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Jiménez-Ortega L, Casado-Palacios M, Rubianes M, Martínez-Mejias M, Casado P, Fondevila S, Hernández-Gutiérrez D, Muñoz F, Sánchez-García J, Martín-Loeches M. The bigger your pupils, the better my comprehension: an ERP study of how pupil size and gaze of the speaker affect syntactic processing. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2024; 19:nsae047. [PMID: 38918898 PMCID: PMC11246839 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsae047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2023] [Revised: 05/16/2024] [Accepted: 06/25/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Gaze direction and pupil dilation play a critical role in communication and social interaction due to their ability to redirect and capture our attention and their relevance for emotional information. The present study aimed to explore whether the pupil size and gaze direction of the speaker affect language comprehension. Participants listened to sentences that could be correct or contain a syntactic anomaly, while the static face of a speaker was manipulated in terms of gaze direction (direct, averted) and pupil size (mydriasis, miosis). Left anterior negativity (LAN) and P600 linguistic event-related potential components were observed in response to syntactic anomalies across all conditions. The speaker's gaze did not impact syntactic comprehension. However, the amplitude of the LAN component for mydriasis (dilated pupil) was larger than for miosis (constricted pupil) condition. Larger pupils are generally associated with care, trust, interest, and attention, which might facilitate syntactic processing at early automatic stages. The result also supports the permeable and context-dependent nature of syntax. Previous studies also support an automatic nature of syntax (fast and efficient), which combined with the permeability to relevant sources of communicative information, such as pupil size and emotions, is highly adaptive for language comprehension and social interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Jiménez-Ortega
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
- Department of Psychobiology & Behavioral Sciences Methods, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
| | - María Casado-Palacios
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
- DIBRIS, University of Genoa, Genoa 16145, Italy
- UVIP – Unit for Visually Impaired People, Italian Institute of Technology, Genova 16164, Italy
| | - Miguel Rubianes
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
- Department of Psychobiology & Behavioral Sciences Methods, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud UNIE Universidad, Madrid 28015, Spain
| | - Mario Martínez-Mejias
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
| | - Pilar Casado
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
- Department of Psychobiology & Behavioral Sciences Methods, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
| | - Sabela Fondevila
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
- Department of Psychobiology & Behavioral Sciences Methods, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
| | - David Hernández-Gutiérrez
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia/San Sebastián 20009, Spain
| | - Francisco Muñoz
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
- Department of Psychobiology & Behavioral Sciences Methods, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
| | - José Sánchez-García
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja UNIR, Oviedo, Asturias 33003, Spain
| | - Manuel Martín-Loeches
- Cognitive Neuroscience Section, UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, Madrid 28029, Spain
- Department of Psychobiology & Behavioral Sciences Methods, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
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Abashidze D, Schmidt A, Trofimovich P, Mercier J. Integration of visual context in early and late bilingual language processing: evidence from eye-tracking. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1113688. [PMID: 37179896 PMCID: PMC10171561 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1113688] [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: 12/01/2022] [Accepted: 02/23/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous research on the processing of language embedded in a rich visual context has revealed the strong effect that a recently viewed action event has on language comprehension. It has been shown that listeners are more likely to view the target object of a recently performed event than look at the target object of a plausible future event during sentence utterance, regardless of the tense cue. In the current visual-world eye-tracking experiments, we tested the strength of the recently observed visual context with a group of English monolingual and two groups of English-French early and late bilingual speakers. By comparing these different groups, we examined whether bilingual speakers, as a consequence of greater cognitive flexibility when integrating visual context and language information, show early anticipatory eye-movements toward the target object. We further asked whether early and late bilinguals show differences in their processing. The findings of the three eye-tracking experiments revealed an overall preference for the recently seen event. However, as a result of the early provision of tense cue, this preference was quickly diminished in all three groups. Moreover, the bilingual groups showed an earlier decrease in reliance on the recently seen event compared to monolingual speakers and the early bilinguals showed anticipatory eye-movements toward the plausible future event target. Furthermore, a post-experimental memory test revealed that the bilingual groups recalled the future events marginally better than the recent events, whereas the reverse was found in the monolingual groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dato Abashidze
- Leibniz-Centre for General Linguistics, Berlin, Germany
- Education Department, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- *Correspondence: Dato Abashidze
| | | | | | - Julien Mercier
- Département d' éducation et formation spécialisées, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
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