The Role of Gender Information in Pronoun Resolution: Evidence from Chinese

Although previous studies have consistently demonstrated that gender information is used to resolve pronouns, the mechanisms underlying the use of gender information continue to be controversial. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether working memory modulates the effect of gender information on pronoun resolution. The critical pronoun agreed or disagreed with its antecedent in gender. Moreover, the distance between a pronoun and its antecedent was varied to assess the influence of working memory. Compared with the congruent pronouns, the incongruent pronouns elicited an N400 effect in the short distance condition and a P600 effect in the long distance condition. The results suggest that the effect of gender information on pronoun comprehension is modulated by working memory

Task-dependent evaluative processing of moral and emotional content during comprehension: an ERP study

Recently, we showed that when participants passively read about moral transgressions (e.g., adultery) they implicitly engage in the evaluative (good–bad) categorization of incoming information, as indicated by a larger event-related brain potential (ERP) positivity to immoral than moral scenarios (Leuthold, Kunkel, Mackenzie, & Filik, 2015). Behavioral and neuroimaging studies indicated that explicit moral tasks prioritize the semantic-cognitive analysis of incoming information but that implicit tasks, as used in Leuthold et al. (2015), favor their affective processing. Therefore, it is unclear whether an affective categorization process is also involved when participants perform explicit moral judgments. Thus, in two experiments, we used similarly constructed morality and emotion materials for which their moral and emotional content had to be inferred from the context. Target sentences from negative vs. neutral emotional scenarios and from moral vs. immoral scenarios were presented using rapid serial visual presentation. In Experiment 1, participants made moral judgments for moral materials and emotional judgments for emotion materials. Negative compared to neutral emotional scenarios elicited a larger posterior ERP positivity (LPP) about 200 ms after critical word onset, whereas immoral compared to moral scenarios elicited a larger anterior negativity (500-700 ms). In Experiment 2, where the same emotional judgment to both types of materials was required, a larger LPP was triggered for both types of materials. These results accord with the view that morality scenarios trigger a semantic-cognitive analysis when participants explicitly judge the moral content of incoming linguistic information but an affective evaluation when judging their emotional content

States of indecision in the brain: Electrophysiological and hemodynamic reflections of monitoring in visual language perception

Contains fulltext : 93600.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, 03 juli 2012Promotor : Kolk, H.H.J. Co-promotores : Chwilla, D.J., Rüschemeyer, S.A.251 p

Language comprehension interrupted: Both language errors and word degradation activate Broca's area

Item does not contain fulltextThe proposal of a general conflict resolution mechanism in lIFG was investigated further in relation to language errors. In an fMRI study participants read sentences containing syntactic and plausibility violations. Furthermore, they were presented with sentences that were difficult to comprehend, due to degradation of the bottom-up signal (i.e., the visual form) of the language. We were interested whether comprehension difficulties caused by degradation would activate cognitive control mechanisms in the same manner as other language violations. To localize cognitive control processes participants performed a Stroop task. Both the violations and the visual degradation condition elicited co-localized lIFG activation with the Stroop conflict. These results indicate that lIFG implements control adjustments to resolve situations in which extra attention is needed more generally. Next to biasing attention to resolve representational conflicts arising from different types of errors, lIFG may also adjust control to compensate for a temporary lack of bottom–up information.11 p

States of indecision in the brain: ERP reflections of syntactic agreement violations versus visual degradation

Item does not contain fulltextAccording to the monitoring theory of language perception, language errors can create strong conflicts between expected and observed representations. When a strong conflict is present this functions as a bottom-up signal to bias attention towards the unexpected representation for reprocessing to check for possible processing errors. This monitoring process, encompassing both the conflict and reprocessing, is thought to be reflected in the late positivity or P600 effect. The present ERP study compared sentences with syntactic agreement violations to sentences containing visually degraded words. The latter could also signal that control adjustments are needed, because of a lack of bottom-up information. The results showed that both agreement violations and degraded words elicited long-lasting positivities—though with different onsets and some distributional differences. It is proposed that the general process underlying these positivities is similar. Both language errors and degraded words signal the need for adjustments in control to reprocess the input—either to check for errors, or to identify the word. However, depending on the type and complexity of the information that interrupts comprehension, the positivities vary in onset and/or scalp distribution. An unexpected finding was that the ERP pattern to agreement violations was influenced by presentation order. Participants who had seen the syntactic block first showed a P600 effect to agreement violations, while participants who had seen the degradation block first showed an N400 effect. This finding might indicate that different strategies develop to process agreement violations, depending on the context in which they are embedded

Monitoring in language perception

Contains fulltext : 77530.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Monitoring is an aspect of executive control that entails the detection of errors and the triggering of corrective actions when there is a mismatch between competing responses or representations. In the language domain, research of monitoring has mainly focused on errors made during language production. However, in language perception, for example while reading or listening, errors occur as well and people are able to detect them. A hypothesis that was developed to account for these errors is the monitoring hypothesis for language perception. According to this account, when a strong expectation conflicts with what is actually observed, a reanalysis is triggered to check the input for processing errors reflected by the P600 component. In contrast to what has been commonly assumed, the P600 is thought to reflect a general reanalysis and not a syntactic reanalysis. In this review, we will describe the different studies that led to this hypothesis and try to extend it beyond the language domain

Monitoring in Language Perception: Evidence from ERPs in a picture-sentence matching task

Contains fulltext : 55783.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)P600 effects have been observed after syntactic ambiguous sentences, after several types of syntactic and semantic anomalies and after orthographic anomalies. On the basis of these findings, several investigators propose the P600 effect to reflect syntactic repair or syntactic restructuring. According to our Monitoring Theory the P600 effect reflects more general sentence reanalysis, to check whether the input sentence has been perceived appropriately. When the brain encounters a highly unexpected linguistic event, a conflict arises between the expected representation and the representation derived from the input. This conflict is proposed to trigger a process of reanalysis. In the present study, expectancy was manipulated by varying the truth-value of a sentence in relation to a picture. ERPs were recorded from 27 electrodes while we presented participants (N = 30) pictures of spatial arrays followed by a sentence giving a correct or incorrect description of the picture. The mismatches were predicted to create a conflict between the conceptual representation on the basis of the picture and the actual sentence and should therefore lead to a P600. A P600 effect was indeed observed after both intra-dimensional square triangle- 'the triangle stands in front of the square.', and extra-dimensional square triangle - 'the triangle stands below the square.' mismatches. The present results support our Monitoring Theory; that is, the function of reprocessing reflected by the P600 effect is not purely syntactic repair or restructuring but is more general in nature, to check for possible processing errors

Regional management of worsening heart failure: rationale and design of the CHAIN-HF registry

Aims: Heart failure (HF) is a progressive disease in which periods of clinical stability are interrupted by episodes of clinical deterioration known as worsening heart failure (WHF). Patients who develop WHF are at high risk of subsequent death, rehospitalization, and excessive healthcare costs. As such, WHF could be seen as a separate disease stage and precursor of advanced HF. Whether WHF has a substantial health, societal, and economic impact evidence regarding its multifactorial nature and the specific barriers in treatment, including advanced HF therapies, remains scarce. The CHAIN-HF registry aims to describe the incidence, characteristics, current treatment, and outcomes of WHF. Additionally, it will promote structured regional collaboration and educate on increasing awareness for WHF and describe the implementation of guideline directed medical therapy and utilization of advanced HF therapies in a collaborative network. Methods and results: The CHAIN-HF registry is a prospective, observational, and multicentre study from the collaborating hospitals (Rijnmond HF Network) in the Rotterdam area. Unselected and consecutive patients (irrespective of ejection fraction) with a WHF event will be included. Comprehensive data including demographics, co-morbidities, treatment, and in-hospital and post-discharge outcomes will be collected. Notably, data on socio-economic status, treatment decisions, and referral for advanced HF therapies will be included. Conclusions: CHAIN-HF will be the first prospective, dedicated WHF registry in a collaborative network of hospitals that will provide robust real-world evidence on the incidence, characteristics, and outcomes of WHF. Moreover, it will provide information on of the value of regional collaboration to improve awareness and outcomes of WHF

CNTNAP2 and language processing in healthy individuals as measured with ERPs

Contains fulltext : 102326.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)The genetic FOXP2-CNTNAP2 pathway has been shown to be involved in the language capacity. We investigated whether a common variant of CNTNAP2 (rs7794745) is relevant for syntactic and semantic processing in the general population by using a visual sentence processing paradigm while recording ERPs in 49 healthy adults. While both AA homozygotes and T-carriers showed a standard N400 effect to semantic anomalies, the response to subject-verb agreement violations differed across genotype groups. T-carriers displayed an anterior negativity preceding the P600 effect, whereas for the AA group only a P600 effect was observed. These results provide another piece of evidence that the neuronal architecture of the human faculty of language is shaped differently by effects that are genetically determined.8 p