Turn-taking: From perception to speech preparation

Wesselmeier H, Müller HM. Turn-taking: From perception to speech preparation. Neuroscience Letters. 2015;609:147-151.We investigated the preparation of a spoken answer response to interrogative sentences by measuring response time (RT) and the response-related readiness potential (RP). By comparing the RT and RP results we aimed to identify whether the RP-onset is more related to the actual speech preparation process or the pure intention to speak after turn-anticipation. Additionally, we investigated if the RP-onset can be influenced by the syntactic structure (one or two completion points). Therefore, the EEG data were sorted based on two variables: the cognitive load required for the response and the syntactic structure of the stimulus questions. The results of the response utterance preparation associated event-related potential (ERP) and the RT suggest that the RP-onset is more related to the actual speech preparation process rather than the pure intention to speak after turn-anticipation. However, the RP-onset can be influenced by the syntactic structure of the question leading to an early response preparation

The responses of central octavolateralis cells to moving sources

Müller HM, Fleck A, Bleckmann H. The responses of central octavolateralis cells to moving sources. Journal of Comparative Physiology A. 1996;179:455-471

Anna, Anmut, Anker: die Struktur der Wörter im Gehirn

Müller HM. Anna, Anmut, Anker: die Struktur der Wörter im Gehirn. Forschung an der Universität Bielefeld. 2005;28:52-56

Independent Information of Nonspecific Biomarkers in Exhaled Breath Condensate

Background: Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) has been used for diagnosing and monitoring respiratory disorders. For clinical purposes the assessment of easy-to-obtain nonspecific markers seems particularly interesting. Objectives: As these measures are related to each other, our objective was to extract the independent information in global EBC markers across a range of respiratory disorders. Methods: EBC was collected from patients with asthma (n = 18), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n = 17), and cystic fibrosis (n = 46), as well as from lung transplant (LTX) recipients (n = 14) and healthy controls (n = 26). Samples were assessed for electrical conductivity, ammonia, pH, and nitrite/nitrate. pH was measured after both deaeration with argon and CO(2) standardization. Additionally, the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FE(NO)) was assessed. Factor analysis was applied to identify major factors concerning these measures. Results: Three independent factors were detected; the first comprised conductivity, ammonia, and pH, especially when standardized using CO(2), the second nitrite/nitrate, and the third FE(NO). Conductivity and ammonia were highly correlated (r = 0.968; p < 0.001). FE(NO) provided independent information mainly in asthma. The nonspecific EBC markers showed considerable overlap between patient groups and healthy subjects. However, conductivity, ammonia, pH standardized for CO(2) and nitrite/nitrate were increased in LTX recipients compared to healthy controls (p < 0.05 each). Conclusions: A panel of nonspecific easy-to-obtain exhaled breath markers could be reduced to 3 independent factors. The information content of conductivity, ammonia, and pH after CO(2) equilibration appeared to be similar, while FE(NO) was independent. The increased levels of these biomarkers in LTX might indicate a potential for their use in these patients. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Base

Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) and functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) in healthy elderly and patients with MCI: modulation of age-related changes in word fluency and language lateralization

Introduction: In addition to age-related changes in language, hemispheric lateralization of language functions steadily declines with age. Also, performance on word fluency tasks declines and is sensitive to the expression of dementia-related changes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of anodal tDCS combined with a word fluency training on language lateralization and word fluency performance in healthy elderly subjects and in persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).Methods: The effect of anodal tDCS over the left inferio frontal gyrus (IFG) was measured in a group of healthy elderly up to the age of 67 years (YG, Ø = 63.9 ± 3.02), a group of healthy elderly aged 68 years and older (OG, Ø = 78.1, ± 4.85), and a group of patients with MCI (Ø = 81.18, ± 7.35) by comparing performance in phonological and semantic word fluency tasks before and after 3 days of tDCS. Half of the experimental participants received sham stimulation. In addition, language lateralization was determined using a lateralization index (LI) measured with functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) before and after the stimulation period.Results: Anodal tDCS was associated with significantly higher scores in phonological but not semantic word fluency in both YG and OG. In MCI patients, no difference was measured between the tDCS and sham groups in either word fluency task. fTCD showed significantly increased left lateralization in all three groups after the training phase. However, this effect was independent of tDCS and the degree of lateralization could not be predicted by word fluency performance in any of the groups.Discussion: Phonological word fluency can be increased with atDCS in healthy elderly people by stimulating the IFG in a 3-day training. When cognitive decline has reached a certain stage, as is the case with MCI, this paradigm does not seem to be effective enough

Is Language Special? Anticipation Timing Accuracy of End of Turns in Known and Unknown Languages

Schaller F, Müller HM. Is Language Special? Anticipation Timing Accuracy of End of Turns in Known and Unknown Languages. International Journal of Neuroscience and Behavioral Science. 2018;6(1):1-11

EEG beta-power changes reflect motor involvement in abstract action language processing

Schaller F, Weiss S, Müller HM. EEG beta-power changes reflect motor involvement in abstract action language processing. Brain and Language. 2017;168:95-105

"Tooth and Truth": Brain Activation During Passive Listening to Concrete and Abstract Nouns

Weiss S, Müller HM, Mertens M, Wörmann FG. "Tooth and Truth": Brain Activation During Passive Listening to Concrete and Abstract Nouns. The Open Behavioral Science Journal. 2011;5(1):37-47.The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to investigate brain activation associated with the auditory perception of concrete and abstract German nouns during a passive listening task. This procedure allows us to investigate inherent linguistic properties common to either concrete or abstract concepts rather than cognitive operations due to the performance of a given specific task. In addition, a new baseline condition (pseudospeech) was used allowing us to monitor language-relevant activation common to both word types besides the pre-lexical analysis of the speech sound. Fixed effects analyses indicated increased activation of left hemispheric ventromedial prefrontal brain regions specifically responsive to the comprehension of concrete nouns by the current participants. This was interpreted in terms of the multisensory representation of concrete nouns comprising not only elicitation of visual images but also of multimodal sensoric and manipulation-related context. In contrast, abstract nouns did not activate any brain region exclusively. Random effects analyses revealed only very slight differences between concrete and abstract nouns in left ventromedial prefrontal brain activation. This suggests that the passive listening task is not suitable to canalize the higher cognitive variability in processing abstract items which seem to result in less coherent brain activation

Swallowing Physiology after Anterior and Posterior Cervical Spine Surgery: A Comparison on Videofluoroscopy Pre- and Post-surgery

Duchac S, Hielscher-Fastabend M, Müller HM, et al. Swallowing Physiology after Anterior and Posterior Cervical Spine Surgery: A Comparison on Videofluoroscopy Pre- and Post-surgery. International Journal of Neuroscience and Behavioral Science. 2017;5(4):71-79

Phase Transitions in Warm, Asymmetric Nuclear Matter

A relativistic mean-field model of nuclear matter with arbitrary proton fraction is studied at finite temperature. An analysis is performed of the liquid-gas phase transition in a system with two conserved charges (baryon number and isospin) using the stability conditions on the free energy, the conservation laws, and Gibbs' criteria for phase equilibrium. For a binary system with two phases, the coexistence surface (binodal) is two-dimensional. The Maxwell construction through the phase-separation region is discussed, and it is shown that the stable configuration can be determined uniquely at every density. Moreover, because of the greater dimensionality of the binodal surface, the liquid-gas phase transition is continuous (second order by Ehrenfest's definition), rather than discontinuous (first order), as in familiar one-component systems. Using a mean-field equation of state calibrated to the properties of nuclear matter and finite nuclei, various phase-separation scenarios are considered. The model is then applied to the liquid-gas phase transition that may occur in the warm, dilute matter produced in energetic heavy-ion collisions. In asymmetric matter, instabilities that produce a liquid-gas phase separation arise from fluctuations in the proton concentration (chemical instability), rather than from fluctuations in the baryon density (mechanical instability).Comment: Postscript file, 50 pages including 23 figure