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Weise A, Grimm S, Maria Rimmele J, Schröger E. Auditory representations for long lasting sounds: Insights from event-related brain potentials and neural oscillations. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2023; 237:105221. [PMID: 36623340 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2021] [Revised: 12/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The basic features of short sounds, such as frequency and intensity including their temporal dynamics, are integrated in a unitary representation. Knowledge on how our brain processes long lasting sounds is scarce. We review research utilizing the Mismatch Negativity event-related potential and neural oscillatory activity for studying representations for long lasting simple versus complex sounds such as sinusoidal tones versus speech. There is evidence for a temporal constraint in the formation of auditory representations: Auditory edges like sound onsets within long lasting sounds open a temporal window of about 350 ms in which the sounds' dynamics are integrated into a representation, while information beyond that window contributes less to that representation. This integration window segments the auditory input into short chunks. We argue that the representations established in adjacent integration windows can be concatenated into an auditory representation of a long sound, thus, overcoming the temporal constraint.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annekathrin Weise
- Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany; Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Germany.
| | - Sabine Grimm
- Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Germany.
| | - Johanna Maria Rimmele
- Department of Neuroscience, Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Germany; Center for Language, Music and Emotion, New York University, Max Planck Institute, Department of Psychology, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, United States.
| | - Erich Schröger
- Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Germany.
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2
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Pinto D, Prior A, Zion Golumbic E. Assessing the Sensitivity of EEG-Based Frequency-Tagging as a Metric for Statistical Learning. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2022; 3:214-234. [PMID: 37215560 PMCID: PMC10158570 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Statistical learning (SL) is hypothesized to play an important role in language development. However, the measures typically used to assess SL, particularly at the level of individual participants, are largely indirect and have low sensitivity. Recently, a neural metric based on frequency-tagging has been proposed as an alternative measure for studying SL. We tested the sensitivity of frequency-tagging measures for studying SL in individual participants in an artificial language paradigm, using non-invasive electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings of neural activity in humans. Importantly, we used carefully constructed controls to address potential acoustic confounds of the frequency-tagging approach, and compared the sensitivity of EEG-based metrics to both explicit and implicit behavioral tests of SL. Group-level results confirm that frequency-tagging can provide a robust indication of SL for an artificial language, above and beyond potential acoustic confounds. However, this metric had very low sensitivity at the level of individual participants, with significant effects found only in 30% of participants. Comparison of the neural metric to previously established behavioral measures for assessing SL showed a significant yet weak correspondence with performance on an implicit task, which was above-chance in 70% of participants, but no correspondence with the more common explicit 2-alternative forced-choice task, where performance did not exceed chance-level. Given the proposed ubiquitous nature of SL, our results highlight some of the operational and methodological challenges of obtaining robust metrics for assessing SL, as well as the potential confounds that should be taken into account when using the frequency-tagging approach in EEG studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danna Pinto
- The Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Anat Prior
- Department of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Elana Zion Golumbic
- The Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
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3
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Exploring the neural correlates of lexical stress perception in english among Chinese-English bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder: An ERP study. Neurosci Lett 2018; 666:158-164. [PMID: 29248615 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.12.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2017] [Revised: 12/05/2017] [Accepted: 12/13/2017] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies found that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were less sensitive to the variations of lexical stress in their native language than typically developing controls. However, no study has been conducted to explore the perception of lexical stress in the second language among individuals with ASD. Using ERPs (event-related potentials) measurement with an oddball paradigm, the current study examined and compared the neural responses by Chinese-English bilingual children with ASD and typically developing controls in the processing of English lexical stress. The results showed that when compared with typically developing controls, children with ASD manifested reduced MMN (mismatch negativity) amplitude at the left temporal-parietal and parietal sites, indicating that they were less sensitive to lexical stress. However, a more negative MMN response was found for ASD group than for typically developing group at the right central-parietal, temporal-parietal, and temporal sites. In addition, the right hemisphere was more activated than the left hemisphere for ASD group, which might be derived from the reversed asymmetry of brain activation for individuals with ASD when processing language-related stimuli.
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Simó M, Gurtubay-Antolin A, Vaquero L, Bruna J, Rodríguez-Fornells A. Performance monitoring in lung cancer patients pre- and post-chemotherapy using fine-grained electrophysiological measures. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2017; 18:86-96. [PMID: 29387526 PMCID: PMC5789765 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2017.12.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2017] [Revised: 12/05/2017] [Accepted: 12/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
No previous event-related potentials (ERPs) study has explored the error-related negativity (ERN) - an ERP component indexing performance monitoring - associated to cancer and chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment in a lung cancer population. The aim of this study was to examine differences in performance monitoring in a small-cell lung cancer group (SCLC, C +) 1-month following chemotherapy and two control groups: a non-small cell lung cancer patient group (NSCLC, C −) prior to chemotherapy and a healthy control group (HC). Seventeen SCLC (C +) underwent a neuropsychological assessment and an ERP study using a flanker and a stop-signal paradigm. This group was compared to fifteen age-, gender- and education-matched NSCLC (C −) and eighteen HC. Between 20 and 30% of patients in both lung cancer groups (C + and C −) met criteria for cognitive impairment. Concerning ERPs, lung cancer patients showed lower overall hit rate and a severe ERN amplitude reduction compared to HC. Lung cancer patients exhibited an abnormal pattern of performance monitoring thus suggesting that chemotherapy and especially cancer itself, may contribute to cognitive deterioration. ERN appeared as an objective laboratory tool sensitive to cognitive dysfunction in cancer population. This is the first study to explore error-related negativity in lung cancer patients. Lung cancer patients showed a severe ERN amplitude reduction. ERN resulted a potential biomarker of cognitive impairment in lung cancer population.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Simó
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain; Neuro-Oncology Unit, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-ICO L'Hospitalet-IDIBELL, 08907 Barcelona, Spain.
| | - A Gurtubay-Antolin
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain
| | - L Vaquero
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain; Laboratory for Motor Learning and Neural Plasticity, Concordia University, HUB 1R6 Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - J Bruna
- Neuro-Oncology Unit, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-ICO L'Hospitalet-IDIBELL, 08907 Barcelona, Spain
| | - A Rodríguez-Fornells
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain; Dept. of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, University of Barcelona, Campus Bellvitge, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, ICREA, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
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5
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Gurtubay-Antolin A, Rodríguez-Fornells A. Neurophysiological evidence for enhanced tactile acuity in early blindness in some but not all haptic tasks. Neuroimage 2017; 162:23-31. [PMID: 28843538 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.08.054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2017] [Revised: 08/11/2017] [Accepted: 08/20/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research assessing the presence of enhanced tactile skills in early-blind (EB) population obtained conflicting results. Most of the studies relied on behavioral measures with which different mechanisms leading to the same outcome go unnoticed. Moreover, the scarce electrophysiological research that has been conducted focused exclusively on the processing of microgeometric properties. To clarify the extent of superior tactile abilities in EBs using high-density multichannel electrophysiological recordings, the present study compared the electrophysiological correlates of EBs and sighted controls (CON) in two tactile discrimination tasks that targeted microgeometric (texture) and macrogeometric (shape) properties. After a restricted exploration (haptic glance), participants judged whether a touched stimulus corresponded to an expected stimulus whose name had been previously presented aurally. In the texture discrimination task, differences between groups emerged at ∼75 ms (early perceptual processing stages) whereas we found no between-group differences during shape discrimination. Furthermore, for the first time, we were able to determine the latency at which EBs started to discriminate micro- (EB: 170 ms; CON: 230 ms) and macrogeometric (EB: 250 ms; CON: 270 ms) properties. Altogether, the results suggest different electrophysiological signatures during texture (but not shape) discrimination in EBs, possibly due to cortical reorganization in occipital areas and their increased connectivity with S1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ane Gurtubay-Antolin
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute- IDIBELL, 08097, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Dept. of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona 08097, Spain.
| | - Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute- IDIBELL, 08097, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Dept. of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona 08097, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010, Barcelona, Spain
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6
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Bosseler AN, Teinonen T, Tervaniemi M, Huotilainen M. Infant Directed Speech Enhances Statistical Learning in Newborn Infants: An ERP Study. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0162177. [PMID: 27617967 PMCID: PMC5019490 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2016] [Accepted: 08/18/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Statistical learning and the social contexts of language addressed to infants are hypothesized to play important roles in early language development. Previous behavioral work has found that the exaggerated prosodic contours of infant-directed speech (IDS) facilitate statistical learning in 8-month-old infants. Here we examined the neural processes involved in on-line statistical learning and investigated whether the use of IDS facilitates statistical learning in sleeping newborns. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while newborns were exposed to12 pseudo-words, six spoken with exaggerated pitch contours of IDS and six spoken without exaggerated pitch contours (ADS) in ten alternating blocks. We examined whether ERP amplitudes for syllable position within a pseudo-word (word-initial vs. word-medial vs. word-final, indicating statistical word learning) and speech register (ADS vs. IDS) would interact. The ADS and IDS registers elicited similar ERP patterns for syllable position in an early 0-100 ms component but elicited different ERP effects in both the polarity and topographical distribution at 200-400 ms and 450-650 ms. These results provide the first evidence that the exaggerated pitch contours of IDS result in differences in brain activity linked to on-line statistical learning in sleeping newborns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexis N. Bosseler
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Tuomas Teinonen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Mari Tervaniemi
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Cicero Learning, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Minna Huotilainen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Cicero Learning, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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7
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Chung WL, Bidelman GM. Cortical encoding and neurophysiological tracking of intensity and pitch cues signaling English stress patterns in native and nonnative speakers. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2016; 155-156:49-57. [PMID: 27140864 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2016.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2015] [Revised: 04/04/2016] [Accepted: 04/06/2016] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
We examined cross-language differences in neural encoding and tracking of intensity and pitch cues signaling English stress patterns. Auditory mismatch negativities (MMNs) were recorded in English and Mandarin listeners in response to contrastive English pseudowords whose primary stress occurred either on the first or second syllable (i.e., "nocTICity" vs. "NOCticity"). The contrastive syllable stress elicited two consecutive MMNs in both language groups, but English speakers demonstrated larger responses to stress patterns than Mandarin speakers. Correlations between the amplitude of ERPs and continuous changes in the running intensity and pitch of speech assessed how well each language group's brain activity tracked these salient acoustic features of lexical stress. We found that English speakers' neural responses tracked intensity changes in speech more closely than Mandarin speakers (higher brain-acoustic correlation). Findings demonstrate more robust and precise processing of English stress (intensity) patterns in early auditory cortical responses of native relative to nonnative speakers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Lun Chung
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, TN 38152, USA
| | - Gavin M Bidelman
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, TN 38152, USA; Institute for Intelligent System, University of Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
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8
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Cunillera T, Laine M, Rodríguez-Fornells A. Headstart for speech segmentation: a neural signature for the anchor word effect. Neuropsychologia 2016; 82:189-199. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.01.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2015] [Revised: 01/07/2016] [Accepted: 01/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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9
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de Diego-Balaguer R, Rodríguez-Fornells A, Bachoud-Lévi AC. Prosodic cues enhance rule learning by changing speech segmentation mechanisms. Front Psychol 2015; 6:1478. [PMID: 26483731 PMCID: PMC4588126 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2015] [Accepted: 09/14/2015] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Prosody has been claimed to have a critical role in the acquisition of grammatical information from speech. The exact mechanisms by which prosodic cues enhance learning are fully unknown. Rules from language often require the extraction of non-adjacent dependencies (e.g., he plays, he sings, he speaks). It has been proposed that pauses enhance learning because they allow computing non-adjacent relations helping word segmentation by removing the need to compute adjacent computations. So far only indirect evidence from behavioral and electrophysiological measures comparing learning effects after exposure to speech with and without pauses support this claim. By recording event-related potentials during the acquisition process of artificial languages with and without pauses between words with embedded non-adjacent rules we provide direct evidence on how the presence of pauses modifies the way speech is processed during learning to enhance segmentation and rule generalization. The electrophysiological results indicate that pauses as short as 25 ms attenuated the N1 component irrespective of whether learning was possible or not. In addition, a P2 enhancement was present only when learning of non-adjacent dependencies was possible. The overall results support the claim that the simple presence of subtle pauses changed the segmentation mechanism used reflected in an exogenously driven N1 component attenuation and improving segmentation at the behavioral level. This effect can be dissociated from the endogenous P2 enhancement that is observed irrespective of the presence of pauses whenever non-adjacent dependencies are learned.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruth de Diego-Balaguer
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats Barcelona, Spain ; Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Bellvitge Research Biomedical Institute (IDIBELL) Barcelona, Spain ; Department of Basic Psychology, University of Barcelona Barcelona, Spain
| | - Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats Barcelona, Spain ; Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Bellvitge Research Biomedical Institute (IDIBELL) Barcelona, Spain ; Department of Basic Psychology, University of Barcelona Barcelona, Spain
| | - Anne-Catherine Bachoud-Lévi
- INSERM U955, Equipe 01, Neuropsychologie Interventionnelle, Institut Mondor de Recherche Biomédicale Créteil, France ; Département d'Etudes Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure Paris, France ; Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris-Est Créteil, France ; Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Centre de Référence Maladie de Huntington, Unité de Neurologie Cognitive, Hôpital Henri Mondor-Albert Chenevier Créteil, France
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10
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Rodríguez-Herreros B, Rodríguez-Fornells A, López-Moliner J. The neural correlates of motion-induced shifts in reaching. Psychophysiology 2015; 52:1577-89. [DOI: 10.1111/psyp.12519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2015] [Accepted: 07/27/2015] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Borja Rodríguez-Herreros
- Department of Basic Psychology; Universitat de Barcelona; Barcelona Spain
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group; Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL; Barcelona Spain
- LREN and Service de Génetique Médicale; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois; Lausanne Switzerland
| | - Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells
- Department of Basic Psychology; Universitat de Barcelona; Barcelona Spain
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group; Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL; Barcelona Spain
- Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, ICREA; Barcelona Spain
| | - Joan López-Moliner
- Department of Basic Psychology; Universitat de Barcelona; Barcelona Spain
- Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior (IR3C), Universitat de Barcelona; Barcelona Spain
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11
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Gurtubay-Antolin A, Rodriguez-Herreros B, Rodríguez-Fornells A. The speed of object recognition from a haptic glance: event-related potential evidence. J Neurophysiol 2015; 113:3069-75. [PMID: 25744887 PMCID: PMC4455565 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00836.2014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2014] [Accepted: 02/27/2015] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Recognition of an object usually involves a wide range of sensory inputs. Accumulating evidence shows that first brain responses associated with the visual discrimination of objects emerge around 150 ms, but fewer studies have been devoted to measure the first neural signature of haptic recognition. To investigate the speed of haptic processing, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during a shape discrimination task without visual information. After a restricted exploratory procedure, participants (n = 27) were instructed to judge whether the touched object corresponded to an expected object whose name had been previously presented in a screen. We encountered that any incongruence between the presented word and the shape of the object evoked a frontocentral negativity starting at ∼175 ms. With the use of source analysis and L2 minimum-norm estimation, the neural sources of this differential activity were located in higher level somatosensory areas and prefrontal regions involved in error monitoring and cognitive control. Our findings reveal that the somatosensory system is able to complete an amount of haptic processing substantial enough to trigger conflict-related responses in medial and prefrontal cortices in <200 ms. The present results show that our haptic system is a fast recognition device closely interlinked with error- and conflict-monitoring processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ane Gurtubay-Antolin
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Basic Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; and
| | - Borja Rodriguez-Herreros
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Basic Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; and
| | - Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Basic Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; and Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, Barcelona, Spain
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12
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Breen M, Dilley LC, McAuley JD, Sanders LD. Auditory evoked potentials reveal early perceptual effects of distal prosody on speech segmentation. LANGUAGE, COGNITION AND NEUROSCIENCE 2014; 29:1132-1146. [PMID: 29911124 PMCID: PMC5998818 DOI: 10.1080/23273798.2014.894642] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Prosodic context several syllables prior (i.e., distal) to an ambiguous word boundary influences speech segmentation. To assess whether distal prosody influences early perceptual processing or later lexical competition, EEG was recorded while subjects listened to eight-syllable sequences with ambiguous word boundaries for the last four syllables (e.g., tie murder bee vs. timer derby). Pitch and duration of the first 5 syllables were manipulated to induce sequence segmentation with either a monosyllabic or disyllabic final word. Behavioral results confirmed a successful manipulation. Moreover, penultimate syllables (e.g., der) elicited a larger anterior positivity 200-500 ms after onset for prosodic contexts predicted to induce word-initial perception of these syllables. Final syllables (e.g. bee) elicited a similar anterior positivity in the context predicted to induce word-initial perception of these syllables. Additionally, these final syllables elicited a larger positive-to-negative deflection (P1-N1) 60-120 ms after onset, and a larger N400. The finding that prosodic characteristics of speech several syllables prior to ambiguous word boundaries modulate both early and late ERPs elicited by subsequent syllable onsets provides evidence that distal prosody influences early perceptual processing, and later lexical competition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mara Breen
- Mount Holyoke College, Department of Psychology and Education
- University of Massachusetts, Department of Psychology
| | - Laura C. Dilley
- Michigan State University, Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders
- Michigan State University, Department of Psychology
- Michigan State University, Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
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13
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Skoe E, Krizman J, Spitzer E, Kraus N. The auditory brainstem is a barometer of rapid auditory learning. Neuroscience 2013; 243:104-14. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2012] [Revised: 03/11/2013] [Accepted: 03/12/2013] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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14
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Shahin AJ, Pitt MA. Alpha activity marking word boundaries mediates speech segmentation. Eur J Neurosci 2012; 36:3740-8. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.12008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2012] [Revised: 07/31/2012] [Accepted: 08/30/2012] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Antoine J. Shahin
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery; The Ohio State University; Columbus; OH; USA
| | - Mark A. Pitt
- Department of Psychology; The Ohio State University; Columbus; OH; USA
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15
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François C, Tillmann B, Schön D. Cognitive and methodological considerations on the effects of musical expertise on speech segmentation. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2012; 1252:108-15. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06395.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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16
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Mitchel AD, Weiss DJ. Learning across senses: cross-modal effects in multisensory statistical learning. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 2011; 37:1081-91. [PMID: 21574745 PMCID: PMC4041380 DOI: 10.1037/a0023700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
It is currently unknown whether statistical learning is supported by modality-general or modality-specific mechanisms. One issue within this debate concerns the independence of learning in one modality from learning in other modalities. In the present study, the authors examined the extent to which statistical learning across modalities is independent by simultaneously presenting learners with auditory and visual streams. After establishing baseline rates of learning for each stream independently, they systematically varied the amount of audiovisual correspondence across 3 experiments. They found that learners were able to segment both streams successfully only when the boundaries of the audio and visual triplets were in alignment. This pattern of results suggests that learners are able to extract multiple statistical regularities across modalities provided that there is some degree of cross-modal coherence. They discuss the implications of their results in light of recent claims that multisensory statistical learning is guided by modality-independent mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron D Mitchel
- Department of Psychology and Program in Linguistics, Pennsylvania State University, 643 Moore Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
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17
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Schön D, François C. Musical expertise and statistical learning of musical and linguistic structures. Front Psychol 2011; 2:167. [PMID: 21811482 PMCID: PMC3141361 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2011] [Accepted: 07/04/2011] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Adults and infants can use the statistical properties of syllable sequences to extract words from continuous speech. Here we present a review of a series of electrophysiological studies investigating (1) Speech segmentation resulting from exposure to spoken and sung sequences (2) The extraction of linguistic versus musical information from a sung sequence (3) Differences between musicians and non-musicians in both linguistic and musical dimensions. The results show that segmentation is better after exposure to sung compared to spoken material and moreover, that linguistic structure is better learned than the musical structure when using sung material. In addition, musical expertise facilitates the learning of both linguistic and musical structures. Finally, an electrophysiological approach, which directly measures brain activity, appears to be more sensitive than a behavioral one.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniele Schön
- Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la MéditerranéeMarseille, France
| | - Clément François
- Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la MéditerranéeMarseille, France
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Rodríguez-Fornells A, Cunillera T, Mestres-Missé A, de Diego-Balaguer R. Neurophysiological mechanisms involved in language learning in adults. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2009; 364:3711-35. [PMID: 19933142 PMCID: PMC2846313 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Little is known about the brain mechanisms involved in word learning during infancy and in second language acquisition and about the way these new words become stable representations that sustain language processing. In several studies we have adopted the human simulation perspective, studying the effects of brain-lesions and combining different neuroimaging techniques such as event-related potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging in order to examine the language learning (LL) process. In the present article, we review this evidence focusing on how different brain signatures relate to (i) the extraction of words from speech, (ii) the discovery of their embedded grammatical structure, and (iii) how meaning derived from verbal contexts can inform us about the cognitive mechanisms underlying the learning process. We compile these findings and frame them into an integrative neurophysiological model that tries to delineate the major neural networks that might be involved in the initial stages of LL. Finally, we propose that LL simulations can help us to understand natural language processing and how the recovery from language disorders in infants and adults can be accomplished.
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Cunillera T, Càmara E, Toro JM, Marco-Pallares J, Sebastián-Galles N, Ortiz H, Pujol J, Rodríguez-Fornells A. Time course and functional neuroanatomy of speech segmentation in adults. Neuroimage 2009; 48:541-53. [PMID: 19580874 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.06.069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 96] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2009] [Revised: 06/02/2009] [Accepted: 06/28/2009] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The present investigation was devoted to unraveling the time-course and brain regions involved in speech segmentation, which is one of the first processes necessary for learning a new language in adults and infants. A specific brain electrical pattern resembling the N400 language component was identified as an indicator of speech segmentation of candidate words. This N400 trace was clearly elicited after a short exposure to the words of the new language and showed a decrease in amplitude with longer exposure. Two brain regions were observed to be active during this process: the posterior superior temporal gyrus and the superior part of the ventral premotor cortex. We interpret these findings as evidence for the existence of an auditory-motor interface that is responsible for isolating possible candidate words when learning a new language in adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toni Cunillera
- Department of Basic Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, 08035, Barcelona, Spain
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Cunillera T, Camara E, Laine M, Rodriguez-Fornells A. Speech segmentation is facilitated by visual cues. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2009; 63:260-74. [PMID: 19526435 DOI: 10.1080/17470210902888809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Evidence from infant studies indicates that language learning can be facilitated by multimodal cues. We extended this observation to adult language learning by studying the effects of simultaneous visual cues (nonassociated object images) on speech segmentation performance. Our results indicate that segmentation of new words from a continuous speech stream is facilitated by simultaneous visual input that it is presented at or near syllables that exhibit the low transitional probability indicative of word boundaries. This indicates that temporal audio-visual contiguity helps in directing attention to word boundaries at the earliest stages of language learning. Off-boundary or arrhythmic picture sequences did not affect segmentation performance, suggesting that the language learning system can effectively disregard noninformative visual information. Detection of temporal contiguity between multimodal stimuli may be useful in both infants and second-language learners not only for facilitating speech segmentation, but also for detecting word-object relationships in natural environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toni Cunillera
- Department of Basic Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
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