (LPP). Dissimilar brain responses were found for preference inferences compared to passively viewingfor the P3 and LPPcomponents. P3 and LPP amplitudes were greater for preference inferences compared to passive viewing. In addition, enhance P3 and LPP amplitudes were found for preference inferences compared to passive viewing for the High Inferring Performance (HI) as opposed to the Low Inferring Performance (LI) group. Finally, enhanced posterior P3 and LPP amplitudes were found for preference inferences compared to passive viewing for the GG as opposed to the A-allele carrier individuals of oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene. Taken together, the results suggest that posteriorP3 and LPP amplitude during preference inferences from eye-related cues as opposed to passive viewing of branded products reflects increased socially motivated attention allocation required for the social inferring task, for the GG compared to A-allele carrier individuals.</p>


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