scholarly journals Influence of homophone processing during auditory language comprehension on executive control processes: A dual-task paradigm

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254237
Author(s):  
Samuel El Bouzaïdi Tiali ◽  
Elsa Spinelli ◽  
Fanny Meunier ◽  
Richard Palluel-Germain ◽  
Marcela Perrone-Bertolotti
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Facilitatory Effect ◽  
Ambiguous Sentence ◽  
Verbal Tasks ◽  
Dual Task Paradigm

In the present preregistered study, we evaluated the possibility of a shared cognitive mechanism during verbal and non-verbal tasks and therefore the implication of domain-general cognitive control during language comprehension. We hypothesized that a behavioral cost will be observed during a dual-task including both verbal and non-verbal difficult processing. Specifically, to test this claim, we designed a dual-task paradigm involving: an auditory language comprehension task (sentence comprehension) and a non-verbal Flanker task (including congruent and incongruent trials). We manipulated sentence ambiguity and evaluated if the ambiguity effect modified behavioral performances in the non-verbal Flanker task. Under the assumption that ambiguous sentences induce a more difficult process than unambiguous sentences, we expected non-verbal flanker task performances to be impaired only when a simultaneous difficult language processing is performed. This would be specifically reflected by a performance cost during incongruent Flanker items only during ambiguous sentence presentation. Conversely, we observed a facilitatory effect for the incongruent Flanker items during ambiguous sentence suggesting better non-verbal inhibitory performances when an ambiguous sentence was simultaneously processed. Exploratory data analysis suggests that this effect is not only related to a more difficult language processing but also to the previous (n-1) Flanker item. Indeed, results showed that incongruent n-1 Flanker items led to a facilitation of the incongruent synchronized Flanker items only when ambiguous sentences were conjointly presented. This result, even if it needs to be corroborated in future studies, suggests that the recruitment of executive control mechanisms facilitates subsequent executive control implication during difficult language processing. The present study suggests a common executive control mechanism during difficult verbal and non-verbal tasks.

scholarly journals Influence of ambiguity resolution during auditory language comprehension on executive control processes: a dual-task paradigm

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel El Bouzaïdi Tiali ◽  
Elsa Spinelli ◽  
Fanny MEUNIER ◽  
richard palluel-germain ◽  
Marcela Perrone-Bertolotti
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Facilitatory Effect ◽  
Control Load ◽  
Dual Task Paradigm ◽  
The Impact

In the present preregistered study, we evaluated the impact of linguistic ambiguity processing on non-verbal inhibitory processing in a dual-task paradigm. We assessed whether a shared mechanism is involved during verbal and non-verbal conflict resolution. To do so, we constructed a dual-task paradigm including an auditory language comprehension and a non-verbal Flanker task. The language comprehension stimuli included sentences with French homophones presenting a temporary ambiguity (ambiguous sentences) or not (control sentences). The Flanker task included congruent (low executive control load) and incongruent (high executive control load) trials that were synchronized or not with the homophone in the sentence. We hypothesized that if the homophone meaning selection requires executive control this would interfere with executive control performance of the concomitant Flanker trials. This would be reflected by a performance cost during incongruent Flanker trials for the ambiguous sentences only. Surprisingly, we observed a facilitatory effect during ambiguous sentences on incongruent Flanker trials suggesting better non-verbal inhibitory performances when homophone conflict resolution was simultaneously performed. Exploratory data analysis suggests that this effect is not only related to ambiguity resolution processing but also to the previous (n-1) Flanker trial. Indeed, results showed that incongruent n-1 Flanker trials led to a facilitation of the incongruent target Flanker trials only when ambiguous sentences were conjointly presented. This result, even if it remains to be corroborated in future studies, suggests that the recruitment of executive control mechanisms facilitates subsequent executive control implication during difficult language processing. The present study supports the view of a common executive control mechanism during conflict resolution in verbal and non-verbal tasks.

The Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
First Language ◽  
Grammatical Encoding ◽  
Current State

This handbook reviews the current state of the art in the field of psycholinguistics. Part I deals with language comprehension at the sublexical, lexical, and sentence and discourse levels. It explores concepts of speech representation and the search for universal speech segmentation mechanisms against a background of linguistic diversity and compares first language with second language segmentation. It also discusses visual word recognition, lexico-semantics, the different forms of lexical ambiguity, sentence comprehension, text comprehension, and language in deaf populations. Part II focuses on language production, with chapters covering topics such as word production and related processes based on evidence from aphasia, the major debates surrounding grammatical encoding. Part III considers various aspects of interaction and communication, including the role of gesture in language processing, approaches to the study of perspective-taking, and the interrelationships between language comprehension, emotion, and sociality. Part IV is concerned with language development and evolution, focusing on topics ranging from the development of prosodic phonology, the neurobiology of artificial grammar learning, and developmental dyslexia. The book concludes with Part V, which looks at methodological advances in psycholinguistic research, such as the use of intracranial electrophysiology in the area of language processing.

scholarly journals The domain-general multiple demand (MD) network does not support core aspects of language comprehension: a large-scale fMRI investigation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgeniia Diachek ◽  
Idan Blank ◽  
Matthew Siegelman ◽  
Josef Affourtit ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Network Language ◽  
Temporal Language

AbstractAside from the language-selective left-lateralized fronto-temporal network, language comprehension sometimes additionally recruits a domain-general bilateral fronto-parietal network implicated in executive functions: the multiple demand (MD) network. However, the nature of the MD network’s contributions to language comprehension remains debated. To illuminate the role of this network in language processing, we conducted a large-scale fMRI investigation using data from 30 diverse word and sentence comprehension experiments (481 unique participants, 678 scanning sessions). In line with prior findings, the MD network was active during many language tasks. Moreover, similar to the language-selective network, which is robustly lateralized to the left hemisphere, these responses were stronger in the left-hemisphere MD regions. However, in stark contrast with the language-selective network, the MD network responded more strongly (i) to lists of unconnected words than to sentences, and critically, (ii) in paradigms with an explicit task compared to passive comprehension paradigms. In fact, many passive comprehension tasks failed to elicit a response above the fixation baseline in the MD network, in contrast to strong responses in the language-selective network. In tandem, these results argue against a role for the MD network in core aspects of sentence comprehension like inhibiting irrelevant meanings or parses, keeping intermediate representations active in working memory, or predicting upcoming words or structures. These results align with recent evidence of relatively poor tracking of the linguistic signal by the MD regions during naturalistic comprehension, and instead suggest that the MD network’s engagement during language processing likely reflects effort associated with extraneous task demands.Significance StatementDomain-general executive processes, like working memory and cognitive control, have long been implicated in language comprehension, including in neuroimaging studies that have reported activation in domain-general multiple demand (MD) regions for linguistic manipulations. However, much prior evidence has come from paradigms where language interpretation is accompanied by extraneous tasks. Using a large fMRI dataset (30 experiments/481 participants/678 sessions), we demonstrate that MD regions are engaged during language comprehension in the presence of task demands, but not during passive reading/listening—conditions that strongly activate the fronto-temporal language network. These results present a fundamental challenge to proposals whereby linguistic computations, like inhibiting irrelevant meanings, keeping representations active in working memory, or predicting upcoming elements, draw on domain-general executive resources.

scholarly journals Linguistic input drives brain network configuration during language comprehension

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ileana Quiñones ◽  
Nicola Molinaro ◽  
César Caballero-Gaudes ◽  
Simona Mancini ◽  
Juan Andrés Hernández-Cabrera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Graph Theory ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Network Configuration ◽  
Linguistic Input ◽  
Gender Type

AbstractAssessing the synchrony and interplay between distributed neural regions is critical to understanding how language is processed. Here, we investigated possible neuro-functional links between form and meaning during sentence comprehension combining a classical whole-brain approach, which characterizes patterns of brain activation resulting from our experimental manipulation, and a novel multivariate network-based approach, which uses graph-theory measures to unravel the architectural configuration of the language system. Capitalizing on the Spanish gender agreement system, we experimentally manipulated formal and conceptual factors: whether the noun-adjective grammatical gender relationship was congruent or not and whether the noun gender type was semantically informative or strictly formal. Left inferior and middle frontal gyri, as well as left MTG/STG emerged as critical areas for the computation of grammatical relations. We demonstrate how the interface between formal and conceptual features depends on the synergic articulation of brain areas divided in three subnetworks that extend beyond the classical left-lateralized perisylvian language circuit. Critically, we isolated a subregion of the left angular gyrus showing a significant interaction between gender congruency and gender type. The functional interplay between the angular gyrus and left perisylvian language-specific circuit proves crucial for constructing coherent and meaningful messages. Importantly, using graph theory we show that this complex system is functionally malleable: the role each node plays within the network changes depending on the available linguistic cues.Significance StatementNeural networks can be described as graphs comprising distributed and interconnected nodes. These nodes share functional properties but also differ in terms of functional specialization and the number of interconnections mediating the efficient transfer of information. Previous work has shown functional connectivity differences based on graph-theory properties between typical and atypical samples. However, here we have used concepts from graph theory to characterize connectivity during language processing using task-related fMRI. This approach allowed us to demonstrate how linguistic input drives brain network configuration during language comprehension. This is the first evidence of functional flexibility in language networks: the communicative capacity of each hub changes depending on whether the linguistic input grants access to meaning or is purely formal.

scholarly journals fMRI reveals language-specific predictive coding during naturalistic sentence comprehension

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cory Shain ◽  
Idan Asher Blank ◽  
Marten van Schijndel ◽  
William Schuler ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Hemodynamic Response Function ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Language Network

AbstractMuch research in cognitive neuroscience supports prediction as a canonical computation of cognition across domains. Is such predictive coding implemented by feedback from higher-order domain-general circuits, or is it locally implemented in domain-specific circuits? What information sources are used to generate these predictions? This study addresses these two questions in the context of language processing. We present fMRI evidence from a naturalistic comprehension paradigm (1) that predictive coding in the brain’s response to language is domain-specific, and (2) that these predictions are sensitive both to local word co-occurrence patterns and to hierarchical structure. Using a recently developed continuous-time deconvolutional regression technique that supports data-driven hemodynamic response function discovery from continuous BOLD signal fluctuations in response to naturalistic stimuli, we found effects of prediction measures in the language network but not in the domain-general multiple-demand network, which supports executive control processes and has been previously implicated in language comprehension. Moreover, within the language network, surface-level and structural prediction effects were separable. The predictability effects in the language network were substantial, with the model capturing over 37% of explainable variance on held-out data. These findings indicate that human sentence processing mechanisms generate predictions about upcoming words using cognitive processes that are sensitive to hierarchical structure and specialized for language processing, rather than via feedback from high-level executive control mechanisms.

scholarly journals Executive control is shared between sentence processing and digit maintenance: Evidence from a strictly timed dual-task paradigm

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 886-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maaike Loncke ◽  
Timothy Desmet ◽  
André Vandierendonck ◽  
Robert J. Hartsuiker
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Dual Task Paradigm

scholarly journals The functional overlap of executive control and language processing in bilinguals

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILY L. CODERRE ◽  
JASON F. SMITH ◽  
WALTER J.B. VAN HEUVEN ◽  
BARRY HORWITZ
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Linguistic Control ◽  
Multiple Languages

The need to control multiple languages is thought to require domain-general executive control in bilinguals such that the executive control and language systems become interdependent. However, there has been no systematic investigation into how and where executive control and language processes overlap in the bilingual brain. If the concurrent recruitment of executive control during bilingual language processing is domain-general and extends to non-linguistic control, we hypothesize that regions commonly involved in language processing, linguistic control, and non-linguistic control may be selectively altered in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. A conjunction of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from a flanker task with linguistic and non-linguistic distractors and a semantic categorization task showed functional overlap in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) in bilinguals, whereas no overlap occurred in monolinguals. This research therefore identifies a neural locus of functional overlap of language and executive control in the bilingual brain.

scholarly journals Task-specific contribution of the right posterior cerebellum to language processing in healthy individuals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fleur L. P. Bongaerts ◽  
Dennis J. L. G. Schutter ◽  
Jana Klaus
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Unrelated Control ◽  
Manual Responses ◽  
The Right

Clinical and neuroscientific studies in healthy volunteers have established that the cerebellum contributes to language comprehension and production. Yet most evidence is correlational and the exact role of the cerebellum remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the right cerebellum in unimpaired language comprehension and production using non-invasive brain stimulation. In this double-blind, sham-controlled experiment, thirty-six healthy participants received anodal or sham transcranial direct current (tDCS) stimulation to the right cerebellum while performing a lexical decision, sentence comprehension, verbal fluency and language-unrelated control task. Results showed that anodal relative to sham tDCS caused faster manual responses in the lexical decision task. Additional exploratory analyses suggest load-specific performance modulation in the sentence comprehension and lexical decision task, with tDCS improving performance in low-load trials of the sentence comprehension task and high-load trials in the lexical decision task. Overall, our findings provide evidence for the involvement of the right posterior cerebellum in comprehension-based language tasks requiring a manual response. Further research is needed to dissociate the influence of task difficulty and timing of the underlying cognitive processes.

scholarly journals Integration of Social Context vs. Linguistic Reference During Situated Language Processing

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Maquate ◽  
Pia Knoeferle
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Facilitatory Effect ◽  
World Language ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Emotional Cues ◽  
Principled Account ◽  
Emotional Face

Research findings on language comprehension suggest that many kinds of non-linguistic cues can rapidly affect language processing. Extant processing accounts of situated language comprehension model these rapid effects and are only beginning to accommodate the role of non-linguistic emotional, cues. To begin with a detailed characterization of distinct cues and their relative effects, three visual-world eye-tracking experiments assessed the relative importance of two cue types (action depictions vs. emotional facial expressions) as well as the effects of the degree of naturalness of social (facial) cues (smileys vs. natural faces). We predicted to replicate previously reported rapid effects of referentially mediated actions. In addition, we assessed distinct world-language relations. If how a cue is conveyed matters for its effect, then a verb referencing an action depiction should elicit a stronger immediate effect on visual attention and language comprehension than a speaker's emotional facial expression. The latter is mediated non-referentially via the emotional connotations of an adverb. The results replicated a pronounced facilitatory effect of action depiction (relative to no action depiction). By contrast, the facilitatory effect of a preceding speaker's emotional face was less pronounced. How the facial emotion was rendered mattered in that the emotional face effect was present with natural faces (Experiment 2) but not with smileys (Experiment 1). Experiment 3 suggests that contrast, i.e., strongly opposing emotional valence information vs. non-opposing valence information, might matter for the directionality of this effect. These results are the first step toward a more principled account of how distinct visual (social) cues modulate language processing, whereby the visual cues that are referenced by language (the depicted action), copresent (the depicted action), and more natural (the natural emotional prime face) tend to exert more pronounced effects.

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