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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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2
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Li J, Ou J, Xiang M. Context-specific effects of violated expectations: ERP evidence. Cognition 2023; 241:105628. [PMID: 37801750 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105628] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2022] [Revised: 09/21/2023] [Accepted: 09/22/2023] [Indexed: 10/08/2023]
Abstract
A complete understanding of the predictive processing effect in sentence comprehension needs to understand both the facilitation effect of successful prediction and the cost associated with disconfirmed predictions. The current study compares the predictive processing effect across two types of contexts in Mandarin Chinese: the classifier-noun vs. verb-noun phrases, when controlling for the degree of contextual constraints and cloze probability of the target nouns across the two contexts. The two contexts showed similar N400 patterns for expected target nouns, indicative of an identical facilitation effect of confirmed contextual expectation. But in the post-N400 time window, the processing cost associated with the unexpected words differed between the two contexts. Additional differences between the two contexts were also revealed by the neural oscillation patterns obtained prior to the target noun. The differences between the classifier vs. verb contexts shed new light on the revision mechanism that deals with disconfirmed expectations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaxuan Li
- Department of Language Science, University of California, Irvine, USA.
| | - Jinghua Ou
- Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago, USA
| | - Ming Xiang
- Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago, USA.
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3
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Jongman SR, Copeland A, Xu Y, Payne BR, Federmeier KD. Older Adults Show Intraindividual Variation in the Use of Predictive Processing. Exp Aging Res 2023; 49:433-456. [PMID: 36326075 PMCID: PMC10154438 DOI: 10.1080/0361073x.2022.2137358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Accepted: 10/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The use of prediction can aid language comprehension through preactivation of relevant word features. However, predictions can be wrong, and it has been proposed that resolving the mismatch between the predicted and presented item requires cognitive resources. Older adults tend not to predict and instead rely more on passive comprehension. Here, we tested, using an intraindividual approach, whether older adults consistently use this less demanding processing strategy while reading or whether they attempt to predict on some trials. METHODS We used a cross-task conflict paradigm. Younger and older participants self-paced to read sentences that ended with either an expected or unexpected word. Each sentence was then followed by a flanker stimulus that could be congruent or incongruent. We examined responses within and across the two tasks. RESULTS Unexpected words were in general read as quickly as expected words, indicating that typical processing of these words was similar. However, for both younger and older adults, there was a greater proportion of very slow trials for unexpected words, revealing different processing on a subset of trials. Critically, in older adults, these slowly read unexpected words engaged control, as seen in speeded responses to incongruent flanker stimuli. CONCLUSION Using a cross-task conflict paradigm, we showed that older adults are able to predict and engage cognitive resources to cope with prediction violations, but do not opt to use these processes consistently.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suzanne R. Jongman
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Allyson Copeland
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah USA
| | - Yaqi Xu
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Brennan R. Payne
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah USA
| | - Kara D. Federmeier
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- Program in Neuroscience, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
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4
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Cocquyt EM, Depuydt E, Santens P, van Mierlo P, Duyck W, Szmalec A, De Letter M. Effects of Healthy Aging and Gender on the Electrophysiological Correlates of Semantic Sentence Comprehension: The Development of Dutch Normative Data. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:1694-1717. [PMID: 37093923 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The clinical use of event-related potentials in patients with language disorders is increasingly acknowledged. For this purpose, normative data should be available. Within this context, healthy aging and gender effects on the electrophysiological correlates of semantic sentence comprehension were investigated. METHOD One hundred and ten healthy subjects (55 men and 55 women), divided among three age groups (young, middle aged, and elderly), performed a semantic sentence congruity task in the visual modality during electroencephalographic recording. RESULTS The early visual complex was affected by increasing age as shown by smaller P2 amplitudes in the elderly compared to the young. Moreover, the N400 effect in the elderly was smaller than in the young and was delayed compared to latency measures in both middle-aged and young subjects. The topography of age-related amplitude changes of the N400 effect appeared to be gender specific. The late positive complex effect was increased at frontal electrode sites from middle age on, but this was not statistically significant. No gender effects were detected regarding the early P1, N1, and P2, or the late positive complex effect. CONCLUSION Especially aging effects were found during semantic sentence comprehension, and this from the level of perceptual processing on. Normative data are now available for clinical use.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Emma Depuydt
- Medical Image and Signal Processing Group, Department of Electronics and Information Systems, Ghent University, Belgium
| | | | - Pieter van Mierlo
- Medical Image and Signal Processing Group, Department of Electronics and Information Systems, Ghent University, Belgium
| | - Wouter Duyck
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium
| | - Arnaud Szmalec
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Miet De Letter
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium
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5
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Milburn E, Dickey MW, Warren T, Hayes R. Increased reliance on world knowledge during language comprehension in healthy aging: evidence from verb-argument prediction. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2023; 30:1-33. [PMID: 34353231 PMCID: PMC8818061 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2021.1962791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2020] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive aging negatively impacts language comprehension performance. . However, there is evidence that older adults skillfully use linguistic context and their crystallized world knowledge to offset age-related changes that negatively impact comprehension. Two visual-world paradigm experiments examined how aging changes verb-argument prediction, a comprehension process that relies on world knowledge but has rarely been examined in the cognitive-aging literature. Older adults did not differ from younger adults in their activation of an upcoming likely verb argument, particularly when cued by a semantically-rich agent+verb combination (Experiment 1). However, older adults showed elevated activation of previously-mentioned agents (Experiment 1) and of unlikely but verb-congruent referents (Experiment 2). This is novel evidence that older adults exploit semantic context and world knowledge during comprehension to successfully activate upcoming referents. However, older adults also show elevated activation of irrelevant information, consistent with previous findings demonstrating that older adults may experience greater proactive interference and competition from task-irrelevant information.
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6
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An S, Oh SJ, Jun SB, Sung JE. Aging-Related Dissociation of Spatial and Temporal N400 in Sentence-Level Semantic Processing: Evidence From Source Analyses. Front Aging Neurosci 2022; 14:877235. [PMID: 35754967 PMCID: PMC9226558 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.877235] [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: 02/16/2022] [Accepted: 05/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Age-related differences in sentence-level lexical-semantic processes have been extensively studied, based on the N400 component of event-related potential (ERP). However, there is still a lack of understanding in this regard at the brain-region level. This study explores aging effects on sentence-level semantic processing by comparing the characteristics of the N400 ERP component and brain engagement patterns within individual N400 time windows for two age groups (16 younger adults aged 24.38 ± 3.88 years and 15 older adults aged 67.00 ± 5.04 years) during sentence processing with different plausibility conditions. Our results demonstrated that the N400 effect according to the plausibility condition occurred in different temporal windows in the two age groups, with a delay in the older group. Moreover, it was identified that there was a distinct difference between the groups in terms of the source location of the condition-dependent N400 effect even though no significant difference was derived in its magnitude itself at the sensor-level. Interestingly, the source analysis results indicated that the two groups involved different functional networks to resolve the same semantic violations: the younger group activated the regions corresponding to the typical lexical-semantic network more, whereas the older group recruited the regions belonging to the multiple-demand network more. The findings of this study could be used as a basis for understanding the aging brain in a linguistic context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sora An
- Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Se Jin Oh
- Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Sang Beom Jun
- Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea.,Graduate Program in Smart Factory, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Jee Eun Sung
- Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea
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7
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Jongman SR, Federmeier KD. Age-related Changes in the Structure and Dynamics of the Semantic Network. LANGUAGE, COGNITION AND NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 37:805-819. [PMID: 36262380 PMCID: PMC9576195 DOI: 10.1080/23273798.2021.2019286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2021] [Accepted: 12/08/2021] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Normal aging has variable effects on language comprehension, perhaps because comprehension mechanisms vary in their dependence on network structure versus network dynamics. To test claims that processing dynamics are more affected by age than structure, we used EEG to measure and compare the impact of neighborhood size, a core measure of the structure of the lexico-semantic network, and repetition, a simple measure of processing dynamics, on single word processing. Older adults showed robust effects of neighborhood size on the N400, comparable to those elicited by young adults, but reduced effects of repetition. Furthermore, older adults with greater verbal fluency, print exposure, and reading comprehension showed greater repetition effects, suggesting some older adults can maintain processing dynamics that are similar to those of young adults. Thus, the organizational structure of the semantic network seems stable across normal aging, but (some) older adults may struggle to adjust activation states within that network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suzanne R. Jongman
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Kara D. Federmeier
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- Program in Neuroscience, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
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8
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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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9
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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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10
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Markiewicz R, Segaert K, Mazaheri A. How the healthy ageing brain supports semantic binding during language comprehension. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 54:7899-7917. [PMID: 34779069 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15525] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2021] [Revised: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/05/2021] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Semantic binding refers to constructing complex meaning based on elementary building blocks. Using electroencephalography (EEG), we investigated the age-related changes in modulations of oscillatory brain activity supporting lexical retrieval and semantic binding. Young and older adult participants were visually presented two-word phrases, which for the first word revealed a lexical retrieval signature (e.g., swift vs. swrfeq) and for the second word revealed a semantic binding signature (e.g., horse in a semantic binding "swift horse" vs. no binding "swrfeq horse" context). The oscillatory brain activity associated with lexical retrieval as well as semantic binding significantly differed between healthy older and young adults. Specifically for lexical retrieval, we found that different age groups exhibited opposite patterns of theta and alpha modulation, which as a combined picture suggest that lexical retrieval is associated with different and delayed signatures in older compared with young adults. For semantic binding, in young adults, we found a signature in the low-beta range centred around the target word onset (i.e., a smaller low-beta increase for binding relative to no binding), whereas in healthy older adults, we found an opposite binding signature about ~500 ms later in the low- and high-beta range (i.e., a smaller low- and high-beta decrease for binding relative to no binding). The novel finding of a different and delayed oscillatory signature for semantic binding in healthy older adults reflects that the integration of word meaning into the semantic context takes longer and relies on different mechanisms in healthy older compared with young adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roksana Markiewicz
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Katrien Segaert
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Centre for Developmental Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Ali Mazaheri
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
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11
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Ferreira F, Qiu Z. Predicting syntactic structure. Brain Res 2021; 1770:147632. [PMID: 34453937 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147632] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2021] [Revised: 08/20/2021] [Accepted: 08/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Prediction in language processing has been a topic of major interest in psycholinguistics for at least the last two decades, but most investigations focus on semantic rather than syntactic prediction. This review begins with a discussion of some influential models of parsing which assume that comprehenders have the ability to anticipate syntactic nodes, beginning with left-corner parsers and the garden-path model and ending with current information-theoretic approaches that emphasize online probabilistic prediction. We then turn to evidence for the prediction of specific syntactic forms, including coordinate clauses and noun phrases, verb arguments, and individual nouns, as well as studies that use morphosyntactic constraints to assess whether a specific semantic prediction has been made. The last section considers the implications of syntactic prediction for theories of language architecture and describes four avenues for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Zhuang Qiu
- University of California, Davis, United States.
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12
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Dave S, Brothers T, Hoversten LJ, Traxler MJ, Swaab TY. Cognitive control mediates age-related changes in flexible anticipatory processing during listening comprehension. Brain Res 2021; 1768:147573. [PMID: 34216583 PMCID: PMC8403152 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2020] [Revised: 05/16/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Effective listening comprehension not only requires processing local linguistic input, but also necessitates incorporating contextual cues available in the global communicative environment. Local sentence processing can be facilitated by pre-activation of likely upcoming input, or predictive processing. Recent evidence suggests that young adults can flexibly adapt local predictive processes based on cues provided by the global communicative environment, such as the reliability of specific speakers. Whether older comprehenders can also flexibly adapt to global contextual cues is currently unknown. Moreover, it is unclear whether the underlying mechanisms supporting local predictive processing differ from those supporting adaptation to global contextual cues. Critically, it is unclear whether these mechanisms change as a function of typical aging. We examined the flexibility of prediction in young and older adults by presenting sentences from speakers whose utterances were typically more or less predictable (i.e., reliable speakers who produced expected words 80% of the time, versus unreliable speakers who produced expected words 20% of the time). For young listeners, global speaker reliability cues modulated neural effects of local predictability on the N400. In contrast, older adults, on average, did not show global modulation of local processing. Importantly, however, cognitive control (i.e., Stroop interference effects) mediated age-related reductions in sensitivity to the reliability of the speaker. Both young and older adults with high cognitive control showed greater N400 effects of predictability during sentences produced by a reliable speaker, suggesting that cognitive control is required to regulate the strength of top-down predictions based on global contextual information. Critically, cognitive control predicted sensitivity to global speaker-specific information but not local predictability cues, suggesting that predictive processing in local sentence contexts may be supported by separable neural mechanisms from adaptation of prediction as a function of global context. These results have important implications for interpreting age-related change in predictive processing, and for drawing more generalized conclusions regarding domain-general versus language-specific accounts of prediction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shruti Dave
- Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
| | | | - Liv J Hoversten
- Department of Psychology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
| | - Matthew J Traxler
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Tamara Y Swaab
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA
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13
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Bhandari P, Demberg V, Kray J. Semantic Predictability Facilitates Comprehension of Degraded Speech in a Graded Manner. Front Psychol 2021; 12:714485. [PMID: 34566795 PMCID: PMC8459870 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.714485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Accepted: 08/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that at moderate levels of spectral degradation, semantic predictability facilitates language comprehension. It is argued that when speech is degraded, listeners have narrowed expectations about the sentence endings; i.e., semantic prediction may be limited to only most highly predictable sentence completions. The main objectives of this study were to (i) examine whether listeners form narrowed expectations or whether they form predictions across a wide range of probable sentence endings, (ii) assess whether the facilitatory effect of semantic predictability is modulated by perceptual adaptation to degraded speech, and (iii) use and establish a sensitive metric for the measurement of language comprehension. For this, we created 360 German Subject-Verb-Object sentences that varied in semantic predictability of a sentence-final target word in a graded manner (high, medium, and low) and levels of spectral degradation (1, 4, 6, and 8 channels noise-vocoding). These sentences were presented auditorily to two groups: One group (n =48) performed a listening task in an unpredictable channel context in which the degraded speech levels were randomized, while the other group (n =50) performed the task in a predictable channel context in which the degraded speech levels were blocked. The results showed that at 4 channels noise-vocoding, response accuracy was higher in high-predictability sentences than in the medium-predictability sentences, which in turn was higher than in the low-predictability sentences. This suggests that, in contrast to the narrowed expectations view, comprehension of moderately degraded speech, ranging from low- to high- including medium-predictability sentences, is facilitated in a graded manner; listeners probabilistically preactivate upcoming words from a wide range of semantic space, not limiting only to highly probable sentence endings. Additionally, in both channel contexts, we did not observe learning effects; i.e., response accuracy did not increase over the course of experiment, and response accuracy was higher in the predictable than in the unpredictable channel context. We speculate from these observations that when there is no trial-by-trial variation of the levels of speech degradation, listeners adapt to speech quality at a long timescale; however, when there is a trial-by-trial variation of the high-level semantic feature (e.g., sentence predictability), listeners do not adapt to low-level perceptual property (e.g., speech quality) at a short timescale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pratik Bhandari
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
- Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Vera Demberg
- Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
- Department of Computer Science, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Jutta Kray
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
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14
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Chauvin A, Baum S, Phillips NA. Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease Benefit From Audiovisual Speech Cues and Supportive Sentence Context. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:1550-1559. [PMID: 33861623 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-20-00402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Speech perception in noise becomes difficult with age but can be facilitated by audiovisual (AV) speech cues and sentence context in healthy older adults. However, individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may present with deficits in AV integration, potentially limiting the extent to which they can benefit from AV cues. This study investigated the benefit of these cues in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), individuals with AD, and healthy older adult controls. Method This study compared auditory-only and AV speech perception of sentences presented in noise. These sentences had one of two levels of context: high (e.g., "Stir your coffee with a spoon") and low (e.g., "Bob didn't think about the spoon"). Fourteen older controls (M age = 72.71 years, SD = 9.39), 13 individuals with MCI (M age = 79.92 years, SD = 5.52), and nine individuals with probable Alzheimer's-type dementia (M age = 79.38 years, SD = 3.40) completed the speech perception task and were asked to repeat the terminal word of each sentence. Results All three groups benefited (i.e., identified more terminal words) from AV and sentence context. Individuals with MCI showed a smaller AV benefit compared to controls in low-context conditions, suggesting difficulties with AV integration. Individuals with AD showed a smaller benefit in high-context conditions compared to controls, indicating difficulties with AV integration and context use in AD. Conclusions Individuals with MCI and individuals with AD do benefit from AV speech and semantic context during speech perception in noise (albeit to a lower extent than healthy older adults). This suggests that engaging in face-to-face communication and providing ample context will likely foster more effective communication between patients and caregivers, professionals, and loved ones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre Chauvin
- Department of Psychology/Centre for Research in Human Development, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Shari Baum
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Natalie A Phillips
- Department of Psychology/Centre for Research in Human Development, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Bloomfield Centre for Research in Aging, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Montréal, Québec, Canada
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15
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Ries SK, Pinet S, Nozari NB, Knight RT. Characterizing multi-word speech production using event-related potentials. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13788. [PMID: 33569829 PMCID: PMC8193832 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2020] [Revised: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Event-related potentials (ERPs) derived from electroencephalography (EEG) have proven useful for understanding linguistic processes during language perception and production. Words are commonly produced in sequences, yet most ERP studies have used single-word experimental designs. Single-word designs reduce potential ERP overlap in word sequence production. However, word sequence production engages brain mechanisms in different ways than single word production. In particular, speech monitoring and planning mechanisms are more engaged than for single words since several words must be produced in a short period of time. This study evaluates the feasibility of recording ERP components in the context of word sequence production, and whether separate components could be isolated for each word. Scalp EEG data were acquired, while participants recited word sequences from memory at a regular pace, using a tongue-twister paradigm. The results revealed fronto-central error-related negativity, previously associated with speech monitoring, which could be distinguished for each word. Its peak amplitude was sensitive to Cycle and Phonological Similarity. However, an effect of sequential production was also observable on baseline measures, indicating baseline shifts throughout the word sequence due to concurrent sustained medial-frontal EEG activity. We also report a late left anterior negativity (LLAN), associated with verbal response planning and execution, onsetting around 100 ms before the first word in each cycle and sustained throughout the rest of the cycle. This work underlines the importance of considering the contribution of transient and sustained EEG activity on ERPs, and provides evidence that ERPs can be used to study sequential word production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie K Ries
- School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Center for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, San Diego State University, SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Svetlana Pinet
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain
| | - N Bonnie Nozari
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Robert T Knight
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
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León-Cabrera P, Pagonabarraga J, Morís J, Martínez-Horta S, Marín-Lahoz J, Horta-Barba A, Bejr-Kasem H, Kulisevsky J, Rodríguez-Fornells A. Neural signatures of predictive language processing in Parkinson's disease with and without mild cognitive impairment. Cortex 2021; 141:112-127. [PMID: 34049254 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.03.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2020] [Revised: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive deficits are common in Parkinson's disease (PD), with some PD patients meeting criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). An unaddressed question is whether linguistic prediction is preserved in PD. This ability is nowadays deemed crucial for achieving fast and efficient comprehension, and it may be negatively impacted by cognitive deterioration in PD. To fill this gap of knowledge, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to evaluate mechanisms of linguistic prediction in a sample of PD patients (on dopamine compensation) with and without MCI. To this end, participants read sentence contexts that were predictive or not about a sentence-final word. The final word appeared after one sec, matching or mismatching the prediction. The introduction of the interval allowed to capture neural responses both before and after sentence-final words, reflecting semantic anticipation and semantic processing. PD patients with normal cognition (N = 58) showed ERP responses comparable to those of matched controls. Specifically, in predictive contexts, a slow negative potential developed prior to sentence-final words, reflecting semantic anticipation. Later, expected words elicited reduced N400 responses (compared to unexpected words), indicating facilitated semantic processing. PD patients with MCI (N = 20) showed, in addition, a prolongation of the N400 congruency effect (compared to matched PD patients without MCI), indicating that further cognitive decline impacts semantic processing. Finally, lower verbal fluency scores correlated with prolonged N400 congruency effects and with reduced pre-word differences in all PD patients (N = 78). This relevantly points to a role of deficits in temporal-dependent mechanisms in PD, besides prototypical frontal dysfunction, in altered semantic anticipation and semantic processing during sentence comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia León-Cabrera
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit (CBPU), Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona and Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Javier Pagonabarraga
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain; Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain; Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Spain.
| | - Joaquín Morís
- Department of Educational and Evolutive Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Saül Martínez-Horta
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain; Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain; Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Spain
| | - Juan Marín-Lahoz
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain; Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain; Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Spain
| | - Andrea Horta-Barba
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain; Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain; Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Spain
| | - Helena Bejr-Kasem
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain; Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain; Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Spain
| | - Jaime Kulisevsky
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain; Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain; Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Spain
| | - Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit (CBPU), Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona and Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.
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Jongman SR. The attentional demands of combining comprehension and production in conversation. PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.plm.2021.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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18
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The many timescales of context in language processing. PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.plm.2021.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Age-related dissociation of N400 effect and lexical priming. Sci Rep 2020; 10:20291. [PMID: 33219241 PMCID: PMC7680113 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-77116-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2020] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The use of contextual information is an important capability to facilitate language comprehension. This can be shown by studying behavioral and neurophysiological measures of accelerated word recognition when semantically or phonemically related information is provided in advance, resulting in accompanying attenuation of the respective event-related potential, i.e. the N400 effect. Against the background of age-dependent changes in a broad variety of lexical capacities, we aimed to study whether word priming is accomplished differently in elderly compared to young persons. 19 young (29.9 ± 5.6 years) and 15 older (69.0 ± 7.2 years) healthy adults participated in a primed lexical decision task that required the classification of target stimuli (words or pseudo-words) following related or unrelated prime words. We assessed reaction time, task accuracy and N400 responses. Acceleration of word recognition by semantic and phonemic priming was significant in both groups, but resulted in overall larger priming effects in the older participants. Compared with young adults, the older participants were slower and less accurate in responding to unrelated word-pairs. The expected N400 effect was smaller in older than young adults, particularly during phonemic word and pseudo-word priming, with a rather similar N400 amplitude reduction by semantic relatedness. The observed pattern of results is consistent with preserved or even enhanced lexical context sensitivity in older compared to young adults. This, however, appears to involve compensatory cognitive strategies with higher lexical processing costs during phonological processing in particular, suggested by a reduced N400 effect in the elderly.
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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: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [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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Poulisse C, Wheeldon L, Limachya R, Mazaheri A, Segaert K. The oscillatory mechanisms associated with syntactic binding in healthy ageing. Neuropsychologia 2020; 146:107523. [PMID: 32553723 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2019] [Revised: 06/02/2020] [Accepted: 06/04/2020] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Older adults frequently display differential patterns of brain activity compared to young adults in the same task, alongside widespread neuroanatomical changes. Differing functional activity patterns in older adults are commonly interpreted as being compensatory (e.g., Cabeza et al., 2002). We examined the oscillatory activity in the EEG during syntactic binding in young and older adults, as well as the relationship between oscillatory activity and behavioural performance on a syntactic judgement task within the older adults. 19 young and 41 older adults listened to two-word sentences that differentially load onto morpho-syntactic binding: correct syntactic binding (morpho-syntactically correct, e.g., "I dotch"); incorrect syntactic binding (morpho-syntactic agreement violation, e.g., "they dotches") and no syntactic binding (minimizing morpho-syntactic binding, e.g., "dotches spuff"). Behavioural performance, assessed in a syntactic judgement task, was characterized by inter-individual variability especially in older adults, with accuracy ranging from 76 to 100% in young adults and 58-100% in older adults. Compared to young adults, older adults were slower, but not less accurate. Functional neural signatures for syntactic binding were assessed as the difference in oscillatory power between the correct and no syntactic binding condition. In older adults, syntactic binding was associated with a smaller increase in theta (4-7 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (15-20 Hz) power in a time window surrounding the second word. There was a significant difference between the older and young adults: in the alpha range, the condition difference seemed to be in the opposite direction for older versus young adults. Our findings thus suggest that the neural signature associated with syntactic binding in older adults is different from young adults. However, we found no evidence of a significant association between behavioural performance and the neural signatures of syntactic binding for older adults, which does not readily support the predictions of compensatory models of language and ageing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Poulisse
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2SA, United Kingdom.
| | - Linda Wheeldon
- Department of Foreign Languages and Translation, University of Agder, Varemottak Universitetsveien 25 D, 4630, Kristiansand, Norway.
| | - Rupali Limachya
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2SA, United Kingdom.
| | - Ali Mazaheri
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2SA, United Kingdom; Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2SA, United Kingdom.
| | - Katrien Segaert
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2SA, United Kingdom; Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2SA, United Kingdom.
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Shain C, Blank IA, van Schijndel M, Schuler W, Fedorenko E. fMRI reveals language-specific predictive coding during naturalistic sentence comprehension. Neuropsychologia 2020; 138:107307. [PMID: 31874149 PMCID: PMC7140726 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2019] [Revised: 12/02/2019] [Accepted: 12/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Much research in cognitive neuroscience supports prediction as a canonical computation of cognition across domains. Is such predictive coding implemented by feedback from higher-order domain-general circuits, or is it locally implemented in domain-specific circuits? What information sources are used to generate these predictions? This study addresses these two questions in the context of language processing. We present fMRI evidence from a naturalistic comprehension paradigm (1) that predictive coding in the brain's response to language is domain-specific, and (2) that these predictions are sensitive both to local word co-occurrence patterns and to hierarchical structure. Using a recently developed continuous-time deconvolutional regression technique that supports data-driven hemodynamic response function discovery from continuous BOLD signal fluctuations in response to naturalistic stimuli, we found effects of prediction measures in the language network but not in the domain-general multiple-demand network, which supports executive control processes and has been previously implicated in language comprehension. Moreover, within the language network, surface-level and structural prediction effects were separable. The predictability effects in the language network were substantial, with the model capturing over 37% of explainable variance on held-out data. These findings indicate that human sentence processing mechanisms generate predictions about upcoming words using cognitive processes that are sensitive to hierarchical structure and specialized for language processing, rather than via feedback from high-level executive control mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Idan Asher Blank
- University of California Los Angeles, 90024, USA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 02139, USA.
| | | | - William Schuler
- The Ohio State University, 43210, USA; Massachusetts General Hospital, Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, 02115, USA.
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, 02115, USA.
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Do domain-general executive resources play a role in linguistic prediction? Re-evaluation of the evidence and a path forward. Neuropsychologia 2020; 136:107258. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2019] [Revised: 11/07/2019] [Accepted: 11/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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Brothers T, Dave S, Hoversten LJ, Traxler MJ, Swaab TY. Flexible predictions during listening comprehension: Speaker reliability affects anticipatory processes. Neuropsychologia 2019; 135:107225. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2019] [Revised: 10/05/2019] [Accepted: 10/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
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Zirnstein M, van Hell JG, Kroll JF. Cognitive control and language ability contribute to online reading comprehension: Implications for older adult bilinguals. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BILINGUALISM : CROSS-DISCIPLINARY, CROSS-LINGUISTIC STUDIES OF LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR 2019; 23:971-985. [PMID: 38883556 PMCID: PMC11177779 DOI: 10.1177/1367006918763143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2024]
Abstract
Aims Previous research has indicated that young adults form predictions for the meaning of upcoming words when contexts are highly constrained. This can lead to processing benefits when expectations are met, but also costs, as indicated by a late, frontally distributed and positive event-related potential (ERP), when an unexpected word is encountered. This effect has been associated with the conflict that arises for prediction errors, as well as attempts to suppress a previously formed prediction. However, individual differences have been found for young adult bilingual and older adult monolingual readers, whereby only those who exhibited better language regulation and executive function skill showed this pattern. The goal of the current study was to investigate how these executive functions influence comprehension skill and behavior for elderly bilinguals. Approach We asked whether older adult monolinguals and bilinguals were capable of generating predictions online, and whether cognitive control and language regulation ability were related to the magnitude of prediction costs. Data and Analysis Participants (N = 27) read sentences while their electroencephalogram was recorded, and completed a battery of language and cognitive performance tasks. Findings While older adult monolinguals showed some sensitivity to prediction error, older adult bilinguals produced greater prediction costs, an effect that was significantly correlated with both age and control ability. Originality This study is the first to show ERP evidence that bilinguals are capable of forming predictions during comprehension in older adulthood. Significance These results have important implications for the ways in which bilingualism may influence comprehension across the lifespan. While healthy aging has been proposed to lead to declines in executive function these declines may be mitigated for bilinguals, who have a wealth of experience in negotiating language-related conflict.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megan Zirnstein
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, USA
| | | | - Judith F Kroll
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, USA; Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, USA
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Hubbard RJ, Rommers J, Jacobs CL, Federmeier KD. Downstream Behavioral and Electrophysiological Consequences of Word Prediction on Recognition Memory. Front Hum Neurosci 2019; 13:291. [PMID: 31555111 PMCID: PMC6722411 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2019] [Accepted: 08/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
When people process language, they can use context to predict upcoming information, influencing processing and comprehension as seen in both behavioral and neural measures. Although numerous studies have shown immediate facilitative effects of confirmed predictions, the downstream consequences of prediction have been less explored. In the current study, we examined those consequences by probing participants' recognition memory for words after they read sets of sentences. Participants read strongly and weakly constraining sentences with expected or unexpected endings ("I added my name to the list/basket"), and later were tested on their memory for the sentence endings while EEG was recorded. Critically, the memory test contained words that were predictable ("list") but were never read (participants saw "basket"). Behaviorally, participants showed successful discrimination between old and new items, but false alarmed to the expected-item lures more often than to new items, showing that predicted words or concepts can linger, even when predictions are disconfirmed. Although false alarm rates did not differ by constraint, event-related potentials (ERPs) differed between false alarms to strongly and weakly predictable words. Additionally, previously unexpected (compared to previously expected) endings that appeared on the memory test elicited larger N1 and LPC amplitudes, suggesting greater attention and episodic recollection. In contrast, highly predictable sentence endings that had been read elicited reduced LPC amplitudes during the memory test. Thus, prediction can facilitate processing in the moment, but can also lead to false memory and reduced recollection for predictable information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan J. Hubbard
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, United States
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, United States
| | - Joost Rommers
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Cassandra L. Jacobs
- Department of Psychology, Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States
| | - Kara D. Federmeier
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, United States
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, United States
- Program in Neuroscience, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, United States
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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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Himmelstoss NA, Schuster S, Hutzler F, Moran R, Hawelka S. Co-registration of eye movements and neuroimaging for studying contextual predictions in natural reading. LANGUAGE, COGNITION AND NEUROSCIENCE 2019; 35:595-612. [PMID: 32656295 PMCID: PMC7324136 DOI: 10.1080/23273798.2019.1616102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2018] [Accepted: 04/26/2019] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Sixteen years ago, Sereno and Rayner (2003. Measuring word recognition in reading: eye movements and event-related potentials. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(11), 489-493) illustrated how "by means of review and comparison" eye movement (EM) and event-related potential (ERP) studies may advance our understanding of visual word recognition. Attempts to simultaneously record EMs and ERPs soon followed. Recently, this co-registration approach has also been transferred to fMRI and oscillatory EEG. With experimental settings close to natural reading, co-registration enables us to directly integrate insights from EM and neuroimaging studies. This should extend current experimental paradigms by moving the field towards studying sentence-level processing including effects of context and parafoveal preview. This article will introduce the basic principles and applications of co-registration and selectively review how this approach may shed light on one of the most controversially discussed issues in reading research, contextual predictions in online language processing.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah Schuster
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Florian Hutzler
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Rosalyn Moran
- Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK
| | - Stefan Hawelka
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
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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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Cheimariou S, Farmer TA, Gordon JK. Lexical prediction in the aging brain: The effects of predictiveness and congruency on the N400 ERP component. AGING NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2018; 26:781-806. [PMID: 30293520 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2018.1529733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Although the N400 ERP component has been extensively studied in younger adults, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. In older adults, N400 ERP studies have shown less efficient use of context compared to younger adults. Here, we asked whether the mechanisms underlying the N400 effect are the same in terms of predictiveness and congruency in younger and older adults. We used a simple picture-word matching task in which we crossed predictiveness and congruency. Our results indicate a three-way interaction between predictiveness, congruency, and age, in that, younger adults showed an N400 effect only in strongly constrained conditions; whereas, older adults showed an effect in both strongly- and weakly constrained conditions. This interaction was not modulated by language experience or cognitive decline. Our results support either two separate mechanisms (lexical access and integration) that run in parallel and are modulated by age or a common prediction error mechanism that changes with age.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Thomas A Farmer
- b Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California , Davis , USA
| | - Jean K Gordon
- c Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Iowa , Iowa City , USA
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Sentence Context and Word-Picture Cued-Recall Paired-Associate Learning Procedure Boosts Recall in Normal and Mild Alzheimer's Disease Patients. Behav Neurol 2018; 2018:7401465. [PMID: 29849813 PMCID: PMC5932512 DOI: 10.1155/2018/7401465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2017] [Revised: 02/03/2018] [Accepted: 03/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction The aim of this study was to employ the word-picture paradigm to examine the effectiveness of combined pictorial illustrations and sentences as strong contextual cues. The experiment details the performance of word recall in healthy older adults (HOA) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). The researchers enhanced the words' recall with word-picture condition and when the pair was associated with a sentence contextualizing the two items. Method The sample was composed of 18 HOA and 18 people with mild AD. Participants memorized 15 pairs of words under word-word and word-picture conditions, with and without a sentence context. In the paired-associate test, the first item of the pair was read aloud by participants and used to elicit retrieval of the associated item. Results The findings suggest that both HOA and mild-AD pictures improved item recall compared to word condition such as sentences which further enabled item recall. Additionally, the HOA group performs better than the mild-AD group in all conditions. Conclusions Word-picture and sentence context strengthen the encoding in the explicit memory task, both in HOA and mild AD. These results open a potential window to improve the memory for verbalized instructions and restore sequential abilities in everyday life, such as brushing one's teeth, fastening one's pants, or drying one's hands.
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Dave S, Brothers TA, Traxler MJ, Ferreira F, Henderson JM, Swaab TY. Electrophysiological evidence for preserved primacy of lexical prediction in aging. Neuropsychologia 2018; 117:135-147. [PMID: 29852201 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.05.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2017] [Revised: 05/21/2018] [Accepted: 05/25/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Young adults show consistent neural benefits of predictable contexts when processing upcoming words, but these benefits are less clear-cut in older adults. Here we disentangle the neural correlates of prediction accuracy and contextual support during word processing, in order to test current theories that suggest that neural mechanisms underlying predictive processing are specifically impaired in older adults. During a sentence comprehension task, older and younger readers were asked to predict passage-final words and report the accuracy of these predictions. Age-related reductions were observed for N250 and N400 effects of prediction accuracy, as well as for N400 effects of contextual support independent of prediction accuracy. Furthermore, temporal primacy of predictive processing (i.e., earlier facilitation for successful predictions) was preserved across the lifespan, suggesting that predictive mechanisms are unlikely to be uniquely impaired in older adults. In addition, older adults showed prediction effects on frontal post-N400 positivities (PNPs) that were similar in amplitude to PNPs in young adults. Previous research has shown correlations between verbal fluency and lexical prediction in older adult readers, suggesting that the production system may be linked to capacity for lexical prediction, especially in aging. The current study suggests that verbal fluency modulates PNP effects of contextual support, but not prediction accuracy. Taken together, our findings suggest that aging does not result in specific declines in lexical prediction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shruti Dave
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, USA; Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, USA.
| | - Trevor A Brothers
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, USA; Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Tufts University and Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
| | - Matthew J Traxler
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, USA
| | - Fernanda Ferreira
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, USA
| | - John M Henderson
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, USA
| | - Tamara Y Swaab
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, USA
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Kuperberg GR, Ditman T, Choi Perrachione A. When Proactivity Fails: An Electrophysiological Study of Establishing Reference in Schizophrenia. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2018; 3:77-87. [PMID: 29397083 PMCID: PMC5801772 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2017.09.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2017] [Revised: 09/08/2017] [Accepted: 09/11/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Schizophrenia is characterized by abnormalities in referential communication, which may be linked to more general deficits in proactive cognitive control. We used event-related potentials to probe the timing and nature of the neural mechanisms engaged as people with schizophrenia linked pronouns to their preceding referents during word-by-word sentence comprehension. METHODS We measured event-related potentials to pronouns in two-clause sentences in 16 people with schizophrenia and 20 demographically matched control participants. Our design crossed the number of potential referents (1-referent, 2-referent) with whether the pronoun matched the gender of its preceding referent(s) (matching, mismatching). This gave rise to four conditions: 1) 1-referent matching ("Edward took courses in accounting but he . . ."); 2) 2-referent matching ("Edward and Phillip took courses but he . . . "); 3) 1-referent mismatching ("Edward took courses in accounting but she . . ."); and 4) 2-referent mismatching ("Edward and Phillip took courses but she . . ."). RESULTS Consistent with previous findings, healthy control participants produced a larger left anteriorly distributed negativity between 400 and 600 ms to 2-referent matching than to 1-referent matching pronouns (the "Nref effect"). In contrast, people with schizophrenia produced a larger centroposterior positivity effect between 600 and 800 ms. Both patient and control groups produced a larger positivity between 400 and 800 ms to mismatching than to matching pronouns. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that proactive mechanisms of referential processing, reflected by the Nref effect, are impaired in schizophrenia, while reactive mechanisms, reflected by the positivity effects, are relatively spared. Indeed, patients may compensate for proactive deficits by retroactively engaging with context to influence the processing of inputs at a later stage of analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gina R Kuperberg
- Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts; Department of Psychiatry and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
| | - Tali Ditman
- Department of Psychiatry and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
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Syllabic tone articulation influences the identification and use of words during Chinese sentence reading: Evidence from ERP and eye movement recordings. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2016; 16:72-92. [PMID: 26311442 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-015-0368-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
In two experiments, we examined the contribution of articulation-specific features to visual word recognition during the reading of Chinese. In spoken Standard Chinese, a syllable with a full tone can be tone-neutralized through sound weakening and pitch contour change, and there are two types of two-character compound words with respect to their articulation variation. One type requires articulation of a full tone for each constituent character, and the other requires a full- and a neutral-tone articulation for the first and second characters, respectively. Words of these two types with identical first characters were selected and embedded in sentences. Native speakers of Standard Chinese were recruited to read the sentences. In Experiment 1, the individual words of a sentence were presented serially at a fixed pace while event-related potentials were recorded. This resulted in less-negative N100 and anterior N250 amplitudes and in more-negative N400 amplitudes when targets contained a neutral tone. Complete sentences were visible in Experiment 2, and eye movements were recorded while participants read. Analyses of oculomotor activity revealed shorter viewing durations and fewer refixations on-and fewer regressive saccades to-target words when their second syllable was articulated with a neutral rather than a full tone. Together, the results indicate that readers represent articulation-specific word properties, that these representations are routinely activated early during the silent reading of Chinese sentences, and that the representations are also used during later stages of word processing.
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Räling R, Schröder A, Wartenburger I. The origins of age of acquisition and typicality effects: Semantic processing in aphasia and the ageing brain. Neuropsychologia 2016; 86:80-92. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.04.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2015] [Revised: 04/01/2016] [Accepted: 04/18/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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Weber K, Lau EF, Stillerman B, Kuperberg GR. The Yin and the Yang of Prediction: An fMRI Study of Semantic Predictive Processing. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0148637. [PMID: 27010386 PMCID: PMC4806910 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2015] [Accepted: 01/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Probabilistic prediction plays a crucial role in language comprehension. When predictions are fulfilled, the resulting facilitation allows for fast, efficient processing of ambiguous, rapidly-unfolding input; when predictions are not fulfilled, the resulting error signal allows us to adapt to broader statistical changes in this input. We used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to examine the neuroanatomical networks engaged in semantic predictive processing and adaptation. We used a relatedness proportion semantic priming paradigm, in which we manipulated the probability of predictions while holding local semantic context constant. Under conditions of higher (versus lower) predictive validity, we replicate previous observations of reduced activity to semantically predictable words in the left anterior superior/middle temporal cortex, reflecting facilitated processing of targets that are consistent with prior semantic predictions. In addition, under conditions of higher (versus lower) predictive validity we observed significant differences in the effects of semantic relatedness within the left inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior portion of the left superior/middle temporal gyrus. We suggest that together these two regions mediated the suppression of unfulfilled semantic predictions and lexico-semantic processing of unrelated targets that were inconsistent with these predictions. Moreover, under conditions of higher (versus lower) predictive validity, a functional connectivity analysis showed that the left inferior frontal and left posterior superior/middle temporal gyrus were more tightly interconnected with one another, as well as with the left anterior cingulate cortex. The left anterior cingulate cortex was, in turn, more tightly connected to superior lateral frontal cortices and subcortical regions-a network that mediates rapid learning and adaptation and that may have played a role in switching to a more predictive mode of processing in response to the statistical structure of the wider environmental context. Together, these findings highlight close links between the networks mediating semantic prediction, executive function and learning, giving new insights into how our brains are able to flexibly adapt to our environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten Weber
- Department of Psychiatry and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Science, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Ellen F. Lau
- Department of Psychiatry and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Science, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States of America
- University of Maryland, Department of Linguistics, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Benjamin Stillerman
- Department of Psychiatry and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Science, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Gina R. Kuperberg
- Department of Psychiatry and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Science, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States of America
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Coronel JC, Federmeier KD. The N400 reveals how personal semantics is processed: Insights into the nature and organization of self-knowledge. Neuropsychologia 2016; 84:36-43. [PMID: 26825011 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.01.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2015] [Revised: 01/24/2016] [Accepted: 01/25/2016] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
There is growing recognition that some important forms of long-term memory are difficult to classify into one of the well-studied memory subtypes. One example is personal semantics. Like the episodes that are stored as part of one's autobiography, personal semantics is linked to an individual, yet, like general semantic memory, it is detached from a specific encoding context. Access to general semantics elicits an electrophysiological response known as the N400, which has been characterized across three decades of research; surprisingly, this response has not been fully examined in the context of personal semantics. In this study, we assessed responses to congruent and incongruent statements about people's own, personal preferences. We found that access to personal preferences elicited N400 responses, with congruency effects that were similar in latency and distribution to those for general semantic statements elicited from the same participants. These results suggest that the processing of personal and general semantics share important functional and neurobiological features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason C Coronel
- School of Communication, The Ohio State University, 154 N Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, United States.
| | - Kara D Federmeier
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, United States; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, United States; Program in Neuroscience, University of Illinois, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, United States.
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Chang CT, Lee CY, Chou CJ, Fuh JL, Wu HC. Predictability effect on N400 reflects the severity of reading comprehension deficits in aphasia. Neuropsychologia 2016; 81:117-128. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2015] [Revised: 11/19/2015] [Accepted: 12/05/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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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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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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Examining the N400 semantic context effect item-by-item: relationship to corpus-based measures of word co-occurrence. Int J Psychophysiol 2014; 94:407-19. [PMID: 25448377 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.10.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2014] [Revised: 10/23/2014] [Accepted: 10/25/2014] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
With increasing availability of digital text, there has been an explosion of computational methods designed to turn patterns of word co-occurrence in large text corpora into numerical scores expressing the "semantic distance" between any two words. The success of such methods is typically evaluated by how well they predict human judgments of similarity. Here, I examine how well corpus-based methods predict amplitude of the N400 component of the event-related potential (ERP), an online measure of lexical processing in brain electrical activity. ERPs elicited by the second words of 303 word pairs were analyzed at the level of individual items. Three corpus-based measures (mutual information, distributional similarity, and latent semantic analysis) were compared to a traditional measure of free association strength. In a regression analysis, corpus-based and free association measures each explained some of the variance in N400 amplitude, suggesting that these may tap distinct aspects of word relationships. Lexical factors of concreteness of word meaning, word frequency, number of semantic associates, and orthographic similarity also explained variance in N400 amplitude at the single-item level.
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Wlotko EW, Federmeier KD. Two sides of meaning: the scalp-recorded n400 reflects distinct contributions from the cerebral hemispheres. Front Psychol 2013; 4:181. [PMID: 23630506 PMCID: PMC3632783 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2012] [Accepted: 03/25/2013] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The N400, a component of the event-related potential (ERP) associated with the processing of meaning, is sensitive to a wide array of lexico-semantic, sentence-level, and discourse-level manipulations across modalities. In sentence contexts, N400 amplitude varies inversely and nearly linearly with the predictability of a word in its context. However, recent theories and empirical evidence from studies employing the visual half-field technique (to selectively bias processing to one cerebral hemisphere) suggest that the two hemispheres use sentence context information in different ways. Thus, each hemisphere may not respond to manipulations of contextual predictability in an equivalent manner. This possibility was investigated by recording ERPs while presenting [in the left and right visual fields (VFs)] sentence-final words that varied over the full range of sentence-level predictability. RVF/left hemisphere items were facilitated (as evidenced by reduced N400 amplitudes) over a broader range of predictability compared with LVF/right hemisphere items, although both strongly predictable and completely unexpected items evoked similar responses in each VF/hemisphere. Further, the pattern of N400 amplitudes over the full range of predictability significantly differed from a linear response function for both VFs/hemispheres. This suggests that the N400 response recorded with standard central field presentation comprises different contributions from both cerebral hemispheres, neither of which on its own is sensitive to contextual predictability in an evenly graded manner. These data challenge the notion of a singular or unitary mode of comprehension and instead support the view that the left and right hemispheres instantiate unique, complementary language comprehension architectures in parallel.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kara D. Federmeier
- Beckman Institute, University of IllinoisUrbana, IL, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of IllinoisUrbana, IL, USA
- Program in Neuroscience, University of IllinoisUrbana, IL, USA
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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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Wlotko EW, Federmeier KD. So that's what you meant! Event-related potentials reveal multiple aspects of context use during construction of message-level meaning. Neuroimage 2012; 62:356-66. [PMID: 22565202 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.04.054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2012] [Revised: 04/17/2012] [Accepted: 04/29/2012] [Indexed: 10/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Factors that modulate the influence of contextual information on semantic processing in language comprehension have been thoroughly investigated with the N400 component of the event-related potential (ERP), a direct measure of initial contact with semantic memory. Although context has a strong and immediate impact on processing, multiple mechanisms contribute to the construction of message-level representations during normal comprehension. Some of these may be engaged after or concurrent with the formation of an initial meaning representation, and can then serve to revise or reshape meaning. In this study, ERPs were recorded while participants read plausible sentences that continuously varied in the amount of contextual constraint for the sentence-final word, defined via extensive norming data including the range of possible alternative completions for the contexts. Consistent with numerous past studies, the amplitude of the N400 was graded with expectancy, as amplitudes decreased with increasing constraint. Additionally, a left-lateralized, broad, slow negativity onsetting around 400-500 ms was largest for sentences with moderately strong constraint. Within this range of constraint, the negativity was larger for sentences with fewer alternative completions compared to those with many different ones. The timing and scalp distribution of the effect resemble brain responses linked to engagement of working memory resources, ambiguity resolution, and comprehension of jokes. Similar to cases of "frame-shifting" in non-literal language, this effect may reflect processing associated with reinterpretation or reconsideration of contextual material when multiple interpretations of a sentence were likely.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward W Wlotko
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
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