175 research outputs found

    Temporal regularity effects on pre-attentive and attentive processing of deviance

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    Temporal regularity allows predicting the temporal locus of future information thereby potentially facilitating cognitive processing. We applied event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate how temporal regularity impacts pre-attentive and attentive processing of deviance in the auditory modality. Participants listened to sequences of sinusoidal tones differing exclusively in pitch. The inter-stimulus interval (ISI) in these sequences was manipulated to convey either isochronous or random temporal structure. In the pre-attentive session, deviance processing was unaffected by the regularity manipulation as evidenced in three event-related-potentials (ERPs): mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a, and reorienting negativity (RON). In the attentive session, the P3b was smaller for deviant tones embedded in irregular temporal structure, while the N2b component remained unaffected. These findings confirm that temporal regularity can reinforce cognitive mechanisms associated with the attentive processing of deviance. Furthermore, they provide evidence for the dynamic allocation of attention in time and dissociable pre-attentive and attention-dependent temporal processing mechanisms

    Why pitch sensitivity matters : event-related potential evidence of metric and syntactic violation detection among spanish late learners of german

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    Event-related potential (ERP) data in monolingual German speakers have shown that sentential metric expectancy violations elicit a biphasic ERP pattern consisting of an anterior negativity and a posterior positivity (P600). This pattern is comparable to that elicited by syntactic violations. However, proficient French late learners of German do not detect violations of metric expectancy in German. They also show qualitatively and quantitatively different ERP responses to metric and syntactic violations. We followed up the questions whether (1) latter evidence results from a potential pitch cue insensitivity in speech segmentation in French speakers, or (2) if the result is founded in rhythmic language differences. Therefore, we tested Spanish late learners of German, as Spanish, contrary to French, uses pitch as a segmentation cue even though the basic segmentation unit is the same in French and Spanish (i.e., the syllable). We report ERP responses showing that Spanish L2 learners are sensitive to syntactic as well as metric violations in German sentences independent of attention to task in a P600 response. Overall, the behavioral performance resembles that of German native speakers. The current data suggest that Spanish L2 learners are able to extract metric units (trochee) in their L2 (German) even though their basic segmentation unit in Spanish is the syllable. In addition Spanish in contrast to French L2 learners of German are sensitive to syntactic violations indicating a tight link between syntactic and metric competence. This finding emphasizes the relevant role of metric cues not only in L2 prosodic but also in syntactic processing

    P3b reflects periodicity in linguistic sequences

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    Temporal predictability is thought to affect stimulus processing by facilitating the allocation of attentional resources. Recent studies have shown that periodicity of a tonal sequence results in a decreased peak latency and a larger amplitude of the P3b compared with temporally random, i.e., aperiodic sequences. We investigated whether this applies also to sequences of linguistic stimuli (syllables), although speech is usually aperiodic. We compared aperiodic syllable sequences with two temporally regular conditions. In one condition, the interval between syllable onset was fixed, whereas in a second condition the interval between the syllables’ perceptual center (p-center) was kept constant. Event-related potentials were assessed in 30 adults who were instructed to detect irregularities in the stimulus sequences. We found larger P3b amplitudes for both temporally predictable conditions as compared to the aperiodic condition and a shorter P3b latency in the p-center condition than in both other conditions. These findings demonstrate that even in acoustically more complex sequences such as syllable streams, temporal predictability facilitates the processing of deviant stimuli. Furthermore, we provide first electrophysiological evidence for the relevance of the p-center concept in linguistic stimulus processing

    Physical exercise during encoding improves vocabulary learning in young female adults

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    Acute physical activity has been repeatedly shown to improve various cognitive functions. However, there have been no investigations comparing the effects of exercise during verbal encoding versus exercise prior to encoding on long-term memory performance. In this current psychoneuroendocrinological study we aim to test whether light to moderate ergometric bicycling during vocabulary encoding enhances subsequent recall compared to encoding during physical rest and encoding after being physically active. Furthermore, we examined the kinetics of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in serum which has been previously shown to correlate with learning performance. We also controlled for the BDNF val66met polymorphism. We found better vocabulary test performance for subjects that were physically active during the encoding phase compared to sedentary subjects. Post-hoc tests revealed that this effect was particularly present in initially low performers. BDNF in serum and BDNF genotype failed to account for the current result. Our data indicates that light to moderate simultaneous physical activity during encoding, but not prior to encoding, is beneficial for subsequent recall of new items

    Gesture Facilitates the Syntactic Analysis of Speech

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    Recent research suggests that the brain routinely binds together information from gesture and speech. However, most of this research focused on the integration of representational gestures with the semantic content of speech. Much less is known about how other aspects of gesture, such as emphasis, influence the interpretation of the syntactic relations in a spoken message. Here, we investigated whether beat gestures alter which syntactic structure is assigned to ambiguous spoken German sentences. The P600 component of the Event Related Brain Potential indicated that the more complex syntactic structure is easier to process when the speaker emphasizes the subject of a sentence with a beat. Thus, a simple flick of the hand can change our interpretation of who has been doing what to whom in a spoken sentence. We conclude that gestures and speech are integrated systems. Unlike previous studies, which have shown that the brain effortlessly integrates semantic information from gesture and speech, our study is the first to demonstrate that this integration also occurs for syntactic information. Moreover, the effect appears to be gesture-specific and was not found for other stimuli that draw attention to certain parts of speech, including prosodic emphasis, or a moving visual stimulus with the same trajectory as the gesture. This suggests that only visual emphasis produced with a communicative intention in mind (that is, beat gestures) influences language comprehension, but not a simple visual movement lacking such an intention

    What Pinnipeds Have to Say about Human Speech, Music, and the Evolution of Rhythm

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    Research on the evolution of human speech and music benefits from hypotheses and data generated in a number of disciplines. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the high relevance of pinniped research for the study of speech, musical rhythm, and their origins, bridging and complementing current research on primates and birds. We briefly discuss speech, vocal learning, and rhythm from an evolutionary and comparative perspective. We review the current state of the art on pinniped communication and behavior relevant to the evolution of human speech and music, showing interesting parallels to hypotheses on rhythmic behavior in early hominids. We suggest future research directions in terms of species to test and empirical data needed

    What's beat got to do with it? The influence of meter on syntactic processing: ERP evidence from healthy and patient populations

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    What's beat got to do with it? The influence of meter on syntactic processing

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    Auditory ERP-data from patients with lesions (BG) or neurodegenerative change (PD) of the basal ganglia reveal that timing is crucial for syntax processing. As Friederici et al. (2003), Frisch et al. (2003) and Kotz et al. (2003) showed, patients do not elicit a P600-component when presentation rate is random during syntactic processing. This applies to several syntactic violation types which evoke a P600 in healthy participants. Recent evidence has demonstrated that external predictable rhythmic stimulation re-elicits the P600 in Parkinson patients during the auditory presentation of syntactically erroneous sentences (Kotz & Gunter, 2005). Based on these observations, it is assumed, that perceived metrical regularities of a given language should influence speech perception and, in turn, syntactic processing. As German is a stress-timed language, we hypothesized that stressed syllables should be the predictable speech internal rhythmic marker influencing auditory syntactic processing. Thus, we constructed metrically regular sentences, which were either grammatically, metrically, or doubly violated. Sentences only included words consisting of two syllables and first syllable stress (trochee), the default-meter in German. The grammatical violations were realized by morphosyntactic violations. Metrical violations were realized by putting stress on the second rather than first syllable of the critical item, while sentences remained grammatically correct. Furthermore, double violations were syntactically as well as metrically erroneous (see example below). Example: a) Correct: 'Gina 'hätte 'Peter 'gestern 'abend 'reizen 'können Gina could have provoked Peter yesterday evening." b) Syntax: *'Gina 'hätte 'Peter 'gestern 'abend 'reizte 'können *"Gina could have provoke Peter yesterday evening." c) Meter: 'Gina 'hätte 'Peter 'gestern 'abend rei'ZEN 'können d) Double: *'Gina 'hätte 'Peter 'gestern 'abend reiz'TE 'können If meter works as a rhythmic pacemaker during auditory syntactic processing, the P600 should be elicited by metric as well as syntactic violations. Data was collected in two sessions. In one session subjects judged metrical correctness, in session two they judged grammatical correctness (counterbalanced across subjects). In the metric task, metric violation as well as the double violation evoked a late posterior positivity. In the syntactic task, all of the three manipulations elicited a P600. Latency of the positivity varied across the tasks (earlier onset of the positivity when syntactically instructed compared to metrically instructed). The current data will be discussed in the context of a domain-specific or a domain-general explanation of the P600
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