Brain and Language最新文献

Semantic relations include “taxonomic” relations based on shared features and “thematic” relations based on co-occurrence in events. The “dual-hub” account proposes that the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) is functionally specialized for taxonomic relations and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) for thematic relations. This study examined this claim by analyzing the intra- and inter-region phase synchronization of intracranial EEG data from electrodes in the ATL, IPL, and two subregions of the semantic control network: left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG). Ten participants with epilepsy completed a semantic relatedness judgment task during intracranial EEG recording and had electrodes in at least one hub and at least one semantic control region. Theta band phase synchronization was partially consistent with the dual-hub account: synchronization between the ATL and IFG/pMTG increased when processing taxonomic relations, and synchronization within the IPL and between IPL and pMTG increased when processing thematic relations.

Speech impairments are one of the common symptoms of individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, little is known about the underlying neuroanatomical structural deficits specifically in the basal ganglia-thalamocortical (BGTC) loop in the speech deficits of PD. Here we investigated white matter differences in PD using probabilistic tractography. Diffusion tensor imaging data were downloaded from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative database. We included three groups of participants: 20 PD individuals with speech deficits, 20 PD individuals without speech deficits, and 20 age- and gender-matched control participants. Overall, PD individuals with speech deficits had higher mean diffusivity in the BGTC pathway in the left hemisphere compared with PD individuals without speech deficits. The present study exhibits that there may be a distinct pathophysiological profile of white matter for speech deficits in PD.

Meta-analyses are a method by which to increase the statistical power and generalizability of neuroimaging findings. In the neurolinguistics literature, meta-analyses have the potential to substantiate hypotheses about L1 and L2 processing networks and to reveal differences between the two that may escape detection in individual studies. Why then is there so little consensus between the reported findings of even the most recently published and most highly powered meta-analyses? Limitations in the literature, such as the absence of a common method to define and measure descriptive categories (e.g., proficiency level, degree of language exposure, age of acquisition, etc.) are often cited. An equally plausible explanation lies in the technical details of how individual meta-analyses are conducted. This paper provides a review of recent meta-analyses, with a discussion of their methodological choices and the possible effect those choices may have on the reported findings.

The perceptual symbol theory proposes a sensorimotor simulation in language processing, emphasizing the role of motor experience. However, the neural basis of motor experience on lexical-level language processing remains little known. In the current fMRI study, we compared brain activation and task-based functional connectivity in 28 rugby players and 28 novices during rugby- specialized and daily verb processing. Distinct differences were observed between the two groups in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus and left angular gyrus regions during specialized verb processing. Notably, intergroup functional connectivity was evident between the left superior temporal gyrus and the right precentral gyrus during specialized verb processing. This study contributes insights into the neural responses and connectivity patterns associated with motor experience at the lexical level, highlighting its potential impact on language processing.

Emergentism provides a framework for understanding how language learning processes vary across developmental age and linguistic levels, as shaped by core mechanisms and constraints from cognition, entrenchment, input, transfer, social support, motivation, and neurology. As our commentators all agree, this landscape is marked by intense variability arising from the complexity. These mechanisms interact in collaborative and competitive ways during actual moments of language use. To better understand these interactions and their effects, we need much richer longitudinal data regarding both input and output during actual contexts of usage. We believe that modern technology can eventually provide this data (Flege & Bohn, 2021) in ways that will allow us to more fully populate an emergent landscape.

Chinese-English bilinguals read paragraphs with language switches using a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm silently while ERPs were measured (Experiment 1) or read them aloud (Experiment 2). Each paragraph was written in either Chinese or English with several function or content words switched to the other language. In Experiment 1, language switches elicited an early, long-lasting positivity when switching from the dominant language to the nondominant language, but when switching to the dominant language, the positivity started later, and was never larger than when switching to the nondominant language. In addition, switch effects on function words were not significantly larger than those on content words in any analyses. In Experiment 2, participants produced more cross-language intrusion errors when switching to the dominant than to the nondominant language, and more errors on function than content words. These results implicate different control mechanisms in bilingual language selection across comprehension and production.

The current study examined the role of vocabulary and grammar in the listening comprehension of school-age Cantonese-speaking children with developmental language disorder in Hong Kong. Participants were 692 typically developing children (TD) and 53 children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and they were tested with a standardized test of oral Cantonese, which includes measures on listening comprehension, receptive and expressive grammar, expressive vocabulary, word definition and lexical relations. The results from multiple regression analysis revealed that listening comprehension of the TD group was explained by receptive grammar, expressive vocabulary, and lexical relationships. However, children of the DLD group mainly relied on a subset of their vocabulary knowledge, as measured in a lexical relation task on antonym, in understanding the text under the constraint of a limited grammatical knowledge.

Visual information from a speaker’s face enhances auditory neural processing and speech recognition. To determine whether auditory memory can be influenced by visual speech, the degree of auditory neural adaptation of an auditory syllable preceded by an auditory, visual, or audiovisual syllable was examined using EEG. Consistent with previous findings and additional adaptation of auditory neurons tuned to acoustic features, stronger adaptation of N1, P2 and N2 auditory evoked responses was observed when the auditory syllable was preceded by an auditory compared to a visual syllable. However, although stronger than when preceded by a visual syllable, lower adaptation was observed when the auditory syllable was preceded by an audiovisual compared to an auditory syllable. In addition, longer N1 and P2 latencies were then observed. These results further demonstrate that visual speech acts on auditory memory but suggest competing visual influences in the case of audiovisual stimulation.