Time course of effective connectivity associated with perspective taking in utterance comprehension

This study discusses the effective connectivity in the brain and its time course in realizing perspective taking in verbal communication through electroencephalogram (EEG) associated with the understanding of Japanese utterances. We manipulated perspective taking in a sentence with the Japanese subsidiary verbs -ageru and -kureru, which mean “to give”. We measured the EEG during the auditory presentation of the sentences with a multichannel electroencephalograph, and the partial directed coherence and its temporal variations were analyzed using the source localization method to examine causal interactions between nineteen regions of interest in the brain. Three different processing stages were recognized on the basis of the connectivity hubs, direction of information flow, increase or decrease in flow, and temporal variation. We suggest that perspective taking in speech comprehension is realized by interactions between the mentalizing network, mirror neuron network, and executive control network. Furthermore, we found that individual differences in the sociality of typically developing adult speakers were systematically related to effective connectivity. In particular, attention switching was deeply concerned with perspective taking in real time, and the precuneus played a crucial role in implementing individual differences

The fundamental phonological unit of Japanese word production: An EEG study using the picture-word interference paradigm

It has been shown that in Germanic languages (e.g. English, Dutch) phonemes are the primary (or proximate) planning units during the early stages of phonological encoding. Contrastingly, in Chinese and Japanese the phoneme does not seem to play an important role but rather the syllable (Chinese) and mora (Japanese) are essential. However, despite the lack of behavioral evidence, neurocorrelational studies in Chinese suggested that electrophysiological brain responses (i.e. preceding overt responses) may indicate some significance for the phoneme. We investigated this matter in Japanese and our data shows that unlike in Chinese (for which the literature shows mixed effects), in Japanese both the behavioral and neurocorrelational data indicate an important role only for the mora (and not the phoneme) during the early stages of phonological encoding

Relevance in Real-Time Interpretation of Utterances

Abstract This article proposes a new evaluation of relevance in the context of relevance theory (RT). Although RT has made substantial contributions to communication science, there are few studies that employ an experimental setting to examine RT in the real-time interpretation of utterances because the evaluation of relevance has remained inadequate for experimental examination. In the original RT, relevance is evaluated based on cognitive effects and processing costs, which are mutually dependent-although conceptually distinct-in the real-time interpretation of utterances. In fact, the mutual dependence of cognitive effects and processing costs is the primary reason why RT is difficult to investigate experimentally. This article proposes cognitive effects as a sigmoid function of processing costs and relevance as the ratio of cognitive effects to the processing costs required. This new evaluation of relevance is shown to have favorable theoretical consequences regarding both the convergence of the computation of utterance interpretation and the disambiguation of potentially ambiguous utterances. Furthermore, this new evaluation of relevance enhances the possibilities of examining RT experimentally

Early Parenting Program as Intervention Strategy for Emotional Distress in First-Time Mothers: A Propensity Score Analysis

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a single session intervention designed to reduce emotional distress in first-time mothers. We held a parenting class for first-time mothers who had given birth at a university hospital in Tokyo, Japan. The program of the class consists of lectures on infant care and group discussion, which is a common form of intervention in Japan. The effectiveness of intervention is assessed according to differences in emotional distress experienced by class participants and nonparticipants, and analyzed by the use of a propensity score method to avoid self-selection bias. In order to be more confident about our results, we employ several variations of this method. Results from statistical analysis show that although the effectiveness of the intervention was limited, it was able to alleviate subjects’ loss of self-confidence as mothers. Because this outcome shows a good degree of consistency across methods, it can be considered robust. Moreover, it is roughly consistent with previous studies. Effectiveness can probably be increased by developing a program that improves upon the intervention

Lubin-Tate パーフェクトイド空間のアフィノイドと正標数の局所Langlands 対応の特別な場合について

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : （主査）東京大学教授 辻 雄, 東京大学教授 寺杣 友秀, 東京大学教授 斎藤 毅, 東京大学教授 志甫 淳, 東京大学准教授 三枝 洋一University of Tokyo(東京大学

Isoscalar electric multipole strength in C-12

Journals published by the American Physical Society can be found at http://publish.aps.org/The excitation region in C-12 below E-x=45 MeV was studied using 240 MeV alpha-particle scattering. Elastic scattering was measured from theta(c.m.)=3.8degrees to 49.4degrees and density dependant folding optical model parameters were obtained. Inelastic scattering to the 4.44 MeV 2(+), 7.65 MeV 0(+), 9.64 MeV 3(-), 10.3 MeV 0(+), and 10.84 MeV 1(-) states was measured and B(EL) values obtained. Inelastic scattering exciting C-12 to 10 MeVless than or equal toE(x)less than or equal to12.5 MeV was measured from 1.4degreesless than or equal totheta(c.m.)less than or equal to10degrees and to 12.5 MeVless than or equal toE(x)less than or equal to45 MeV from 1.4degreesless than or equal totheta(c.m.)less than or equal to16degrees and E0, E1, E2, and E3 strength distributions were obtained. Strength was identified corresponding to 27+/-5, 78+/-9, and 51+/-7% of the isoscalar E0, E1, and E2 energy weighted sum rule (EWSR), respectively, with centroids of 21.9+/-0.3, 27.5+/-0.4, and 22.6+/-0.5 MeV and rms widths of 4.8+/-0.5, 7.6+/-0.6, and 6.8+/-0.6 MeV. Less than 7% of the E3 EWSR strength was identified