Presentations

Abstract

Although semantic influences on verbal short-term memory (STM) performance are well-established, substantially less research has studied the influence of syntactic representation. In the present study, syntactic and semantic factors were manipulated in order to explore how both interact to influence verbal STM. Subjects performed immediate, serial recall on lists of six Dutch words composed of three sets of adjective-noun pairs, where the nouns were either common (‘de’) or neuter (‘het’) gender. The grammaticality of the word pairs was manipulated through the morphological agreement between the adjectives and nouns (either legal of illegal), and the semantics by creating more or less meaningful word pairs (e.g., big bucket vs. grateful bucket). Syntactic and semantic factors were fully crossed within-subjects and within-items yielding a 2 (Grammatical) X 2 (Meaningful) X 2 (Noun Gender) design. Results on serial order memory accuracy revealed that both grammaticality and meaningfulness improved performance, and that the factors interacted, such that the beneficial effects of grammaticality were only present for lists of meaningful items. The present results thus demonstrate that while something as simple as morphological agreement (a long-term, syntactic constraint) can improve verbal STM performance, it only seem to do so in the presence stronger semantic constraints.

Abstract

Although semantic influences on verbal short-term memory (STM) are well-documented, substantially less research has examined influences of syntactic representation. In the present study, both syntactic and semantic factors were manipulated in order to explore how each affects verbal STM. Subjects (N=20) performed immediate, serial recall on lists of six Dutch words composed of three sets of adjective-noun pairs. Lists were factorially manipulated within a 2 (Noun Gender; common vs. neuter) X 2 (Grammatical; legal vs. illegal morphological agreement) X 2 (Meaningful; more vs. less) within-subjects design. Results on serial order memory revealed significant main effects of meaningfulness and grammaticality and a meaningfulness X grammaticality interaction, whereby the effects of the grammaticality were only present for more meaningful lists. The present results demonstrate that although syntactic factors can influence verbal STM, they only seem to do so in the presence stronger semantic constraints.

Abstract

One of the physiological markers of monitoring in both
speech and non-speech tasks is the so-called error related
negativity (ERN), an event-related potential that is
typically observed after error trials. However, the ERN is
also observed after correct trials in both manual and
verbal tasks, suggesting that it might be a more general
marker for the monitoring of response conflict. The
present work tests this hypothesis in speech production
by exploring a situation where increased response conflict
naturally occurs, namely, when multiple speech
outputs are simultaneously activated. Event-related
potentials were recorded while participants named
pictures in their first and second languages. Activation of
multiple outputs was manipulated through the form
similarity between translation equivalents (i.e., cognate
status). Replicating previous results, cognates were faster
to name than non-cognates. Interestingly, responselocked
analyses not only showed a reliable ERN on correct
trials, but that the amplitude of the ERN was larger
for cognates compared to non-cognates. Thus, despite
being faster to name, cognates seem to induce more
conflict during response monitoring. This in turn indicates
that the ERN is not simply sensitive to conflicting motor
responses, but also to more abstract conflict resulting
from co-activation of multiple phonological representations.

Abstract

My contribution will focus on the neural infrastructure for deriving speaker meaning. Recent accounts have argued that simulation (i.e. the re-enactment of states of perception and action) suffice to realize comprehension. This will fail on theoretical grounds. But I will also show empirical evidence indicating that the Theory of Mind network kicks in when articularized conversational implicatures are at stake. In addition, I will show that markers of Information Structure trigger the operation of a general attention network in the surface of modulating the depth of processing.

Abstract

A central and influential idea among researchers of language is that our language faculty is organized according to Fregean compositionality, which implies that the meaning of an utterances is a function of the meaning of its parts and of the syntactic rules by which these parts are combined. The implication of this idea is that beyond word recognition, language interpretation takes place in a two-step fashion. First, the meaning of a sentence is computed. In a second step the sentence meaning is integrated with information from prior discourse, with world knowledge, with information about the speaker, and with semantic information from extralinguistic domains such as co-speech gestures or the visual world. FMRI results and results from recordings of event related brain potentials will be presented that are inconsistent with this classical Fregean model of language intepretation. Our data support a model in which knowledge about the context and the world, knowledge about concomitant information from other modalities, and knowledge about the speaker are brought to bear immediately, by the same fast-acting brain system that combines the meanings of individual words into a message-level representation. The Memory, Unification and Control (MUC) model of language accounts for these data. Resting state connectivity data, and results from Psycho-Physiological Interactions will be discussed, suggesting a division of labour between temporal and inferior frontal cortex. These results indicate that Broca’s area and adjacent cortex play an important role in semantic and syntactic unification operations. I will also discuss fMRI results that indicate the insufficiency of the Mirror Neuron Hypothesis to explain language understanding. Instead I will sketch a picture of language processing from an embrained perspective.

Abstract

There is a school of philosophers who believe that the garden of nature should be cleaned first from the conceptual weeds by qualified philosophers, before empirical researchers should be allowed to enter the scene. I will defend a different position. This is one in which, for the case of cognitive neuroscience, knowledge on brain and cognition is strongly driven by new research tools and methods, which provide new challenges for conceptual analysis.

Abstract

With more than a hundred billion neurons, and more than 100.000 kilometers of connecting wires inside our skull, the human brain is the most complex organ in the known universe. Recent developments of brain imaging techniques, allow unprecedented previews of the human brain in action. What happens in our brain when we learn, when we change our opinion, when we speak, when we experience emotion; it will all be discussed in this lecture. How increased insights into brain function will impact society will be discussed as well.

Peter Hagoort is director of the Max Planck Instute for Psycholinguistics (since November 2006), and the founding director of the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (1999), a cognitive neuroscience research centre at the Radboud University Nijmegen, with participation of the Universities of Maastricht, Twente, and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. In addition, he is professor in cognitive neuroscience at the Radboud University Nijmegen. His own research interests relate to the domain of the human language faculty and how it is instantiated in the brain. In his research he applies neuroimaging techniques such as ERP, MEG, PET and fMRI to investigate the language system and its impairments as in aphasia, dyslexia and autism. At the Donders Centre he is currently heading the research group Neurocognition of Language. At the Max Planck Institute he is heading a department on the Neurobiology of Language. For his scientific contributions, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts Sciences (KNAW) awarded him with the Hendrik Mullerprijs in 2003. In 2004 he was awarded by the Dutch Queen with the “Knighthood of the Dutch Lion.” In 2005 he received the NWO-Spinoza Prize. Peter Hagoort is fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

Abstract

Connectivity among language-related brain regions during resting state has consistently been observed in previous studies. The current study investigates whether and how this connectivity is altered by a language task. Twenty-four native Dutch speakers were asked to read sentences for comprehension (i.e., a 50 min. language comprehension task), and resting state fMRI data were collected before and after the task. In accordance with previous similar work (Xiang, Fonteijn, Norris, & Hagoort. (2010). Topographical functional connectivity pattern in the perisylvian language networks. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 549-560.), ROIs in left BA44, BA45 and BA47 were used as seed regions. Functional connectivity (fc) of the seed regions with left parietal and temporal areas was found, in line with Xiang et al’s observations. Moreover, comparing fc's before and after the task, we found that the task altered fc patterns. After the task, for ROI BA44 and BA45, reduced connectivity with middle and posterior temporal regions as well as with the parietal lobule were found. In contrast, we 232 Cognitive Neuroscience Society — 2011 Annual Meeting Poster Session I — Tuesday, April 5, 3:00 - 5:00 pm, Pacific Concourse observed increased connectivity with medial frontal and superior frontal gyrus. For BA47, increased connectivity with anterior temporal lobe and bilateral precentral gyrus, and reduced connectivity with visual cortex were observed. Together the results suggest that language tasks modulate the resting-state connectivity within the brain's language network, in line with previous work (Waites, Stanislavsky, Abbott, & Jackson. (2005) Effect of prior cognitive state on resting state networks measured with functional connectivity. Human Brain Mapping, 24, 59-68.).

Abstract

A series of results from event-related brain potential recordings and fMRI research will be presented, suggesting that language processing does not obey strict compositionality, and, moreover immediately recruits extralinguistic information. It will also be shown that pragmatic inferences require contributions from TOM networks. This implies that an embodied account of semantics fails (under the somewhat strange assumption that the brain is not part of the body). I will put forward an embrained perspective on language processing.

Abstract

In my presentation I will summarize the results of a number of ERP and fMRI studies on the processing and integration of co-occurring speech and gestures/pantomimes. The ERP results indicate that the time course of integrating language and action (i.e., gesture) is very similar to that of integrating linguistic meaning into a sentence or discourse representation. Moreover, in both cases the Left Inferior Frontal cortex plays a central role in orchestrating the multimodal unification of language and action. This orchestration is partly done by modulating temporal areas that store representations activated by the input. I will discuss the parameters of this modulation.

Abstract

For over 20 years, researchers have investigated syntactic priming of transitives by measuring the frequency of sentence choice. These studies have shown syntactic priming for passives but weaker or absent syntactic priming for actives (e.g. [1],[2]). Until recently very few studies have reported syntactic priming by measuring reaction times of language production and none of these studies included transitive sentences. We previously found syntactic priming of both active and passive Dutch transitives in speech onsets, and interestingly the effect appeared to be stronger for actives than passives [3][4]. In order to explain the discrepancy between our results and other results reported in the literature, we hypothesized that there is a ceiling effect in the frequency of using an active transitive (in general about 94% of produced transitives are actives) but not in the speed of producing one. To confirm this hypothesis we conducted a syntactic priming experiment with a picture description task measuring both reaction times and the frequency of occurrence on the same trials. This way we could exclude the alternative explanation that the discrepancy in results is caused by differences in design or stimuli. The results of this experiment show syntactic priming effects for passives and not for actives in the frequency of occurrence (in line with the literature). However, the reaction times of producing these sentences do show syntactic priming for actives and these effects appear to be even stronger than for passives (in line with our previous data). In conclusion, our results suggest that measuring the frequency of occurrence is not enough to get a complete picture of syntactic priming. Measuring reaction times in addition to the frequency of occurrence could provide us with a more complete picture. References [1] Bock, K., & Loebell, H. (1990). Framing sentences. Cognition, 35, 1-39. [2] Hartsuiker, R. J., & Kolk, H. H. J. (1998). Syntactic persistence in Dutch sentence production. Language and Speech, 41, 143-184. [3] Menenti, L., Segaert, K., & Hagoort, P. (2008). Repetition suppression for syntax and semantics: overt speech in fMRI. Society for Neuroscience, Washington DC. [4] Segaert, K., Menenti, L., & Hagoort, P. (2009) Scanning speech with fMRI: Short and long term priming of syntax and verbs, CUNY conference on human sentence processing, Davis, CA.

Abstract

Syntactic priming has been frequently used to study syntactic processes in language production in monolinguals [1][2] and bilinguals [3]. In a previous study in language comprehension [4] we showed that passive sentences in English (the participant’s L2) can be primed by passive sentences in German (L1) and English (L2). This was manifested in faster reading times for target sentences and repetition suppression effects in left inferior frontal, left precentral and left middle temporal regions of interest in an fMRI study. However, syntactic priming in comprehension is complicated by the influence of verb repetition between prime and target [5][6]. Therefore, we conducted a reading time and fMRI study looking at the influence of verb repetition on syntactic priming. In this study of monolingual comprehension in Dutch we primed passive sentences as well as sentences with crossed-dependency structures. The reading time results revealed a syntactic priming effect for passive sentences, while the effect for crossed-dependency structure sentences interacted with the factor verb repetition. The preliminary fMRI results suggest that the repetition of passive structures leads to reductions in neural activity. The repetition of crossed dependency structures causes repetition enhancement, an increase in the BOLD response, an effect that interacts with the factor verb repetition. In conclusion, the influence of verb repetition on syntactic priming in comprehension is complex and seems to depend on the type of syntactic structure investigated. References [1] Bock K. (1986). Syntactic persistence in language production. Cognitive Psychology, 18(3), 355-387. [2] Pickering M, & Branigan H. (1999). Syntactic priming in language production. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3(4), 136-141. [3] Schoonbaert S, Hartsuiker RJ, & Pickering MJ. (2007). The representation of lexical and syntactic information in bilinguals: Evidence from syntactic priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 56(2), 153-171. [4] Weber K, & Indefrey P. (in press). Syntactic priming in German-English bilinguals during sentence comprehension. NeuroImage. [5] Arai M, van Gompel R, & Scheepers C. (2007). Priming ditransitive structures in comprehension. Cognitive Psychology, 54, 218-250. [6] Thothathiri M, & Snedeker J. (2008). Give and take: Syntactic priming during spoken language comprehension. Cognition, 108(1), 51-68.