Influence of Regular Rhythmic Versus Textural Sound Sequences on Semantic and Conceptual Processing

Conceptual priming studies have shown that listening to musical primes triggers semantic activation. The present study further investigated with a free semantic evocation task, 1) how rhythmic vs. textural structures affect the amount of words evoked after a musical sequence, and 2) whether both features also affect the content of the semantic activation. Rhythmic sequences were composed of various percussion sounds with a strong underlying beat and metrical structure. Textural sound sequences consisted of blended timbres and sound sources evolving over time without identifiable pulse. Participants were asked to verbalize the concepts evoked by the musical sequences. We measured the number of words and lemmas produced after having listened to musical sequences of each condition, and we analyzed whether specific concepts were associated with each sequence type. Results showed that more words and lemmas were produced for textural sound sequences than for rhythmic sequences and that some concepts were specifically associated with each musical condition. Our findings suggest that listening to musical excerpts emphasizing different features influences semantic activation in different ways and extent. This might possibly be instantiated via cognitive mechanisms triggered by the acoustic characteristics of the excerpts as well as the perceived emotions.

Photographs of Actions: What Makes Them Special Cues to Social Perception

I have reviewed studies on neural responses to pictured actions in the action observation network (AON) and the cognitive functions of these responses. Based on this review, I have analyzed the specific representational characteristics of action photographs. There has been consensus that AON responses provide viewers with knowledge of observed or pictured actions, but there has been controversy about the properties of this knowledge. Is this knowledge causally provided by AON activities or is it dependent on conceptual processing? What elements of actions does it refer to, and how generalized or specific is it? The answers to these questions have come from studies that used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to stimulate motor or somatosensory cortices. In conjunction with electromyography (EMG), TMS allows researchers to examine changes of the excitability in the corticospinal tract and muscles of people viewing pictured actions. The timing of these changes and muscle specificity enable inferences to be drawn about the cognitive products of processing pictured actions in the AON. Based on a review of studies using TMS and other neuroscience methods, I have proposed a novel hypothetical account that describes the characteristics of action photographs that make them effective cues to social perception. This account includes predictions that can be tested experimentally.

The Link Between Conceptual and Perceptual Information in Memory

We continually draw on, and link, conceptual knowledge with perception as we process and interact with our surroundings. This chapter highlights issues at the intersection of perceptual and conceptual processing in human memory. First, it discusses the role of the brain’s perceptual systems and connected regions during conceptual processing. Next, a case study of real-world (or ‘canonical’) size is used to illustrate questions and issues that arise when seeking to understand phenomena that can require information from both perceptual input and semantic memory to be integrated. The influence of conceptual processing on perception is then described, before outlining some additional related factors: conceptual granularity, episodic memory, and individual differences. The chapter concludes by looking to the future of this research area – a field that requires a unique understanding of issues that lie at the heart of perception, memory, and more.

What can size tell us about abstract conceptual processing?

Embodied cognition theories propose that abstract concepts can be embodied via metaphorical extensions from experiences of the physical or the mental worlds. In three experiments, we explored how semantic size (e.g., the magnitude, dimension or extent of an object or a concept) of abstract concepts is mentally represented. We show that abstract size is metaphorically associated with the physical size of concrete objects (Experiment 1) and can produce a semantic-font size congruency effect comparable to that demonstrated in concrete words during online lexical processing (Experiment 2). Critically, this size congruency effect is large when a word is judged by its size but significantly smaller when it is judged by its emotionality (Experiment 3). Our results suggest that semantic size of abstract concepts can be represented in physical size and that such experiences are variably engaged under different task demands. The present findings advocate flexible embodiment of semantic representations, with an emphasis on the role of task effects on conceptual processing.

On feature-based vocabulary selection mechanisms in late insertion: third person number agreement in the French future tense

We propose that feature bundles derived in syntactic computations activate congruent vocabulary entries inducing feature-based conceptual-structure processes in retrieval. Thus, for the French future tense, an inflectional node baring Number: Plural activates the forms mangera (EAT-FUT.3PS.SG) and mangeront (EAT-FUT.3PS.PL), which compete for insertion following the Subset Principle of Distributed Morphology. Indeed, the affix -a (3PS.SG) encodes Number with no further specification (notated Number: Ø), whereas -ont (3PS.PL) encodes Number: Plural, where Number: Ø is a subset of Number: Plural. This feature structure defines an information scale where plural-marked -ont is stronger. On this scale, informationally weaker -a (3PS.SG) is interpreted as [-Plural] in contrast with -ont via a scalar inference, becoming unsuitable for insertion. Thus, -ont (3PS.PL) is selected when -a (3PS.SG) is eliminated. We present evidence of conceptual-structure processing linked to underspecified morphology. In forced-pace reading and listening tasks, 19 native speaker subjects per task classified picture probes accompanying matching and mismatching subject-verb future tense agreement. Classification times for pictures semantically linked to the verb probed for an interaction between the processing of agreement morphology and the ongoing conceptual processing of the sentence. Classification times were modulated by the type of morphological mismatch. Singular verb form mangera (EAT-FUT.3PS.SG) slowed down picture classifications in plural contexts, whereas plural verb form mangeront (EAT-FUT.3PS.PL) in singular contexts did not. This interaction between purely formal agreement and conceptual-structure processing is unexplained by interface relations, frequency, information load, and phonological cohort activation. It suggests that domain-general principles of inference enrich domain-specific feature-based computations.

Strong conceptual ability reduces the effect of lexical impairments on verb retrieval in aphasia

Verb-retrieval impairments are pervasive deficits that can negatively impact communicative function for individuals living with aphasia. Unfortunately, the neurocognitive basis of these deficits remains poorly understood. One open question is the degree to which verb-retrieval impairments might be rooted in lexical- versus conceptual-processing deficits. These deficits can be co-present and correlated in people with aphasia, but they have also been found to be dissociated in patients with a variety of acquired brain injuries. This study examined the degree to which conceptual versus lexical action-processing abilities are impaired and may contribute to verb-retrieval impairments in adults with chronic aphasia due to left-hemisphere stroke. The results indicate that conceptual action processing can be impaired in aphasia and may contribute to verb-retrieval impairments. Furthermore, relatively unimpaired conceptual processing can ameliorate the influence of lexical impairments on verb-retrieval impairments. These findings are consistent with models in which conceptual representations play a key role in language processing and may be leveraged to improve verb retrieval in adults with chronic aphasia.

Language Increases Working Memory Capacity for Object Concepts

[Draft version, 04/03/21. This paper has not been peer reviewed. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission] The linguistic-simulation approach to cognition predicts that language can enable more efficient conceptual processing than purely sensorimotor-affective simulations of concepts. We tested the implications of this approach in working memory, where use of linguistic labels (i.e., words and phrases) could enable more efficient representation of concepts in a limited-capacity store than representation via full sensorimotor simulation; a proposal called linguistic bootstrapping. In four pre-registered experiments using a nonverbal recognition memory paradigm, we asked participants to remember sequences of real-world objects, and used articulatory suppression to selectively block implicit activation of linguistic labels, which we predicted would impair object memory performance. We found that blocking access to language at encoding impaired memory accuracy, though not latency, and that this impairment was not simply dual-task load. Results show that a sequence of up to 10 contextually-situated object concepts can be held in working memory when language is blocked, but this capacity increases to 12 objects when language is available. The findings support the linguistic bootstrapping hypothesis that working memory for familiar object concepts normally relies on language, and that implicitly-retrieved object labels, used as linguistic placeholders, enhance the achievable capacity of working memory beyond what sensorimotor information alone can accomplish.

A Sound Explanation for Motor Cortex Engagement during Action Word Comprehension

Comprehending action words often engages similar brain regions to those involved in perceiving and executing actions. This finding has been interpreted as support for grounding of conceptual processing in motor representations or that conceptual processing involves motor simulation. However, such demonstrations cannot confirm the nature of the mechanism(s) responsible, as word comprehension involves multiple processes (e.g., lexical, semantic, morphological, phonological). In this study, we tested whether this motor cortex engagement instead reflects processing of statistical regularities in sublexical phonological features. Specifically, we measured brain activity in healthy participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed an auditory lexical decision paradigm involving monosyllabic action words associated with specific effectors (face, arm, and leg). We show that nonwords matched to the action words in terms of their phonotactic probability elicit common patterns of activation. In addition, we show that a measure of the action words' phonological typicality, the extent to which a word's phonology is typical of other words in the grammatical category to which it belongs (i.e., more or less verb-like), is responsible for their activating a significant portion of primary and premotor cortices. These results indicate motor cortex engagement during action word comprehension is more likely to reflect processing of statistical regularities in sublexical phonological features than conceptual processing. We discuss the implications for current neurobiological models of language, all of which implicitly or explicitly assume that the relationship between the sound of a word and its meaning is arbitrary.

The Effects of Reading Engagement on Older Adults’ Resource Allocation in Reading and Cognition

With aging, print exposure has been shown to predict effective resource allocation during reading, as well as to account for growth in certain abilities. To test the hypothesis that literacy engagement has causal effects on reading processes and the cognitive abilities on which they depend, we developed a home-based literacy intervention administered via iPads. Participants (64% female; 60-79 years of age; < 10hrs/week of reading at baseline) were randomly assigned to an 8-week reading intervention group (developed in collaboration with a Champaign Library adult literacy specialist) or to a puzzle control, both of which involved ~8hrs/week of activity engagement. At pretest and posttest, participants performed a self-paced reading task to assess resource allocation to word and conceptual processing, and completed a battery of cognitive measures assessing episodic memory, working memory, and verbal fluency (alphas ≥ .79). Based on one-tailed tests, results showed greater positive change in working memory, t(57)=1.69, p<.05, for the literacy group relative to the control, and a marginally significant difference in change in episodic memory, t(57)=1.62, p<.06, but not in verbal fluency, t< 1. In addition, there was a significant difference between conditions in change in resource allocation to conceptual processing, t(53)=1.75, p<.05. Changes in working memory and conceptual processing were positively correlated (r=.27, p=.02). These findings suggest that reading engagement may be beneficial for older adults’ growth in fluid ability, which impacts reading processes, so as to create a “virtuous spiral” of resilience between literacy engagement and ability.

From many to one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind

How profoundly can humans change their own minds? In this paper we offer a unifying account of meditation under the predictive processing view of living organisms. We start from relatively simple axioms. First, the brain is an organ that serves to predict based on past experience, both phylogenetic and ontogenetic. Second, meditation serves to bring one closer to the here and now by disengaging from anticipatory processes. We propose that practicing meditation therefore gradually reduces predictive processing, in particular counterfactual cognition—the tendency to construct abstract and temporally deep representations—until all conceptual processing falls away. Our Many- to-One account also places three main styles of meditation (focused attention, open monitoring, and non-dual meditation) on a single continuum, where each technique progressively relinquishes increasingly engrained habits of prediction, including the self. This deconstruction can also make the above processes available to introspection, permitting certain insights into one’s mind. Our review suggests that our framework is consistent with the current state of empirical and (neuro)phenomenological evidence in contemplative science, and is ultimately illuminating about the plasticity of the predictive mind. It also serves to highlight that contemplative science can fruitfully go beyond cognitive enhancement, attention, and emotion regulation, to its more traditional goal of removing past conditioning and creating conditions for potentially profound insights. Experimental rigor, neurophenomenology, and no-report paradigms combined with neuroimaging are needed to further our understanding of how different styles of meditation affect predictive processing and the self, and the plasticity of the predictive mind more generally.