Aphasia in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias (ADOD): Evidence From Chinese.

Speech and language impairments (aphasia) are typical of patients with Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias (ADOD) and in some pathologies are diagnostic e.g. Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). One question concerns the reliability and validity of symptomatology across typologically different languages. A review of aphasia in ADOD across languages suggests a similar pattern of word comprehension, naming and word finding difficulties but also evidence of language specific features in symptomatology e.g. processing of tone in Chinese languages. Given differences in linguistic impairments across languages, it is recommended that screening for aphasia in community and epidemiological studies use a Short ScreeningTest (SST) that can be delivered across dialects and languages in indigenous languages and also multilingual populations

Effect of monolingualism and bilingualism in the anterior cingulate cortex: a proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study in two centers = Efeito do monolinguismo e do bilinguismo no córtex anterior cingulado: um estudo de espectroscopia de ressonância magnética de prótons em dois centros

Relatos de uma vantagem do bilinguismo na estrutura cerebral em jovens participantes adultos são inconsistentes. Abutalebi et al. (2012) relataram uma monitorização mais eficiente do conflito durante a tarefa de Flanker em jovens bilíngues comparados com jovens monolíngues. O presente trabalho comparou jovem adultos (idade média = 24) bilíngues em Cantonês-Inglês de Hong Kong e jovens monolíngues adultos. Estávamos a contar com (a) diferenças em metabó- litos no tecido neural como resultado de uma experiência bilíngue, medido pelo 3T 1H-MRS, (b) correlações entre os níveis metabólicos, conflito Flanker e efeitos de interferência (c) diferentes associações em falantes monolíngues e bilíngues. Encontramos evidências de diferenças metabólicas no ACC devido ao bilinguismo, especificamente nos metabólitos Cho, Cr, Gly e NAA. Porém, não constatamos correlações significativas entre os níveis metabólicos e efeitos de conflito e interferência e nenhuma evidência significativa de relações diferenciais entre falantes monolíngues e bilíngues. Além disso, não encontramos nenhuma evidência de diferenças significativas no tamanho médio dos efeitos do conflito e interferência entre os grupos, ou seja, nenhuma vantagem bilíngue. Níveis inferiores de Cho, Cr, Gly em adultos bilíngues em comparação com adultos monolíngues sugerem que o cérebro dos bilíngues desenvolve maior controle adaptativo durante a monitorização do conflito por causa da sua extensa experiência bilíngu

How are affective word ratings related to lexicosemantic properties?:evidence from the Sussex Affective Word List

Emotional content of verbal material affects the speed of visual word recognition in various cognitive tasks, independently of lexicosemantic variables. However, little is known about how the dimensions of emotional arousal and valence interact with the lexicosemantic properties of words such as age of acquisition, familiarity, and imageability, that determine word recognition performance. This study aimed to examine these relationships using English ratings for affective and lexicosemantic features. Eighty-two native English speakers rated 300 words for emotional valence, arousal, familiarity, age of acquisition, and imageability. Although both dimensions of emotion were correlated with lexicosemantic variables, a unique emotion cluster produced the strongest quadratic relationship. This finding suggests that emotion should be included in models of word recognition as it is likely to make an independent contribution

O Caminho e a Unidade: Heinrich Von Sybel e Os Dois Momentos do Conceito de Nação na Alemanha Oitocentista

O presente estudo trata de verificar as nuances no conceito de nação nos Estados alemães ao longo de um período do século dezenove. Referenciando dois momentos principais de expressão político-filosófica no pensamento nacional oitocentista ideal e pragmático busco compreender essa mudança de perspectiva em sua relação com a historiografia daquele contexto. Analisando biografia e obra do historiador renano Heinrich von Sybel, viso perscrutar o desenvolvimento gradual de uma perspectiva pragmática em seu ideal nacional, quando após a experiência revolucionária de 1848, seus escritos passaram a absorver elementos que o distanciavam das concepções idealistas características do cientificismo da primeira metade do século

Effects of valence and arousal on written word recognition:Time course and ERP correlates

Models of affect assume a two-dimensional framework, composed of emotional valence and arousal. Although neuroimaging evidence supports a neuro-functional distinction of their effects during single word processing, electrophysiological studies have not yet compared the effects of arousal within the same category of valence (positive and negative). Here we investigate effects of arousal and valence on written lexical decision. Amplitude differences between emotion and neutral words were seen in the early posterior negativity (EPN), the late positive complex and in a sustained slow positivity. In addition, trends towards interactive effects of valence and arousal were observed in the EPN, showing larger amplitude for positive, high-arousal and negative, low-arousal words. The results provide initial evidence for interactions between arousal and valence during processing of positive words and highlight the importance of both variables in studies of emotional stimulus processing. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Arousal and emotional valence interact in written word recognition

Behavioural, psychophysiological and neuroimaging studies reveal a prioritisation for emotional material in a variety of cognitive tasks. Although emotion is comprised of two dimensions (valence and arousal), previous research using verbal materials has mostly focused on valence, while controlling level of arousal. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of valence and arousal on lexical decision (LD) by manipulating both dimensions while controlling correlated psycholinguistic variables (e.g., word length, frequency, imageability). Results showed that valence and arousal affect word recognition in an interactive way: LD latencies are slower for positive high-arousal and negative low-arousal words compared to positive low-arousal and negative high-arousal words, in line with an approach-withdrawal tendency model. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA) on the latencies revealed a unique contribution of a distinct cluster of emotion variables, independent of lexico-semantic variables, to explaining written word recognition. We conclude that the dimensions of valence and arousal both need to be taken into account in studies of emotion word processing as they have an interactive relationship

Executive and Language Control in the Multilingual Brain

Neuroimaging studies suggest that the neural network involved in language control may not be specific to bi-/multilingualism but is part of a domain-general executive control system. We report a trilingual case of a Cantonese (L1), English (L2), and Mandarin (L3) speaker, Dr. T, who sustained a brain injury at the age of 77 causing lesions in the left frontal lobe and in the left temporo-parietal areas resulting in fluent aphasia. Dr. T\u27s executive functions were impaired according to a modified version of the Stroop color-word test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance was characterized by frequent perseveration errors. Dr. T demonstrated pathological language switching and mixing across her three languages. Code switching in Cantonese was more prominent in discourse production than confrontation naming. Our case suggests that voluntary control of spoken word production in trilingual speakers shares neural substrata in the frontobasal ganglia system with domain-general executive control mechanisms. One prediction is that lesions to such a system would give rise to both pathological switching and impairments of executive functions in trilingual speakers

Response Modality and the Stroop Task: Are there phonological Stroop effects with manual responses?

A long-standing debate in the Stroop literature concerns whether the way we respond to the color dimension determines how we process the irrelevant dimension, or whether word processing is purely stimulus driven. Models and findings in the Stroop literature differ in their predictions about how response modes (e.g., responding manually vs. vocally) affect how the irrelevant word is processed (i.e., phonologically, semantically) and the interference and facilitation that results, with some predicting qualitatively different Stroop effects. Here, we investigated whether response mode modifies phonological facilitation produced by the irrelevant word. In a fully within-subject design, we sought evidence for the use of a serial print-to-speech prelexical phonological processing route when using manual and vocal responses by testing for facilitating effects of phonological overlap between the irrelevant word and the color name at the initial and final phoneme positions. The results showed phoneme overlap leads to facilitation with both response modes, a result that is inconsistent with qualitative differences between the two response modes

What Influences Language Impairement in Bilingual Aphasia? A Meta-Analytic Review

Patterns of language impairment in multilingual speakers with post-stroke aphasia are diverse: in some cases the language deficits are parallel, that is, all languages are impaired relatively equally, whereas in other cases deficits are differential, that is, one language is more impaired than the other(s). This diversity stems from the intricate structure of the multilingual language system, which is shaped by a complex interplay of influencing factors, such as age of language acquisition, frequency of language use, premorbid proficiency, and linguistic similarity between one’s languages. Previous theoretical reviews and empirical studies shed some light on these factors, however no clear answers have been provided. The goals of this review were to provide a timely update on the increasing number of reported cases in the last decade and to offer a systematic analysis of the potentially influencing variables. One hundred and thirty cases from 65 studies were included in the present systematic review and effect sizes from 119 cases were used in the meta-analysis. Our analysis revealed better performance in L1 compared to L2 in the whole sample of bilingual speakers with post-stroke aphasia. However, the magnitude of this difference was influenced by whether L2 was learned early in childhood or later: those who learned L2 before 7 years of age showed comparable performance in both of their languages contrary to the bilinguals who learned L2 after 7 years of age and showed better performance in L1 compared to L2. These robust findings were moderated mildly by premorbid proficiency and frequency of use. Finally, linguistic similarity did not appear to influence the magnitude of the difference in performance between L1 and L2. Our findings from the early bilingual subgroup were in line with the previous reviews which included mostly balanced early bilinguals performing comparably in both languages. Our findings from the late bilingual subgroup stressed the primacy of L1 and the importance of age of L2 learning. In addition, the evidence from the present review provides support for theories emphasizing the role of premorbid proficiency and language use in language impairment patterns in bilingual aphasia