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León-Cabrera P, Hjortdal A, Berthelsen SG, Rodríguez-Fornells A, Roll M. Neurophysiological signatures of prediction in language: A critical review of anticipatory negativities. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 160:105624. [PMID: 38492763 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105624] [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: 06/22/2023] [Revised: 02/09/2024] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/18/2024]
Abstract
Recent event-related potential (ERP) studies in language comprehension converge in finding anticipatory negativities preceding words or word segments that can be pre-activated based on either sentence contexts or phonological cues. We review these findings from different paradigms in the light of evidence from other cognitive domains in which slow negative potentials have long been associated with anticipatory processes and discuss their potential underlying mechanisms. We propose that this family of anticipatory negativities captures common mechanisms associated with the pre-activation of linguistic information both within words and within sentences. Future studies could utilize these anticipatory negativities in combination with other, well-established ERPs, to simultaneously track prediction-related processes emerging at different time intervals (before and after the perception of pre-activated input) and with distinct time courses (shorter-lived and longer-lived cognitive operations).
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia León-Cabrera
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Basic Sciences, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Anna Hjortdal
- Centre for Languages and Literature (SOL), Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Sabine Gosselke Berthelsen
- Centre for Languages and Literature (SOL), Lund University, Lund, Sweden; Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics (NorS), University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge (IDIBELL), Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Mikael Roll
- Centre for Languages and Literature (SOL), Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
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Hjortdal A, Frid J, Novén M, Roll M. Swift Prosodic Modulation of Lexical Access: Brain Potentials From Three North Germanic Language Varieties. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2024; 67:400-414. [PMID: 38306498 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-23-00193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE According to most models of spoken word recognition, listeners probabilistically activate a set of lexical candidates, which is incrementally updated as the speech signal unfolds. Speech carries segmental (speech sound) as well as suprasegmental (prosodic) information. The role of the latter in spoken word recognition is less clear. We investigated how suprasegments (tone and voice quality) in three North Germanic language varieties affected lexical access by scrutinizing temporally fine-grained neurophysiological effects of lexical uncertainty and information gain. METHOD Three event-related potential (ERP) studies were reanalyzed. In all varieties investigated, suprasegments are associated with specific word endings. Swedish has two lexical "word accents" realized as pitch falls with different timings across dialects. In Danish, the distinction is in voice quality. We combined pronunciation lexica and frequency lists to calculate estimates of lexical uncertainty about an unfolding word and information gain upon hearing a suprasegmental cue and the segment upon which it manifests. We used single-trial mixed-effects regression models run every 4 ms. RESULTS Only lexical uncertainty showed solid results: a frontal effect at 150-400 ms after suprasegmental cue onset and a later posterior effect after 200 ms. While a model including only segmental information mostly performed better, it was outperformed by the suprasegmental model at 200-330 ms at frontal sites. CONCLUSIONS The study points to suprasegmental cues contributing to lexical access over and beyond segments after around 200 ms in the North Germanic varieties investigated. Furthermore, the findings indicate that a previously reported "pre-activation negativity" predominantly reflects forward-looking processing. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25016486.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Hjortdal
- Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Sweden
| | - Johan Frid
- Lund University Humanities Lab, Lund University, Sweden
| | - Mikael Novén
- Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mikael Roll
- Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Sweden
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Sagarra N, Casillas JV. Practice beats age: co-activation shapes heritage speakers' lexical access more than age of onset. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1141174. [PMID: 37377705 PMCID: PMC10292756 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1141174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2023] [Accepted: 05/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Probabilistic associations make language processing efficient and are honed through experience. However, it is unclear what language experience factors explain the non-monolingual processing behaviors typical of L2 learners and heritage speakers (HSs). We investigated whether AoO, language proficiency, and language use affect the recognition of Spanish stress-tense suffix associations involving a stressed syllable that cues a present suffix (SALta "s/he jumps") and an unstressed syllable that cues a past suffix (SALtó "s/he jumped"). Adult Spanish-English HSs, English-Spanish L2 learners, and Spanish monolinguals saw a paroxytone verb (stressed initial syllable) and an oxytone verb (unstressed initial syllable), listened to a sentence containing one of the verbs, and chose the one they heard. Spanish proficiency measured grammatical and lexical knowledge, and Spanish use assessed percentage of current usage. Both bilingual groups were comparable in Spanish proficiency and use. Eye-tracking data showed that all groups fixated on target verbs above chance before hearing the syllable containing the suffix, except the HSs in the oxytones. Monolinguals fixated on targets more and earlier, although at a slower rate, than HSs and L2 learners; in turn, HSs fixated on targets more and earlier than L2 learners, except in oxytones. Higher proficiency increased target fixations in HSs (oxytones) and L2 learners (paroxytones), but greater use only increased target fixations in HSs (oxytones). Taken together, our data show that HSs' lexical access depends more on number of lexical competitors (co-activation of two L1 lexica) and type (phonotactic) frequency than token (lexical) frequency or AoO. We discuss the contribution of these findings to models in phonology, lexical access, language processing, language prediction, and human cognition.
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Söderström P, Cutler A. Early neuro-electric indication of lexical match in English spoken-word recognition. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0285286. [PMID: 37200324 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2023] Open
Abstract
We investigated early electrophysiological responses to spoken English words embedded in neutral sentence frames, using a lexical decision paradigm. As words unfold in time, similar-sounding lexical items compete for recognition within 200 milliseconds after word onset. A small number of studies have previously investigated event-related potentials in this time window in English and French, with results differing in direction of effects as well as component scalp distribution. Investigations of spoken-word recognition in Swedish have reported an early left-frontally distributed event-related potential that increases in amplitude as a function of the probability of a successful lexical match as the word unfolds. Results from the present study indicate that the same process may occur in English: we propose that increased certainty of a 'word' response in a lexical decision task is reflected in the amplitude of an early left-anterior brain potential beginning around 150 milliseconds after word onset. This in turn is proposed to be connected to the probabilistically driven activation of possible upcoming word forms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pelle Söderström
- Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, St Lucia, Australia
| | - Anne Cutler
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, St Lucia, Australia
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
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Elmer S, Besson M, Rodríguez-Fornells A. The electrophysiological correlates of word pre-activation during associative word learning. Int J Psychophysiol 2022; 182:12-22. [PMID: 36167179 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.09.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 09/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/21/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Human beings continuously make use of learned associations to generate predictions about future occurrences in the environment. Such memory-related predictive processes provide a scaffold for learning in that mental representations of foreseeable events can be adjusted or strengthened based on a specific outcome. Learning the meaning of novel words through picture-word associations constitutes a prime example of associative learning because pictures preceding words can trigger word prediction through the pre-activation of the related mnemonic representations. In the present electroencephalography (EEG) study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to compare neural indices of word pre-activation between a word learning condition with maximal prediction likelihood and a non-learning control condition with low prediction. Results revealed that prediction-related N400 amplitudes in response to pictures decreased over time at central electrodes as a function of word learning, whereas late positive component (LPC) amplitudes increased. Notably, N400 but not LPC changes were also predictive of word learning performance, suggesting that the N400 component constitutes a sensitive marker of word pre-activation during associative word learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Elmer
- Computational Neuroscience of Speech & Hearing, Department of Computational Linguistics, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08097 Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Mireille Besson
- Université Publique de France, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives (LNC, UMR 7291) & Institute for Language and Communication in the Brain (ILCB), Marseille, France.
| | - Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08097 Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08097 Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, ICREA, 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
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Abstract
Swedish lexical word accents have been repeatedly said to have a low functional load. Even so, the language has kept these tones ever since they emerged probably over a thousand years ago. This article proposes that the primary function of word accents is for listeners to be able to predict upcoming morphological structures and narrow down the lexical competition rather than being lexically distinctive. Psycho- and neurophysiological evidence for the predictive function of word accents is discussed. A novel analysis displays that word accents have a facilitative role in word processing. Specifically, a correlation is revealed between how much incorrect word accents hinder listeners' processing and how much they reduce response times when correct. Finally, a dual-route model of the predictive use of word accents with distinct neural substrates is put forth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mikael Roll
- Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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Li J, Hong B, Nolte G, Engel AK, Zhang D. Preparatory delta phase response is correlated with naturalistic speech comprehension performance. Cogn Neurodyn 2021; 16:337-352. [PMID: 35401861 PMCID: PMC8934811 DOI: 10.1007/s11571-021-09711-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2020] [Revised: 07/09/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
While human speech comprehension is thought to be an active process that involves top-down predictions, it remains unclear how predictive information is used to prepare for the processing of upcoming speech information. We aimed to identify the neural signatures of the preparatory processing of upcoming speech. Participants selectively attended to one of two competing naturalistic, narrative speech streams, and a temporal response function (TRF) method was applied to derive event-related-like neural responses from electroencephalographic data. The phase responses to the attended speech at the delta band (1-4 Hz) were correlated with the comprehension performance of individual participants, with a latency of - 200-0 ms relative to the onset of speech amplitude envelope fluctuations over the fronto-central and left-lateralized parietal electrodes. The phase responses to the attended speech at the alpha band also correlated with comprehension performance but with a latency of 650-980 ms post-onset over the fronto-central electrodes. Distinct neural signatures were found for the attentional modulation, taking the form of TRF-based amplitude responses at a latency of 240-320 ms post-onset over the left-lateralized fronto-central and occipital electrodes. Our findings reveal how the brain gets prepared to process an upcoming speech in a continuous, naturalistic speech context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiawei Li
- Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Room 334, Mingzhai Building, Beijing, China
- Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Bo Hong
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Guido Nolte
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Andreas K. Engel
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Dan Zhang
- Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Room 334, Mingzhai Building, Beijing, China
- Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
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Hubbard RJ, Federmeier KD. Representational Pattern Similarity of Electrical Brain Activity Reveals Rapid and Specific Prediction during Language Comprehension. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:4300-4313. [PMID: 33895819 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Predicting upcoming events is a critical function of the brain, and language provides a fertile testing ground for studying prediction, as comprehenders use context to predict features of upcoming words. Many aspects of the mechanisms of prediction remain elusive, partly due to a lack of methodological tools to probe prediction formation in the moment. To elucidate what features are neurally preactivated and when, we used representational similarity analysis on previously collected sentence reading data. We compared EEG activity patterns elicited by expected and unexpected sentence final words to patterns from the preceding words of the sentence, in both strongly and weakly constraining sentences. Pattern similarity with the final word was increased in an early time window following the presentation of the pre-final word, and this increase was modulated by both expectancy and constraint. This was not seen at earlier words, suggesting that predictions were precisely timed. Additionally, pre-final word activity-the predicted representation-had negative similarity with later final word activity, but only for strongly expected words. These findings shed light on the mechanisms of prediction in the brain: rapid preactivation occurs following certain cues, but the predicted features may receive reduced processing upon confirmation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan J Hubbard
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Kara D Federmeier
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.,Program in Neuroscience, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
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Althaus N, Wetterlin A, Lahiri A. Features of low functional load in mono- and bilinguals' lexical access: evidence from Swedish tonal accent. PHONETICA 2021; 78:175-199. [PMID: 33979904 DOI: 10.1515/phon-2021-2002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Swedish makes use of tonal accents (Accents 1 and 2) to contrast words, but the functional load is very low, with some regional dialects not even exhibiting the contrast. In particular given the low number of minimal pairs, the question is whether tonal word accent is used in lexical access. Here we present two cross-modal fragment semantic priming studies in order to address this question. Both experiments use first syllable fragments in order to prime semantically related targets. Experiment 1 utilises words whose first syllable occurs with both accent patterns, creating a situation in which there is lexical competition between words that differ solely in terms of accent. Experiment 2 removes this competition by using words that have no such accent competitors. Our results show that native speakers of Swedish use tonal word accent in lexical access: Accent mispronunciations failed to prime semantically related targets, regardless of whether primes had accent competitors or not. Results for a group of early bilingual speakers (who grew up with one Swedish-speaking parent and one other non-tonal language) showed no differences in processing compared to the monolinguals. This indicates that the extraction of accent features during acquisition and their use in lexical access is robust, even in a scenario where multiple input languages lead to tonal word accent being a useful feature for only some of the lexical items that are being acquired. There is no doubt that the accent system is well entrenched into the bilinguals' phonological system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadja Althaus
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
- Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Allison Wetterlin
- Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Foreign Languages and Translation, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway
| | - Aditi Lahiri
- Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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Söderström P, Horne M, Mannfolk P, van Westen D, Roll M. Rapid syntactic pre-activation in Broca's area: Concurrent electrophysiological and haemodynamic recordings. Brain Res 2018; 1697:76-82. [PMID: 29883624 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2018.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2017] [Revised: 05/04/2018] [Accepted: 06/04/2018] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Listeners are constantly trying to predict what the speaker will say next. We concurrently measured the electrophysiological and haemodynamic correlates of syntactic pre-activation, investigating when and where the brain processes speech melody cues to upcoming word order structure. Pre-activation of syntactic structure was reflected in a left-lateralised pre-activation negativity (PrAN), which was subserved by Broca's area in the left inferior frontal gyrus, as well as the contiguous left anterior insula.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pelle Söderström
- Department of Linguistics, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Box 201, 221 00 Lund, Sweden; MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
| | - Merle Horne
- Department of Linguistics, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Box 201, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
| | - Peter Mannfolk
- Skane University Hospital, Department of Medical Imaging and Physiology, Lund, Sweden.
| | - Danielle van Westen
- Lund University, Skane University Hospital, Department of Clinical Sciences, Diagnostic Radiology, Lund, Sweden.
| | - Mikael Roll
- Department of Linguistics, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Box 201, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
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Schremm A, Novén M, Horne M, Söderström P, van Westen D, Roll M. Cortical thickness of planum temporale and pars opercularis in native language tone processing. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2018; 176:42-47. [PMID: 29223785 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2017.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2017] [Revised: 10/13/2017] [Accepted: 12/01/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The present study investigated the relationship between linguistic tone processing and cortical thickness of bilateral planum temporale (PT) and pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFGpo). Swedish tones on word stems function as cues to upcoming endings. Correlating structural brain imaging data with participants' response time patterns for suffixes, we found that thicker cortex in the left PT was associated with greater reliance on tones to anticipate upcoming inflections on real words. On inflected pseudoword stems, however, the cortical thickness of left IFGpo was associated with tone-suffix processing. Thus cortical thickness of the left PT might play a role in processing tones as part of stored representations for familiar speech segments, most likely when inflected forms are accessed as whole words. In the absence of stored representations, listeners might need to rely on morphosyntactic rules specifying tone-suffix associations, potentially facilitated by greater cortical thickness of left IFGpo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Schremm
- Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University, Box 201, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
| | - Mikael Novén
- Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University, Box 201, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
| | - Merle Horne
- Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University, Box 201, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
| | - Pelle Söderström
- Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University, Box 201, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
| | - Danielle van Westen
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Box 201, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
| | - Mikael Roll
- Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University, Box 201, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
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Söderström P, Horne M, Mannfolk P, van Westen D, Roll M. Tone-grammar association within words: Concurrent ERP and fMRI show rapid neural pre-activation and involvement of left inferior frontal gyrus in pseudoword processing. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2017; 174:119-126. [PMID: 28850882 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2017.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2017] [Revised: 07/26/2017] [Accepted: 08/16/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Using a concurrent ERP/fMRI paradigm, we investigated how listeners take advantage of morphologically relevant tonal information at the beginning of words to predict and pre-activate likely word endings. More predictive, low tone word stems gave rise to a 'pre-activation negativity' (PrAN) in the ERPs, a brain potential which has previously been found to increase along with the degree of predictive certainty as regards how a word is going to end. It is suggested that more predictive, low tone stems lead to rapid access to word endings with processing subserved by the left primary auditory cortex as well as the supramarginal gyrus, while high tone stems - which are less predictive - decrease predictive certainty, leading to increased competition between activated word endings, which needs to be resolved by the left inferior frontal gyrus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pelle Söderström
- Department of Linguistics, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Box 201, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
| | - Merle Horne
- Department of Linguistics, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Box 201, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
| | - Peter Mannfolk
- Skane University Hospital, Department of Medical Imaging and Physiology, Lund, Sweden.
| | - Danielle van Westen
- Lund University, Skane University Hospital, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Diagnostic Radiology, Lund, Sweden.
| | - Mikael Roll
- Department of Linguistics, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Box 201, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
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Forehearing words: Pre-activation of word endings at word onset. Neurosci Lett 2017; 658:57-61. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.08.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2017] [Revised: 07/28/2017] [Accepted: 08/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Neural Correlates of Semantic Prediction and Resolution in Sentence Processing. J Neurosci 2017; 37:4848-4858. [PMID: 28411271 PMCID: PMC5426574 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2800-16.2017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2016] [Revised: 03/15/2017] [Accepted: 03/17/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Most brain-imaging studies of language comprehension focus on activity following meaningful stimuli. Testing adult human participants with high-density EEG, we show that, already before the presentation of a critical word, context-induced semantic predictions are reflected by a neurophysiological index, which we therefore call the semantic readiness potential (SRP). The SRP precedes critical words if a previous sentence context constrains the upcoming semantic content (high-constraint contexts), but not in unpredictable (low-constraint) contexts. Specific semantic predictions were indexed by SRP sources within the motor system—in dorsolateral hand motor areas for expected hand-related words (e.g., “write”), but in ventral motor cortex for face-related words (“talk”). Compared with affirmative sentences, negated ones led to medial prefrontal and more widespread motor source activation, the latter being consistent with predictive semantic computation of alternatives to the negated expected concept. Predictive processing of semantic alternatives in negated sentences is further supported by a negative-going event-related potential at ∼400 ms (N400), which showed the typical enhancement to semantically incongruent sentence endings only in high-constraint affirmative contexts, but not to high-constraint negated ones. These brain dynamics reveal the interplay between semantic prediction and resolution (match vs error) processing in sentence understanding. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Most neuroscientists agree on the eminent importance of predictive mechanisms for understanding basic as well as higher brain functions. This contrasts with a sparseness of brain measures that directly reflects specific aspects of prediction, as they are relevant in the processing of language and thought. Here we show that when critical words are strongly expected in their sentence context, a predictive brain response reflects meaning features of these anticipated symbols already before they appear. The granularity of the semantic predictions was so fine grained that the cortical sources in sensorimotor and medial prefrontal cortex even distinguished between predicted face- or hand-related action words (e.g., the words “lick” or “pick”) and between affirmative and negated sentence meanings.
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