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Zettersten M, Cox C, Bergmann C, Tsui ASM, Soderstrom M, Mayor J, Lundwall RA, Lewis M, Kosie JE, Kartushina N, Fusaroli R, Frank MC, Byers-Heinlein K, Black AK, Mathur MB. Evidence for Infant-directed Speech Preference Is Consistent Across Large-scale, Multi-site Replication and Meta-analysis. Open Mind (Camb) 2024; 8:439-461. [PMID: 38665547 PMCID: PMC11045035 DOI: 10.1162/opmi_a_00134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
There is substantial evidence that infants prefer infant-directed speech (IDS) to adult-directed speech (ADS). The strongest evidence for this claim has come from two large-scale investigations: i) a community-augmented meta-analysis of published behavioral studies and ii) a large-scale multi-lab replication study. In this paper, we aim to improve our understanding of the IDS preference and its boundary conditions by combining and comparing these two data sources across key population and design characteristics of the underlying studies. Our analyses reveal that both the meta-analysis and multi-lab replication show moderate effect sizes (d ≈ 0.35 for each estimate) and that both of these effects persist when relevant study-level moderators are added to the models (i.e., experimental methods, infant ages, and native languages). However, while the overall effect size estimates were similar, the two sources diverged in the effects of key moderators: both infant age and experimental method predicted IDS preference in the multi-lab replication study, but showed no effect in the meta-analysis. These results demonstrate that the IDS preference generalizes across a variety of experimental conditions and sampling characteristics, while simultaneously identifying key differences in the empirical picture offered by each source individually and pinpointing areas where substantial uncertainty remains about the influence of theoretically central moderators on IDS preference. Overall, our results show how meta-analyses and multi-lab replications can be used in tandem to understand the robustness and generalizability of developmental phenomena.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Christopher Cox
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University; Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | | | | | | | - Julien Mayor
- Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo
| | | | - Molly Lewis
- Department of Psychology/Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
| | | | | | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University; Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | | | | | - Alexis K. Black
- School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, University of British Columbia
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2
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Cox C, Templeton E, Fusaroli R. Fine-tuning social timing: From non-human to human animals and back: A commentary on "The evolution of social timing" by Verga, Kotz and Ravignani (2023). Phys Life Rev 2023; 47:79-81. [PMID: 37742435 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2023.09.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Cox
- Department of Linguistics & Cognitive Science, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, Building 1485, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark; Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark; Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, Vanbrugh College, Heslington, York YO10 5 DD, United Kingdom
| | - Emma Templeton
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics & Cognitive Science, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, Building 1485, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark; Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark; Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA.
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3
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Mathiasen S, Parsons CE, Fusaroli R, Paavonen EJ, Karlsson H, Karlsson L. Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms across pregnancy and the postnatal period: Modest associations between depression symptoms and infant sleep outcomes. Sleep Med 2023; 112:291-300. [PMID: 37950940 DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2023.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2023] [Revised: 09/29/2023] [Accepted: 10/08/2023] [Indexed: 11/13/2023]
Abstract
Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms are common across the perinatal period and are associated with a raised risk for adverse child outcomes. While substantial evidence exists for child outcomes such as behaviour, language and cognition, infant sleep has been less studied. In this longitudinal study, we examined the association between maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety and mother-reported infant sleep at 6 and 12 months. Across the four infant sleep outcomes, total sleep time, sleep onset latency, number of awakenings and a maternal perception variable, we found modest effects for concomitant depression symptoms. There were almost no additional effects for anxiety symptoms beyond that already accounted for by depression. Using trajectory modelling of maternal symptoms at five time points, we found more robust effects for maternal groups with postnatally emerging symptoms over prenatally present symptoms across all four sleep outcomes. Our strongest finding was that mothers with postnatal depression symptoms were more likely to perceive their infant's sleep as problematic compared with all other mothers. Where we found effects on duration-based infant sleep outcomes overall, these were small and clearest for depressive symptoms over anxiety symptoms. For both nighttime awakenings and perception of sleep as a problem, effects were apparent only for mothers in the postnatal symptom groups, and not for prenatal symptoms, at both infant ages six and 12 months. Our sample was a relatively high-socioeconomic group with low symptoms overall, and findings may not generalize to more vulnerable populations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - E Juulia Paavonen
- Public Health and Welfare, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland; Pediatric Research Center, Child Psychiatry, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Hasse Karlsson
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Department of Clinical Medicine, Brain and Mind Center, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland; Centre for Population Health Research, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Linnea Karlsson
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Department of Clinical Medicine, Brain and Mind Center, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Centre for Population Health Research, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Department of Clinical Medicine, Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Finland
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Fusaroli R, Weed E, Rocca R, Fein D, Naigles L. Repeat After Me? Both Children With and Without Autism Commonly Align Their Language With That of Their Caregivers. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13369. [PMID: 37905374 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/02/2023]
Abstract
Linguistic repetitions in children are conceptualized as negative in children with autism - echolalia, without communicative purpose - and positive in typically developing (TD) children - linguistic alignment involved in shared engagement, common ground and language acquisition. To investigate this apparent contradiction we analyzed spontaneous speech in 67 parent-child dyads from a longitudinal corpus (30 minutes of play activities at 6 visits over 2 years). We included 32 children with autism and 35 linguistically matched TD children (mean age at recruitment 32.76 and 20.27 months). We found a small number of exact repetitions in both groups (roughly 1% of utterances across visits), which increased over time in children with autism and decreased in the TD group. Partial repetitions were much more frequent: children reused caregivers' words at high rates regardless of diagnostic group (24% of utterances at first visit), and this increased in frequency (but not level) over time, faster for TD children (at final visit: 33% for autism, 40% for TD). The same happened for partial repetition of syntax and semantic alignment. However, chance alignment (as measured by surrogate pairs) also increased and findings for developmental changes were reliable only for syntactic and semantic alignment. Children with richer linguistic abilities also displayed a higher tendency to partially re-use their caregivers' language (alignment rates and semantic alignment). This highlights that all children commonly re-used the words, syntax, and topics of their caregivers, albeit with some quantitative differences, and that most repetition was at least potentially productive, with repeated language being re-contextualized and integrated with non-repeated language. The salience of echolalia in ASD might be partially explained by slight differences in frequency, amplified by lower semantic alignment, persistence over time, and expectations of echolalia. More in-depth qualitative and quantitative analyses of how repetitions are used and received in context are needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
| | - Ethan Weed
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | - Roberta Rocca
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | - Deborah Fein
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut
| | - Letitia Naigles
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut
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Cox C, Dideriksen C, Keren-Portnoy T, Roepstorff A, Christiansen MH, Fusaroli R. Infant-directed speech does not always involve exaggerated vowel distinctions: Evidence from Danish. Child Dev 2023; 94:1672-1696. [PMID: 37307398 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2022] [Revised: 03/10/2023] [Accepted: 04/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
This study compared the acoustic properties of 26 (100% female, 100% monolingual) Danish caregivers' spontaneous speech addressed to their 11- to 24-month-old infants (infant-directed speech, IDS) and an adult experimenter (adult-directed speech, ADS). The data were collected between 2016 and 2018 in Aarhus, Denmark. Prosodic properties of Danish IDS conformed to cross-linguistic patterns, with a higher pitch, greater pitch variability, and slower articulation rate than ADS. However, an acoustic analysis of vocalic properties revealed that Danish IDS had a reduced or similar vowel space, higher within-vowel variability, raised formants, and lower degree of vowel discriminability compared to ADS. None of the measures, except articulation rate, showed age-related differences. These results push for future research to conduct theory-driven comparisons across languages with distinct phonological systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Cox
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, Vanbrugh College, York, UK
| | - Christina Dideriksen
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Tamar Keren-Portnoy
- Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, Vanbrugh College, York, UK
| | - Andreas Roepstorff
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Morten H Christiansen
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, New York, Ithaca, USA
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
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6
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Dideriksen C, Christiansen MH, Dingemanse M, Højmark-Bertelsen M, Johansson C, Tylén K, Fusaroli R. Language-Specific Constraints on Conversation: Evidence from Danish and Norwegian. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13387. [PMID: 38009981 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2023] [Revised: 10/30/2023] [Accepted: 11/13/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Establishing and maintaining mutual understanding in everyday conversations is crucial. To do so, people employ a variety of conversational devices, such as backchannels, repair, and linguistic entrainment. Here, we explore whether the use of conversational devices might be influenced by cross-linguistic differences in the speakers' native language, comparing two matched languages-Danish and Norwegian-differing primarily in their sound structure, with Danish being more opaque, that is, less acoustically distinguished. Across systematically manipulated conversational contexts, we find that processes supporting mutual understanding in conversations vary with external constraints: across different contexts and, crucially, across languages. In accord with our predictions, linguistic entrainment was overall higher in Danish than in Norwegian, while backchannels and repairs presented a more nuanced pattern. These findings are compatible with the hypothesis that native speakers of Danish may compensate for its opaque sound structure by adopting a top-down strategy of building more conversational redundancy through entrainment, which also might reduce the need for repairs. These results suggest that linguistic differences might be met by systematic changes in language processing and use. This paves the way for further cross-linguistic investigations and critical assessment of the interplay between cultural and linguistic factors on the one hand and conversational dynamics on the other.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Morten H Christiansen
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University
| | | | | | - Christer Johansson
- Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen
| | - Kristian Tylén
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
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7
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Wisher I, Pagnotta M, Palacio-Pérez E, Fusaroli R, Garate D, Hodgson D, Matthews J, Mendoza-Straffon L, Ochoa B, Riede F, Tylén K. Beyond the image: Interdisciplinary and contextual approaches to understanding symbolic cognition in Paleolithic parietal art. Evol Anthropol 2023; 32:256-259. [PMID: 37506119 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Isobel Wisher
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Murillo Pagnotta
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | | | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Diego Garate
- Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
| | - Derek Hodgson
- Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK
| | - John Matthews
- Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK
| | | | - Blanca Ochoa
- Departamento de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Felix Riede
- Department of Archaeology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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8
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Fusaroli M, Simonsen A, Borrie SA, Low DM, Parola A, Raschi E, Poluzzi E, Fusaroli R. Identifying Medications Underlying Communication Atypicalities in Psychotic and Affective Disorders: A Pharmacovigilance Study Within the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2023; 66:3242-3259. [PMID: 37524118 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/02/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Communication atypicalities are considered promising markers of a broad range of clinical conditions. However, little is known about the mechanisms and confounders underlying them. Medications might have a crucial, relatively unknown role both as potential confounders and offering an insight on the mechanisms at work. The integration of regulatory documents with disproportionality analyses provides a more comprehensive picture to account for in future investigations of communication-related markers. The aim of this study was to identify a list of drugs potentially associated with communicative atypicalities within psychotic and affective disorders. METHOD We developed a query using the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities to search for communicative atypicalities within the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (updated June 2021). A Bonferroni-corrected disproportionality analysis (reporting odds ratio) was separately performed on spontaneous reports involving psychotic, affective, and non-neuropsychiatric disorders, to account for the confounding role of different underlying conditions. Drug-adverse event associations not already reported in the Side Effect Resource database of labeled adverse drug reactions (unexpected) were subjected to further robustness analyses to account for expected biases. RESULTS A list of 291 expected and 91 unexpected potential confounding medications was identified, including drugs that may irritate (inhalants) or desiccate (anticholinergics) the larynx, impair speech motor control (antipsychotics), or induce nodules (acitretin) or necrosis (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitors) on vocal cords; sedatives and stimulants; neurotoxic agents (anti-infectives); and agents acting on neurotransmitter pathways (dopamine agonists). CONCLUSIONS We provide a list of medications to account for in future studies of communication-related markers in affective and psychotic disorders. The current test case illustrates rigorous procedures for digital phenotyping, and the methodological tools implemented for large-scale disproportionality analyses can be considered a road map for investigations of communication-related markers in other clinical populations. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23721345.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele Fusaroli
- Pharmacology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
| | - Arndis Simonsen
- Psychosis Research Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Stephanie A Borrie
- Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education, Utah State University, Logan
| | - Daniel M Low
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
- Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Alberto Parola
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Italy
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Emanuel Raschi
- Pharmacology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisabetta Poluzzi
- Pharmacology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark
- Linguistic Data Consortium, School of Arts & Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
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9
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Tylén K, Fusaroli R, Østergaard SM, Smith P, Arnoldi J. The Social Route to Abstraction: Interaction and Diversity Enhance Performance and Transfer in a Rule-Based Categorization Task. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13338. [PMID: 37705241 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2022] [Revised: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/28/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023]
Abstract
Capacities for abstract thinking and problem-solving are central to human cognition. Processes of abstraction allow the transfer of experiences and knowledge between contexts helping us make informed decisions in new or changing contexts. While we are often inclined to relate such reasoning capacities to individual minds and brains, they may in fact be contingent on human-specific modes of collaboration, dialogue, and shared attention. In an experimental study, we test the hypothesis that social interaction enhances cognitive processes of rule-induction, which in turn improves problem-solving performance. Through three sessions of increasing complexity, individuals and groups were presented with a problem-solving task requiring them to categorize a set of visual stimuli. To assess the character of participants' problem representations, after each training session, they were presented with a transfer task involving stimuli that differed in appearance, but shared relations among features with the training set. Besides, we compared participants' categorization behaviors to simulated agents relying on exemplar learning. We found that groups performed superior to individuals and agents in the training sessions and were more likely to correctly generalize their observations in the transfer phase, especially in the high complexity session, suggesting that groups more effectively induced underlying categorization rules from the stimuli than individuals and agents. Crucially, variation in performance among groups was predicted by semantic diversity in members' dialogical contributions, suggesting a link between social interaction, cognitive diversity, and abstraction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristian Tylén
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
| | | | - Pernille Smith
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
- Department of Management, Aarhus University
| | - Jakob Arnoldi
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
- Department of Management, Aarhus University
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10
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Parola A, Lin JM, Simonsen A, Bliksted V, Zhou Y, Wang H, Inoue L, Koelkebeck K, Fusaroli R. Speech disturbances in schizophrenia: Assessing cross-linguistic generalizability of NLP automated measures of coherence. Schizophr Res 2023; 259:59-70. [PMID: 35927097 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2022.07.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2022] [Revised: 06/29/2022] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Language disorders - disorganized and incoherent speech in particular - are distinctive features of schizophrenia. Natural language processing (NLP) offers automated measures of incoherent speech as promising markers for schizophrenia. However, the scientific and clinical impact of NLP markers depends on their generalizability across contexts, samples, and languages, which we systematically assessed in the present study relying on a large, novel, cross-linguistic corpus. METHODS We collected a Danish (DK), German (GE), and Chinese (CH) cross-linguistic dataset involving transcripts from 187 participants with schizophrenia (111DK, 25GE, 51CH) and 200 matched controls (129DK, 29GE, 42CH) performing the Animated Triangles Task. Fourteen previously published NLP coherence measures were calculated, and between-groups differences and association with symptoms were tested for cross-linguistic generalizability. RESULTS One coherence measure, i.e. second-order coherence, robustly generalized across samples and languages. We found several language-specific effects, some of which partially replicated previous findings (lower coherence in German and Chinese patients), while others did not (higher coherence in Danish patients). We found several associations between symptoms and measures of coherence, but the effects were generally inconsistent across languages and rating scales. CONCLUSIONS Using a cumulative approach, we have shown that NLP findings of reduced semantic coherence in schizophrenia have limited generalizability across different languages, samples, and measures. We argue that several factors such as sociodemographic and clinical heterogeneity, cross-linguistic variation, and the different NLP measures reflecting different clinical aspects may be responsible for this variability. Future studies should take this variability into account in order to develop effective clinical applications targeting different patient populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Parola
- Department of Linguistics, Semiotics and Cognitive Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Jessica Mary Lin
- Department of Linguistics, Semiotics and Cognitive Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Arndis Simonsen
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Psychosis Research Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Vibeke Bliksted
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Psychosis Research Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Yuan Zhou
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Huiling Wang
- Department of Psychiatry, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Lana Inoue
- LVR-Hospital Essen, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hospital and Institute of the University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; Center for Translational Neuro- & Behavioral Sciences (C-TNBS), University Duisburg Essen, Germany
| | - Katja Koelkebeck
- LVR-Hospital Essen, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hospital and Institute of the University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; Center for Translational Neuro- & Behavioral Sciences (C-TNBS), University Duisburg Essen, Germany
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Semiotics and Cognitive Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
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11
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Waade PT, Enevoldsen KC, Vermillet AQ, Simonsen A, Fusaroli R. Introducing tomsup: Theory of mind simulations using Python. Behav Res Methods 2023; 55:2197-2231. [PMID: 35953661 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-022-01827-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Theory of mind (ToM) is considered crucial for understanding social-cognitive abilities and impairments. However, verbal theories of the mechanisms underlying ToM are often criticized as under-specified and mutually incompatible. This leads to measures of ToM being unreliable, to the extent that even canonical experimental tasks do not require representation of others' mental states. There have been attempts at making computational models of ToM, but these are not easily available for broad research application. In order to help meet these challenges, we here introduce the Python package tomsup: Theory of mind simulations using Python. The package provides a computational eco-system for investigating and comparing computational models of hypothesized ToM mechanisms and for using them as experimental stimuli. The package notably includes an easy-to-use implementation of the variational recursive Bayesian k-ToM model developed by (Devaine, Hollard, & Daunizeau, 2014b) and of simpler non-recursive decision models, for comparison. We provide a series of tutorials on how to: (i) simulate agents relying on the k-ToM model and on a range of simpler types of mechanisms; (ii) employ those agents to generate online experimental stimuli; (iii) analyze the data generated in such experimental setup, and (iv) specify new custom ToM and heuristic cognitive models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter T Waade
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Kenneth C Enevoldsen
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
- Center for Humanities Computing Aarhus, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
| | | | - Arndis Simonsen
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital Psychiatry, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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12
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Trujillo JP, Dideriksen C, Tylén K, Christiansen MH, Fusaroli R. The Dynamic Interplay of Kinetic and Linguistic Coordination in Danish and Norwegian Conversation. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13298. [PMID: 37303224 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2022] [Revised: 02/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
In conversation, individuals work together to achieve communicative goals, complementing and aligning language and body with each other. An important emerging question is whether interlocutors entrain with one another equally across linguistic levels (e.g., lexical, syntactic, and semantic) and modalities (i.e., speech and gesture), or whether there are complementary patterns of behaviors, with some levels or modalities diverging and others converging in coordinated fashions. This study assesses how kinematic and linguistic entrainment interact with one another across levels of measurement, and according to communicative context. We analyzed data from two matched corpora of dyadic interaction between-respectively-Danish and Norwegian native speakers engaged in affiliative conversations and task-oriented conversations. We assessed linguistic entrainment at the lexical, syntactic, and semantic level, and kinetic alignment of the head and hands using video-based motion tracking and dynamic time warping. We tested whether-across the two languages-linguistic alignment correlates with kinetic alignment, and whether these kinetic-linguistic associations are modulated either by the type of conversation or by the language spoken. We found that kinetic entrainment was positively associated with low-level linguistic (i.e., lexical) entrainment, while negatively associated with high-level linguistic (i.e., semantic) entrainment, in a cross-linguistically robust way. Our findings suggest that conversation makes use of a dynamic coordination of similarity and complementarity both between individuals as well as between different communicative modalities, and provides evidence for a multimodal, interpersonal synergy account of interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- James P Trujillo
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
| | - Christina Dideriksen
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture Aarhus University
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Center, School of Communication and Culture Aarhus University, Aarhus University
| | - Morten H Christiansen
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Center, School of Communication and Culture Aarhus University, Aarhus University
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture Aarhus University
- The Interacting Minds Center, School of Communication and Culture Aarhus University, Aarhus University
- Linguistic Data Consortium University of Pennsylvania
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13
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Zhang H, Parola A, Zhou Y, Wang H, Bliksted V, Fusaroli R, Hinzen W. Linguistic markers of psychosis in Mandarin Chinese: Relations to theory of mind. Psychiatry Res 2023; 325:115253. [PMID: 37245483 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Revised: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Disorganized and impoverished language is a key feature of schizophrenia (Sz), but whether and which linguistic changes previously observed in Indo-European languages generalize to other languages remains unclear. Targeting Mandarin Chinese, we aimed to profile aspects of grammatical complexity that we hypothesized would be reduced in schizophrenia in a task of verbalizing social events. 51 individuals with Sz and 39 controls participated in the animated triangles task, a standardized measure of theory of mind (ToM), in which participants describe triangles moving in either a random or an 'intentional' condition. Results revealed that clauses embedded as arguments in other clauses were reduced in Sz, and that both groups produced such clauses and grammatical aspect more frequently in the intentional condition. ToM scores specifically correlated with production of embedded argument clauses. These results document grammatical impoverishment in Sz in Chinese across several structural domains, which in some of its specific aspects relate to mentalizing performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Han Zhang
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer de Roc Boronat, 138, Barcelona 08018, Spain.
| | - Alberto Parola
- Department of Linguistics, Semiotics and Cognitive Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Yuan Zhou
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Huiling Wang
- Department of Psychiatry, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Vibeke Bliksted
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Psychosis Research Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Semiotics and Cognitive Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer de Roc Boronat, 138, Barcelona 08018, Spain; Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies and Research (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
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14
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Weed E, Fusaroli R, Simmons E, Eigsti IM. Different in different ways: A network-analysis approach to voice and prosody in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Lang Learn Dev 2023; 20:40-57. [PMID: 38486613 PMCID: PMC10936700 DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2023.2196528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
The current study investigated whether the difficulty in finding group differences in prosody between speakers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and neurotypical (NT) speakers might be explained by identifying different acoustic profiles of speakers which, while still perceived as atypical, might be characterized by different acoustic qualities. We modelled the speech from a selection of speakers (N = 26), with and without ASD, as a network of nodes defined by acoustic features. We used a community-detection algorithm to identify clusters of speakers who were acoustically similar and compared these clusters with atypicality ratings by naïve and expert human raters. Results identified three clusters: one primarily composed of speakers with ASD, one of mostly NT speakers, and one comprised of an even mixture of ASD and NT speakers. The human raters were highly reliable at distinguishing speakers with and without ASD, regardless of which cluster the speaker was in. These results suggest that community-detection methods using a network approach may complement commonly-employed human ratings to improve our understanding of the intonation profiles in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ethan Weed
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science, and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science, and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Elizabeth Simmons
- Communication Disorders, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA
| | - Inge-Marie Eigsti
- Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
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15
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Fusaroli M, Pellegrini L, Fusaroli R, Raschi E, Menchetti M, Poluzzi E. Behavioral excess and disruptive conduct: A historical and taxonomic approach to the origin of the 'impulse control disorders' diagnostic construct. Addiction 2023; 118:763-770. [PMID: 36370093 DOI: 10.1111/add.16086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2022] [Accepted: 10/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
AIMS Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are iatrogenic and idiopathic conditions with psychosocial and economic consequences for the affected individuals and their families (e.g. bankruptcy and divorce). However, the definition of ICDs has changed over time, and ICDs are not consistently included within existing taxonomies. We discuss the origins of the ICD diagnostic construct and its unsolved tensions. METHODS To contextualize the ICD diagnostic construct, we provided an overview of its origins in past centuries and followed its development across multiple editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and the International Classification of Diseases, as well as its definition within emerging ontologies. RESULTS Two independent roots of the ICD construct emerged: (a) the interest in behavioral excess as expressed in encyclopedic compilations (18th century) and (b) the juridical debate on disruptive conduct and responsibility (19th-20th centuries). These roots underlie the repeated taxonomic remodeling observed throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and three critical issues persisting in both clinical practice and research. First, the number of ICDs keeps increasing across the spectrum of human behaviors, disregarding common pathogenetic and phenomenological grounds. Secondly, ICDs substantially overlap with other mental conditions. Impulsivity is often neglected as a minor inconvenience or side effect when co-occurring with major diagnoses (e.g. depression) and therefore inadequately managed. Finally, ICDs' definitions display an unsolved tension between being conceived as hobby, moral fault or pathological drive, which may be responsible for stigma and delayed intervention. CONCLUSION The reasons that made impulse control disorders (ICDs) difficult to define from their first conceptualization are the same reasons that now complicate taxonomic efforts and diagnosis. Tracing back ICDs' roots and criticalities can help to define a common and less ambiguous theoretical framework, which may also result in the demise of the ICD construct and a move towards more clearly defined and more useful ontologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele Fusaroli
- Pharmacology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Luca Pellegrini
- School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK.,Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, Welwyn Garden City, UK.,Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- The Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Emanuel Raschi
- Pharmacology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Marco Menchetti
- Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisabetta Poluzzi
- Pharmacology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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16
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Corona Hernández H, Corcoran C, Achim AM, de Boer JN, Boerma T, Brederoo SG, Cecchi GA, Ciampelli S, Elvevåg B, Fusaroli R, Giordano S, Hauglid M, van Hessen A, Hinzen W, Homan P, de Kloet SF, Koops S, Kuperberg GR, Maheshwari K, Mota NB, Parola A, Rocca R, Sommer IEC, Truong K, Voppel AE, van Vugt M, Wijnen F, Palaniyappan L. Natural Language Processing Markers for Psychosis and Other Psychiatric Disorders: Emerging Themes and Research Agenda From a Cross-Linguistic Workshop. Schizophr Bull 2023; 49:S86-S92. [PMID: 36946526 PMCID: PMC10031727 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbac215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/23/2023]
Abstract
This workshop summary on natural language processing (NLP) markers for psychosis and other psychiatric disorders presents some of the clinical and research issues that NLP markers might address and some of the activities needed to move in that direction. We propose that the optimal development of NLP markers would occur in the context of research efforts to map out the underlying mechanisms of psychosis and other disorders. In this workshop, we identified some of the challenges to be addressed in developing and implementing NLP markers-based Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs) in psychiatric practice, especially with respect to psychosis. Of note, a CDSS is meant to enhance decision-making by clinicians by providing additional relevant information primarily through software (although CDSSs are not without risks). In psychiatry, a field that relies on subjective clinical ratings that condense rich temporal behavioral information, the inclusion of computational quantitative NLP markers can plausibly lead to operationalized decision models in place of idiosyncratic ones, although ethical issues must always be paramount.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hugo Corona Hernández
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Cheryl Corcoran
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, USA
| | - Amélie M Achim
- Département de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, VITAM Centre de Recherche en Santé Durable, Cervo Brain Research Centre, Université Laval, Québec, Canada
| | - Janna N de Boer
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Tessel Boerma
- Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Institute for Language Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Sanne G Brederoo
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- University Center of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | | | - Silvia Ciampelli
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Brita Elvevåg
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Tromsø—the Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Culture, Interacting Minds Center, Cognition and Computation Communication, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | - Silvia Giordano
- Department of Innovative Technologies, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland
| | - Mathias Hauglid
- Faculty of Law, University of Tromsø—the Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Arjan van Hessen
- Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Institute for Language Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
- Department of Human Media Interaction, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Philipp Homan
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Zurich, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Sanne Koops
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Gina R Kuperberg
- Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- The Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kritika Maheshwari
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- Ethics and Philosophy of Technology Section, Faculty of Technology, Policy, and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
| | - Natalia B Mota
- Institute of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Research department at Motrix Lab—Motrix, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Alberto Parola
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Culture, Interacting Minds Center, Cognition and Computation Communication, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Roberta Rocca
- Department of Culture, Interacting Minds Center, Cognition and Computation Communication, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Iris E C Sommer
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- University Center of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Khiet Truong
- Department of Human Media Interaction, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
| | - Alban E Voppel
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Marieke van Vugt
- Bernoulli Institute of Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Frank Wijnen
- Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Institute for Language Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Lena Palaniyappan
- Department of Psychiatry, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
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17
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Parola A, Simonsen A, Lin JM, Zhou Y, Wang H, Ubukata S, Koelkebeck K, Bliksted V, Fusaroli R. Voice Patterns as Markers of Schizophrenia: Building a Cumulative Generalizable Approach Via a Cross-Linguistic and Meta-analysis Based Investigation. Schizophr Bull 2023; 49:S125-S141. [PMID: 36946527 PMCID: PMC10031745 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbac128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/23/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS Voice atypicalities are potential markers of clinical features of schizophrenia (eg, negative symptoms). A recent meta-analysis identified an acoustic profile associated with schizophrenia (reduced pitch variability and increased pauses), but also highlighted shortcomings in the field: small sample sizes, little attention to the heterogeneity of the disorder, and to generalizing findings to diverse samples and languages. STUDY DESIGN We provide a critical cumulative approach to vocal atypicalities in schizophrenia, where we conceptually and statistically build on previous studies. We aim at identifying a cross-linguistically reliable acoustic profile of schizophrenia and assessing sources of heterogeneity (symptomatology, pharmacotherapy, clinical and social characteristics). We relied on previous meta-analysis to build and analyze a large cross-linguistic dataset of audio recordings of 231 patients with schizophrenia and 238 matched controls (>4000 recordings in Danish, German, Mandarin and Japanese). We used multilevel Bayesian modeling, contrasting meta-analytically informed and skeptical inferences. STUDY RESULTS We found only a minimal generalizable acoustic profile of schizophrenia (reduced pitch variability), while duration atypicalities replicated only in some languages. We identified reliable associations between acoustic profile and individual differences in clinical ratings of negative symptoms, medication, age and gender. However, these associations vary across languages. CONCLUSIONS The findings indicate that a strong cross-linguistically reliable acoustic profile of schizophrenia is unlikely. Rather, if we are to devise effective clinical applications able to target different ranges of patients, we need first to establish larger and more diverse cross-linguistic datasets, focus on individual differences, and build self-critical cumulative approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Parola
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- The Interacting Minds Center, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Arndis Simonsen
- The Interacting Minds Center, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Psychosis Research Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Jessica Mary Lin
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- The Interacting Minds Center, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Yuan Zhou
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Huiling Wang
- Department of Psychiatry, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Shiho Ubukata
- Department of Psychiatry, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Katja Koelkebeck
- LVR-Hospital Essen, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hospital and Institute of the University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
- Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences (C-TNBS), University Duisburg-Essen, Germany
| | - Vibeke Bliksted
- The Interacting Minds Center, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Psychosis Research Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- The Interacting Minds Center, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
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18
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Fusaroli R, Weed E, Rocca R, Fein D, Naigles L. Caregiver linguistic alignment to autistic and typically developing children: A natural language processing approach illuminates the interactive components of language development. Cognition 2023; 236:105422. [PMID: 36871399 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2021] [Revised: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 02/23/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Language development is a highly interactive activity. However, most research on linguistic environment has focused on the quantity and complexity of linguistic input to children, with current models showing that complexity facilitates language in both typically developing (TD) and autistic children. AIMS After reviewing existing work on caregiver engagement of children's utterances, we aim to operationalize such engagement with automated measures of linguistic alignment, thereby providing scalable tools to assess caregivers' active reuse of their children's language. By assessing the presence of alignment, its sensitivity to the child's individual differences and how well it predicts language development beyond current models across the two groups, we showcase the usefulness of the approach and provide initial empirical foundations for further conceptual and empirical investigations. METHODS We measure lexical, syntactic and semantic types of caregiver alignment in a longitudinal corpus involving 32 adult-autistic child and 35 adult-TD child dyads, with children between 2 and 5 years of age. We assess the extent to which caregivers repeat their children's words, syntax, and semantics, and whether these repetitions predict language development beyond more standard predictors. RESULTS Caregivers tend to re-use their child's language in a way that is related to the child's individual, primarily linguistic, differences. Caregivers' alignment provides unique information improving our ability to predict future language development in both typical and autistic children. CONCLUSIONS We provide evidence that language development also relies on interactive conversational processes, previously understudied. We share carefully detailed methods, and open-source scripts so as to systematically extend our approach to new contexts and languages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Jens Chr Skous vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Jens Chr Skous vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, 3600 Market St, Suite 810, Philadelphia, PA 19104-2653, USA.
| | - Ethan Weed
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Jens Chr Skous vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Jens Chr Skous vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Roberta Rocca
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Jens Chr Skous vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Jens Chr Skous vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Deborah Fein
- Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 0629-1020, USA
| | - Letitia Naigles
- Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 0629-1020, USA
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19
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Dingemanse M, Liesenfeld A, Rasenberg M, Albert S, Ameka FK, Birhane A, Bolis D, Cassell J, Clift R, Cuffari E, De Jaegher H, Novaes CD, Enfield NJ, Fusaroli R, Gregoromichelaki E, Hutchins E, Konvalinka I, Milton D, Rączaszek-Leonardi J, Reddy V, Rossano F, Schlangen D, Seibt J, Stokoe E, Suchman L, Vesper C, Wheatley T, Wiltschko M. Beyond Single-Mindedness: A Figure-Ground Reversal for the Cognitive Sciences. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13230. [PMID: 36625324 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 11/27/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
A fundamental fact about human minds is that they are never truly alone: all minds are steeped in situated interaction. That social interaction matters is recognized by any experimentalist who seeks to exclude its influence by studying individuals in isolation. On this view, interaction complicates cognition. Here, we explore the more radical stance that interaction co-constitutes cognition: that we benefit from looking beyond single minds toward cognition as a process involving interacting minds. All around the cognitive sciences, there are approaches that put interaction center stage. Their diverse and pluralistic origins may obscure the fact that collectively, they harbor insights and methods that can respecify foundational assumptions and fuel novel interdisciplinary work. What might the cognitive sciences gain from stronger interactional foundations? This represents, we believe, one of the key questions for the future. Writing as a transdisciplinary collective assembled from across the classic cognitive science hexagon and beyond, we highlight the opportunity for a figure-ground reversal that puts interaction at the heart of cognition. The interactive stance is a way of seeing that deserves to be a key part of the conceptual toolkit of cognitive scientists.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Marlou Rasenberg
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
| | - Saul Albert
- Discourse and Rhetoric Group, Loughborough University
| | | | - Abeba Birhane
- Mozilla Foundation
- School of Computer Science, University College Dublin
| | - Dimitris Bolis
- Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry
- National Institute for Physiological Sciences
| | - Justine Cassell
- School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
- Paris Artificial Intelligence Research Institute
| | - Rebecca Clift
- Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex
| | - Elena Cuffari
- Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College
| | - Hanne De Jaegher
- IAS-Research Center for Mind, Life and Society, Department of Philosophy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
| | | | - N J Enfield
- Department of Linguistics, The University of Sydney
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science & Semiotics, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
- Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
| | | | - Edwin Hutchins
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego
| | - Ivana Konvalinka
- Section for Cognitive Systems, DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark
| | | | | | | | - Federico Rossano
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego
| | | | - Johanna Seibt
- Research Unit for Robophilosophy and Integrative Social Robotics, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | - Elizabeth Stokoe
- Discourse and Rhetoric Group, Loughborough University
- Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics
| | | | - Cordula Vesper
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science & Semiotics, Aarhus University
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
| | - Thalia Wheatley
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
- Santa Fe Institute
| | - Martina Wiltschko
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Universitat Pompeu Fabra
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20
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Dideriksen C, Christiansen MH, Tylén K, Dingemanse M, Fusaroli R. Quantifying the interplay of conversational devices in building mutual understanding. J Exp Psychol Gen 2022; 152:864-889. [PMID: 36521115 DOI: 10.1037/xge0001301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Humans readily engage in idle chat and heated discussions and negotiate tough joint decisions without ever having to think twice about how to keep the conversation grounded in mutual understanding. However, current attempts at identifying and assessing the conversational devices that make this possible are fragmented across disciplines and investigate single devices within single contexts. We present a comprehensive conceptual framework to investigate conversational devices, their relations, and how they adjust to contextual demands. In two corpus studies, we systematically test the role of three conversational devices: backchannels, repair, and linguistic entrainment. Contrasting affiliative and task-oriented conversations within participants, we find that conversational devices adaptively adjust to the increased need for precision in the latter: We show that low-precision devices such as backchannels are more frequent in affiliative conversations, whereas more costly but higher-precision mechanisms, such as specific repairs, are more frequent in task-oriented conversations. Further, task-oriented conversations involve higher complementarity of contributions in terms of the content and perspective: lower semantic entrainment and less frequent (but richer) lexical and syntactic entrainment. Finally, we show that the observed variations in the use of conversational devices are potentially adaptive: pairs of interlocutors that show stronger linguistic complementarity perform better across the two tasks. By combining motivated comparisons of several conversational contexts and theoretically informed computational analyses of empirical data the present work lays the foundations for a comprehensive conceptual framework for understanding the use of conversational devices in dialogue. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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21
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Rybner A, Jessen ET, Mortensen MD, Larsen SN, Grossman R, Bilenberg N, Cantio C, Jepsen JRM, Weed E, Simonsen A, Fusaroli R. Vocal markers of autism: Assessing the generalizability of machine learning models. Autism Res 2022; 15:1018-1030. [PMID: 35385224 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2021] [Revised: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Machine learning (ML) approaches show increasing promise in their ability to identify vocal markers of autism. Nonetheless, it is unclear to what extent such markers generalize to new speech samples collected, for example, using a different speech task or in a different language. In this paper, we systematically assess the generalizability of ML findings across a variety of contexts. We train promising published ML models of vocal markers of autism on novel cross-linguistic datasets following a rigorous pipeline to minimize overfitting, including cross-validated training and ensemble models. We test the generalizability of the models by testing them on (i) different participants from the same study, performing the same task; (ii) the same participants, performing a different (but similar) task; (iii) a different study with participants speaking a different language, performing the same type of task. While model performance is similar to previously published findings when trained and tested on data from the same study (out-of-sample performance), there is considerable variance between studies. Crucially, the models do not generalize well to different, though similar, tasks and not at all to new languages. The ML pipeline is openly shared. Generalizability of ML models of vocal markers of autism is an issue. We outline three recommendations for strategies researchers could take to be more explicit about generalizability and improve it in future studies. LAY SUMMARY: Machine learning approaches promise to be able to identify autism from voice only. These models underestimate how diverse the contexts in which we speak are, how diverse the languages used are and how diverse autistic voices are. Machine learning approaches need to be more careful in defining their limits and generalizability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Astrid Rybner
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Emil Trenckner Jessen
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Marie Damsgaard Mortensen
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Stine Nyhus Larsen
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Ruth Grossman
- Communication Sciences and Disorders, Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Niels Bilenberg
- Child and Youth Psychiatry, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Cathriona Cantio
- Child and Youth Psychiatry, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.,Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Jens Richardt Møllegaard Jepsen
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Centre, Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Center for Neuropsychiatric Schizophrenia Research and Center for Clinical Intervention and Neuropsychiatric Schizophrenia Research, Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ethan Weed
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Arndis Simonsen
- Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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22
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Nguyen V, Versyp O, Cox C, Fusaroli R. A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis of the development of turn taking in adult-child vocal interactions. Child Dev 2022; 93:1181-1200. [PMID: 35305028 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13754] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Fluent conversation requires temporal organization between conversational exchanges. By performing a systematic review and Bayesian multi-level meta-analysis, we map the trajectory of infants' turn-taking abilities over the course of early development (0 to 70 months). We synthesize the evidence from 26 studies (78 estimates from 429 unique infants, of which at least 152 are female) reporting response latencies in infant-adult dyadic interactions. The data were collected between 1975 and 2019, exclusively in North America and Europe. Infants took on average circa 1 s to respond, and the evidence of changes in response over time was inconclusive. Infants' response latencies are related to those of their adult conversational partners: an increase of 1 s in adult response latency (e.g., 400 to 1400 ms) would be related to an increase of over 1 s in infant response latency (from 600 to 1857 ms). These results highlight the dynamic reciprocity involved in the temporal organization of turn-taking. Based on these results, we provide recommendations for future avenues of enquiry: studies should analyze how turn-by-turn exchanges develop on a longitudinal timescale, with rich assessment of infants' linguistic and social development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vivian Nguyen
- Psychology, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.,Department of Linguistic, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Otto Versyp
- Psychology, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.,Department of Linguistic, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Christopher Cox
- Department of Linguistic, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,The Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Department of Language & Linguistic Science, University of York, York, UK
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistic, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,The Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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23
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Hansen L, Zhang YP, Wolf D, Sechidis K, Ladegaard N, Fusaroli R. A generalizable speech emotion recognition model reveals depression and remission. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2022; 145:186-199. [PMID: 34850386 DOI: 10.1111/acps.13388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2021] [Revised: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 11/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Affective disorders are associated with atypical voice patterns; however, automated voice analyses suffer from small sample sizes and untested generalizability on external data. We investigated a generalizable approach to aid clinical evaluation of depression and remission from voice using transfer learning: We train machine learning models on easily accessible non-clinical datasets and test them on novel clinical data in a different language. METHODS A Mixture of Experts machine learning model was trained to infer happy/sad emotional state using three publicly available emotional speech corpora in German and US English. We examined the model's predictive ability to classify the presence of depression on Danish speaking healthy controls (N = 42), patients with first-episode major depressive disorder (MDD) (N = 40), and the subset of the same patients who entered remission (N = 25) based on recorded clinical interviews. The model was evaluated on raw, de-noised, and speaker-diarized data. RESULTS The model showed separation between healthy controls and depressed patients at the first visit, obtaining an AUC of 0.71. Further, speech from patients in remission was indistinguishable from that of the control group. Model predictions were stable throughout the interview, suggesting that 20-30 s of speech might be enough to accurately screen a patient. Background noise (but not speaker diarization) heavily impacted predictions. CONCLUSION A generalizable speech emotion recognition model can effectively reveal changes in speaker depressive states before and after remission in patients with MDD. Data collection settings and data cleaning are crucial when considering automated voice analysis for clinical purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lasse Hansen
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Department of Affective Disorders, Aarhus University Hospital - Psychiatry, Aarhus, Denmark.,Center for Humanities Computing Aarhus, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Roche Pharmaceutical Research & Early Development Informatics, Roche Innovation Center Basel, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Basel, Switzerland
| | - Yan-Ping Zhang
- Roche Pharmaceutical Research & Early Development Informatics, Roche Innovation Center Basel, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Basel, Switzerland
| | - Detlef Wolf
- Roche Pharmaceutical Research & Early Development Informatics, Roche Innovation Center Basel, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Basel, Switzerland
| | | | - Nicolai Ladegaard
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Department of Affective Disorders, Aarhus University Hospital - Psychiatry, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Cognitive Science, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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24
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Fusaroli R, Grossman R, Bilenberg N, Cantio C, Jepsen JRM, Weed E. Toward a cumulative science of vocal markers of autism: A cross-linguistic meta-analysis-based investigation of acoustic markers in American and Danish autistic children. Autism Res 2021; 15:653-664. [PMID: 34957701 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2021] [Revised: 11/11/2021] [Accepted: 12/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Acoustic atypicalities in speech production are argued to be potential markers of clinical features in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A recent meta-analysis highlighted shortcomings in the field, in particular small sample sizes and study heterogeneity. We showcase a cumulative (i.e., explicitly building on previous studies both conceptually and statistically) yet self-correcting (i.e., critically assessing the impact of cumulative statistical techniques) approach to prosody in ASD to overcome these issues. We relied on the recommendations contained in the meta-analysis to build and analyze a cross-linguistic corpus of multiple speech productions in 77 autistic and 72 neurotypical children and adolescents (>1000 recordings in Danish and US English). We used meta-analytically informed and skeptical priors, with informed priors leading to more generalizable inference. We replicated findings of a minimal cross-linguistically reliable distinctive acoustic profile for ASD (higher pitch and longer pauses) with moderate effect sizes. We identified novel reliable differences between the two groups for normalized amplitude quotient, maxima dispersion quotient, and creakiness. However, the differences were small, and there is likely no one acoustic profile characterizing all autistic individuals. We identified reliable relations of acoustic features with individual differences (age, gender), and clinical features (speech rate and ADOS sub-scores). Besides cumulatively building our understanding of acoustic atypicalities in ASD, the study shows how to use systematic reviews and meta-analyses to guide the design and analysis of follow-up studies. We indicate future directions: larger and more diverse cross-linguistic datasets, focus on heterogeneity, self-critical cumulative approaches, and open science. LAY SUMMARY: Autistic individuals are reported to speak in distinctive ways. Distinctive vocal production can affect social interactions and social development and could represent a noninvasive way to support the assessment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We systematically checked whether acoustic atypicalities highlighted in previous articles could be actually found across multiple recordings and two languages. We find a minimal acoustic profile of ASD: higher pitch, longer pauses, increased hoarseness and creakiness of the voice. However, there is much individual variability (by age, sex, language, and clinical characteristics). This suggests that the search for one common "autistic voice" might be naive and more fine-grained approaches are needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Ruth Grossman
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Niels Bilenberg
- Child and Youth Psychiatry, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Cathriona Cantio
- Child and Youth Psychiatry, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.,Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Jens Richardt Møllegaard Jepsen
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Centre, Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Center for Neuropsychiatric Schizophrenia Research and Center for Clinical Intervention and Neuropsychiatric Schizophrenia Research, Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ethan Weed
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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25
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Cox CMM, Keren-Portnoy T, Roepstorff A, Fusaroli R. A Bayesian meta-analysis of infants' ability to perceive audio-visual congruence for speech. Infancy 2021; 27:67-96. [PMID: 34542230 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2020] [Revised: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
This paper quantifies the extent to which infants can perceive audio-visual congruence for speech information and assesses whether this ability changes with native language exposure over time. A hierarchical Bayesian robust regression model of 92 separate effect sizes extracted from 24 studies indicates a moderate effect size in a positive direction (0.35, CI [0.21: 0.50]). This result suggests that infants possess a robust ability to detect audio-visual congruence for speech. Moderator analyses, moreover, suggest that infants' audio-visual matching ability for speech emerges at an early point in the process of language acquisition and remains stable for both native and non-native speech throughout early development. A sensitivity analysis of the meta-analytic data, however, indicates that a moderate publication bias for significant results could shift the lower credible interval to include null effects. Based on these findings, we outline recommendations for new lines of enquiry and suggest ways to improve the replicability of results in future investigations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Martin Mikkelsen Cox
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, Heslington, UK
| | - Tamar Keren-Portnoy
- Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, Heslington, UK
| | - Andreas Roepstorff
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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26
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Simonsen A, Fusaroli R, Petersen ML, Vermillet AQ, Bliksted V, Mors O, Roepstorff A, Campbell-Meiklejohn D. Taking others into account: combining directly experienced and indirect information in schizophrenia. Brain 2021; 144:1603-1614. [PMID: 33829262 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awab065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2020] [Revised: 12/11/2020] [Accepted: 01/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
An abnormality in inference, resulting in distorted internal models of the world, has been argued to be a common mechanism underlying the heterogeneous psychopathology in schizophrenia. However, findings have been mixed as to wherein the abnormality lies and have typically failed to find convincing relations to symptoms. The limited and inconsistent findings may have been due to methodological limitations of the experimental design, such as conflating other factors (e.g. comprehension) with the inferential process of interest, and a failure to adequately assess and model the key aspects of the inferential process. Here, we investigated probabilistic inference based on multiple sources of information using a new digital version of the beads task, framed in a social context. Thirty-five patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder with a wide range of symptoms and 40 matched healthy control subjects performed the task, where they guessed the colour of the next marble drawn from a jar based on a sample from the jar as well as the choices and the expressed confidence of four people, each with their own independent sample (which was hidden from participant view). We relied on theoretically motivated computational models to assess which model best captured the inferential process and investigated whether it could serve as a mechanistic model for both psychotic and negative symptoms. We found that 'circular inference' best described the inference process, where patients over-weighed and overcounted direct experience and under-weighed information from others. Crucially, overcounting of direct experience was uniquely associated with most psychotic and negative symptoms. In addition, patients with worse social cognitive function had more difficulties using others' confidence to inform their choices. This difficulty was related to worse real-world functioning. The findings could not be easily ascribed to differences in working memory, executive function, intelligence or antipsychotic medication. These results suggest hallucinations, delusions and negative symptoms could stem from a common underlying abnormality in inference, where directly experienced information is assigned an unreasonable weight and taken into account multiple times. By this, even unreliable first-hand experiences may gain disproportionate significance. The effect could lead to false perceptions (hallucinations), false beliefs (delusions) and deviant social behaviour (e.g. loss of interest in others, bizarre and inappropriate behaviour). This may be particularly problematic for patients with social cognitive deficits, as they may fail to make use of corrective information from others, ultimately leading to worse social functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arndis Simonsen
- Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark.,The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark.,The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.,Psykiatriski depilin, Landssjúkrahúsið, 100 Tórshavn, Faroe Islands.,Ílegusavnið, 100 Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.,Cognitive Science, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Malte Lau Petersen
- The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Arnault-Quentin Vermillet
- The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.,Cognitive Science, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Vibeke Bliksted
- Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark.,The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark.,The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Ole Mors
- Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark.,The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Andreas Roepstorff
- The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
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27
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Bryant GA, Wang CS, Fusaroli R. Recognizing affiliation in colaughter and cospeech. R Soc Open Sci 2020; 7:201092. [PMID: 33204467 PMCID: PMC7657881 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.201092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 09/01/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Theories of vocal signalling in humans typically only consider communication within the interactive group and ignore intergroup dynamics. Recent work has found that colaughter generated between pairs of people in conversation can afford accurate judgements of affiliation across widely disparate cultures, and the acoustic features that listeners use to make these judgements are linked to speaker arousal. But to what extent does colaughter inform third party listeners beyond other dynamic information between interlocutors such as overlapping talk? We presented listeners with short segments (1-3 s) of colaughter and simultaneous speech (i.e. cospeech) taken from natural conversations between established friends and newly acquainted strangers. Participants judged whether the pairs of interactants in the segments were friends or strangers. Colaughter afforded more accurate judgements of affiliation than did cospeech, despite cospeech being over twice in duration relative to colaughter on average. Sped-up versions of colaughter and cospeech (proxies of speaker arousal) did not improve accuracy for either identifying friends or strangers, but faster versions of both modes increased the likelihood of tokens being judged as being between friends. Overall, results are consistent with research showing that laughter is well suited to transmit rich information about social relationships to third party overhearers-a signal that works between, and not just within conversational groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregory A. Bryant
- Department of Communication, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Christine S. Wang
- Department of Communication, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Communication and Culture, Aarhus UniversityDenmark
- Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus UniversityDenmark
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28
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Abstract
Purpose The aim of the study was to use systematic review and meta-analysis to quantitatively assess the currently available acoustic evidence for prosodic production impairments as a result of right-hemisphere damage (RHD), as well as to develop methodological recommendations for future studies. Method We systematically reviewed papers reporting acoustic features of prosodic production in RHD in order to identify shortcomings in the literature and make recommendations for future studies. We estimated the meta-analytic effect size of the acoustic features. We extracted standardized mean differences from 16 papers and estimated aggregated effect sizes using hierarchical Bayesian regression models. Results RHD did present reduced fundamental frequency variation, but the trait was shared with left-hemisphere damage. RHD also presented evidence for increased pause duration. No meta-analytic evidence for an effect of prosody type (emotional vs. linguistic) was found. Conclusions Taken together, the currently available acoustic data show only a weak specific effect of RHD on prosody production. However, the results are not definitive, as more reliable analyses are hindered by small sample sizes, lack of detail on lesion location, and divergent measuring techniques. We propose recommendations to overcome these issues: Cumulative science practices (e.g., open data and code sharing), more nuanced speech signal processing techniques, and the integration of acoustic measures and perceptual judgments are recommended to more effectively investigate prosody in RHD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ethan Weed
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark
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29
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Tylén K, Fusaroli R, Rojo S, Heimann K, Fay N, Johannsen NN, Riede F, Lombard M. The evolution of early symbolic behavior in Homo sapiens. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:4578-4584. [PMID: 32071236 PMCID: PMC7060673 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1910880117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
How did human symbolic behavior evolve? Dating up to about 100,000 y ago, the engraved ochre and ostrich eggshell fragments from the South African Blombos Cave and Diepkloof Rock Shelter provide a unique window into presumed early symbolic traditions of Homo sapiens and how they evolved over a period of more than 30,000 y. Using the engravings as stimuli, we report five experiments which suggest that the engravings evolved adaptively, becoming better-suited for human perception and cognition. More specifically, they became more salient, memorable, reproducible, and expressive of style and human intent. However, they did not become more discriminable over time between or within the two archeological sites. Our observations provide support for an account of the Blombos and Diepkloof engravings as decorations and as socially transmitted cultural traditions. By contrast, there was no clear indication that they served as denotational symbolic signs. Our findings have broad implications for our understanding of early symbolic communication and cognition in H. sapiens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristian Tylén
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark;
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Sergio Rojo
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Katrin Heimann
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Nicolas Fay
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Niels N Johannsen
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark
| | - Felix Riede
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark
| | - Marlize Lombard
- Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, 2006 Johannesburg, South Africa
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30
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Parola A, Simonsen A, Bliksted V, Fusaroli R. Voice patterns in schizophrenia: A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis. Schizophr Res 2020; 216:24-40. [PMID: 31839552 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2019.11.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Revised: 09/13/2019] [Accepted: 11/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Voice atypicalities have been a characteristic feature of schizophrenia since its first definitions. They are often associated with core negative symptoms such as flat affect and alogia, and with the social impairments seen in the disorder. This suggests that voice atypicalities may represent a marker of clinical features and social functioning in schizophrenia. We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed the evidence for distinctive acoustic patterns in schizophrenia, as well as their relation to clinical features. We identified 46 articles, including 55 studies with a total of 1254 patients with schizophrenia and 699 healthy controls. Summary effect sizes (Hedges'g and Pearson's r) estimates were calculated using multilevel Bayesian modeling. We identified weak atypicalities in pitch variability (g = -0.55) related to flat affect, and stronger atypicalities in proportion of spoken time, speech rate, and pauses (g's between -0.75 and -1.89) related to alogia and flat affect. However, the effects were mostly modest (with the important exception of pause duration) compared to perceptual and clinical judgments, and characterized by large heterogeneity between studies. Moderator analyses revealed that tasks with a more demanding cognitive and social component showed larger effects both in contrasting patients and controls and in assessing symptomatology. In conclusion, studies of acoustic patterns are a promising but, yet unsystematic avenue for establishing markers of schizophrenia. We outline recommendations towards more cumulative, open, and theory-driven research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Arndis Simonsen
- Psychosis Research Unit - Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Center - School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Vibeke Bliksted
- Psychosis Research Unit - Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Center - School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- The Interacting Minds Center - School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark; Department of Linguistics, Semiotics and Cognitive Science - School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark
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Abstract
Linguistic alignment (LA) is the tendency during a conversation to reuse each other's linguistic expressions, including lexical, conceptual, or syntactic structures. LA is often argued to be a crucial driver in reciprocal understanding and interpersonal rapport, though its precise dynamics and effects are still controversial. One barrier to more systematic investigation of these effects lies in the diversity in the methods employed to analyze LA, which makes it difficult to integrate and compare results of individual studies. To overcome this issue, we have developed ALIGN (Analyzing Linguistic Interactions with Generalizable techNiques), an open-source Python package to measure LA in conversation (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/align) along with in-depth open-source tutorials hosted on ALIGN's GitHub repository (https://github.com/nickduran/align-linguistic-alignment). Here, we first describe the challenges in the study of LA and outline how ALIGN can address them. We then demonstrate how our analytical protocol can be applied to theory-driven questions using a complex corpus of dialogue (the Devil's Advocate corpus; Duran & Fusaroli, 2017). We close by identifying further challenges and point to future developments of the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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Fusaroli R, Weed E, Fein D, Naigles L. Hearing me hearing you: Reciprocal effects between child and parent language in autism and typical development. Cognition 2019; 183:1-18. [PMID: 30396129 PMCID: PMC6322977 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.10.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2017] [Revised: 09/04/2018] [Accepted: 10/27/2018] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Language development in typically developing children (TD) has traditionally been investigated in relation to environmental factors, while language in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has primarily been related to child-based factors. We employ a longitudinal corpus of 32 preschoolers with ASD and 35 linguistically matched TD peers recorded over 6 visits (ranging between 2 and 5 years of age) to investigate the relative importance of child-based and environmental factors in language development for both populations. We also investigate the reciprocal interaction between children's response to parents' input, and parents' response to children's production. We report six major findings. (1) Children's production of word types, tokens, and MLU increased across visits, and were predicted by their Expressive Language (EL) (positively) and diagnosis (negatively) from Visit 1. (2) Parents' production also increased across visits, and was predicted by their child's nonverbal cognition (positively) and diagnosis (negatively) from Visit 1. (3) At all visits and across groups, children and parents matched each other in lexical and syntactic production; (4) Parents who produced longer MLUs during a given visit had children who produced more word types and tokens, and had longer MLUs, at the subsequent visit. (5) When both child EL at Visit 1 and parent MLU were included in the model, both contributed significantly to future child language; however, EL accounted for a greater proportion of the variance. (6) Finally, children's speech significantly predicted parent speech at the next visit. Taken together, these results draw more attention to the importance of child-based factors in the early language development of TD children, and to the importance of parental language factors in the early language development of children with ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Fusaroli
- Institute of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Ethan Weed
- Institute of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Deborah Fein
- Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 06269-1020, United States
| | - Letitia Naigles
- Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 06269-1020, United States
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Simonsen A, Fusaroli R, Skewes JC, Roepstorff A, Campbell-Meiklejohn D, Mors O, Bliksted V. Enhanced Automatic Action Imitation and Intact Imitation-Inhibition in Schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 2019; 45:87-95. [PMID: 29474687 PMCID: PMC6293210 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sby006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Imitation plays a key role in social learning and in facilitating social interactions and likely constitutes a basic building block of social cognition that supports higher-level social abilities. Recent findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia have imitation impairments that could contribute to the social impairments associated with the disorder. However, extant studies have specifically assessed voluntary imitation or automatic imitation of emotional stimuli without controlling for potential confounders. The imitation impairments seen might therefore be secondary to other cognitive, motoric, or emotional deficits associated with the disorder. To overcome this issue, we used an automatic imitation paradigm with nonemotional stimuli to assess automatic imitation and the top-down modulation of imitation where participants were required to lift one of 2 fingers according to a number shown on the screen while observing the same or the other finger movement. In addition, we used a control task with a visual cue in place of a moving finger, to isolate the effect of observing finger movement from other visual cueing effects. Data from 33 patients (31 medicated) and 40 matched healthy controls were analyzed. Patients displayed enhanced imitation and intact top-down modulation of imitation. The enhanced imitation seen in patients may have been medication induced as larger effects were seen in patients receiving higher antipsychotic doses. In sum, we did not find an imitation impairment in schizophrenia. The results suggest that previous findings of impaired imitation in schizophrenia might have been due to other cognitive, motoric, and/or emotional deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arndis Simonsen
- Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital, Risskov, Denmark,The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, Aarhus, Denmark,The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark,Department of Clinical Medicine, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus, Denmark,The Psychiatric Centre, Landssjúkrahúsið, National Hospital of the Faroe Islands, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands,Ílegusavnið, The Genetic Biobank of the Faroe Islands, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands,To whom correspondence should be addressed; Psychosis Research Unit, The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research (iPSYCH), Aarhus University Hospital, Risskov (AUHR), Skovagervej 2, 8240 Risskov, Denmark; tel: +45-29425875, fax: +45-78471609, e-mail:
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Joshua Charles Skewes
- The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Andreas Roepstorff
- The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark,Department of Clinical Medicine, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus, Denmark
| | | | - Ole Mors
- Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital, Risskov, Denmark,The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Vibeke Bliksted
- Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital, Risskov, Denmark,The Interacting Minds Centre, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark,Department of Clinical Medicine, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus, Denmark
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Nölle J, Staib M, Fusaroli R, Tylén K. The emergence of systematicity: How environmental and communicative factors shape a novel communication system. Cognition 2018; 181:93-104. [PMID: 30173106 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.08.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2018] [Revised: 08/22/2018] [Accepted: 08/22/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Where does linguistic structure come from? We suggest that systematicity in language evolves adaptively in response to environmental and contextual affordances associated with the practice of communication itself. In two experiments, we used a silent gesture referential game paradigm to investigate environmental and social factors promoting the propagation of systematicity in a novel communication system. We found that structure in the emerging communication systems evolve contingent on structural properties of the environment. More specifically, interlocutors spontaneously relied on structural features of the referent stimuli they communicated about to motivate systematic aspects of the evolving communication system even when idiosyncratic iconic strategies were equally afforded. Furthermore, we found systematicity to be promoted by the nature of the referent environment. When the referent environment was open and unstable, analytic systematic strategies were more likely to emerge compared to stimulus environments with a closed set of referents. Lastly, we found that displacement of communication promoted systematicity. That is, when interlocutors had to communicate about items not immediately present in the moment of communication, they were more likely to evolve systematic solutions, supposedly due to working memory advantages. Together, our findings provide experimental evidence for the idea that linguistic structure evolves adaptively from contextually situated language use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Nölle
- Centre for Language Evolution, The University of Edinburgh, Dugald Stewart Building, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AD, Scotland, United Kingdom; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Marlene Staib
- The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Kristian Tylén
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
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35
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Bryant GA, Fessler DMT, Fusaroli R, Clint E, Amir D, Chávez B, Denton KK, Díaz C, Duran LT, Fanćovićová J, Fux M, Ginting EF, Hasan Y, Hu A, Kamble SV, Kameda T, Kuroda K, Li NP, Luberti FR, Peyravi R, Prokop P, Quintelier KJP, Shin HJ, Stieger S, Sugiyama LS, van den Hende EA, Viciana-Asensio H, Yildizhan SE, Yong JC, Yuditha T, Zhou Y. The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies. Psychol Sci 2018; 29:1515-1525. [DOI: 10.1177/0956797618778235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Laughter is a nonverbal vocalization occurring in every known culture, ubiquitous across all forms of human social interaction. Here, we examined whether listeners around the world, irrespective of their own native language and culture, can distinguish between spontaneous laughter and volitional laughter—laugh types likely generated by different vocal-production systems. Using a set of 36 recorded laughs produced by female English speakers in tests involving 884 participants from 21 societies across six regions of the world, we asked listeners to determine whether each laugh was real or fake, and listeners differentiated between the two laugh types with an accuracy of 56% to 69%. Acoustic analysis revealed that sound features associated with arousal in vocal production predicted listeners’ judgments fairly uniformly across societies. These results demonstrate high consistency across cultures in laughter judgments, underscoring the potential importance of nonverbal vocal communicative phenomena in human affiliation and cooperation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregory A. Bryant
- Department of Communication, University of California, Los Angeles
- UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Daniel M. T. Fessler
- UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University
- Department of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
| | - Edward Clint
- UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Dorsa Amir
- Department of Anthropology, Yale University
| | - Brenda Chávez
- Department of Psychology, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru
| | - Kaleda K. Denton
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Cinthya Díaz
- Department of Psychology, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru
| | | | | | - Michal Fux
- Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, University of South Africa
| | - Erni Farida Ginting
- Jakarta Field Station, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Jakarta, Indonesia
- Faculty of Literature, Al Azhar Indonesia University
| | | | - Anning Hu
- Department of Sociology, Fudan University
| | | | | | - Kiri Kuroda
- Department of Social Psychology, University of Tokyo
| | - Norman P. Li
- School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University
| | | | - Raha Peyravi
- Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University
| | - Pavol Prokop
- Department of Biology, University of Trnava
- Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
| | | | | | - Stefan Stieger
- School of Psychology, University of Vienna
- Department of Psychology, Karl-Landsteiner University of Health Sciences
| | | | | | | | - Saliha Elif Yildizhan
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University
| | - Jose C. Yong
- School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University
| | - Tessa Yuditha
- Jakarta Field Station, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Jakarta, Indonesia
- Department of Education, Atma Jaya Catholic University
| | - Yi Zhou
- Department of Sociology, Fudan University
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36
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Fay N, Ellison TM, Tylén K, Fusaroli R, Walker B, Garrod S. Applying the cultural ratchet to a social artefact: The cumulative cultural evolution of a language game. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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37
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Abstract
This study investigates the presence of dynamical patterns of interpersonal coordination in extended deceptive conversations across multimodal channels of behavior. Using a novel "devil's advocate" paradigm, we experimentally elicited deception and truth across topics in which conversational partners either agreed or disagreed, and where one partner was surreptitiously asked to argue an opinion opposite of what he or she really believed. We focus on interpersonal coordination as an emergent behavioral signal that captures interdependencies between conversational partners, both as the coupling of head movements over the span of milliseconds, measured via a windowed lagged cross correlation (WLCC) technique, and more global temporal dependencies across speech rate, using cross recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA). Moreover, we considered how interpersonal coordination might be shaped by strategic, adaptive conversational goals associated with deception. We found that deceptive conversations displayed more structured speech rate and higher head movement coordination, the latter with a peak in deceptive disagreement conversations. Together the results allow us to posit an adaptive account, whereby interpersonal coordination is not beholden to any single functional explanation, but can strategically adapt to diverse conversational demands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas D. Duran
- School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University, Glendale, Arizona, United States of America
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38
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Pedersen HF, Fusaroli R, Lauridsen LL, Parrila R. Reading Processes of University Students with Dyslexia - An Examination of the Relationship between Oral Reading and Reading Comprehension. Dyslexia 2016; 22:305-321. [PMID: 27730707 DOI: 10.1002/dys.1542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of oral reading and how it relates to reading comprehension in students with dyslexia. A group of Danish university students with dyslexia (n = 16) and a comparison group of students with no history of reading problems (n = 16) were assessed on their oral reading performance when reading a complex text. Along with reading speed, we measured not only the number and quality of reading errors but also the extent and semantic nature of the self-corrections during reading. The reading comprehension was measured through aided text retellings. The results showed that, as a group, the dyslexics performed poorer on most measures, but there were notable within-group differences in the reading behaviours and little association between how well university students with dyslexia read aloud and comprehended the text. These findings suggest that many dyslexics in higher education tend to focus their attention on one subcomponent of the reading process, for example, decoding or comprehension, because engaging in both simultaneously may be too demanding for them. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Rauno Parrila
- Centre on Developmental and Learning Disabilities, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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39
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Zubek J, Denkiewicz M, Dębska A, Radkowska A, Komorowska-Mach J, Litwin P, Stępień M, Kucińska A, Sitarska E, Komorowska K, Fusaroli R, Tylén K, Rączaszek-Leonardi J. Performance of Language-Coordinated Collective Systems: A Study of Wine Recognition and Description. Front Psychol 2016; 7:1321. [PMID: 27729875 PMCID: PMC5037268 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2016] [Accepted: 08/18/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Most of our perceptions of and engagements with the world are shaped by our immersion in social interactions, cultural traditions, tools and linguistic categories. In this study we experimentally investigate the impact of two types of language-based coordination on the recognition and description of complex sensory stimuli: that of red wine. Participants were asked to taste, remember and successively recognize samples of wines within a larger set in a two-by-two experimental design: (1) either individually or in pairs, and (2) with or without the support of a sommelier card—a cultural linguistic tool designed for wine description. Both effectiveness of recognition and the kinds of errors in the four conditions were analyzed. While our experimental manipulations did not impact recognition accuracy, bias-variance decomposition of error revealed non-trivial differences in how participants solved the task. Pairs generally displayed reduced bias and increased variance compared to individuals, however the variance dropped significantly when they used the sommelier card. The effect of sommelier card reducing the variance was observed only in pairs, individuals did not seem to benefit from the cultural linguistic tool. Analysis of descriptions generated with the aid of sommelier cards shows that pairs were more coherent and discriminative than individuals. The findings are discussed in terms of global properties and dynamics of collective systems when constrained by different types of cultural practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julian Zubek
- Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw, Poland
| | | | - Agnieszka Dębska
- Faculty of Psychology, University of WarsawWarsaw, Poland; Laboratory of Psychophysiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of ScienceWarsaw, Poland
| | | | - Joanna Komorowska-Mach
- Institute of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Warsaw Warsaw, Poland
| | - Piotr Litwin
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw Warsaw, Poland
| | | | | | - Ewa Sitarska
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw Warsaw, Poland
| | | | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus UniversityAarhus, Denmark; Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus UniversityAarhus, Denmark
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40
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Fusaroli R, Lambrechts A, Bang D, Bowler DM, Gaigg SB. “Is voice a marker for Autism spectrum disorder? A systematic review and meta-analysis”. Autism Res 2016; 10:384-407. [DOI: 10.1002/aur.1678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2016] [Revised: 06/24/2016] [Accepted: 07/01/2016] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Dan Bang
- The Interacting Minds Centre; Aarhus University; Aarhus Denmark
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging; Institute of Neurology, University College London; London UK
- Calleva Research Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences; Magdalen College, University of Oxford; Oxford UK
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41
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Tylén K, Philipsen JS, Roepstorff A, Fusaroli R. Trails of meaning construction: Symbolic artifacts engage the social brain. Neuroimage 2016; 134:105-112. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.03.056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2016] [Revised: 02/24/2016] [Accepted: 03/21/2016] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
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Michael J, Bogart K, Tylén K, Krueger J, Bech M, Østergaard JR, Fusaroli R. Training in Compensatory Strategies Enhances Rapport in Interactions Involving People with Möbius Syndrome. Front Neurol 2015; 6:213. [PMID: 26500605 PMCID: PMC4597112 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2015.00213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2015] [Accepted: 09/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In the exploratory study reported here, we tested the efficacy of an intervention designed to train teenagers with Möbius syndrome (MS) to increase the use of alternative communication strategies (e.g., gestures) to compensate for their lack of facial expressivity. Specifically, we expected the intervention to increase the level of rapport experienced in social interactions by our participants. In addition, we aimed to identify the mechanisms responsible for any such increase in rapport. In the study, five teenagers with MS interacted with three naïve participants without MS before the intervention, and with three different naïve participants without MS after the intervention. Rapport was assessed by self-report and by behavioral coders who rated videos of the interactions. Individual non-verbal behavior was assessed via behavioral coders, whereas verbal behavior was automatically extracted from the sound files. Alignment was assessed using cross recurrence quantification analysis and mixed-effects models. The results showed that observer-coded rapport was greater after the intervention, whereas self-reported rapport did not change significantly. Observer-coded gesture and expressivity increased in participants with and without MS, whereas overall linguistic alignment decreased. Fidgeting and repetitiveness of verbal behavior also decreased in both groups. In sum, the intervention may impact non-verbal and verbal behavior in participants with and without MS, increasing rapport as well as overall gesturing, while decreasing alignment.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Michael
- Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
- Center for Subjectivity Research, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Kathleen Bogart
- School of Psychological Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Joel Krueger
- Department of Sociology, Philosophy, and Anthropology, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Morten Bech
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | | | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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43
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Christensen P, Fusaroli R, Tylén K. Environmental constraints shaping constituent order in emerging communication systems: Structural iconicity, interactive alignment and conventionalization. Cognition 2015; 146:67-80. [PMID: 26402649 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.09.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2014] [Revised: 07/23/2015] [Accepted: 09/06/2015] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Where does linguistic structure come from? Recent gesture elicitation studies have indicated that constituent order (corresponding to for instance subject-verb-object, or SVO in English) may be heavily influenced by human cognitive biases constraining gesture production and transmission. Here we explore the alternative hypothesis that syntactic patterns are motivated by multiple environmental and social-interactional constraints that are external to the cognitive domain. In three experiments, we systematically investigate different motivations for structure in the gestural communication of simple transitive events. The first experiment indicates that, if participants communicate about different types of events, manipulation events (e.g. someone throwing a cake) and construction events (e.g. someone baking a cake), they spontaneously and systematically produce different constituent orders, SOV and SVO respectively, thus following the principle of structural iconicity. The second experiment shows that participants' choice of constituent order is also reliably influenced by social-interactional forces of interactive alignment, that is, the tendency to re-use an interlocutor's previous choice of constituent order, thus potentially overriding affordances for iconicity. Lastly, the third experiment finds that the relative frequency distribution of referent event types motivates the stabilization and conventionalization of a single constituent order for the communication of different types of events. Together, our results demonstrate that constituent order in emerging gestural communication systems is shaped and stabilized in response to multiple external environmental and social factors: structural iconicity, interactive alignment and distributional frequency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peer Christensen
- Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Helgonabacken 12, 221 00 Lund, Sweden; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Center for Semiotics, Department for Aesthetics and Communication, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Center for Semiotics, Department for Aesthetics and Communication, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
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44
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Fusaroli R, Tylén K. Investigating Conversational Dynamics: Interactive Alignment, Interpersonal Synergy, and Collective Task Performance. Cogn Sci 2015; 40:145-71. [PMID: 25988263 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2013] [Revised: 07/30/2014] [Accepted: 11/12/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
This study investigates interpersonal processes underlying dialog by comparing two approaches, interactive alignment and interpersonal synergy, and assesses how they predict collective performance in a joint task. While the interactive alignment approach highlights imitative patterns between interlocutors, the synergy approach points to structural organization at the level of the interaction-such as complementary patterns straddling speech turns and interlocutors. We develop a general, quantitative method to assess lexical, prosodic, and speech/pause patterns related to the two approaches and their impact on collective performance in a corpus of task-oriented conversations. The results show statistical presence of patterns relevant for both approaches. However, synergetic aspects of dialog provide the best statistical predictors of collective performance and adding aspects of the alignment approach does not improve the model. This suggests that structural organization at the level of the interaction plays a crucial role in task-oriented conversations, possibly constraining and integrating processes related to alignment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Fusaroli
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University.,The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University.,The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
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45
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Abstract
The past two decades have seen an upsurge of interest in the collective behaviors of complex systems composed of many agents entrained to each other and to external events. In this paper, we extend the concept of entrainment to the dynamics of human collective attention. We conducted a detailed investigation of the unfolding of human entrainment--as expressed by the content and patterns of hundreds of thousands of messages on Twitter--during the 2012 US presidential debates. By time-locking these data sources, we quantify the impact of the unfolding debate on human attention at three time scales. We show that collective social behavior covaries second-by-second to the interactional dynamics of the debates: A candidate speaking induces rapid increases in mentions of his name on social media and decreases in mentions of the other candidate. Moreover, interruptions by an interlocutor increase the attention received. We also highlight a distinct time scale for the impact of salient content during the debates: Across well-known remarks in each debate, mentions in social media start within 5-10 seconds after it occurs; peak at approximately one minute; and slowly decay in a consistent fashion across well-known events during the debates. Finally, we show that public attention after an initial burst slowly decays through the course of the debates. Thus we demonstrate that large-scale human entrainment may hold across a number of distinct scales, in an exquisitely time-locked fashion. The methods and results pave the way for careful study of the dynamics and mechanisms of large-scale human entrainment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Fusaroli
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Marcus Perlman
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Alan Mislove
- College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Alexandra Paxton
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, California, United States of America
| | - Teenie Matlock
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, California, United States of America
| | - Rick Dale
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, California, United States of America
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Bjørndahl JS, Fusaroli R, Østergaard S, Tylén K. Thinking together with material representations: Joint epistemic actions in creative problem solving. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2014. [DOI: 10.1515/cogsem-2014-0006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
How do material representations such as models, diagrams, and drawings come to shape and aid collective, epistemic processes? This study investigated how groups of participants spontaneously recruited material objects (in this case, LEGO blocks) to support collective creative processes in the context of an experiment. Qualitative microanalyses of the group interactions motivate a taxonomy of different roles that the material representations play in the joint epistemic processes: illustration, elaboration, and exploration. Firstly, the LEGO blocks were used to illustrate already well-formed ideas in support of communication and epistemic alignment. Furthermore, the material concretization of otherwise abstract ideas in LEGO blocks gave rise to elaboration: discussions, requests for clarification, and discovery of unnoticed conceptual disagreements. Lastly, the LEGO blocks were used for exploration. That is, the material representations were experimented on and physical attributes were explored resulting in discoveries of new meaning potentials and creative solutions. We discuss these different ways in which material representations do their work in collective reasoning processes in relation to ideas about top-down and bottom-up cognitive processes and division of cognitive labor.
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Abney DH, Dale R, Yoshimi J, Kello CT, Tylén K, Fusaroli R. Joint perceptual decision-making: a case study in explanatory pluralism. Front Psychol 2014; 5:330. [PMID: 24795679 PMCID: PMC4006048 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00330] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2014] [Accepted: 03/30/2014] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Traditionally different approaches to the study of cognition have been viewed as competing explanatory frameworks. An alternative view, explanatory pluralism, regards different approaches to the study of cognition as complementary ways of studying the same phenomenon, at specific temporal and spatial scales, using appropriate methodological tools. Explanatory pluralism has been often described abstractly, but has rarely been applied to concrete cases. We present a case study of explanatory pluralism. We discuss three separate ways of studying the same phenomenon: a perceptual decision-making task (Bahrami et al., 2010), where pairs of subjects share information to jointly individuate an oddball stimulus among a set of distractors. Each approach analyzed the same corpus but targeted different units of analysis at different levels of description: decision-making at the behavioral level, confidence sharing at the linguistic level, and acoustic energy at the physical level. We discuss the utility of explanatory pluralism for describing this complex, multiscale phenomenon, show ways in which this case study sheds new light on the concept of pluralism, and highlight good practices to critically assess and complement approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Drew H. Abney
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of CaliforniaMerced, CA, USA
| | - Rick Dale
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of CaliforniaMerced, CA, USA
| | - Jeff Yoshimi
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of CaliforniaMerced, CA, USA
| | - Chris T. Kello
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of CaliforniaMerced, CA, USA
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus UniversityAarhus, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus UniversityAarhus, Denmark
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus UniversityAarhus, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus UniversityAarhus, Denmark
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Bang D, Fusaroli R, Tylén K, Olsen K, Latham PE, Lau JYF, Roepstorff A, Rees G, Frith CD, Bahrami B. Does interaction matter? Testing whether a confidence heuristic can replace interaction in collective decision-making. Conscious Cogn 2014; 26:13-23. [PMID: 24650632 PMCID: PMC4029078 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2013] [Revised: 10/13/2013] [Accepted: 02/14/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
We tested whether a confidence heuristic could replace interaction in a collective perceptual decision-making task. For individuals of nearly equal reliability, the confidence heuristic is just as accurate as interaction. For individuals with different reliabilities, the confidence heuristic is less accurate than interaction. Interacting individuals use the credibility of each other’s confidence estimates to guide their joint decisions. Interacting individuals face a problem of how to map ‘internal’ variables onto ‘external’ (shareable) variables.
In a range of contexts, individuals arrive at collective decisions by sharing confidence in their judgements. This tendency to evaluate the reliability of information by the confidence with which it is expressed has been termed the ‘confidence heuristic’. We tested two ways of implementing the confidence heuristic in the context of a collective perceptual decision-making task: either directly, by opting for the judgement made with higher confidence, or indirectly, by opting for the faster judgement, exploiting an inverse correlation between confidence and reaction time. We found that the success of these heuristics depends on how similar individuals are in terms of the reliability of their judgements and, more importantly, that for dissimilar individuals such heuristics are dramatically inferior to interaction. Interaction allows individuals to alleviate, but not fully resolve, differences in the reliability of their judgements. We discuss the implications of these findings for models of confidence and collective decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Bang
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, United Kingdom; Calleva Research Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences, Magdalen College, High Street, Oxford OX1 4AU, United Kingdom.
| | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, Building 1484, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Kristian Tylén
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, Building 1484, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Karsten Olsen
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Peter E Latham
- Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom
| | - Jennifer Y F Lau
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, United Kingdom; Calleva Research Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences, Magdalen College, High Street, Oxford OX1 4AU, United Kingdom
| | - Andreas Roepstorff
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Geraint Rees
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom; Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom
| | - Chris D Frith
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom; All Souls College, University of Oxford, High Street, Oxford OX1 4AL, United Kingdom
| | - Bahador Bahrami
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom; Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom
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Fusaroli R, Konvalinka I, Wallot S. Analyzing Social Interactions: The Promises and Challenges of Using Cross Recurrence Quantification Analysis. Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-09531-8_9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
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