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Dikker S, Brito NH, Dumas G. It takes a village: A multi-brain approach to studying multigenerational family communication. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 65:101330. [PMID: 38091864 PMCID: PMC10716709 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101330] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2023] [Revised: 08/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Grandparents play a critical role in child rearing across the globe. Yet, there is a shortage of neurobiological research examining the relationship between grandparents and their grandchildren. We employ multi-brain neurocomputational models to simulate how changes in neurophysiological processes in both development and healthy aging affect multigenerational inter-brain coupling - a neural marker that has been linked to a range of socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes. The simulations suggest that grandparent-child interactions may be paired with higher inter-brain coupling than parent-child interactions, raising the possibility that the former may be more advantageous under certain conditions. Critically, this enhancement of inter-brain coupling for grandparent-child interactions is more pronounced in tri-generational interactions that also include a parent, which may speak to findings that grandparent involvement in childrearing is most beneficial if the parent is also an active household member. Together, these findings underscore that a better understanding of the neurobiological basis of cross-generational interactions is vital, and that such knowledge can be helpful in guiding interventions that consider the whole family. We advocate for a community neuroscience approach in developmental social neuroscience to capture the diversity of child-caregiver relationships in real-world settings.
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Blott LM, Gowenlock AE, Kievit R, Nation K, Rodd JM. Studying Individual Differences in Language Comprehension: The Challenges of Item-Level Variability and Well-Matched Control Conditions. J Cogn 2023; 6:54. [PMID: 37692192 PMCID: PMC10487189 DOI: 10.5334/joc.317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/13/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Translating experimental tasks that were designed to investigate differences between conditions at the group-level into valid and reliable instruments to measure individual differences in cognitive skills is challenging (Hedge et al., 2018; Rouder et al., 2019; Rouder & Haaf, 2019). For psycholinguists, the additional complexities associated with selecting or constructing language stimuli, and the need for appropriate well-matched baseline conditions make this endeavour particularly complex. In a typical experiment, a process-of-interest (e.g. ambiguity resolution) is targeted by contrasting performance in an experimental condition with performance in a well-matched control condition. In many cases, careful between-condition matching precludes the same participant from encountering all stimulus items. Unfortunately, solutions that work for group-level research (e.g. constructing counterbalanced experiment versions) are inappropriate for individual-differences designs. As a case study, we report an ambiguity resolution experiment that illustrates the steps that researchers can take to address this issue and assess whether their measurement instrument is both valid and reliable. On the basis of our findings, we caution against the widespread approach of using datasets from group-level studies to also answer important questions about individual differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena M. Blott
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, UK
| | - Anna E. Gowenlock
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, UK
| | - Rogier Kievit
- Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Kate Nation
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK
| | - Jennifer M. Rodd
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, UK
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3
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Federmeier KD. Connecting and considering: Electrophysiology provides insights into comprehension. Psychophysiology 2022; 59:e13940. [PMID: 34520568 PMCID: PMC9009268 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13940] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2021] [Revised: 08/27/2021] [Accepted: 08/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The ability to rapidly and systematically access knowledge stored in long-term memory in response to incoming sensory information-that is, to derive meaning from the world-lies at the core of human cognition. Research using methods that can precisely track brain activity over time has begun to reveal the multiple cognitive and neural mechanisms that make this possible. In this article, I delineate how a process of connecting affords an effortless, continuous infusion of meaning into human perception. In a relatively invariant time window, uncovered through studies using the N400 component of the event-related potential, incoming sensory information naturally induces a graded landscape of activation across long-term semantic memory, creating what might be called "proto-concepts". Connecting can be (but is not always) followed by a process of further considering those activations, wherein a set of more attentionally demanding "active comprehension" mechanisms mediate the selection, augmentation, and transformation of the initial semantic representations. The result is a limited set of more stable bindings that can be arranged in time or space, revised as needed, and brought to awareness. With this research, we are coming closer to understanding how the human brain is able to fluidly link sensation to experience, to appreciate language sequences and event structures, and, sometimes, to even predict what might be coming up next.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kara D Federmeier
- Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience, and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, USA
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4
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Dikker S, Mech EN, Gwilliams L, West T, Dumas G, Federmeier KD. Exploring age-related changes in inter-brain synchrony during verbal communication. PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.plm.2022.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Semantic Processing in Healthy Aging and Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review of the N400 Differences. Brain Sci 2020; 10:brainsci10110770. [PMID: 33114051 PMCID: PMC7690742 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10110770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2020] [Revised: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 10/21/2020] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Semantic deficits are common in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These deficits notably impact the ability to understand words. In healthy aging, semantic knowledge increases but semantic processing (i.e., the ability to use this knowledge) may be impaired. This systematic review aimed to investigate semantic processing in healthy aging and AD through behavioral responses and the N400 brain event-related potential. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses suggested an overall decrease in accuracy and increase in response times in healthy elderly as compared to young adults, as well as in individuals with AD as compared to age-matched controls. The influence of semantic association, as measured by N400 effect amplitudes, appears smaller in healthy aging and even more so in AD patients. Thus, semantic processing differences may occur in both healthy and pathological aging. The establishment of norms of healthy aging for these outcomes that vary between normal and pathological aging could eventually help early detection of AD.
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6
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What's "left"? Hemispheric sensitivity to predictability and congruity during sentence reading by older adults. Neuropsychologia 2019; 133:107173. [PMID: 31430444 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2019] [Revised: 08/15/2019] [Accepted: 08/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
A number of studies have found that older adults' sentence processing tends not to be characterized by the prediction-related effects attested for young adults. Here, we further probed older adults' sensitivity to predictability and congruity by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as adults over age 60 read pairs of sentences, which ended with either the expected word, an unexpected word from the same semantic category, or an unexpected word from a different category. Half of the contexts were highly constraining. Consistent with patterns attested when older adults listened to these same materials (Federmeier et al., 2002), N400s, on average, were smaller to expected than to unexpected words, but did not show constraint-related reductions for unexpected words that shared features with the most predictable completion (an effect well-attested in young adults). This pattern resembles that seen in young adults for right-hemisphere-biased processing. To assess whether older adults retain young-like hemispheric asymmetries but recruit right hemisphere mechanisms more, we examined responses to the target words using visual half-field presentation. Whereas young adults show an asymmetric pattern, with prediction-related N400 amplitude reductions for left- but not right-hemisphere-initiated processing (Federmeier and Kutas, 1999b), older adults showed no reliable processing asymmetries and no evidence for prediction with left hemisphere-initiated presentation. The results suggest that left hemisphere mechanisms important for prediction during language processing are less efficacious in older adulthood.
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7
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Payne BR, Silcox JW. Aging, context processing, and comprehension. PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.plm.2019.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
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8
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Grindrod CM, Raizen AL. Age-related changes in processing speed modulate context use during idiomatic ambiguity resolution. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2018; 26:842-864. [PMID: 30355055 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2018.1537437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
The goal of the current study was to investigate whether age-related changes in processing speed, as indexed by verbal fluency, modulate context use in the resolution of ambiguous idioms (e.g., tie the knot). Younger and older adults completed a cross-modal priming experiment where they decided whether visual word targets were related in meaning to idiomatically or literally biased auditory sentence primes. Older adults with high verbal fluency, similar to younger adults, showed context-dependent facilitation in both biasing sentence contexts. In contrast, older adults with low verbal fluency did not show facilitation of literal meanings in literally biased sentence contexts, likely because they had difficultly inhibiting the dominant figurative meaning. These findings argue that age-related changes in context use during ambiguity resolution are restricted to older adults with reduced processing speed. The results also suggest that verbal fluency may reflect the speed in recruiting frontally-mediated selection mechanisms during ambiguity resolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher M Grindrod
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Maine , Orono , ME , USA
| | - Adina L Raizen
- Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana , IL , USA
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Payne BR, Federmeier KD. Contextual constraints on lexico-semantic processing in aging: Evidence from single-word event-related brain potentials. Brain Res 2018; 1687:117-128. [PMID: 29462609 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2018.02.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2017] [Revised: 02/14/2018] [Accepted: 02/15/2018] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
The current study reports the effects of accumulating contextual constraints on neural indices of lexico-semantic processing (i.e., effects of word frequency and orthographic neighborhood) as a function of normal aging. Event-related brain potentials were measured from a sample of older adults as they read sentences that were semantically congruent, provided only syntactic constraints (syntactic prose), or were random word strings. A linear mixed-effects modeling approach was used to probe the effects of accumulating contextual constraints on N400 responses to individual words. Like young adults in prior work, older adults exhibited a classic word position context effect on the N400 in congruent sentences, although the magnitude of the effect was reduced in older relative to younger adults. Moreover, by modeling single-word variability in N400 responses, we observed robust effects of orthographic neighborhood density that were larger in older adults than the young, and preserved effects word frequency. Importantly, in older adults, frequency effects were not modulated by accumulating contextual constraints, unlike in the young. Collectively, these findings indicate that older adults are less likely (or able) to use accumulating top-down contextual constraints, and therefore rely more strongly on bottom-up lexical features to guide semantic access of individual words during sentence comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brennan R Payne
- Department of Psychology, Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience, and Center on Aging, University of Utah, United States.
| | - Kara D Federmeier
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience Program, and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
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10
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Payne BR, Stine-Morrow EAL. The Effects of Home-Based Cognitive Training on Verbal Working Memory and Language Comprehension in Older Adulthood. Front Aging Neurosci 2017; 9:256. [PMID: 28848421 PMCID: PMC5550674 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2017.00256] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2016] [Accepted: 07/19/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Effective language understanding is crucial to maintaining cognitive abilities and learning new information through adulthood. However, age-related declines in working memory (WM) have a robust negative influence on multiple aspects of language comprehension and use, potentially limiting communicative competence. In the current study (N = 41), we examined the effects of a novel home-based computerized cognitive training program targeting verbal WM on changes in verbal WM and language comprehension in healthy older adults relative to an active component-control group. Participants in the WM training group showed non-linear improvements in performance on trained verbal WM tasks. Relative to the active control group, WM training participants also showed improvements on untrained verbal WM tasks and selective improvements across untrained dimensions of language, including sentence memory, verbal fluency, and comprehension of syntactically ambiguous sentences. Though the current study is preliminary in nature, it does provide initial promising evidence that WM training may influence components of language comprehension in adulthood and suggests that home-based training of WM may be a viable option for probing the scope and limits of cognitive plasticity in older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brennan R. Payne
- The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UrbanaIL, United States
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake CityUT, United States
| | - Elizabeth A. L. Stine-Morrow
- The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UrbanaIL, United States
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UrbanaIL, United States
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11
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Angwin AJ, Dissanayaka NNW, McMahon KL, Silburn PA, Copland DA. Lexical ambiguity resolution during sentence processing in Parkinson's disease: An event-related potential study. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0176281. [PMID: 28475582 PMCID: PMC5419504 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2016] [Accepted: 04/07/2017] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to investigate lexical ambiguity resolution during sentence processing in 16 people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 16 healthy controls. Sentences were presented word-by-word on computer screen, and participants were required to decide if a subsequent target word was related to the meaning of the sentence. The task consisted of related, unrelated and ambiguous trials. For the ambiguous trials, the sentence ended with an ambiguous word and the target was related to one of the meanings of that word, but not the one captured by the sentence context (e.g., 'He dug with the spade', Target 'ACE'). Both groups demonstrated slower reaction times and lower accuracy for the ambiguous condition relative to the unrelated condition, however accuracy was impacted by the ambiguous condition to a larger extent in the PD group. These results suggested that PD patients experience increased difficulties with contextual ambiguity resolution. The ERP results did not reflect increased ambiguity resolution difficulties in PD, as a similar N400 effect was evident for the unrelated and ambiguous condition in both groups. However, the magnitude of the N400 for these conditions was correlated with a measure of inhibition in the PD group, but not the control group. The ERP results suggest that semantic processing may be more compromised in PD patients with increased response inhibition deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony J. Angwin
- School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Nadeeka N. W. Dissanayaka
- University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Neurology Research Centre, Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Katie L. McMahon
- Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Peter A. Silburn
- Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - David A. Copland
- School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
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12
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Wiley J, George T, Rayner K. Baseball fans don't like lumpy batters: Influence of domain knowledge on the access of subordinate meanings. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2016; 71:1-11. [PMID: 27767384 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1251470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Two experiments investigated the effects of domain knowledge on the resolution of ambiguous words with dominant meanings related to baseball. When placed in a sentence context that strongly biased toward the non-baseball meaning (positive evidence), or excluded the baseball meaning (negative evidence), baseball experts had more difficulty than non-experts resolving the ambiguity. Sentence contexts containing positive evidence supported earlier resolution than did the negative evidence condition for both experts and non-experts. These experiments extend prior findings, and can be seen as support for the reordered access model of lexical access, where both prior knowledge and discourse context influence the availability of word meanings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Wiley
- a Department of Psychology , University of Illinois at Chicago , Chicago , IL , USA
| | - Tim George
- a Department of Psychology , University of Illinois at Chicago , Chicago , IL , USA
| | - Keith Rayner
- b Department of Psychology , University of Massachusetts , Amherst , MA , USA
- c Department of Psychology , University of California San Diego , La Jolla , CA , USA
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13
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Stites MC, Federmeier KD. Subsequent to suppression: Downstream comprehension consequences of noun/verb ambiguity in natural reading. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 2015; 41:1497-515. [PMID: 25961358 DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
We used eye tracking to investigate the downstream processing consequences of encountering noun/verb (NV) homographs (i.e., park) in semantically neutral but syntactically constraining contexts. Target words were followed by a prepositional phrase containing a noun that was plausible for only 1 meaning of the homograph. Replicating previous work, we found increased first fixation durations on NV homographs compared with unambiguous words, which persisted into the next sentence region. At the downstream noun, we found plausibility effects following ambiguous words that were correlated with the size of a reader's first fixation effect, suggesting that this effect reflects the recruitment of processing resources necessary to suppress the homograph's context-inappropriate meaning. Using these same stimuli, Lee and Federmeier (2012) found a sustained frontal negativity to the NV homographs, and, on the downstream noun, found a plausibility effect that was also positively correlated with the size of a reader's ambiguity effect. Together, these findings suggest that when only syntactic constraints are available, meaning selection recruits inhibitory mechanisms that can be measured in both first fixation slowdown and event-related potential ambiguity effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mallory C Stites
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
| | - Kara D Federmeier
- Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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14
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Wlotko EW, Federmeier KD. Time for prediction? The effect of presentation rate on predictive sentence comprehension during word-by-word reading. Cortex 2015; 68:20-32. [PMID: 25987437 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.03.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2014] [Revised: 01/26/2015] [Accepted: 03/15/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Predictive processing is a core component of normal language comprehension, but the brain may not engage in prediction to the same extent in all circumstances. This study investigates the effects of timing on anticipatory comprehension mechanisms. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read two-sentence mini-scenarios previously shown to elicit prediction-related effects for implausible items that are categorically related to expected items ('They wanted to make the hotel look more like a tropical resort. So along the driveway they planted rows of PALMS/PINES/TULIPS.'). The first sentence of every pair was presented in its entirety and was self-paced. The second sentence was presented word-by-word with a fixed stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of either 500 msec or 250 msec that was manipulated in a within-subjects blocked design. Amplitudes of the N400 ERP component are taken as a neural index of demands on semantic processing. At 500 msec SOA, implausible words related to predictable words elicited reduced N400 amplitudes compared to unrelated words (PINES vs TULIPS), replicating past studies. At 250 msec SOA this prediction-related semantic facilitation was diminished. Thus, timing is a factor in determining the extent to which anticipatory mechanisms are engaged. However, we found evidence that prediction can sometimes be engaged even under speeded presentation rates. Participants who first read sentences in the 250 msec SOA block showed no effect of semantic similarity for this SOA, although these same participants showed the effect in the second block with 500 msec SOA. However, participants who first read sentences in the 500 msec SOA block continued to show the N400 semantic similarity effect in the 250 msec SOA block. These findings add to results showing that the brain flexibly allocates resources to most effectively achieve comprehension goals given the current processing environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward W Wlotko
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA.
| | - Kara D Federmeier
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA; Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA; Program in Neurosciences, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA.
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15
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Wlotko EW, Federmeier KD, Kutas M. To predict or not to predict: age-related differences in the use of sentential context. Psychol Aging 2012; 27:975-88. [PMID: 22775363 DOI: 10.1037/a0029206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Older adults (as a group) are less likely than younger adults to engage in an anticipatory mode of language comprehension, failing to successfully preactivate information about upcoming likely (predictable) words during online processing. To assess (within one set of materials) age-related changes in the use of sentential context to affect processing of predictable words and in the consequences of violating predictions, event-related brain potentials were recorded while older adults read sentences that varied in sentence-level constraint and expectancy of sentence-final words. Strongly constraining sentences were completed by their most expected, predictable words and weakly constraining sentences were completed by their most expected, less predictable words. Both types of sentences also were completed by unexpected (but plausible) words. Older adults showed reduced and delayed effects of sentential context on processing predictable words. Whereas younger adults elicit an enhanced positive ERP (starting around 500 ms poststimulus onset, largest over prefrontal electrode sites), specifically for unexpected words that violate strong expectancies for a different word, older adults as a group did not exhibit this neural consequence of disconfirmed predictions. Older adults were instead more likely to show a left-lateralized frontal negativity for predictable items. This ERP response has been attributed to processes needed to revisit contextual material in forming an interpretation of message-level meaning, which may be more likely when anticipatory modes of comprehension are not engaged. Taken together, the results suggest that normal aging can affect allocation of resources to different cognitive and neural pathways in achieving comprehension outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward W Wlotko
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
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Lee CL, Federmeier KD. Ambiguity's aftermath: how age differences in resolving lexical ambiguity affect subsequent comprehension. Neuropsychologia 2012; 50:869-79. [PMID: 22321956 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.01.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2011] [Revised: 01/19/2012] [Accepted: 01/23/2012] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
When ambiguity resolution is difficult, younger adults recruit selection-related neural resources that older adults do not. To elucidate the nature of those resources and the consequences of their recruitment for subsequent comprehension, we embedded noun/verb homographs and matched unambiguous words in syntactically well-specified but semantically neutral sentences. Target words were followed by a prepositional phrase whose head noun was plausible for only one meaning of the homograph. Replicating past findings, younger but not older adults elicited sustained frontal negativity to homographs compared to unambiguous words. On the subsequent head nouns, younger adults showed plausibility effects in all conditions, attesting to successful meaning selection through suppression. In contrast, older adults showed smaller plausibility effects following ambiguous words and failed to show plausibility effects when the context picked out the homograph's non-dominant meaning (i.e., they did not suppress the contextually-irrelevant dominant meaning). Meaning suppression processes, reflected in the frontal negativity, thus become less available with age, with consequences for subsequent comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chia-lin Lee
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL 61820, United States.
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