scholarly journals A starring role for inference in the neurocognition of visual narratives

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Cohn
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Inferential Processing

AbstractResearch in verbal and visual narratives has often emphasized backward-looking inferences, where absent information is subsequently inferred. However, comics use conventions like star-shaped “action stars” where a reader knows events are undepicted at that moment, rather than omitted entirely. We contrasted the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to visual narratives depicting an explicit event, an action star, or a “noise” panel of scrambled lines. Both action stars and noise panels evoked large N400s compared to explicit-events (300–500 ms), but action stars and noise panels then differed in their later effects (500–900 ms). Action stars elicited sustained negativities and P600s, which could indicate further interpretive processes and integration of meaning into a mental model, while noise panels evoked late frontal positivities possibly indexing that they were improbable narrative units. Nevertheless, panels following action stars and noise panels both evoked late sustained negativities, implying further inferential processing. Inference in visual narratives thus uses cascading mechanisms resembling those in language processing that differ based on the inferential techniques.

Neural Systems for Sentence Processing in Stuttering

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 814-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Weber-Fox
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Linguistic Processing ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Functional Brain Organization ◽  
Open Class

The role of neurolinguistic factors in stuttering was investigated by determining whether individuals who stutter display atypical neural functions for language processing, even with no speech production demands. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were obtained while 9 individuals who stutter (IWS) and 9 normally fluent speakers (NS) read sentences silently. The ERPs were elicited by: (a) closed-class words that provide structural or grammatical information, (b) open-class words that convey referential meaning, and (c) semantic anomalies (violations in semantic expectation). In standardized tests, adult IWS displayed similar grammatical and lexical abilities in both comprehension and production tasks compared to their matched, normally fluent peers. Yet the ERPs elicited in IWS for linguistic processing tasks revealed differences in functional brain organization. The ERPs elicited in IWS were characterized by reduced negative amplitudes for closed-class words (N280), open-class words (N350), and semantic anomalies (N400) in a temporal window of approximately 200–450 ms after word onsets. The overall pattern of results indicates that alterations in processing for IWS are related to neural functions that are common to word classes and perhaps involve shared, underlying processes for lexical access.

scholarly journals An Electrophysiological Probe of Incidental Semantic Association

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Kutas ◽  
Steven A. Hillyard
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Contextual Influences ◽  
Semantic Association ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Semantic Relationships ◽  
N400 Amplitude ◽  
Recording Session ◽  
Long Latency ◽  
Meaningful Text

Long-latency components of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) recorded from subjects reading meaningful text are sensitive to semantic relationships among the major lexical items of sentences. In particular, the N400 components are enlarged to words that are semantically unrelated to or incongruous with the context provided by preceding items in a sentence. The present experiment was aimed at finding out whether this inverse relationship between N400 amplitude and semantic association would extend to situations where words were presented in isolated pairs, using a design that dissociated changes in N400 from confounding ERP waves elicited by active decision making. KRP's were recorded to 320 word pairs presented to eleven subjects. Each pair of words was followed by a letter, and subjects made a differential response according to whether or not the letter had been present in either of the words. After the ERP recording session, subjects rated the degree of semantic association between the words in each pair. ERP averages were formed on the basis of the subjects' ratings and on the basis of normative, a priori categories. For both types of averages the N400 amplitude was found to be a sensitive index of semantic association, even though the association was incidental to the subject's assigned task. These findings suggest the utility of the N400 measure in studies of semantic priming and as a probe of the automaticity of contextual influences in language processing.

Electrophysiological and experimental-behavioral approaches to the study of intra-sentential code-switching

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet G. van Hell ◽  
Carla B. Fernandez ◽  
Gerrit Jan Kootstra ◽  
Kaitlyn A. Litcofsky ◽  
Caitlin Y. Ting
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Electrophysiological Response ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Behavioral Techniques ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
Response Profiles

Abstract A hallmark of bilingual language processing is intra-sentential code-switching. An emergent body of research seeks to understand the intricate neural and cognitive mechanisms that underlie this seemingly effortless skill. In this paper, we discuss electrophysiological and experimental-behavioral research approaches that have been used to study intra-sentential code-switching, and illustrate the use of these techniques by discussing a select number of empirical studies. More specifically, we discuss electrophysiological approaches that are used to study the comprehension of visually and auditorily presented code-switched sentences, including the Event-Related brain Potentials (ERPs) method, time-frequency analysis, and approaches to study inter-individual variation in electrophysiological response profiles. This is followed by a discussion of experimental-behavioral techniques to study the comprehension and production of code-switched sentences, including self-paced reading, shadowing, and confederate scripting.

Event-related brain potential (ERP) studies of sentence processing

2007 ◽  
pp. 384-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Kutas ◽  
Kara D. Federmeier
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Ion Flow ◽  
Invasive Techniques ◽  
Brain Processing ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Processing Language

The intact human brain is the only known system that can interpret and respond to various visual and acoustic patterns. Therefore, unlike researchers of other cognitive phenomena, (neuro)psycholinguists cannot avail themselves of invasive techniques in non-human animals to uncover the responsible mechanisms in the large parts of the (human) brain that have been implicated in language processing. Engagement of these different anatomical areas does, however, generate distinct patterns of biological activity (such as ion flow across neural membranes) that can be recorded inside and outside the heads of humans as they quickly, often seamlessly, and without much conscious reflection on the computations and linguistic regularities involved, understand spoken, written, or signed sentences. This article summarizes studies of event-related brain potentials and sentence processing. It discusses electrophysiology, language and the brain, processing language meaning, context effects in meaning processing, non-literal language processing, processing language form, parsing, slow potentials and the closure positive shift, and plasticity and learning.

PARALLELIZING GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS: P600 AND P345 REFLECT DIFFERENT COST OF REANALYSIS

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 531-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEFAN FRISCH ◽  
PETER BEIM GRABEN ◽  
MATTHIAS SCHLESEWSKY
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Symbolic Dynamics ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Time Range ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Function Strategy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Processing Difficulty ◽  
Object Preference

It is well-known from psycholinguistic literature that the human language processing system exhibits preferences when sentence constituents are ambiguous with respect to their grammatical function. Generally, many theories assume that an interpretation towards the subject is preferred in such cases. Later disambiguations which contradict such a preference induce enhanced processing difficulty (i.e. reanalysis) which reflects itself in late positive deflections (P345/P600) in event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In the case of phoric elements such as pronouns, a second strategy is known according to which an ambiguous pronoun preferentially receives the grammatical function that its antecedent has (parallel function strategy). In an ERP study, we show that this strategy can in principle override the general subject preference strategy (known for both pronominal and nonpronominal constituents) and induce an object preference, in case that the pronoun's antecedent is itself an object. Interestingly, the revision of a subject preference leads to a P600 component, whereas the revision of an object preference induces an earlier positivity (P345). In order to show that the latter component is indeed a positivity and not an N400-like negativity in the same time range, we apply an additional analysis based on symbolic dynamics which allows to determine the polarity of an ERP effect on purely methodological grounds. With respect to the two positivities, we argue that the latency differences reflect qualitative differences in the reanalysis processes.

scholarly journals Isn't It Ironic? An Electrophysiological Exploration of Figurative Language Processing

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Regel ◽  
Thomas C. Gunter ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Semantic Integration ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Figurative Language Processing ◽  
N400 Component

Although the neurocognitive processes underlying the comprehension of figurative language, especially metaphors and idioms, have been studied extensively, less is known about the processing of irony. In two experiments using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), we examined the types of cognitive processes involved in the comprehension of ironic and literal sentences and their relative time course. The experiments varied in modality (auditory, visual), task demands (comprehension task vs. passive reading), and probability of stimulus occurrence. ERPs consistently revealed a large late positivity (i.e., P600 component) in the absence of an N400 component for irony compared to equivalent literal sentences independent of modality. This P600 was shown to be unaffected by the factors task demands and probability of occurrence. Taken together, the findings suggest that the observed P600 is related to irony processing, and might be a reflection of pragmatic interpretation processes. During the comprehension of irony, no semantic integration difficulty arises (absence of N400), but late inferential processes appear to be necessary for understanding ironic meanings (presence of P600). This finding calls for a revision of current models of figurative language processing.

How children process over-regularizations: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARALD CLAHSEN ◽  
MONIKA LÜCK ◽  
ANJA HAHNE
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
On Line ◽  
Efficient Processing ◽  
Dual Mechanism

ABSTRACTThis study examines the mental processes involved in children's on-line recognition of inflected word forms using event-related potentials (ERPs). Sixty children in three age groups (20 six- to seven-year-olds, 20 eight- to nine-year-olds, 20 eleven- to twelve-year-olds) and 23 adults (tested in a previous study) listened to sentences containing correct or incorrect German noun plural forms. In the two older child groups, as well as in the adult group, over-regularized plural forms elicited brain responses that are characteristic of combinatorial (grammatical) violations. We also found that ERP components associated with language processing change from child to adult with respect to their onsets and their topography. The ERP violation effects obtained for over-regularizations suggest that children (aged eight years and above) and adults employ morphological computation for processing purposes, consistent with dual-mechanism models of inflection. The observed differences between children's and adults' ERP responses are argued to result from children's smaller lexicons and from slower and less efficient processing.

scholarly journals Traces of Meaning Itself: Encoding distributional word vectors in brain activity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jona Sassenhagen ◽  
Christian J. Fiebach
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Word Onset ◽  
Vector Representations

AbstractHow is semantic information stored in the human mind and brain? Some philosophers and cognitive scientists argue for vectorial representations of concepts, where the meaning of a word is represented as its position in a high-dimensional neural state space. At the intersection of natural language processing and artificial intelligence, a class of very successful distributional word vector models has developed that can account for classic EEG findings of language, i.e., the ease vs. difficulty of integrating a word with its sentence context. However, models of semantics have to account not only for context-based word processing, but should also describe how word meaning is represented. Here, we investigate whether distributional vector representations of word meaning can model brain activity induced by words presented without context. Using EEG activity (event-related brain potentials) collected while participants in two experiments (English, German) read isolated words, we encode and decode word vectors taken from the family of prediction-based word2vec algorithms. We find that, first, the position of a word in vector space allows the prediction of the pattern of corresponding neural activity over time, in particular during a time window of 300 to 500 ms after word onset. Second, distributional models perform better than a human-created taxonomic baseline model (WordNet), and this holds for several distinct vector-based models. Third, multiple latent semantic dimensions of word meaning can be decoded from brain activity. Combined, these results suggest that empiricist, prediction-based vectorial representations of meaning are a viable candidate for the representational architecture of human semantic knowledge.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document