scholarly journals Putting the Pieces Together: Mental Construction of Semantically Congruent and Incongruent Scenes in Dementia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Nikki-Anne Wilson ◽  
Rebekah M. Ahmed ◽  
Olivier Piguet ◽  
Muireann Irish
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Scene Construction ◽  
Social Scene ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
Contextual Detail ◽  
Mind's Eye ◽  
Scene Object

Scene construction refers to the process by which humans generate richly detailed and spatially cohesive scenes in the mind’s eye. The cognitive processes that underwrite this capacity remain unclear, particularly when the envisaged scene calls for the integration of various types of contextual information. Here, we explored social and non-social forms of scene construction in Alzheimer’s disease (AD; n = 11) and the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD; n = 15) relative to healthy older control participants (n = 16) using a novel adaptation of the scene construction task. Participants mentally constructed detailed scenes in response to scene–object cues that varied in terms of their sociality (social; non-social) and congruence (congruent; incongruent). A significant group × sociality × congruence interaction was found whereby performance on the incongruent social scene condition was significantly disrupted in both patient groups relative to controls. Moreover, bvFTD patients produced significantly less contextual detail in social relative to non-social incongruent scenes. Construction of social and non-social incongruent scenes in the patient groups combined was significantly associated with independent measures of semantic processing and visuospatial memory. Our findings demonstrate the influence of schema-incongruency on scene construction performance and reinforce the importance of episodic–semantic interactions during novel event construction.

scholarly journals T169. SEMANTIC PROCESSING IN RELATION TO ANATOMICAL INTEGRITY OF THE VENTRAL LANGUAGE STREAM IN SCHIZOPHRENIA SPECTRUM DISORDERS

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S295-S296
Author(s):  
Werner Surbeck ◽  
Jürgen Hänggi ◽  
Petra Viher ◽  
André Schmidt ◽  
Erich Seifritz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Diffusion Tensor ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Fiber Tractography ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Axial Diffusivity ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

Abstract Background Semantic processing anomalies, clinically reflected by disorganized speech are a core symptom of schizophrenia. In the light of accumulating evidence on its prominent role in semantic processing, aberrant structural integrity of the ventral language stream may reflect impaired semantic processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). Methods Comparison of white matter tract integrity in SSD patients and healthy controls using diffusion tensor imaging combined with probabilistic fiber tractography. For the ventral language stream, we assessed the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus [IFOF], inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and uncinate fasciculus. The arcuate fasciculus and corticospinal tract were used as control tracts. In SSD patients, the relationship between semantic processing impairments and tract integrity was analyzed separately. Three-dimensional tract reconstructions were performed in 45/44 SSD patients/controls (“Bern sample”) and replicated in an independent sample of 24/24 SSD patients/controls (“Basel sample”). Results Multivariate analyses of fractional anisotropy, mean, axial, and radial diffusivity of the left IFOF showed significant differences between SSD patients and controls (p<0.001, ηp2=0.23) in the Bern sample. In SSD, axial diffusivity of the left IFOF was inversely correlated with semantic processing impairments (r=-0.579, p<0.0001). In the Basel sample, significant group differences for the left IFOF were replicated (p<0.01, ηp2=0.29), while the correlation between axial diffusivity of the left IFOF and semantic processing decline (r=-0.376, p=0.09) showed a statistical trend. No significant effects were found for the dorsal language stream. Discussion This work provides direct evidence for the importance of the integrity of the ventral language stream, in particular the left IFOF, in semantic processing deficits in SSD.

Are all the triangles blue? – ERP evidence for the incremental processing of German quantifier restriction

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETRA AUGURZKY ◽  
OLIVER BOTT ◽  
WOLFGANG STERNEFELD ◽  
ROLF ULRICH
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Context Information ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Incremental Processing ◽  
Compositional Semantic ◽  
Quantifier Restriction

abstractThe present ERP study investigates the neural correlates of pictorial context effects on compositional-semantic processing. We examined whether the incremental processing of questions involving quantifier restriction is modulated by the reliability of pictorial information. Contexts either allowed for an unambiguous meaning evaluation at an early sentential position or were ambiguous with respect to whether a further restrictive cue could trigger later meaning revisions. Attention was either guided towards (Experiment 1) or away from (Experiment 2) the picture–question mapping. In both experiments, negative answers elicited a broadly distributed negativity opposed to affirmative answers as soon as an unambiguous truth evaluation was possible. In the presence of ambiguous context information, the truth evaluation initially remained underspecified, as an early commitment would have resulted in the risk of a semantic reanalysis. The negativity was followed by a late positivity in Experiment 1, but not in Experiment 2, suggesting that attention towards the mismatch affected semantic processing, but only at a later time window. The current results are consistent with the notion that an incremental meaning evaluation is dependent on the reliability of contextual information.

Integrated Contextual Representation for Objects' Identities and Their Locations

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurit Gronau ◽  
Maital Neta ◽  
Moshe Bar
Keyword(s):  
Object Recognition ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Target Object ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Attention And Memory ◽  
Contextual Knowledge ◽  
Lateral Occipital Complex

Visual context plays a prominent role in everyday perception. Contextual information can facilitate recognition of objects within scenes by providing predictions about objects that are most likely to appear in a specific setting, along with the locations that are most likely to contain objects in the scene. Is such identity-related (“semantic”) and location-related (“spatial”) contextual knowledge represented separately or jointly as a bound representation? We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) priming experiment whereby semantic and spatial contextual relations between prime and target object pictures were independently manipulated. This method allowed us to determine whether the two contextual factors affect object recognition with or without interacting, supporting a unified versus independent representations, respectively. Results revealed a Semantic × Spatial interaction in reaction times for target object recognition. Namely, significant semantic priming was obtained when targets were positioned in expected (congruent), but not in unexpected (incongruent), locations. fMRI results showed corresponding interactive effects in brain regions associated with semantic processing (inferior prefrontal cortex), visual contextual processing (parahippocampal cortex), and object-related processing (lateral occipital complex). In addition, activation in fronto-parietal areas suggests that attention and memory-related processes might also contribute to the contextual effects observed. These findings indicate that object recognition benefits from associative representations that integrate information about objects' identities and their locations, and directly modulate activation in object-processing cortical regions. Such context frames are useful in maintaining a coherent and meaningful representation of the visual world, and in providing a platform from which predictions can be generated to facilitate perception and action.

Lateralised semantic and indirect semantic priming effects in people with schizophrenia

1998 ◽  
Vol 172 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Weisbrod ◽  
Sabine Maier ◽  
Sabine Harig ◽  
Ulrike Himmelsbach ◽  
Manfred Spitzer
Keyword(s):  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
The Right

BackgroundIn schizophrenia, disturbances in the development of physiological hemisphere asymmetry are assumed to play a pathogenetic role. The most striking difference between hemispheres is in language processing. The left hemisphere is superior in the use of syntactic or semantic information, whereas the right hemisphere uses contextual information more effectively.MethodUsing psycholinguistic experimental techniques, semantic associations were examined in 38 control subjects, 24 non-thought-disordered and 16 thought-disordered people with schizophrenia, for both hemispheres separately.ResultsDirect semantic priming did not differ between the hemispheres in any of the groups. Only thought-disordered people showed significant indirect semantic priming in the left hemisphere.ConclusionsThe results support: (a) a prominent role of the right hemisphere for remote associations; (b) enhanced spreading of semantic associations in thought-disordered subjects; and (c) disorganisation of the functional asymmetry of semantic processing in thought-disordered subjects.

scholarly journals Functional remediation in bipolar disorder: 1-year follow-up of neurocognitive and functional outcome

2016 ◽  
Vol 208 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Bonnin ◽  
C. Torrent ◽  
C. Arango ◽  
B. L. Amann ◽  
B. Solé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Psychosocial Functioning ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Treatment As Usual ◽  
Time Interaction ◽  
Group Time ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
Short Test

BackgroundFew randomised clinical trials have examined the efficacy of an intervention aimed at improving psychosocial functioning in bipolar disorder.AimsTo examine changes in psychosocial functioning in a group that has been enrolled in a functional remediation programme 1 year after baseline.MethodThis was a multicentre, randomised, rater-masked clinical trial comparing three patient groups: functional remediation, psychoeducation and treatment as usual over 1-year follow-up. The primary outcome was change in psychosocial functioning measured by means of the Functioning Assessment Short Test (FAST). Group×time effects for overall psychosocial functioning were examined using repeated-measures ANOVA (trial registration NCT01370668).ResultsThere was a significant group×time interaction for overall psychosocial functioning, favouring patients in the functional remediation group (F = 3.071, d.f. = 2, P = 0.049).ConclusionsImprovement in psychosocial functioning is maintained after 1-year follow-up in patients with bipolar disorder receiving functional remediation.

scholarly journals Contextual Information Modulates Pupil Size in Autistic and Non-Autistic Children.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Tortelli ◽  
Antonella Pomè ◽  
Marco Turi ◽  
Roberta Igliozzi ◽  
David Charles Burr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparison Group ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Clinical Group ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract Background. Recent Bayesian models suggest that perception is more “data-driven” and less dependent on contextual information in autistic individuals than others. However, experimental tests of this hypothesis have given mixed results, possibly due to the lack of objectivity of the self-report methods typically employed. Here we introduce an objective no-report paradigm based on pupillometry to assess the processing of contextual information in autistic children and a comparison clinical group.Methods. After validating (in a group of neurotypical adults) a child-friendly pupillometric paradigm, in which we embedded test images within an animation movie that participants watched passively, we compared pupillary response to images of the sun and meaningless control images in children with autism versus age- and IQ-matched children presenting developmental disorders unrelated to the autistic spectrum. Results. Both clinical groups showed stronger pupillary constriction for the sun images compared with control images, like the neurotypical adults. There was no detectable difference between autistic children and the comparison group (in spite of a significant difference in pupillary light responses, enhanced in the autistic group). Limitations: Having found no statistically significant differences between groups, we cannot exclude that group differences existed but were too small to be detected – a critique that applies to most negative findings. Additional limitations concern the heterogeneous composition of the comparison group and the types of stimuli tested, which only allowed for studying the effect of context on relatively complex perceptual processes. Conclusions: Our report introduces an objective technique for studying perception in clinical samples and children. The lack of statistically significant group differences in our tests suggests that autistic children and the comparison group do not show large differences in perception of these stimuli. This opens the way to further studies testing contextual processing at other levels of perception.

Psychologic Adjustment of Siblings of Children With Chronic Illness

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 616-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
John V. Lavigne ◽  
Michael Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Plastic Surgery ◽  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Social Withdrawal ◽  
Emotional And Behavioral Problems ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Blood Disorders ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Pediatric Hematology ◽  
Comparison Groups ◽  
Patient Groups

Although numerous references are made to the stressful, deleterious effects of chronic or terminal illnesses and handicaps on the siblings of pediatric patients, very few studies have been conducted using comparison groups. The present study compares the adjustment of 3-to 13-year-old siblings of pediatric hematology (N = 62), cardiology (N = 57), and plastic surgery patients (N = 37) with healthy siblings (N = 46). The adjusttuent measure was an objective, paper-and-pencil measure of children's emotional and behavioral problems, the Louisville Behavior Checklist. On analyses of covariance, the patient groups were more likely to show symptoms of irritability and social withdrawal, and the differences between illness groups approached significance on measures of fear and inhibition. Among the younger children, ages 3 to 6, there were significant group differences, with the siblings of patients undergoing plastic surgery showing the highest level of general psychopathology. Among children ages 7 to 13, male siblings of patients with blood disorders were more likely to show signs of emotional disturbance than female siblings. No group differences were noted on measures of aggression or learning problems. Significant interactions between sex and age relationship to the child were noted on scales of social withdrawal, inhibition, immaturity, and irritability.

scholarly journals Differences in Temporal Relapse Characteristics Between Affective and Non-affective Psychotic Disorders: Longitudinal Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Immanuel ◽  
Geoff Schrader ◽  
Niranjan Bidargaddi
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Psychotic Disorders ◽  
Temporal Characteristic ◽  
Random Regression ◽  
Initial Attempt ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
Time To Relapse

Objective: Multiple relapses over time are common in both affective and non-affective psychotic disorders. Characterizing the temporal nature of these relapses may be crucial to understanding the underlying neurobiology of relapse.Materials and Methods: Anonymized records of patients with affective and non-affective psychotic disorders were collected from SA Mental Health Data Universe and retrospectively analyzed. To characterize the temporal characteristic of their relapses, a relapse trend score was computed using a symbolic series-based approach. A higher score suggests that relapse follows a trend and a lower score suggests relapses are random. Regression models were built to investigate if this score was significantly different between affective and non-affective psychotic disorders.Results: Logistic regression models showed a significant group difference in relapse trend score between the patient groups. For example, in patients who were hospitalized six or more times, relapse score in affective disorders were 2.6 times higher than non-affective psychotic disorders [OR 2.6, 95% CI (1.8–3.7), p < 0.001].Discussion: The results imply that the odds of a patient with affective disorder exhibiting a predictable trend in time to relapse were much higher than a patient with recurrent non-affective psychotic disorder. In other words, within recurrent non-affective psychosis group, time to relapse is random.Conclusion: This study is an initial attempt to develop a longitudinal trajectory-based approach to investigate relapse trend differences in mental health patients. Further investigations using this approach may reflect differences in underlying biological processes between illnesses.

scholarly journals The Development of Scene Semantics: First ERP Indications for the Processing of Semantic Object-Scene Inconsistencies in 24-Month-Olds

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Maffongelli ◽  
Sabine Öhlschläger ◽  
Melissa Lê-Hoa Võ
Keyword(s):  
Brain Region ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Recognition Of Objects ◽  
Neural Marker ◽  
Semantic Object ◽  
Attention And Perception ◽  
Scene Object

Finding a bottle of milk in the bathroom would probably be quite surprising to most of us. Such a surprised reaction is driven by our strong expectations, learned through experience, that a bottle of milk belongs in the kitchen. Our environment is not randomly organized but governed by regularities that allow us to predict what objects can be found in which types of scene. These scene semantics are thought to play an important role in the recognition of objects. But when during development are the semantic predictions so far implemented that such scene-object inconsistencies would lead to semantic processing difficulties? Here we investigated how toddlers perceive their environments, and what expectations govern their attention and perception. To this aim, we used a purely visual paradigm in an ERP experiment and presented 24-month-olds with familiar scenes in which either a semantically consistent or an inconsistent object would appear. The scene-inconsistency effect has been previously studied in adults by means of the N400, a neural marker responding to semantic inconsistencies across many types of stimuli. Our results show that semantic object-scene inconsistencies indeed elicited an enhanced N400 over the left anterior brain region between 750 and 1150 ms post stimulus onset. This modulation of the N400 marker provides first indications that by the age of two toddlers have already established their scene semantics allowing them to detect a purely visual, semantic object-scene inconsistency. Our data suggest the presence of specific semantic knowledge regarding what objects occur in a certain scene category.

scholarly journals Demonstrating the Qualitative Differences between Semantic Aphasia and Semantic Dementia: A Novel Exploration of Nonverbal Semantic Processing

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 7-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krist A. Noonan ◽  
Peter Garrard ◽  
Elizabeth Jefferies ◽  
Sheeba Eshan ◽  
Matthew A. Lambon Ralph
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Dementia ◽  
Regulatory Control ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Regulatory Processes ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
Semantic Impairment

Semantic dementia (SD) implicates the anterior temporal lobes (ATL) as a critical substrate for semantic memory. Multi-modal semantic impairment can also be a feature of post-stroke aphasia (referred to here as “semantic aphasia” or SA) where patients show impaired regulatory control accompanied by lesions to the frontal and/or temporo-parietal cortices, and thus the two patient groups demonstrate qualitatively different patterns of semantic impairment [1]. Previous comparisons of these two patient groups have tended to focus on verbal receptive tasks. Accordingly, this study investigated nonverbal receptive abilities via a comparison of reality decision judgements in SD and SA. Pictures of objects were presented alongside non-real distracters whose features were altered to make them more/less plausible for the semantic category. The results highlighted a number of critical differences between the two groups. Compared to SD patients, SA patients: (1) were relatively unimpaired on the two alternative forced choice (2AFC) decisions despite showing a comparable degree of semantic impairment on other assessments; (2) showed minimal effects of the plausibility manipulation; (3) were strongly influenced by variations in the regulatory requirements of tasks; and (4) exhibited a reversed effect of familiarity–i.e., better performance on less commonly encountered items. These results support a distinction between semantic impairments which arise from impaired regulatory processes (e.g., SA) versus those where degraded semantic knowledge is the causal factor (e.g., SD). SA patients performed relatively well because the task structure reduced the requirement for internally generated control. In contrast, SD patients performed poorly because their degraded knowledge did not allow the fine-grained distinctions required to complete the task.

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