response latencies
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2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petar Gabrić ◽  
Mija Vandek

Verbal fluency tasks are often used in neuropsychological research and may have predictive and diagnostic utility in psychiatry and neurology. However, researchers using verbal fluency have uncritically assumed that there are no category- or phoneme-specific effects on verbal fluency performance. We recruited 16 young adult subjects and administered two semantic (animals, trees) and phonemic (K, M) fluency tasks. Because of the small sample size, results should be regarded as preliminary. On the animal compared to the tree task, subjects produced significantly more legal words, had a significantly lower intrusion rate, significantly shorter first-response latencies and final silence periods, as well as significantly shorter between-cluster response latencies. These differences may be explained by differences in the category sizes, integrity of the categories' borders, and efficiency of the functional connectivity between subcategories. On the K compared to the M task, subjects produced significantly more legal words and had significantly shorter between-cluster response times. Counterintuitively, a corpus analysis revealed there are more words starting with m compared to k in the experimental language. Our results have important implications for research utilizing verbal fluency, including decreased reproducibility, unreliability of diagnostic and predictive tools based on verbal fluency, and decreased knowledge accumulation.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Vafaei ◽  
Milad Mohammadi ◽  
Alireza Khadir ◽  
Erfan Zabeh ◽  
Faraz YazdaniBanafsheDaragh ◽  
...  

The timing of neuronal responses is considered to be important for information transferring and communication across individual neurons. However, the sources of variabilities in the timing of neuronal responses are not well understood and sometimes over-interpreted. A systematic variability in the response latencies of the primary visual cortex has been reported in presence of drifting grating stimulus. Whereas the response latencies are systematically dependent on stimulus orientation. To understand the underlying mechanism of these systematic latencies, we recorded the neuronal response of the cat visual cortex, area 17, and simulated the response latency of V1 neurons, with two geometric models. We showed that outputs of these two models significantly predict the response latencies of the electrophysiology recording during orientation tasks. The periodic patterns created in the raster plots were dependent on the relative position of the stimulus rotation center and the receptive-field sub-regions. We argue the position of stimulus is contributing to systematic response latencies, dependent on drifting orientation. Therefore, we provide a toolbox based on our geometrical model for determining the exact location of RF sub-regions. Our result indicates that a major source of neuronal variability is the lack of fine-tuning in the task parameters. Considering the simplicity of the orientation selectivity task, we argue fine-tuning of stimulus properties is crucial for deduction of neural variability in higher-order cortical areas and understanding their neural dynamics.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Juechter ◽  
Rainer Beutelmann ◽  
Georg M. Klump

The present study establishes the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) as a model for investigating the perception of human speech sounds. We report data on the discrimination of logatomes (CVCs - consonant-vowel-consonant combinations with outer consonants /b/, /d/, /s/ and /t/ and central vowels /a/, /aː/, /ɛ/, /eː/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /ɔ/, /oː/, /ʊ/ and /uː/, VCVs - vowel-consonant-vowel combinations with outer vowels /a/, /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ and central consonants /b/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /s/, /t/ and /v/) by young gerbils. Four young gerbils were trained to perform an oddball target detection paradigm in which they were required to discriminate a deviant CVC or VCV in a sequence of CVC or VCV standards, respectively. The experiments were performed with an ICRA-1 noise masker with speech-like spectral properties, and logatomes of multiple speakers were presented at various signal-to-noise ratios. Response latencies were measured to generate perceptual maps employing multidimensional scaling, which visualize the gerbils' internal representations of the sounds. The dimensions of the perceptual maps were correlated to multiple phonetic features of the speech sounds for evaluating which features of vowels and consonants are most important for the discrimination. The perceptual representation of vowels and consonants in gerbils was similar to that of humans, although gerbils needed higher signal-to-noise ratios for the discrimination of speech sounds than humans. The gerbils' discrimination of vowels depended on differences in the frequencies of the first and second formant determined by tongue height and position. Consonants were discriminated based on differences in combinations of their articulatory features. The similarities in the perception of logatomes by gerbils and humans renders the gerbil a suitable model for human speech sound discrimination.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reid Herran ◽  
David Pisoni ◽  
William Kronenberger

Background: Cochlear implants (CIs) restore partial hearing to deaf children, promoting the development of spoken language skills. However, because of reduced auditory and language experience, children who receive CIs are at risk for delays not only in language skills but also in language-related neurocognitive skills such as verbal working memory (VWM - the ability to retain language information in immediate memory concurrently with other cognitive processing). Although VWM delays in children with CIs are well-documented, the foundational processes underlying these delays are less clear. This study investigated the hypotheses that slower speed of information processing during VWM tasks contributes to VWM delays in CI users and that this slower information processing speed is associated with spoken language outcomes.    Methods: 25 early-implanted, prelingually-deaf children with CIs and 25 normal-hearing (NH) peers completed tests of VWM, neurocognitive, and speech-language functioning. Speed of information processing during the VWM test was assessed by measuring response latency and average pause duration.    Results: Children with CIs showed poorer VWM scores than NH peers, but the groups did not differ on response latencies or pause durations. Response latencies were significantly correlated with VWM capacity, speech, and language outcomes in both groups.    Conclusion: Speed of information processing in VWM was similar for children with CIs and NH. In both groups, shorter response latencies (faster speed of execution of the cognitive operations of working memory) were associated with better neurocognitive and spoken language outcomes. In the CI sample, pause durations were inconsistently associated with VWM and language outcomes.    Clinical Policy Impact and Implications: Speed of information processing for VWM is associated with core neurocognitive and spoken language outcomes for children with CIs and should be a routine target of assessment and intervention post-implantation.  


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Michelle Buchanan ◽  
Kelly Cuccolo ◽  
Nicholas Alvaro Coles ◽  
Aishwarya Iyer ◽  
Neil Anthony Lewis ◽  
...  

Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. These studies provide evidence of cognitive underpinnings of the structure and organization of semantic representation in both healthy and clinical populations. In this registered report, we propose to create a large database of semantic priming values, alleviating the sample size and limited language issues with previous studies in this area. Consequently, this database will include semantic priming data across multiple languages using an adaptive sampling procedure. This study will test the size of semantic priming effect and its variability across languages. Results will support semantic priming when reduced response latencies are found for related word-pair conditions in comparison to unrelated word-pair conditions. Differences in semantic priming across languages will be supported when priming effect confidence intervals do not overlap.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1524
Author(s):  
Ingrid Aichert ◽  
Katharina Lehner ◽  
Simone Falk ◽  
Mona Späth ◽  
Mona Franke ◽  
...  

In the present study, we investigated if individuals with neurogenic speech sound impairments of three types, Parkinson’s dysarthria, apraxia of speech, and aphasic phonological impairment, accommodate their speech to the natural speech rhythm of an auditory model, and if so, whether the effect is more significant after hearing metrically regular sentences as compared to those with an irregular pattern. This question builds on theories of rhythmic entrainment, assuming that sensorimotor predictions of upcoming events allow humans to synchronize their actions with an external rhythm. To investigate entrainment effects, we conducted a sentence completion task relating participants’ response latencies to the spoken rhythm of the prime heard immediately before. A further research question was if the perceived rhythm interacts with the rhythm of the participants’ own productions, i.e., the trochaic or iambic stress pattern of disyllabic target words. For a control group of healthy speakers, our study revealed evidence for entrainment when trochaic target words were preceded by regularly stressed prime sentences. Persons with Parkinson’s dysarthria showed a pattern similar to that of the healthy individuals. For the patient groups with apraxia of speech and with phonological impairment, considerably longer response latencies with differing patterns were observed. Trochaic target words were initiated with significantly shorter latencies, whereas the metrical regularity of prime sentences had no consistent impact on response latencies and did not interact with the stress pattern of the target words to be produced. The absence of an entrainment in these patients may be explained by the more severe difficulties in initiating speech at all. We discuss the results in terms of clinical implications for diagnostics and therapy in neurogenic speech disorders.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Gordon Tan

<p>A systematic replication of Dixon, Nastally, Jackson and Habib (2009) was carried out to further examine the role of relational framing in attaching meaning to near-win stimuli in a slot machine simulation. The original study found that the verbally reported meaning of near-win stimuli could be altered through a verbal matching-to-sample training procedure. The current study confirmed this finding. Additionally this study had participants play on a simulated slot machine to assess if such relational training also resulted in changes in (non-verbal) response latencies when participants were presented with near-win outcomes during play. A study by Daly et al. (in prep.) had found that near-wins produced response latencies (in terms of initiating a new trial or 'spin') between that of wins and losses during slot machine play; a general finding replicated here also. However, in the current study it was also expected that changes to the meanings of near-wins would influence near-win response latencies. For example, response latencies following near-wins might become more like latencies following losses as a result of prior relational framing of near-win stimuli. The results of this study found a dissociation between verbal and non-verbal responses to near-win stimuli. The verbal training affected verbal responses but did not affect non-verbal responses. Some explanations are postulated for why this happened. These include the possibility that the near-win latency was merely an artefact of the experimental paradigm. Another explanation is that the dissociation between response types occurred because the contexts in the ratings and verbal training tasks were different to the context of the slot machine task.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Gordon Tan

<p>A systematic replication of Dixon, Nastally, Jackson and Habib (2009) was carried out to further examine the role of relational framing in attaching meaning to near-win stimuli in a slot machine simulation. The original study found that the verbally reported meaning of near-win stimuli could be altered through a verbal matching-to-sample training procedure. The current study confirmed this finding. Additionally this study had participants play on a simulated slot machine to assess if such relational training also resulted in changes in (non-verbal) response latencies when participants were presented with near-win outcomes during play. A study by Daly et al. (in prep.) had found that near-wins produced response latencies (in terms of initiating a new trial or 'spin') between that of wins and losses during slot machine play; a general finding replicated here also. However, in the current study it was also expected that changes to the meanings of near-wins would influence near-win response latencies. For example, response latencies following near-wins might become more like latencies following losses as a result of prior relational framing of near-win stimuli. The results of this study found a dissociation between verbal and non-verbal responses to near-win stimuli. The verbal training affected verbal responses but did not affect non-verbal responses. Some explanations are postulated for why this happened. These include the possibility that the near-win latency was merely an artefact of the experimental paradigm. Another explanation is that the dissociation between response types occurred because the contexts in the ratings and verbal training tasks were different to the context of the slot machine task.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-55
Author(s):  
Volker Stocké

Respondents’ reports about the frequency of everyday behavior are often found to differ considerably when either low- or high-frequency response scales are used to record the answers. It has been hypothesized that the susceptibility to this type of response effect is determined by the cognitive accessibility of the respective target information in respondents’ memories. The first aim of the present paper is to test this hypothesis using two alternative, individual level indicators of the cognitive accessibility of information. These measures are the subjects’ self-reported response certainty and the time needed to answer the question under consideration. A second issue is how response certainties and response latencies should be transformed prior to data analysis in order to maximize their predictive power for response effects. Accordingly, the ability of untransformed measures to predict scale effects is compared with that of logarithmic, square-root and reciprocally transformed versions. The empirical results show that untransformed response certainties and response latencies are equally valid predictors of whether and to what extent subjects’ answers are affected by the presentation of response options. A square-root transformation is found to have no effect on both measures, whereas a logarithmic transformation slightly improves the validity of response certainties. In contrast, a reciprocal transformation proves to have a substantially positive effect on both measures and improves their ability to predict the reliability of respondents’ survey reports.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Nicosia ◽  
Emily Cohen-Shikora ◽  
Michael Strube

Cognitive aging researchers have been challenged with demonstrating age-related effects above and beyond global slowing ever since Cerella raised this issue in 1990. As the literature has made clear, this has indeed proved to be a difficult task and continues to plague the field. One way that researchers have attempted to test for disproportionate age differences across task conditions is by using Brinley plots, or plotting the mean response latencies of older adults against the mean latencies for younger adults. The simplicity and large proportion of variance accounted for by these models has led to the widespread use of Brinley plots over the years. However, as systematically tested here through eight cases of simulated data, it is clear that the Brinley technique is not well suited to either identify or display the underlying structure of datasets examining age-related differences in attentional control. Some of the problems with conventional Brinley plots can be resolved by using a modified Brinley plot that includes study-specific slopes linking trial types and a no-age-difference reference line. Multilevel models find all of the relevant effects, especially if applied to trial-level data, and have the advantage of incorporating study-level moderators that might account for slope heterogeneity. Ultimately, we encourage fellow cognitive aging researchers to access the code and data for this project on OSF (https://osf.io/zxus8/) and employ the use of multilevel models over Brinley plots.


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