Examining the episodic-semantic interplay during future thinking – A reanalysis of external details

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherie Strikwerda-Brown ◽  
John Hodges ◽  
Olivier Piguet ◽  
Muireann Irish
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Structural Mri ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Differential Vulnerability ◽  
Clinical Disorders ◽  
External Component ◽  
Future Narratives ◽  
General Semantic

Traditional analyses of autobiographical construction have tended to focus on the ‘internal’ or episodic details of the narrative. Contemporary studies employing fine-grained scoring measures, however, reveal the ‘external’ component of autobiographical narratives to contain important information relevant to the individual’s life story. Here, we used the recently developed NExt scoring protocol to explore profiles of external details generated by patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (n = 11) and semantic dementia (SD) (n = 13) on a future thinking task. Voxel-based morphometry analyses of structural MRI were used to determine the neural correlates of external detail profiles in each patient group. Overall, distinct NExt profiles were observed across past and future temporal contexts in AD and SD groups, which involved elevations in external details, in the context of reduced internal details, relative to healthy Controls. Specifically, AD patients provided significantly more General Semantic details compared with Controls during past retrieval, whereas Specific Episode external details were elevated during future simulation. These increased external details within future narratives related to grey matter integrity in medial and lateral frontal regions in AD. By contrast, SD patients displayed an elevation of Specific Episode, Extended Episode, and General Semantic details exclusively during future simulation relative to Controls, which related to integrity of medial and lateral parietal regions. Our findings suggest that the compensatory external details generated during future simulation comprise an array of episodic and semantic details that vary in terms of specificity and self-relevance. Moreover, these profiles appear to be differentially affected depending on the locus of underlying neuropathology in dementia. Adopting a fine-grained approach to external details provides important information regarding the interplay between episodic and semantic content during future stimulation and highlights the differential vulnerability and preservation of distinct components of the constructed narrative in clinical disorders.

Examining the episodic-semantic interplay during future thinking – A reanalysis of external details

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherie Strikwerda-Brown ◽  
John Hodges ◽  
Olivier Piguet ◽  
Muireann Irish
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Structural Mri ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Differential Vulnerability ◽  
Clinical Disorders ◽  
External Component ◽  
Future Narratives ◽  
General Semantic

Traditional analyses of autobiographical construction have tended to focus on the ‘internal’or episodic details of the narrative. Contemporary studies employing fine-grained scoringmeasures, however, reveal the ‘external’ component of autobiographical narratives tocontain important information relevant to the individual’s life story. Here, we used therecently developed NExt scoring protocol to explore profiles of external details generated bypatients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (n = 11) and semantic dementia (SD) (n = 13) on afuture thinking task. Voxel-based morphometry analyses of structural MRI were used todetermine the neural correlates of external detail profiles in each patient group. Overall,distinct NExt profiles were observed across past and future temporal contexts in AD and SDgroups, which involved elevations in external details, in the context of reduced internaldetails, relative to healthy Controls. Specifically, AD patients provided significantly moreGeneral Semantic details compared with Controls during past retrieval, whereas SpecificEpisode external details were elevated during future simulation. These increased externaldetails within future narratives related to grey matter integrity in medial and lateral frontalregions in AD. By contrast, SD patients displayed an elevation of Specific Episode, ExtendedEpisode, and General Semantic details exclusively during future simulation relative toControls, which related to integrity of medial and lateral parietal regions. Our findings suggestthat the compensatory external details generated during future simulation comprise an arrayof episodic and semantic details that vary in terms of specificity and self-relevance. Moreover,these profiles appear to be differentially affected depending on the locus of underlyingneuropathology in dementia. Adopting a fine-grained approach to external details providesimportant information regarding the interplay between episodic and semantic content duringfuture stimulation and highlights the differential vulnerability and preservation of distinctcomponents of the constructed narrative in clinical disorders.

scholarly journals The Kinematics of Social Action: Visual Signals Provide Cues for What Interlocutors Do in Conversation

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 996
Author(s):  
James P. Trujillo ◽  
Judith Holler
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Motion Tracking ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Visual Signals ◽  
Manual Annotation ◽  
Conversational Interaction ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
Rapid Processing

During natural conversation, people must quickly understand the meaning of what the other speaker is saying. This concerns not just the semantic content of an utterance, but also the social action (i.e., what the utterance is doing—requesting information, offering, evaluating, checking mutual understanding, etc.) that the utterance is performing. The multimodal nature of human language raises the question of whether visual signals may contribute to the rapid processing of such social actions. However, while previous research has shown that how we move reveals the intentions underlying instrumental actions, we do not know whether the intentions underlying fine-grained social actions in conversation are also revealed in our bodily movements. Using a corpus of dyadic conversations combined with manual annotation and motion tracking, we analyzed the kinematics of the torso, head, and hands during the asking of questions. Manual annotation categorized these questions into six more fine-grained social action types (i.e., request for information, other-initiated repair, understanding check, stance or sentiment, self-directed, active participation). We demonstrate, for the first time, that the kinematics of the torso, head and hands differ between some of these different social action categories based on a 900 ms time window that captures movements starting slightly prior to or within 600 ms after utterance onset. These results provide novel insights into the extent to which our intentions shape the way that we move, and provide new avenues for understanding how this phenomenon may facilitate the fast communication of meaning in conversational interaction, social action, and conversation.

Representation and Display of Digital Images of Cultural Heritage: A Semantic Enrichment Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-247
Author(s):  
Xu Tan ◽  
Xiaoxi Luo ◽  
Xiaoguang Wang ◽  
Hongyu Wang ◽  
Xilong Hou
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Semantic Annotation ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Entity Recognition ◽  
Semantic Enrichment ◽  
Fine Grained

Digital images of cultural heritage (CH) contain rich semantic information. However, today’s semantic representations of CH images fail to fully reveal the content entities and context within these vital surrogates. This paper draws on the fields of image research and digital humanities to propose a systematic methodology and a technical route for semantic enrichment of CH digital images. This new methodology systematically applies a series of procedures including: semantic annotation, entity-based enrichment, establishing internal relations, event-centric enrichment, defining hierarchy relations between properties text annotation, and finally, named entity recognition in order to ultimately provide fine-grained contextual semantic content disclosure. The feasibility and advantages of the proposed semantic enrichment methods for semantic representation are demonstrated via a visual display platform for digital images of CH built to represent the Wutai Mountain Map, a typical Dunhuang mural. This study proves that semantic enrichment offers a promising new model for exposing content at a fine-grained level, and establishing a rich semantic network centered on the content of digital images of CH.

scholarly journals The production of coherent narrative texts by older language impaired children

1977 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Tuch
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Situational Context ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Language Problems ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
General Semantic

A group of  4 language-impaired children, 9 years old, and a group of 4 control children with no language problems were compared on an aspect of  'communicative competence' - their ability to produce coherent narrative texts (sequences of  sentences) which were semantically coherent and appropriate to the situational context. A test was devised by the writer, comprising stories presented to the children through a number of sensory modalities. The narrative texts elicited from  the 2 groups were compared on a number of  measures of  semantic cohesion and measures of  general semantic content (or appropriateness to the situational context). The performance of the language-impaired children appeared to be inferior  to the control group on all the measures of semantic cohesion and general semantic content , supporting the hypothesis that the language-impaired group would perform  inferiorly  to the control group on an aspect of 'communicative competence'. The implications of  the study's findings for the diagnosis and treatment of  expressive language problems in the older child were discussed.

scholarly journals A Basic-Systems Approach to Autobiographical Memory

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Traumatic Memory ◽  
Ptsd Symptoms ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Clinical Disorders

Memory for complex everyday events involving vision, hearing, smell, emotion, narrative, and language cannot be understood without considering the properties of the separate systems that process and store each of these forms of information. Using this premise as a starting point, my colleagues and I found that visual memory plays a central role in autobiographical memory: The strength of recollection of an event is predicted best by the vividness of its visual imagery, and a loss of visual memory causes a general amnesia. Examination of autobiographical memories in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suggests that the lack of coherence often noted in memories of traumatic events is not due to a lack of coherence either of the memory itself or of the narrative that integrates the memory into the life story. Rather, making the traumatic memory central to the life story correlates positively with increased PTSD symptoms. The basic-systems approach has yielded insights into autobiographical memory's phenomenology, neuropsychology, clinical disorders, and neural basis.

scholarly journals Managing knowledge to enhance learning

2009 ◽  
pp. 103-119
Keyword(s):  
Distance Education ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Open Learning ◽  
Fine Grained

The article first summarizes reasons why current approaches supporting Open Learning and Distance Education need to be complemented by tools permitting lecturers, researchers and students to cooperatively organize the semantic content of Learning related materials (courses, discussions, etc.) into a fine-grained shared semantic network. This first part of the article also quickly describes the approach adopted to permit such a collaborative work. Then, examples of such semantic networks are presented. Finally, an evaluation of the approach by students is provided and analyzed.

Enhancing the Personal Knowledge Management with Semantic Desktop Technologies

2011 ◽  
pp. 106-123
Author(s):  
Alexey V. Alishevskikh ◽  
Tatiana V. Emshanova
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Document Management ◽  
Personal Knowledge ◽  
Favourable Effect ◽  
Business Outcomes ◽  
Personal Knowledge Management ◽  
General Semantic

This chapter introduces the general Semantic Desktop approach that has emerged last year as a researchers’ response to necessity of the effective comprehensive personal knowledge management solution. It describes the theoretical foundation and implementation of a supportive technology in the context of the SCAN (Smart Content Aggregation and Navigation) framework that integrates semantic content aggregation, search, natural language processing, metadata management and tagging. It is asserted that synthesis of different techniques will provide new, improved experience for knowledge workers based on intelligence of document management, increasing their productivity, which in turn will have a favourable effect on organizational business outcomes.

scholarly journals Classification of general and personal semantic details in the Autobiographical Interview

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Renoult ◽  
Michael J. Armson ◽  
Nicholas Diamond ◽  
Carina L. Fan ◽  
Nivethika Jeyakumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration ◽  
Scoring System ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
General Semantics ◽  
Repeated Events ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Fluent Aphasia ◽  
General Semantic

The Autobiographical Interview (AI) separates internal (episodic) and external (non-episodic) details from transcribed protocols using an exhaustive and reliable scoring system. While the details comprising the internal composite are centered on elements of episodic memory, external details are more heterogeneous as they are meant to capture a variety of non-episodic utterances: general semantics, different types of personal semantics details, metacognitive statements, repetitions, and details about off topic events. Elevated external details are consistently observed in aging and in neurodegenerative diseases. In the present study, we augmented the AI scoring system to differentiate subtypes of external details to test whether the elevation of these details in aging and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (including mixed frontotemporal/semantic dementia [FTD/SD] and progressive non-fluent aphasia [PNFA]) would be specific to general and personal semantics or would concern all subtypes. Specifically, we separated general semantic details from personal semantic details (including autobiographical facts, self-knowledge, and repeated events). With aging, external detail elevation was observed for general and personal semantic details but not for other types of external details. In frontotemporal lobar degeneration, patients with FTD/SD (but not PNFA) generated an excess of personal semantic details ¬but not general semantic details. The increase in personal but not general semantic details in FTD/SD is consistent with prevalent impairment of general semantic memory in SD, and with the personalization of concepts in this condition. Under standard AI instructions, external details were intended to capture off-topic utterances and were not intended as a direct measure of semantic abilities. Future investigations concerned with semantic processing in aging and in dementia could modify standard instructions of the AI to directly probe semantic content.

scholarly journals Modeling semantic encoding in a common neural representational space

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara E. Van Uden ◽  
Samuel A. Nastase ◽  
Andrew C. Connolly ◽  
Ma Feilong ◽  
Isabella Hansen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Model Performance ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Representational Space ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Out Of Sample ◽  
Semantic Encoding ◽  
Anatomical Space ◽  
Out Of Sample Prediction ◽  
Spatial Specificity

Encoding models for mapping voxelwise semantic tuning are typically estimated separately for each individual, limiting their generalizability. In the current report, we develop a method for estimating semantic encoding models that generalize across individuals. Functional MRI was used to measure brain responses while participants freely viewed a naturalistic audiovisual movie. Word embeddings capturing agent-, action-, object-, and scene-related semantic content were assigned to each imaging volume based on an annotation of the film. We constructed both conventional within-subject semantic encoding models and between-subject models where the model was trained on a subset of participants and validated on a left-out participant. Between-subject models were trained using cortical surface-based anatomical normalization or surface-based whole-cortex hyperalignment. We used hyperalignment to project group data into an individual's unique anatomical space via a common representational space, thus leveraging a larger volume of data for out-of-sample prediction while preserving the individual's fine-grained functional–anatomical idiosyncrasies. Our findings demonstrate that anatomical normalization degrades the spatial specificity of between-subject encoding models relative to within-subject models. Hyperalignment, on the other hand, recovers the spatial specificity of semantic tuning lost during anatomical normalization, and yields model performance exceeding that of within-subject models.

scholarly journals Waves of Maturation and Senescence in Micro-Structural MRI Markers of Human Cortical Myelination over the Lifespan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Håkon Grydeland ◽  
Petra E. Vértes ◽  
František Váša ◽  
Rafael Romero-Garcia ◽  
Kirstie Whitaker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Age At Onset ◽  
Growth Curves ◽  
Structural Mri ◽  
Bimodal Distribution ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Growth Stability ◽  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Mri ◽  
Second Wave

AbstractSeminal human brain histology work has demonstrated developmental waves of myelination. Here, using a micro-structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) marker linked to myelin, we studied fine-grained age differences to deduce waves of growth, stability, and decline of cortical myelination over the life-cycle. In 484 participants, aged 8-85 years, we fitted smooth growth curves to T1- to T2-weighted ratio in each of 360 regions from one of 7 cytoarchitectonic classes. From the first derivatives of these generally inverted-U trajectories, we defined three milestones: the age at peak growth; the age at onset of a stable plateau; and the age at the onset of decline. Age at peak growth had a bimodal distribution comprising an early (pre-pubertal) wave of primary sensory and motor cortices and a later (post-pubertal) wave of association, insular and limbic cortices. Most regions reached stability in the 30s but there was a second wave reaching stability in the 50s. Age at onset of decline was also bimodal: in some right hemisphere regions, the curve declined from the 60s, but in other left hemisphere regions, there was no significant decline from the stable plateau. These results are consistent with regionally heterogeneous waves of intracortical myelinogenesis and age-related demyelination.

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