Attachment preference in auditory German sentences: Individual differences and pragmatic strategy

Relative clauses modify a preceding element, but as this element can be flexibly located, the point of attachment is sometimes ambiguous. Preference for this attachment can vary within languages such as German, yet explanations for differences in attachment preference related to cognitive strategies or constraints have been conflicting in the current literature. The present study aimed to assess the preference for relative clause attachment among German listeners and whether these preferences could be explained by strategy or individual differences in working memory or musical rhythm ability. We performed a sentence completion experiment, conducted post hoc interviews, and measured working memory and rhythm abilities with diagnostic tests. German listeners had no homogeneous attachment preference, although participants consistently completed individual sentences across trials according to the general preference that they reported offline. Differences in attachment preference were moreover not linked to individual differences in either working memory or musical rhythm ability. However, the pragmatic content of individual sentences sometimes overrode the general syntactic preference in participants with lower rhythm ability. Our study makes an important contribution to the field of psycholinguistics by validating offline self-reports as a reliable diagnostic for an individual’s online relative clause attachment preference. The link between pragmatic strategy and rhythm ability is an interesting direction for future research

Sequential effects of increasing propofol sedation on frontal and temporal cortices as indexed by auditory event-related potentials

BACKGROUND: It is an open question whether cognitive processes of auditory perception that are mediated by functionally different cortices exhibit the same sensitivity to sedation. The auditory event-related potentials P1, mismatch negativity (MMN), and early right anterior negativity (ERAN) originate from different cortical areas and reflect different stages of auditory processing. The P1 originates mainly from the primary auditory cortex. The MMN is generated in or in the close vicinity of the primary auditory cortex but is also dependent on frontal sources. The ERAN mainly originates from frontal generators. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of increasing propofol sedation on different stages of auditory processing as reflected in P1, MMN, and ERAN. METHODS: The P1, the MMN, and the ERAN were recorded preoperatively in 18 patients during four levels of anesthesia adjusted with target-controlled infusion: awake state (target concentration of propofol 0.0 microg/ml), light sedation (0.5 microg/ml), deep sedation (1.5 microg/ml), and unconsciousness (2.5-3.0 microg/ml). Simultaneously, propofol anesthesia was assessed using the Bispectral Index. RESULTS: Propofol sedation resulted in a progressive decrease in amplitudes and an increase of latencies with a similar pattern for MMN and ERAN. MMN and ERAN were elicited during sedation but were abolished during unconsciousness. In contrast, the amplitude of the P1 was unchanged by sedation but markedly decreased during unconsciousness. CONCLUSION: The results indicate differential effects of propofol sedation on cognitive functions that involve mainly the auditory cortices and cognitive functions that involve the frontal cortices

Explicit action perception shares resources with music syntax: A controlled behavioral study

Given evidence that neural resources monitoring language syntax also underlie the perception of music syntax (Koelsch, 2005) and recently a proposed ‘syntax’ in sequential action (Fazio et al., 2009), a previous EEG study investigated whether neural resources may be shared between implicit perception of music and action (Sammler et al., 2010). Results yielded a syntactic-like ERP pattern elicited by the errors in sequential action, but no interaction of resources across the music and action domains. The present follow-up study sought behavioral signs of resource-overlap when perception is instead explicit. Five chords accompanied five reach-to-grasp images in a 2x2 factorial interference paradigm (target: regular/irregular cadence paired with correct/incorrect grasp). Results indeed revealed an interaction of resources which monitored the action and music sequences, manifested in task accuracy. A control experiment with accompanying pure tones instead of chords (standard/deviant final tone) did not, however, show the same interaction. Crucially, the null-result control study speaks to a neural resource involved in action perception that is shared only with syntactically organized sound, not a simple auditory distraction. This promising behavioral data warrants follow-up neuropsychological experimentation with explicit-task paradigms

Eläkkeellä ja työssä: tilasto eläkeläisten työnteosta vuosina 2007–2018

Tilastojulkaisussa käsitellään eläkeläisten työntekoa työikäisen väestön keskuudessa vuosina 2007–2018. Julkaisu sisältää tietoja työnteon laajuuden ohella myös työssä käyneiden eläkeläisten keskieläkkeistä ja -ansioista

EEG correlates of different emotional states elicited during watching music videos

Studying emotions has become increasingly popular in various research fields. Researchers across the globe have studied various tools to implicitly assess emotions and affective states of people. Human computer interface systems specifically can benefit from such implicit emotion evaluator module, which can help them determine their users' affective states and act accordingly. Brain electrical activity can be considered as an appropriate candidate for extracting emotion-related cues, but it is still in its infancy. In this paper, the results of analyzing the Electroencephalogram (EEG) for assessing emotions elicited during watching various pre-selected emotional music video clips have been reported. More precisely, in-depth results of both subject-dependent and subject-independent correlation analysis between time domain, and frequency domain features of EEC signal and subjects' self assessed emotions are produced and discussed

Cognitive Components of Regularity Processing in the Auditory Domain

BACKGROUND: Music-syntactic irregularities often co-occur with the processing of physical irregularities. In this study we constructed chord-sequences such that perceived differences in the cognitive processing between regular and irregular chords could not be due to the sensory processing of acoustic factors like pitch repetition or pitch commonality (the major component of 'sensory dissonance'). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Two groups of subjects (musicians and nonmusicians) were investigated with electroencephalography (EEG). Irregular chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN) in the event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The ERAN had a latency of around 180 ms after the onset of the music-syntactically irregular chords, and had maximum amplitude values over right anterior electrode sites. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Because irregular chords were hardly detectable based on acoustical factors (such as pitch repetition and sensory dissonance), this ERAN effect reflects for the most part cognitive (not sensory) components of regularity-based, music-syntactic processing. Our study represents a methodological advance compared to previous ERP-studies investigating the neural processing of music-syntactically irregular chords

Effects of Unexpected Chords and of Performer's Expression on Brain Responses and Electrodermal Activity

BACKGROUND: There is lack of neuroscientific studies investigating music processing with naturalistic stimuli, and brain responses to real music are, thus, largely unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study investigates event-related brain potentials (ERPs), skin conductance responses (SCRs) and heart rate (HR) elicited by unexpected chords of piano sonatas as they were originally arranged by composers, and as they were played by professional pianists. From the musical excerpts played by the pianists (with emotional expression), we also created versions without variations in tempo and loudness (without musical expression) to investigate effects of musical expression on ERPs and SCRs. Compared to expected chords, unexpected chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN, reflecting music-syntactic processing) and an N5 (reflecting processing of meaning information) in the ERPs, as well as clear changes in the SCRs (reflecting that unexpected chords also elicited emotional responses). The ERAN was not influenced by emotional expression, whereas N5 potentials elicited by chords in general (regardless of their chord function) differed between the expressive and the non-expressive condition. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results show that the neural mechanisms of music-syntactic processing operate independently of the emotional qualities of a stimulus, justifying the use of stimuli without emotional expression to investigate the cognitive processing of musical structure. Moreover, the data indicate that musical expression affects the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of musical meaning. Our data are the first to reveal influences of musical performance on ERPs and SCRs, and to show physiological responses to unexpected chords in naturalistic music