The phase of pre-stimulus alpha oscillations influences the visual perception of stimulus timing

AbstractThis study examined the influence of pre-stimulus alpha phase and attention on whether two visual stimuli occurring closely in time were perceived as simultaneous or asynchronous. The results demonstrated that certain phases of alpha in the period immediately preceding stimulus onset were associated with a higher proportion of stimuli judged to be asynchronous. Furthermore, this effect was shown to occur independently of both visuo-spatial attention and alpha amplitude. The findings are compatible with proposals that alpha phase reflects cyclic shifts in neuronal excitability. Importantly, however, the results further suggest that fluctuations in neuronal excitability can create a periodicity in neuronal transfer that can have functional consequences that are decoupled from changes in alpha amplitude. This study therefore provides evidence that perceptual processes fluctuate periodically although it remains uncertain whether this implies the discrete temporal framing of perception

Swearing, Euphemisms, and Linguistic Relativity

Participants read aloud swear words, euphemisms of the swear words, and neutral stimuli while their autonomic activity was measured by electrodermal activity. The key finding was that autonomic responses to swear words were larger than to euphemisms and neutral stimuli. It is argued that the heightened response to swear words reflects a form of verbal conditioning in which the phonological form of the word is directly associated with an affective response. Euphemisms are effective because they replace the trigger (the offending word form) by another word form that expresses a similar idea. That is, word forms exert some control on affect and cognition in turn. We relate these findings to the linguistic relativity hypothesis, and suggest a simple mechanistic account of how language may influence thinking in this context

a-b. Two hypothetical ways in which swear words and euphemisms are associated with emotions.

<p>According to an approach that rejects relatively claims, the (implicit) assumption must be that word forms only influence our emotions via semantics, as in 1a. On this view, euphemisms and swear words mean different things—as indicated by their large separation in semantic space—and as a consequence, they evoke different reactions. By contrast, linguistic relativity would be supported if the structural features of a language can influence our thoughts via verbal conditioning, as in 1b. On this view, direct links develop between word forms and negative affect in response to past events in which the two stimuli co-occur. On this view, euphemisms are useful even when their meaning is very similar (or the same) to the swear word—as indicated by their small separation in semantic space—because they replace the surface form of the swear word that directly evokes negative affect.</p

Mean electrodermal activity (EDA) invoked by stimulus onset across the four conditions.

<p>Mean electrodermal activity (EDA) invoked by stimulus onset across the four conditions.</p