1
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Gunderson LPK, Brice K, Parra M, Engelhart AS, Centanni TM. A novel paradigm for measuring prediction abilities in a rat model using a speech-sound discrimination task. Behav Brain Res 2024; 472:115143. [PMID: 38986956 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2024] [Revised: 06/17/2024] [Accepted: 07/06/2024] [Indexed: 07/12/2024]
Abstract
The ability to predict and respond to upcoming stimuli is a critical skill for all animals, including humans. Prediction operates largely below conscious awareness to allow an individual to recall previously encountered stimuli and prepare an appropriate response, especially in language. The ability to predict upcoming words within typical speech patterns aids fluent comprehension, as conversational speech occurs quickly. Individuals with certain neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and dyslexia have deficits in their ability to generate and use predictions. Rodent models are often used to investigate specific aspects of these disorders, but there is no existing behavioral paradigm that can assess prediction capabilities with complex stimuli like speech sounds. Thus, the present study modified an existing rapid speech sound discrimination paradigm to assess whether rats can form predictions of upcoming speech sound stimuli and utilize them to improve task performance. We replicated prior work showing that rats can discriminate between speech sounds presented at rapid rates. We also saw that rats responded exclusively to the target at slow speeds but began responding to the predictive cue in anticipation of the target as the speed increased, suggesting that they learned the predictive value of the cue and adjusted their behavior accordingly. This prediction task will be useful in assessing prediction deficits in rat models of various neurodevelopmental disorders through the manipulation of both genetic and environmental factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Logun P K Gunderson
- Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, United States
| | - Kelly Brice
- Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, United States
| | - Monica Parra
- Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, United States
| | - Abby S Engelhart
- Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, United States
| | - Tracy M Centanni
- Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, United States; Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, United States.
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2
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Lorusso ML, Toraldo A. Revisiting Multifactor Models of Dyslexia: Do They Fit Empirical Data and What Are Their Implications for Intervention? Brain Sci 2023; 13:brainsci13020328. [PMID: 36831871 PMCID: PMC9954758 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13020328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2023] [Revised: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/11/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia can be viewed as the result of the effects of single deficits or multiple deficits. This study presents a test of the applicability of a multifactor-interactive model (MFi-M) with a preliminary set of five variables corresponding to different neuropsychological functions involved in the reading process. The model has been tested on a sample of 55 school-age children with developmental dyslexia. The results show that the data fit a model in which each variable contributes to the reading ability in a non-additive but rather interactive way. These findings constitute a preliminary validation of the plausibility of the MFi-M, and encourage further research to add relevant factors and specify their relative weights. It is further discussed how subtype-based intervention approaches can be a suitable and advantageous framework for clinical intervention in a MFi-M perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Luisa Lorusso
- Scientific Institute IRCCS E. Medea, 23842 Bosisio Parini, Italy
- Correspondence:
| | - Alessio Toraldo
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
- Milan Center for Neuroscience, NeuroMI, 20126 Milan, Italy
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3
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Garrido Rodriguez G, Norcliffe E, Brown P, Huettig F, Levinson SC. Anticipatory Processing in a Verb-Initial Mayan Language: Eye-Tracking Evidence During Sentence Comprehension in Tseltal. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13292. [PMID: 36652288 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Revised: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
We present a visual world eye-tracking study on Tseltal (a Mayan language) and investigate whether verbal information can be used to anticipate an upcoming referent. Basic word order in transitive sentences in Tseltal is Verb-Object-Subject (VOS). The verb is usually encountered first, making argument structure and syntactic information available at the outset, which should facilitate anticipation of the post-verbal arguments. Tseltal speakers listened to verb-initial sentences with either an object-predictive verb (e.g., "eat") or a general verb (e.g., "look for") (e.g., "Ya slo'/sle ta stukel on te kereme," Is eating/is looking (for) by himself the avocado the boy/ "The boy is eating/is looking (for) an avocado by himself") while seeing a visual display showing one potential referent (e.g., avocado) and three distractors (e.g., bag, toy car, coffee grinder). We manipulated verb type (predictive vs. general) and recorded participants' eye movements while they listened and inspected the visual scene. Participants' fixations to the target referent were analyzed using multilevel logistic regression models. Shortly after hearing the predictive verb, participants fixated the target object before it was mentioned. In contrast, when the verb was general, fixations to the target only started to increase once the object was heard. Our results suggest that Tseltal hearers pre-activate semantic features of the grammatical object prior to its linguistic expression. This provides evidence from a verb-initial language for online incremental semantic interpretation and anticipatory processing during language comprehension. These processes are comparable to the ones identified in subject-initial languages, which is consistent with the notion that different languages follow similar universal processing principles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriela Garrido Rodriguez
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne.,ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, The University of Melbourne
| | | | - Penelope Brown
- Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
| | - Falk Huettig
- Psychology of Language Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen.,Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen
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4
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Angulo-Chavira AQ, Castellón-Flores AM, Barrón-Martínez JB, Arias-Trejo N. Word prediction using closely and moderately related verbs in Down syndrome. Front Psychol 2022; 13:934826. [PMID: 36262448 PMCID: PMC9574260 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.934826] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
People with Down syndrome (DS) have several difficulties in language learning, and one of the areas most affected is language production. Theoretical frameworks argue that prediction depends on the production system. Yet, people with DS can predict upcoming nouns using semantically related verbs. Possibly, prediction skills in people with DS are driven by their associative mechanism rather than by the prediction mechanism based on the production system. This study explores prediction mechanisms in people with DS and their relationship with production skills. Three groups were evaluated in a preferential-looking task: young adults, children with DS, and a typically developing control group paired by sex and mental age. Participants saw two images, a target and a distractor. They also heard a sentence in one of the three conditions: with a verb that was closely related to the object (e.g., "The woman read the book"), with a verb that was moderately related to the object (e.g., "My uncle waited for the bus"), or with a verb that was unrelated to the object (e.g., "My sister threw a broom"). Their productive vocabulary was then measured. In the young adult and typically developing groups, the results showed prediction in sentences with highly and moderately related verbs. Participants with DS, however, showed prediction skills only in the highly related context. There was no influence of chronological age, mental age, or production on prediction skills. These results indicate that people with DS base prediction mainly on associative mechanisms and they have difficulty in generating top-down predictions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Armando Q. Angulo-Chavira
- Laboratorio de Psicolingüística, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Alejandra M. Castellón-Flores
- Laboratorio de Psicolingüística, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Julia B. Barrón-Martínez
- Facultad de Estudios Superiores Zaragoza, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Natalia Arias-Trejo
- Laboratorio de Psicolingüística, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
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5
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Beach SD, Lim SJ, Cardenas-Iniguez C, Eddy MD, Gabrieli JDE, Perrachione TK. Electrophysiological correlates of perceptual prediction error are attenuated in dyslexia. Neuropsychologia 2022; 165:108091. [PMID: 34801517 PMCID: PMC8807066 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2021] [Revised: 10/09/2021] [Accepted: 11/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
A perceptual adaptation deficit often accompanies reading difficulty in dyslexia, manifesting in poor perceptual learning of consistent stimuli and reduced neurophysiological adaptation to stimulus repetition. However, it is not known how adaptation deficits relate to differences in feedforward or feedback processes in the brain. Here we used electroencephalography (EEG) to interrogate the feedforward and feedback contributions to neural adaptation as adults with and without dyslexia viewed pairs of faces and words in a paradigm that manipulated whether there was a high probability of stimulus repetition versus a high probability of stimulus change. We measured three neural dependent variables: expectation (the difference between prestimulus EEG power with and without the expectation of stimulus repetition), feedforward repetition (the difference between event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by an expected change and an unexpected repetition), and feedback-mediated prediction error (the difference between ERPs evoked by an unexpected change and an expected repetition). Expectation significantly modulated prestimulus theta- and alpha-band EEG in both groups. Unexpected repetitions of words, but not faces, also led to significant feedforward repetition effects in the ERPs of both groups. However, neural prediction error when an unexpected change occurred instead of an expected repetition was significantly weaker in dyslexia than the control group for both faces and words. These results suggest that the neural and perceptual adaptation deficits observed in dyslexia reflect the failure to effectively integrate perceptual predictions with feedforward sensory processing. In addition to reducing perceptual efficiency, the attenuation of neural prediction error signals would also be deleterious to the wide range of perceptual and procedural learning abilities that are critical for developing accurate and fluent reading skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara D. Beach
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A.,Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, 260 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 U.S.A
| | - Sung-Joo Lim
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 U.S.A
| | - Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A
| | - Marianna D. Eddy
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A
| | - John D. E. Gabrieli
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A
| | - Tyler K. Perrachione
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A.,Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 U.S.A.,Correspondence: Tyler K. Perrachione, Ph.D., Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215, Phone: +1.617.358.7410,
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6
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Stella M, Engelhardt PE. Comprehension and Eye Movements in the Processing of Subject- and Object-Relative Clauses: Evidence from Dyslexia and Individual Differences. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11070915. [PMID: 34356149 PMCID: PMC8307189 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11070915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2021] [Revised: 06/29/2021] [Accepted: 07/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
In this study, we examined eye movements and comprehension in sentences containing a relative clause. To date, few studies have focused on syntactic processing in dyslexia and so one goal of the study is to contribute to this gap in the experimental literature. A second goal is to contribute to theoretical psycholinguistic debate concerning the cause and the location of the processing difficulty associated with object-relative clauses. We compared dyslexic readers (n = 50) to a group of non-dyslexic controls (n = 50). We also assessed two key individual differences variables (working memory and verbal intelligence), which have been theorised to impact reading times and comprehension of subject- and object-relative clauses. The results showed that dyslexics and controls had similar comprehension accuracy. However, reading times showed participants with dyslexia spent significantly longer reading the sentences compared to controls (i.e., a main effect of dyslexia). In general, sentence type did not interact with dyslexia status. With respect to individual differences and the theoretical debate, we found that processing difficulty between the subject and object relatives was no longer significant when individual differences in working memory were controlled. Thus, our findings support theories, which assume that working memory demands are responsible for the processing difficulty incurred by (1) individuals with dyslexia and (2) object-relative clauses as compared to subject relative clauses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marianna Stella
- School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Suffolk, Ipswich IP4 1QJ, UK
- Correspondence:
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7
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Engelhardt PE, Yuen MKY, Kenning EA, Filipovic L. Are Linguistic Prediction Deficits Characteristic of Adults with Dyslexia? Brain Sci 2021; 11:59. [PMID: 33418904 PMCID: PMC7825117 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11010059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2020] [Revised: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 12/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals with dyslexia show deficits in phonological abilities, rapid automatized naming, short-term/working memory, processing speed, and some aspects of sensory and visual processing. There is currently one report in the literature that individuals with dyslexia also show impairments in linguistic prediction. The current study sought to investigate prediction in language processing in dyslexia. Forty-one adults with dyslexia and 43 typically-developing controls participated. In the experiment, participants made speeded-acceptability judgements in sentences with word final cloze manipulations. The final word was a high-cloze probability word, a low-cloze probability word, or a semantically anomalous word. Reaction time from the onset of the final word to participants' response was recorded. Results indicated that individuals with dyslexia showed longer reaction times, and crucially, they showed clear differences from controls in low predictability sentences, which is consistent with deficits in linguistic prediction. Conclusions focus on the mechanism supporting prediction in language comprehension and possible reasons why individuals with dyslexia show less prediction.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Elise A. Kenning
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR7 7TJ, UK;
| | - Luna Filipovic
- School of Politics, Philosophy, Language, and Communication Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK;
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8
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Pagliarini E, Scocchia L, Granocchio E, Sarti D, Stucchi N, Guasti MT. Timing anticipation in adults and children with Developmental Dyslexia: evidence of an inefficient mechanism. Sci Rep 2020; 10:17519. [PMID: 33060637 PMCID: PMC7562876 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-73435-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Developmental Dyslexia (DD) is a learning disorder characterized by specific difficulties in learning to read accurately and fluently, which has been generally explained in terms of phonological deficits. Recent research has shown that individuals with DD experience timing difficulties in the domains of language, music perception and motor control, probably due to impaired rhythmic perception, suggesting that timing deficit might be a key underlying factor to explain such a variety of difficulties. The present work presents two experiments aimed at assessing the anticipatory ability on a given rhythm of 9-year old Italian children and Italian adults with and without DD. Both adults and children with DD displayed a greater timing error and were more variable than controls in high predictable stimuli. No difference between participants with and without DD was found in the control condition, in which the uncertain timing of the beat did not permit the extraction of regularities. These results suggest that both children and adults with DD are unable to exploit temporal regularities to efficiently anticipate the next sensory event whereas control participants easily are. By showing that the anticipatory timing system of individuals with Developmental Dyslexia appears affected, this study adds another piece of evidence to the multifaceted reality of Developmental Dyslexia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Pagliarini
- DiSLL Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via E. Vendramini, 13, 35137, Padua, Italy.
| | - Lisa Scocchia
- Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1, 20126, Milan, Italy
| | - Elisa Granocchio
- Developmental Neurology Unit, Fondazione I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Via Giovanni Celoria, 11, 20133, Milan, Italy
| | - Daniela Sarti
- Developmental Neurology Unit, Fondazione I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Via Giovanni Celoria, 11, 20133, Milan, Italy
| | - Natale Stucchi
- Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1, 20126, Milan, Italy
| | - Maria Teresa Guasti
- Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1, 20126, Milan, Italy
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9
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Literacy Advantages Beyond Reading: Prediction of Spoken Language. Trends Cogn Sci 2020; 23:464-475. [PMID: 31097411 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.03.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Revised: 03/28/2019] [Accepted: 03/28/2019] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Literacy has many obvious benefits: it exposes the reader to a wealth of new information and enhances syntactic knowledge. However, we argue that literacy has an additional, often overlooked, benefit: it enhances people's ability to predict spoken language thereby aiding comprehension. Readers are under pressure to process information more quickly than listeners and reading provides excellent conditions - in particular, a stable environment - for training the predictive system. It also leads to increased awareness of words as linguistic units and to more fine-grained phonological and additional orthographic representations, which sharpen lexical representations and facilitate the retrieval of predicted representations. Thus, reading trains core processes and representations involved in language prediction that are common to both reading and listening.
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10
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Carter BT, Luke SG. Best practices in eye tracking research. Int J Psychophysiol 2020; 155:49-62. [PMID: 32504653 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2019] [Revised: 05/26/2020] [Accepted: 05/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
This guide describes best practices in using eye tracking technology for research in a variety of disciplines. A basic outline of the anatomy and physiology of the eyes and of eye movements is provided, along with a description of the sorts of research questions eye tracking can address. We then explain how eye tracking technology works and what sorts of data it generates, and provide guidance on how to select and use an eye tracker as well as selecting appropriate eye tracking measures. Challenges to the validity of eye tracking studies are described, along with recommendations for overcoming these challenges. We then outline correct reporting standards for eye tracking studies.
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11
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Ullman MT, Earle FS, Walenski M, Janacsek K. The Neurocognition of Developmental Disorders of Language. Annu Rev Psychol 2020; 71:389-417. [DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Developmental disorders of language include developmental language disorder, dyslexia, and motor-speech disorders such as articulation disorder and stuttering. These disorders have generally been explained by accounts that focus on their behavioral rather than neural characteristics; their processing rather than learning impairments; and each disorder separately rather than together, despite their commonalities and comorbidities. Here we update and review a unifying neurocognitive account—the Procedural circuit Deficit Hypothesis (PDH). The PDH posits that abnormalities of brain structures underlying procedural memory (learning and memory that rely on the basal ganglia and associated circuitry) can explain numerous brain and behavioral characteristics across learning and processing, in multiple disorders, including both commonalities and differences. We describe procedural memory, examine its role in various aspects of language, and then present the PDH and relevant evidence across language-related disorders. The PDH has substantial explanatory power, and both basic research and translational implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael T. Ullman
- Brain and Language Lab, Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA
| | - F. Sayako Earle
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19713, USA
| | - Matthew Walenski
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
| | - Karolina Janacsek
- Institute of Psychology, Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE), H-1071 Budapest, Hungary
- Brain, Memory, and Language Lab; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
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12
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Arias-Trejo N, Angulo-Chavira AQ, Barrón-Martínez JB. Verb-mediated anticipatory eye movements in people with Down syndrome. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2019; 54:756-766. [PMID: 30983122 DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12473] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2017] [Revised: 03/10/2019] [Accepted: 03/23/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Children and adults with neurotypical development employ linguistic information to predict and anticipate information. Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) have weaknesses in language production and the domain of grammar but relative strengths in language comprehension and the domain of semantics. What is not clear is the extent to which they can use linguistic information, as it unfolds in real time, to anticipate upcoming information correctly. AIMS To investigate whether children and young people with DS employ verb information to predict and anticipate upcoming linguistic information. METHODS & PROCEDURES A preferential looking task was performed, using an eye-tracker, with children and teenagers with DS and a typically developing (TD) control group matched by sex and mental age (average = 5.48 years). In each of 10 trials, two images were presented, a target and a distractor, while participants heard a phrase that contained a semantically informative verb (e.g., 'eat') or an uninformative verb (e.g., 'see'). OUTCOMES & RESULTS Both DS and TD control participants could anticipate the target upon hearing an informative verb, and prediction skills were positively correlated with mental age in those with DS. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS This work demonstrates for the first time that children and teenagers with DS can predict linguistic information based on semantic cues from verbs, and that sentence processing is driven by predictive relationships between verbs and arguments, as in children with typical development. Clinicians can take advantage of these prediction skills, using them in therapy to support weaker areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalia Arias-Trejo
- Laboratorio de Psicolingüística, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | | | - Julia B Barrón-Martínez
- Laboratorio de Psicolingüística, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
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13
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Predicting (variability of) context effects in language comprehension. JOURNAL OF CULTURAL COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s41809-019-00025-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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14
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Ng S, Payne BR, Stine-Morrow EA, Federmeier KD. How struggling adult readers use contextual information when comprehending speech: Evidence from event-related potentials. Int J Psychophysiol 2018; 125:1-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2018.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2017] [Revised: 01/26/2018] [Accepted: 01/28/2018] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
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15
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Mani N, Daum MM, Huettig F. “Proactive” in many ways: Developmental evidence for a dynamic pluralistic approach to prediction. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2016; 69:2189-201. [DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2015.1111395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
The anticipation of the forthcoming behaviour of social interaction partners is a useful ability supporting interaction and communication between social partners. Associations and prediction based on the production system (in line with views that listeners use the production system covertly to anticipate what the other person might be likely to say) are two potential factors, which have been proposed to be involved in anticipatory language processing. We examined the influence of both factors on the degree to which listeners predict upcoming linguistic input. Are listeners more likely to predict book as an appropriate continuation of the sentence “The boy reads a”, based on the strength of the association between the words read and book (strong association) and read and letter (weak association)? Do more proficient producers predict more? What is the interplay of these two influences on prediction? The results suggest that associations influence language-mediated anticipatory eye gaze in two-year-olds and adults only when two thematically appropriate target objects compete for overt attention but not when these objects are presented separately. Furthermore, children's prediction abilities are strongly related to their language production skills when appropriate target objects are presented separately but not when presented together. Both influences on prediction in language processing thus appear to be context dependent. We conclude that multiple factors simultaneously influence listeners’ anticipation of upcoming linguistic input and that only such a dynamic approach to prediction can capture listeners’ prowess at predictive language processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nivedita Mani
- Psychology of Language Research Group, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Moritz M Daum
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Falk Huettig
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychology of Language, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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16
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Farmer TA, Fine AB, Misyak JB, Christiansen MH. Reading span task performance, linguistic experience, and the processing of unexpected syntactic events. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2016; 70:413-433. [PMID: 26652283 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2015.1131310] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Accounts of individual differences in online language processing ability often focus on the explanatory utility of verbal working memory, as measured by reading span tasks. Although variability in reading span task performance likely reflects individual differences in multiple underlying traits, skills, and processes, accumulating evidence suggests that reading span scores also reflect variability in the linguistic experiences of an individual. Here, through an individual differences approach, we first demonstrate that reading span scores correlate significantly with measures of the amount of experience an individual has had with written language (gauged by measures that provide "proxy estimates" of print exposure). We then explore the relationship between reading span scores and online language processing ability. Individuals with higher reading spans demonstrated greater sensitivity to violations of statistical regularities found in natural language-as evinced by higher reading times (RTs) on the disambiguating region of garden-path sentences-relative to their lower span counterparts. This result held after statistically controlling for individual differences in a non-linguistic operation span task. Taken together, these results suggest that accounts of individual differences in sentence processing can benefit from a stronger focus on experiential factors, especially when considered in relation to variability in perceptual and learning abilities that influence the amount of benefit gleaned from such experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas A Farmer
- a Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences , University of Iowa , Iowa City , IA , USA.,b Department of Linguistics , University of Iowa , Iowa City , IA , USA
| | - Alex B Fine
- c Department of Psychology , The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Jerusalem , Israel
| | - Jennifer B Misyak
- d Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School , University of Warwick , Coventry , UK
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Kapnoula EC, McMurray B. Training alters the resolution of lexical interference: Evidence for plasticity of competition and inhibition. J Exp Psychol Gen 2016; 145:8-30. [PMID: 26709587 PMCID: PMC4888904 DOI: 10.1037/xge0000123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Language learning is generally described as a problem of acquiring new information (e.g., new words). However, equally important are changes in how the system processes known information. For example, a wealth of studies has suggested dramatic changes over development in how efficiently children recognize familiar words, but it is unknown what kind of experience-dependent mechanisms of plasticity give rise to such changes in real-time processing. We examined the plasticity of the language processing system by testing whether a fundamental aspect of spoken word recognition, lexical interference, can be altered by experience. Adult participants were trained on a set of familiar words over a series of 4 tasks. In the high-competition (HC) condition, tasks were designed to encourage coactivation of similar words (e.g., net and neck) and to require listeners to resolve this competition. Tasks were similar in the low-competition (LC) condition, but did not enhance this competition. Immediately after training, interlexical interference was tested using a visual world paradigm task. Participants in the HC group resolved interference to a fuller degree than those in the LC group, demonstrating that experience can shape the way competition between words is resolved. TRACE simulations showed that the observed late differences in the pattern of interference resolution can be attributed to differences in the strength of lexical inhibition. These findings inform cognitive models in many domains that involve competition/interference processes, and suggest an experience-dependent mechanism of plasticity that may underlie longer term changes in processing efficiency associated with both typical and atypical development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Efthymia C Kapnoula
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Delta Center, University of Iowa
| | - Bob McMurray
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Delta Center, University of Iowa
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Huettig F. Four central questions about prediction in language processing. Brain Res 2015; 1626:118-35. [PMID: 25708148 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.02.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 139] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2014] [Revised: 02/05/2015] [Accepted: 02/07/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The notion that prediction is a fundamental principle of human information processing has been en vogue over recent years. The investigation of language processing may be particularly illuminating for testing this claim. Linguists traditionally have argued prediction plays only a minor role during language understanding because of the vast possibilities available to the language user as each word is encountered. In the present review I consider four central questions of anticipatory language processing: Why (i.e. what is the function of prediction in language processing)? What (i.e. what are the cues used to predict up-coming linguistic information and what type of representations are predicted)? How (what mechanisms are involved in predictive language processing and what is the role of possible mediating factors such as working memory)? When (i.e. do individuals always predict up-coming input during language processing)? I propose that prediction occurs via a set of diverse PACS (production-, association-, combinatorial-, and simulation-based prediction) mechanisms which are minimally required for a comprehensive account of predictive language processing. Models of anticipatory language processing must be revised to take multiple mechanisms, mediating factors, and situational context into account. Finally, I conjecture that the evidence considered here is consistent with the notion that prediction is an important aspect but not a fundamental principle of language processing. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Prediction and Attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Falk Huettig
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, P.O. Box 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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