Eye-movement reveals word order effects on comparative sentences in older adults using a verb-final language

Objectives

This study aimed to examine age-related differences in the comprehension of Korean comparative sentences with varying word orders by employing both offline and online measures, and to investigate how variations in word order affect sentence processing across different age groups.

Methods

A total of 52 monolingual native Korean speakers, 26 young adults, and 26 older adults, completed a sentence-picture-matching task under two word order conditions: comparative-first and nominative-first. Offline measures included accuracy and response time, while an online method involved eye-tracking within the Visual World Paradigm. Data analyses were performed using linear and generalized linear mixed-effects models.

Results

Older adults demonstrated lower accuracy and longer response times compared to younger individuals. Distinctive fixation patterns were observed, particularly in the sentential-final phrase, across different age groups. Specifically, nominative-first sentences elicited greater target advantage scores among younger adults, whereas older adults showed higher scores in comparative-first sentences.

Conclusion

The study highlights the potential of comparative sentences in elucidating age-related changes in sentence comprehension. These differences were evident not only in offline tasks but also in real-time processing, as evidenced by eye-tracking data. The findings suggest distinct processing strategies employed by young and older adults and underscore the importance of considering both syntactic and semantic cues in sentence comprehension.

The comprehension of double negation in Chinese children with reading difficulties

This study investigated the processing of double negation in Chinese children with reading difficulties. The comprehension of Mandarin affirmative, single negative and double negative sentences was tested with Chinese young poor readers and typical readers, using a sentence-picture verification task. Results showed that double negative sentences were most difficult to process for both groups; the poor readers performed significantly worse than the typical readers in comprehending double negative sentences, while no difference between the two groups was observed in comprehending affirmative and single negative sentences. Besides, morphological awareness correlated with the comprehension of double negative and single negative sentences in poor readers, while this correlation did not emerge with typical readers. Overall, our results suggest that children with reading difficulties experienced great processing difficulty in double negation, confirming that reading disorders are also characterised by oral language difficulties, in particular in the comprehension of sentences requiring high processing costs.

Neural basis of speech and grammar symptoms in non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia spectrum

The non-fluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA) is a neurodegenerative syndrome primarily defined by the presence of apraxia of speech (AoS) and/or expressive agrammatism. In addition, many patients exhibit dysarthria and/or receptive agrammatism. This leads to substantial phenotypic variation within the speech-language domain across individuals and time, in terms of both the specific combination of symptoms as well as their severity. How to resolve such phenotypic heterogeneity in nfvPPA is a matter of debate. 'Splitting' views propose separate clinical entities: 'primary progressive apraxia of speech' when AoS occurs in the absence of expressive agrammatism, 'progressive agrammatic aphasia' (PAA) in the opposite case, and 'AOS + PAA' when mixed motor speech and language symptoms are clearly present. While therapeutic interventions typically vary depending on the predominant symptom (e.g. AoS versus expressive agrammatism), the existence of behavioural, anatomical and pathological overlap across these phenotypes argues against drawing such clear-cut boundaries. In the current study, we contribute to this debate by mapping behaviour to brain in a large, prospective cohort of well characterized patients with nfvPPA (n = 104). We sought to advance scientific understanding of nfvPPA and the neural basis of speech-language by uncovering where in the brain the degree of MRI-based atrophy is associated with inter-patient variability in the presence and severity of AoS, dysarthria, expressive agrammatism or receptive agrammatism. Our cross-sectional examination of brain-behaviour relationships revealed three main observations. First, we found that the neural correlates of AoS and expressive agrammatism in nfvPPA lie side by side in the left posterior inferior frontal lobe, explaining their behavioural dissociation/association in previous reports. Second, we identified a 'left-right' and 'ventral-dorsal' neuroanatomical distinction between AoS versus dysarthria, highlighting (i) that dysarthria, but not AoS, is significantly influenced by tissue loss in right-hemisphere motor-speech regions; and (ii) that, within the left hemisphere, dysarthria and AoS map onto dorsally versus ventrally located motor-speech regions, respectively. Third, we confirmed that, within the large-scale grammar network, left frontal tissue loss is preferentially involved in expressive agrammatism and left temporal tissue loss in receptive agrammatism. Our findings thus contribute to define the function and location of the epicentres within the large-scale neural networks vulnerable to neurodegenerative changes in nfvPPA. We propose that nfvPPA be redefined as an umbrella term subsuming a spectrum of speech and/or language phenotypes that are closely linked by the underlying neuroanatomy and neuropathology.

Neural consequences of binaural beat stimulation on auditory sentence comprehension: an EEG study

A growing literature has shown that binaural beat (BB)-generated by dichotic presentation of slightly mismatched pure tones-improves cognition. We recently found that BB stimulation of either beta (18 Hz) or gamma (40 Hz) frequencies enhanced auditory sentence comprehension. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to characterize neural oscillations pertaining to the enhanced linguistic operations following BB stimulation. Sixty healthy young adults were randomly assigned to one of three listening groups: 18-Hz BB, 40-Hz BB, or pure-tone baseline, all embedded in music. After listening to the sound for 10 min (stimulation phase), participants underwent an auditory sentence comprehension task involving spoken sentences that contained either an object or subject relative clause (task phase). During the stimulation phase, 18-Hz BB yielded increased EEG power in a beta frequency range, while 40-Hz BB did not. During the task phase, only the 18-Hz BB resulted in significantly higher accuracy and faster response times compared with the baseline, especially on syntactically more complex object-relative sentences. The behavioral improvement by 18-Hz BB was accompanied by attenuated beta power difference between object- and subject-relative sentences. Altogether, our findings demonstrate beta oscillations as a neural correlate of improved syntactic operation following BB stimulation.

Comprehension of active, passive, and causative sentences by Japanese-speaking children with intellectual disabilities and typical development

This study aimed to identify the comprehension strategies employed for active, passive, and causative sentences and the involvement of phonological memory, which is a subsystem of working memory, in the comprehension skills of Japanese-speaking children with intellectual disability (ID) compared to those with typical development (TD). The participants were 29 children with ID and 18 children with TD who were matched according to mental and vocabulary ages and phonological memory scores. A picture selection method was employed as a sentence comprehension task. The stimulus sentences were grouped into four patterns of word order: subject (S) - object (O) - verb (V), OSV, SV, and OV. For example, in active sentences, the subject and object are assigned to agent and patient, respectively. The results indicated that children in both groups made comprehension errors for sentences that lacked information regarding the agent and sentences in which the two-noun sequence inverts the typical agent - patient or instructor - instructed order. Phonological memory's involvement in sentence comprehension varied according to the combination of participant groups, sentence types, and patterns. The results suggest that both children with ID and TD relied on agent bias, whereby children consider the first noun to denote the actor and a word order strategy of interpreting a sequence of two noun phrases followed by the transitive verb as agent - patient - act. Furthermore, phonological memory underpins understanding of the relationships among arguments, particularly in the case of sentences for which agent bias or word order strategy may result in misinterpretation.

Age differences in the recruitment of syntactic analysis and semantic plausibility during sentence comprehension

Syntactic analysis and semantic plausibility provide important cues to build the meaningful representation of sentences. The purpose of this research is to explore the age-related differences in the use of syntactic analysis and semantic plausibility during sentence comprehension under different working memory load conditions. A sentence judgment task was implemented among a group of older and younger adults. Semantic plausibility (plausible, implausible) and syntactic consistency (consistent, inconsistent) were manipulated in the experimental stimuli, and working memory load (high, low) was varied by manipulating the presentation of the stimuli. The study revealed a stronger effect of semantic plausibility in older adults than in younger adults when working memory load was low. But no significant age difference in the effect of syntactic consistency was discovered. When working memory load was high, there was a stronger effect of semantic plausibility and a weaker effect of syntactic consistency in older adults than in younger adults, which suggests that older adults relied more on semantic plausibility and less on syntactic analysis than younger adults. The findings indicate that there is an age-related increase in the use of semantic plausibility, and a reduction in the use of syntactic analysis as working memory load increases.

Morphological and conceptual influences on the real-time comprehension of optional plural marked sentences in Yucatec Maya

Introduction

Psycholinguistic research often focuses on Indo-European and other commonly studied major languages, while typologically diverse languages remain understudied. In this paper, we examine the morphological and conceptual influences on the real-time comprehension of optional plural-marked sentences in Yucatec Maya, an indigenous language of Mexico with a less commonly studied optional plural marking system.

Methods

Fifty-one speakers of Yucatec Maya participated in a picture-sentence matching experiment carried out in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Pictures of one, two, or seven humans or animals depicting an intransitive action (conceptual number) were paired with auditorily presented sentences that had no plural marking, one plural, or two plurals (morphological number). Participants indicated by key press whether the picture and the sentence were an acceptable match, and decision time was recorded.

Results

In the analysis of decision (yes versus no) and accuracy, morphological and conceptual factors interacted. In the analysis of decision time, however, morphological plural marking, but not conceptual number, led to faster decisions.

Discussion

In light of previous work on the role of conceptual factors in the computation of number agreement, the interaction between conceptual and morphological factors suggests that a language with optional plural marking (or low "morphological richness") is associated with high conceptual influence on sentence comprehension. Importantly, the results of this study expand the empirical base of language types that have been investigated using psycholinguistic methods.

Delta-Band Neural Responses to Individual Words Are Modulated by Sentence Processing

To understand language, we need to recognize words and combine them into phrases and sentences. During this process, responses to the words themselves are changed. In a step toward understanding how the brain builds sentence structure, the present study concerns the neural readout of this adaptation. We ask whether low-frequency neural readouts associated with words change as a function of being in a sentence. To this end, we analyzed an MEG dataset by Schoffelen et al. (2019) of 102 human participants (51 women) listening to sentences and word lists, the latter lacking any syntactic structure and combinatorial meaning. Using temporal response functions and a cumulative model-fitting approach, we disentangled delta- and theta-band responses to lexical information (word frequency), from responses to sensory and distributional variables. The results suggest that delta-band responses to words are affected by sentence context in time and space, over and above entropy and surprisal. In both conditions, the word frequency response spanned left temporal and posterior frontal areas; however, the response appeared later in word lists than in sentences. In addition, sentence context determined whether inferior frontal areas were responsive to lexical information. In the theta band, the amplitude was larger in the word list condition ∼100 milliseconds in right frontal areas. We conclude that low-frequency responses to words are changed by sentential context. The results of this study show how the neural representation of words is affected by structural context and as such provide insight into how the brain instantiates compositionality in language.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Human language is unprecedented in its combinatorial capacity: we are capable of producing and understanding sentences we have never heard before. Although the mechanisms underlying this capacity have been described in formal linguistics and cognitive science, how they are implemented in the brain remains to a large extent unknown. A large body of earlier work from the cognitive neuroscientific literature implies a role for delta-band neural activity in the representation of linguistic structure and meaning. In this work, we combine these insights and techniques with findings from psycholinguistics to show that meaning is more than the sum of its parts; the delta-band MEG signal differentially reflects lexical information inside and outside sentence structures.

Variation in how cognitive control modulates sentence processing

Prior research suggests that cognitive control can assist the comprehension of sentences that create conflict between interpretations, at least under some circumstances. However, the mixed pattern of results suggests that cognitive control may not always be necessary for accurate comprehension. We tested whether cognitive control recruitment for language processing is systematically variable, depending on the type of sentential ambiguity or conflict, individual differences in cognitive control, and task demands. Participants completed two sessions in a web-based experiment. The first session tested conflict modulation using interleaved Stroop and sentence comprehension trials. Critical sentences contained syntax-semantics or phrase-attachment conflict. In the second session, participants completed three cognitive control and three working memory tasks. Exploratory factor analysis was used to index individual differences in a cognitive control factor and a working memory factor. At the group level, there were no significant conflict modulation effects for either syntax-semantics or phrase-attachment conflict. At the individual differences level, the cognitive control factor correlated with offline comprehension accuracy but not online processing measures for both types of conflict. Together, the results suggest that the role of cognitive control in sentence processing may vary according to task demands. When overt decisions are required, individual differences in cognitive control may matter such that better cognitive control results in better language comprehension performance. The results add to the mixed evidence on conflict modulation and raise questions about the situations under which cognitive control influences online processing.

The influence of the temporal characteristics of events on adults' and children's pronoun resolution

We examined the influence of the lexical and grammatical aspect of events on pronoun resolution in adults (18 to 23 years, N = 46), adolescents (13 to 14 years, N=66) and children (7 to 11 years, N=192). Participants were presented with 64 two-sentence stimuli: the first sentence described events with two same gender protagonists; the second began with a personal pronoun and described a status that could be attributed to either protagonist. Participants recorded to whom the pronoun referred, in a booklet. For all groups, Subject resolutions were more likely for events (a) without endpoints relative to those with endpoints, and (b) described as ongoing rather than completed, but this latter influence was restricted to events with endpoints for adults and adolescents. The findings provide support for the Event Structure Hypothesis of pronoun resolution (Rohde, Kehler & Elman, 2006) and provide new insights into the development of pronoun resolution.

Sentence comprehension test for Russian: A tool to assess syntactic competence

Although all healthy adults have advanced syntactic processing abilities in their native language, psycholinguistic studies report extensive variation among them. However, very few tests were developed to assess this variation, presumably, because when adult native speakers focus on syntactic processing, not being distracted by other tasks, they usually reach ceiling performance. We developed a Sentence Comprehension Test for the Russian language aimed to fill this gap. The test captures variation among participants and does not show ceiling effects. The Sentence Comprehension Test includes 60 unambiguous grammatically complex sentences and 40 control sentences that are of the same length, but are syntactically simpler. Every sentence is accompanied by a comprehension question targeting potential syntactic processing problems and interpretation errors associated with them. Grammatically complex sentences were selected on the basis of the previous literature and then tested in a pilot study. As a result, six constructions that trigger the largest number of errors were identified. For these constructions, we also analyzed which ones are associated with the longest word-by-word reading times, question answering times and the highest error rates. These differences point to different sources of syntactic processing difficulties and can be relied upon in subsequent studies. We conducted two experiments to validate the final version of the test. Getting similar results in two independent experiments, as well as in two presentation modes (reading and listening modes are compared in Experiment 2) confirms its reliability. In Experiment 1, we also showed that the results of the test correlate with the scores in the verbal working memory span test.

The role of verbal short-term memory in complex sentence comprehension: An observational study on aphasia

BACKGROUND

The comprehension profile of people with agrammatism is a debated topic. Syntactic complexity and cognitive resources, in particular phonological short-term memory (pSTM), are considered as crucial components by different interpretative accounts.

AIM

To investigate the interaction of syntactic complexity and of pSTM in sentence comprehension in a group of persons with aphasia with and without agrammatism.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

A cohort of 30 participants presenting with aphasia was assessed for syntactic comprehension and for pSTM. A total of 15 presented with agrammatism and 15 had fluent aphasia.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Linear nested mixed-model analyses revealed a significant interaction between sentence type and pSTM. In particular, participants with lower pSTM scores showed a reduced comprehension of centre-embedded object relatives and long coordinated sentences. Moreover, a significant interaction was found between sentence type and agrammatism, with a lower performance for passives within the agrammatic group.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

These results confirm that pSTM is involved in the comprehension of complex structures with an important computational load, in particular coordinated sentences, and long-distance filler gap dependencies. On the contrary, the specific deficit of the agrammatic group with passives is a pure syntactic deficit, with no involvement of pSTM.

Brain responses to negated and affirmative meanings in the auditory modality

Negation is frequently used in natural language, yet relatively little is known about its processing. More importantly, what is known regarding the neurophysiological processing of negation is mostly based on results of studies using written stimuli (the word-by-word paradigm). While the results of these studies have suggested processing costs in connection to negation (increased negativities in brain responses), it is difficult to know how this translates into processing of spoken language. We therefore developed an auditory paradigm based on a previous visual study investigating processing of affirmatives, sentential negation (not), and prefixal negation (un-). The findings of processing costs were replicated but differed in the details. Importantly, the pattern of ERP effects suggested less effortful processing for auditorily presented negated forms (restricted to increased anterior and posterior positivities) in comparison to visually presented negated forms. We suggest that the natural flow of spoken language reduces variability in processing and therefore results in clearer ERP patterns.

Modulation in alpha band activity reflects syntax composition: an MEG study of minimal syntactic binding

Successful sentence comprehension requires the binding, or composition, of multiple words into larger structures to establish meaning. Using magnetoencephalography, we investigated the neural mechanisms involved in binding at the syntax level, in a task where contributions from semantics were minimized. Participants were auditorily presented with minimal sentences that required binding (pronoun and pseudo-verb with the corresponding morphological inflection; "she grushes") and pseudo-verb wordlists that did not require binding ("cugged grushes"). Relative to no binding, we found that syntactic binding was associated with a modulation in alpha band (8-12 Hz) activity in left-lateralized language regions. First, we observed a significantly smaller increase in alpha power around the presentation of the target word ("grushes") that required binding (-0.05 to 0.1 s), which we suggest reflects an expectation of binding to occur. Second, during binding of the target word (0.15-0.25 s), we observed significantly decreased alpha phase-locking between the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left middle/inferior temporal cortex, which we suggest reflects alpha-driven cortical disinhibition serving to strengthen communication within the syntax composition neural network. Altogether, our findings highlight the critical role of rapid spatial-temporal alpha band activity in controlling the allocation, transfer, and coordination of the brain's resources during syntax composition.

Are prosodic effects on sentence comprehension dependent on age?

PURPOSE

to investigate prosodic boundary effects on the comprehension of attachment ambiguities in Brazilian Portuguese and to test two hypotheses relying on the notion of boundary strength: the absolute boundary hypothesis (ABH) and the relative boundary hypothesis (RBH). Manipulations of prosodic structure influence how listeners interpret syntactically ambiguous sentences. However, the role of prosody in spoken language comprehension of sentences has received limited attention in languages other than English, particularly from a developmental perspective.

METHODS

Twenty-three adults and 15 children participated in a computerized sentence comprehension task involving syntactically ambiguous sentences. Each sentence was recorded in eight different prosodic forms with acoustic manipulations of F0, duration and pause varying the boundary size to reflect predictions of the ABH and RBH.

RESULTS

Children and adults differed in how prosody influenced their syntactic processing and children were significantly slower than adults. Results indicated that interpretation of sentences varied according to their prosodic forms.

CONCLUSION

Neither the ABH or the RBH explained how children and adults who speak Brazilian Portuguese use prosodic boundaries to disambiguate sentences. There is evidence that the way prosodic boundaries influence disambiguation varies cross-linguistically.

Structural priming from production to comprehension in aphasia

Background

Many people with aphasia (PWA) show deficits in sentence production and comprehension, in part, due to an inefficient mapping between messages and syntactic structures. Structural priming-the tendency to repeat previously encountered sentence structures-has been shown to support implicit syntactic learning within and across production and comprehension modalities in healthy adults. Structural priming is also effective in facilitating sentence production and comprehension in PWA. However, less is known about whether priming in one modality changes PWA's performance in the other modality, crucial evidence needed for applying structural priming as a cost-effective intervention strategy for PWA.

Aims

This study examined (a) whether production to comprehension cross-modality priming is effective in PWA, (b) whether priming-induced changes in syntactic comprehension lasted in the absence of an immediate prime, and (c) whether there is a significant correlation between individuals' priming effects and the change in their comprehension following priming.

Methods & Procedures

Thirteen PWA and 13 age-matched control participants completed a pre-test, a production-to-comprehension priming block, and a post-test. In the pre- and post-tests, participants completed a sentence-picture matching task with sentences involving interpretations of an ambiguous prepositional phrase (e.g., The teacher is poking the monk with a bat). Participants were free to choose a picture corresponding to a high attachment (HA; e.g., the teacher is using the bat to poke the monk) or a low attachment (LA; e.g., the monk is holding the bat) interpretation. In the priming block, participants produced LA sentences as primes and then completed a sentence-picture matching task for comprehension targets, similar to the pre-test.

Results

Age-matched controls and PWA showed a significant priming effect when comparing the priming block to the pre-test. In both groups, the priming effect persisted when comparing picture selections in the pre- and post-tests. At the individual level, age-matched controls who showed larger priming effects also selected more LA pictures in the post-test compared to the pre-test, indicating that the priming effect accounted for the magnitude of change from the pre- to post-test. This correlation was also found in PWA.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that production-to-comprehension structural priming is effective and persistent in PWA and controls, in line with the view that structural priming is a form of implicit learning. Further, the findings suggest that syntactic representations are shared between modalities, and therefore, production influences future comprehension. Cross-modality structural priming may have clinical potential to improve sentence processing in PWA.

Specific pattern of linguistic impairment in Parkinson's disease patients with subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment predicts dementia

OBJECTIVE

Parkinson's disease patients with subjective cognitive decline (PD-SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) have an increased risk of dementia (PDD). Thus, the identification of early cognitive changes that can be useful predictors of PDD is a highly relevant challenge. Posterior cortically based functions, including linguistic processes, have been associated with PDD. However, investigations that have focused on linguistic functions in PD-MCI are scarce and none of them include PD-SCD patients. Our aim was to study language performance in PD-SCD and PD-MCI. Moreover, language subcomponents were considered as predictors of PDD.

METHOD

Forty-six PD patients and twenty controls were evaluated with a neuropsychological protocol. Patients were classified as PD-SCD and PD-MCI. Language production and comprehension was assessed. Follow-up assessment was conducted to a mean of 7.5 years after the baseline.

RESULTS

PD-MCI patients showed a poor performance in naming (actions and nouns), action generation, anaphora resolution and sentence comprehension (with and without center-embedded relative clause). PD-SCD showed a poor performance in action naming and action generation. Deficit in action naming was an independent risk factor for PDD during the follow-up. Moreover, the combination of deficit in action words and sentence comprehension without a center-embedded relative clause was associated with a greater risk.

CONCLUSIONS

The results are of relevance because they suggest that a specific pattern of linguistic dysfunctions, that can be present even in the early stages of the disease, can predict future dementia, reinforcing the importance of advancing in the knowledge of linguistic dysfunctions in predementia stages of PD.

Neural tracking of phrases in spoken language comprehension is automatic and task-dependent

Linguistic phrases are tracked in sentences even though there is no one-to-one acoustic phrase marker in the physical signal. This phenomenon suggests an automatic tracking of abstract linguistic structure that is endogenously generated by the brain. However, all studies investigating linguistic tracking compare conditions where either relevant information at linguistic timescales is available, or where this information is absent altogether (e.g., sentences versus word lists during passive listening). It is therefore unclear whether tracking at phrasal timescales is related to the content of language, or rather, results as a consequence of attending to the timescales that happen to match behaviourally relevant information. To investigate this question, we presented participants with sentences and word lists while recording their brain activity with magnetoencephalography (MEG). Participants performed passive, syllable, word, and word-combination tasks corresponding to attending to four different rates: one they would naturally attend to, syllable-rates, word-rates, and phrasal-rates, respectively. We replicated overall findings of stronger phrasal-rate tracking measured with mutual information for sentences compared to word lists across the classical language network. However, in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) we found a task effect suggesting stronger phrasal-rate tracking during the word-combination task independent of the presence of linguistic structure, as well as stronger delta-band connectivity during this task. These results suggest that extracting linguistic information at phrasal rates occurs automatically with or without the presence of an additional task, but also that IFG might be important for temporal integration across various perceptual domains.

Sentence Comprehension in Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Study of the Application of the Brazilian Version of the Test for the Reception of Grammar (TROG2-Br)

Sentence-comprehension deficits have been described in patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). However, most instruments to address this domain in more detail and in a clinical context have not been adapted and translated into several languages, posing limitations to clinical practice and cross-language research.

Objectives

The study aimed to (1) test the applicability of the Brazilian version of the Test for Reception of Grammar (TROG2-Br) to detect morphosyntactic deficits in patients with PPA; (2) investigate the association between performance in the test and sociodemographic and clinical variables (age, years of formal education, and disease duration); (3) characterize the performance of individuals presenting with the three more common variants of PPA (non-fluent, semantic, and logopenic) and mixed PPA (PPA-Mx) and analyze whether TROG-2 may assist in the distinction of these clinical profiles.

Methods

A total of 74 cognitively healthy participants and 34 individuals diagnosed with PPA were assessed with TROG2-Br. Overall scores (correct items, passed blocks), types, and categories of errors were analyzed.

Results

In controls, block scores were significantly correlated with years of formal education (Spearman's r = 0.33, p = 004) but not with age. In PPA, age, education, and disease duration were not significantly associated with performance in the test. Controls presented a significantly higher performance on TROG2-Br compared to PPA individuals and their errors pattern pointed to mild general cognitive processing difficulties (attention, working memory). PPA error types pointed to processing and morphosyntactic deficits in nonfluent or agrammatic PPA, (PPA-NF/A), logopenic PPA (PPA-L), and PPA-Mx. The semantic PPA (PPA-S) subgroup was qualitatively more similar to controls (processing difficulties and lower percentage of morphosyntactic errors). TROG2-Br presented good internal consistency and concurrent validity.

Discussion

Our results corroborate findings with TROG-2 in other populations. The performance of typical older adults with heterogeneous levels of education is discussed along with recommendations for clinical use of the test and future directions of research.

Access to verb bias and plausibility information during syntactic processing in adult Spanish-English bilinguals

In two experiments, we examine how proficient second language speakers integrate verb bias and plausibility information during online sentence comprehension. Spanish-English speakers and native English speakers read sentences in English in which a post-verbal noun phrase (NP) could be interpreted as a direct object or a sentential subject. To examine the role of verb bias, the post-verbal NP was preceded by a verb that is preferentially followed by a direct object (DO-bias verbs) or a sentential complement (SC-bias verbs). To assess the role of plausibility, the semantic fit between the verb and the post-verbal NP was either congruent or incongruent with the direct object interpretation. The results show that both second language speakers and native speakers used verb bias information to assign a grammatical role to the post-verbal ambiguous NP with small differences. Syntactic revision of an initially incorrect DO interpretation was facilitated by the presence of an implausible NP.

Semantic Working Memory Predicts Sentence Comprehension Performance: A Case Series Approach

Sentence comprehension involves maintaining and continuously integrating linguistic information and, thus, makes demands on working memory (WM). Past research has demonstrated that semantic WM, but not phonological WM, is critical for integrating word meanings across some distance and resolving semantic interference in sentence comprehension. Here, we examined the relation between phonological and semantic WM and the comprehension of center-embedded relative clause sentences, often argued to make heavy demands on WM. Additionally, we examined the relation between phonological and semantic WM and the comprehension of transitive and dative active and passive sentences, which may also draw on WM resources depending on the number of propositions that must be maintained and the difficulty of processing passive clauses. In a large sample of individuals with aphasia (N = 56), we assessed whether comprehension performance on more complex vs. simpler active-passive or embedded relative clause sentences would be predicted by semantic but not phonological WM when controlling for single word comprehension. For performance on the active-passive comprehension task, we found that semantic WM, but not phonological WM, predicted comprehension of dative sentences when controlling for comprehension of transitive sentences. We also found that phonological WM, but not semantic WM, predicted mean comprehension for reversible active-passive sentences when controlling for trials with lexical distractors. On the relative clause comprehension task, consistent with prior results, we found that semantic WM, but not phonological WM, predicted comprehension of object relative clause sentences and relative clause sentences with a passive construction. However, both phonological WM and semantic WM predicted mean comprehension across all relative clause types for reversible trials when controlling for trials with lexical distractors. While we found evidence of semantic WM's role in comprehension, we also observed unpredicted relations between phonological WM and comprehension in some conditions. Post-hoc analyses provided preliminary evidence that phonological WM maintains a backup phonological representation of the sentence that may be accessed when sentence comprehension processing is less efficient. Future work should investigate possible roles that phonological WM may play across sentence types.

Canonical Sentence Processing and the Inferior Frontal Cortex: Is There a Connection?

The role of left inferior frontal cortex (LIFC) in canonical sentence comprehension is controversial. Many studies have found involvement of LIFC in sentence production or complex sentence comprehension, but negative or mixed results are often found in comprehension of simple or canonical sentences. We used voxel-, region-, and connectivity-based lesion symptom mapping (VLSM, RLSM, CLSM) in left-hemisphere chronic stroke survivors to investigate canonical sentence comprehension while controlling for lexical-semantic, executive, and phonological processes. We investigated how damage and disrupted white matter connectivity of LIFC and two other language-related regions, the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) and posterior temporal-inferior parietal area (LpT-iP), affected sentence comprehension. VLSM and RLSM revealed that LIFC damage was not associated with canonical sentence comprehension measured by a sensibility judgment task. LIFC damage was associated instead with impairments in a lexical semantic similarity judgment task with high semantic/executive demands. Damage to the LpT-iP, specifically posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), predicted worse sentence comprehension after controlling for visual lexical access, semantic knowledge, and auditory-verbal short-term memory (STM), but not auditory single-word comprehension, suggesting pMTG is vital for auditory language comprehension. CLSM revealed that disruption of left-lateralized white-matter connections from LIFC to LATL and LpT-iP was associated with worse sentence comprehension, controlling for performance in tasks related to lexical access, auditory word comprehension, and auditory-verbal STM. However, the LIFC connections were accounted for by the lexical semantic similarity judgment task, which had high semantic/executive demands. This suggests that LIFC connectivity is relevant to canonical sentence comprehension when task-related semantic/executive demands are high.

Remembering sentences is not all about memory: Convergent and discriminant validity of syntactic knowledge and its relationship with reading comprehension

Recent studies have found correlations between sentence-level tests and reading comprehension. However, the task demands of sentence-level tests are not well understood. The present study investigated syntactic knowledge as a construct by examining the convergent and discriminant validity of two sentence-level tasks, sentence comprehension and sentence repetition, designed to test syntactic knowledge and their relation with reading comprehension. Results from 86 Grade 6 students showed that the syntax tests were more highly correlated with each other than with tests of working memory and vocabulary. This suggests that the syntax measures tap into a set of skills that are at least partially separate from these other cognitive constructs. Furthermore, syntactic knowledge explained unique variance in reading comprehension beyond controls. The syntax tasks were working memory dependent, but working memory was not the primary reason why syntax tasks are correlated with reading comprehension.

Electrophysiological abnormalities as indicators of early-stage pathology in Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA): A case study in semantic variant PPA

Language induced and spontaneous oscillatory activity was measured using MEG in a patient with the semantic variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia (svPPA) and 15 healthy controls.The patient showed oscillatory slowing in the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) that extended into non-atrophied brain tissue in left and right frontal areas. The white matter connections were reduced to the left and right ATL and left frontal regions, exhibiting electrophysiological abnormalities. Altered diffusion metrics in all four language tracts, indicted compromised white matter integrity. Task-related and spontaneous oscillatory abnormalities can indicate early neurodegeneration in svPPA, providing promising targets for intervention.

Multisensory Input Modulates P200 and L2 Sentence Comprehension: A One-Week Consolidation Phase

Multisensory input is an aid to language comprehension; however, it remains to be seen to what extent various combinations of senses may affect the P200 component and attention-related cognitive processing associated with L2 sentence comprehension along with the N400 as a later component. To this aim, we provided some multisensory input (enriched with data from three (i.e., exvolvement) and five senses (i.e., involvement)) for a list of unfamiliar words to 18 subjects. Subsequently, the words were embedded in an acceptability judgment task with 360 pragmatically correct and incorrect sentences. The task, along with the ERP recording, was conducted after a 1-week consolidation period to track any possible behavioral and electrophysiological distinctions in the retrieval of information with various sense combinations. According to the behavioral results, we found that the combination of five senses leads to more accurate and quicker responses. Based on the electrophysiological results, the combination of five senses induced a larger P200 amplitude compared to the three-sense combination. The implication is that as the sensory weight of the input increases, vocabulary retrieval is facilitated and more attention is directed to the overall comprehension of L2 sentences which leads to more accurate and quicker responses. This finding was not, however, reflected in the neural activity of the N400 component.

Endogenous Oscillations Time-Constrain Linguistic Segmentation: Cycling the Garden Path

Speech is transient. To comprehend entire sentences, segments consisting of multiple words need to be memorized for at least a while. However, it has been noted previously that we struggle to memorize segments longer than approximately 2.7 s. We hypothesized that electrophysiological processing cycles within the delta band (<4 Hz) underlie this time constraint. Participants’ EEG was recorded while they listened to temporarily ambiguous sentences. By manipulating the speech rate, we aimed at biasing participants’ interpretation: At a slow rate, segmentation after 2.7 s would trigger a correct interpretation. In contrast, at a fast rate, segmentation after 2.7 s would trigger a wrong interpretation and thus an error later in the sentence. In line with the suggested time constraint, the phase of the delta-band oscillation at the critical point in the sentence mirrored segmentation on the level of single trials, as indicated by the amplitude of the P600 event-related brain potential (ERP) later in the sentence. The correlation between upstream delta-band phase and downstream P600 amplitude implies that segmentation took place when an underlying neural oscillator had reached a specific angle within its cycle, determining comprehension. We conclude that delta-band oscillations set an endogenous time constraint on segmentation.

Best ear hearing level, time factors and language outcome in Swedish children with mild and moderate hearing loss with hearing aids

AIM

The risk for language disorder is high in children with all levels of hearing loss (HL). Early identification and intervention should be as important for children with mild HL as for those with more severe HL. Despite new-born hearing screening, a recent survey of speech language therapist services in southern Sweden indicates that children with mild and moderate HL are severely neglected when it comes to language assessment and language intervention. In this study we explore associations between Best Ear Hearing Level (BEHL), time factors and language skills in Swedish children with HL with hearing aids (HA).

METHOD

Participants were 19 children with mild HL (BEHL 23-39) and 22 children with moderate HL (BEHL 40-70) aged 5-15 years. Information on age at diagnosis and at HA fitting were collected. The children performed a nonword repetition and a sentence comprehension task.

RESULTS

The time elapsed between diagnosis and fitting with HA was longer for the children with mild HL.Participants with mild HL received their HA significantly later than children with moderate HL. No association between BEHL and the two language measures was found, and language skills were not better in children with mild than moderate HL. 17% of participants performed below cut-off for language disorder on both language measures.

CONCLUSION

Given the risk for long-term academic and social consequences of even mild HL delayed HA intervention for children with HLleads to serious concerns by families, clinicians, and pedagogues.

Comprehension and Eye Movements in the Processing of Subject- and Object-Relative Clauses: Evidence from Dyslexia and Individual Differences

In this study, we examined eye movements and comprehension in sentences containing a relative clause. To date, few studies have focused on syntactic processing in dyslexia and so one goal of the study is to contribute to this gap in the experimental literature. A second goal is to contribute to theoretical psycholinguistic debate concerning the cause and the location of the processing difficulty associated with object-relative clauses. We compared dyslexic readers (n = 50) to a group of non-dyslexic controls (n = 50). We also assessed two key individual differences variables (working memory and verbal intelligence), which have been theorised to impact reading times and comprehension of subject- and object-relative clauses. The results showed that dyslexics and controls had similar comprehension accuracy. However, reading times showed participants with dyslexia spent significantly longer reading the sentences compared to controls (i.e., a main effect of dyslexia). In general, sentence type did not interact with dyslexia status. With respect to individual differences and the theoretical debate, we found that processing difficulty between the subject and object relatives was no longer significant when individual differences in working memory were controlled. Thus, our findings support theories, which assume that working memory demands are responsible for the processing difficulty incurred by (1) individuals with dyslexia and (2) object-relative clauses as compared to subject relative clauses.

Online representations of non-canonical sentences are more than good-enough

Proponents of good-enough processing suggest that readers often (mis)interpret certain sentences using fast-and-frugal heuristics, such that for non-canonical sentences (e.g., The dog was bitten by the man) people confuse the thematic roles of the nouns. We tested this theory by examining the effect of sentence canonicality on the reading of a follow-up sentence. In a self-paced reading study, 60 young and 60 older adults read an implausible sentence in either canonical (e.g., It was the peasant that executed the king) or non-canonical form (e.g., It was the king that was executed by the peasant), followed by a sentence that was implausible given a good-enough misinterpretation of the first sentence (e.g., Afterwards, the peasant rode back to the countryside) or a sentence that was implausible given a correct interpretation of the first sentence (e.g., Afterwards, the king rode back to his castle). We hypothesised that if non-canonical sentences are systematically misinterpreted, then sentence canonicality would differentially affect the reading of the two different follow-up types. Our data suggested that participants derived the same interpretations for canonical and non-canonical sentences, with no modulating effect of age group. Our findings suggest that readers do not derive an incorrect interpretation of non-canonical sentences during initial parsing, consistent with theories of misinterpretation effects that instead attribute these effects to post-interpretative processes.

Age and Education Effects on a Novel Syntactic Assessment Battery for Elderly Adults

The purpose of this study was to delineate the properties of a novel syntactic assessment battery and to present descriptive data on normal elderly individuals. We administered the Syntactic Assessment Battery (hereinafter SAB) using a sentence-picture paradigm to 195 normal elderly adults in three age groups (60-69, 70-79, and 80-90) and five educational levels (No formal education, Elementary School Graduation, Middle School Graduation, High School Graduation, College Graduation and Above). A multiple linear regression model was applied to verify the age and education effects. A summary of results indicated that the SAB effectively detected age and education effects. People generally demonstrated worse performance as they aged but better performance as their educational levels increased. People with high school education and above generally demonstrated stronger performance on the test, although educational effects were not significantly different between elementary and middle school graduation groups. The current novel syntactic assessment battery can serve as a screening measure that sensitively detects age and education effects.

Deep Artificial Neural Networks Reveal a Distributed Cortical Network Encoding Propositional Sentence-Level Meaning

Understanding how and where in the brain sentence-level meaning is constructed from words presents a major scientific challenge. Recent advances have begun to explain brain activation elicited by sentences using vector models of word meaning derived from patterns of word co-occurrence in text corpora. These studies have helped map out semantic representation across a distributed brain network spanning temporal, parietal, and frontal cortex. However, it remains unclear whether activation patterns within regions reflect unified representations of sentence-level meaning, as opposed to superpositions of context-independent component words. This is because models have typically represented sentences as "bags-of-words" that neglect sentence-level structure. To address this issue, we interrogated fMRI activation elicited as 240 sentences were read by 14 participants (9 female, 5 male), using sentences encoded by a recurrent deep artificial neural-network trained on a sentence inference task (InferSent). Recurrent connections and nonlinear filters enable InferSent to transform sequences of word vectors into unified "propositional" sentence representations suitable for evaluating intersentence entailment relations. Using voxelwise encoding modeling, we demonstrate that InferSent predicts elements of fMRI activation that cannot be predicted by bag-of-words models and sentence models using grammatical rules to assemble word vectors. This effect occurs throughout a distributed network, which suggests that propositional sentence-level meaning is represented within and across multiple cortical regions rather than at any single site. In follow-up analyses, we place results in the context of other deep network approaches (ELMo and BERT) and estimate the degree of unpredicted neural signal using an "experiential" semantic model and cross-participant encoding.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT A modern-day scientific challenge is to understand how the human brain transforms word sequences into representations of sentence meaning. A recent approach, emerging from advances in functional neuroimaging, big data, and machine learning, is to computationally model meaning, and use models to predict brain activity. Such models have helped map a cortical semantic information-processing network. However, how unified sentence-level information, as opposed to word-level units, is represented throughout this network remains unclear. This is because models have typically represented sentences as unordered "bags-of-words." Using a deep artificial neural network that recurrently and nonlinearly combines word representations into unified propositional sentence representations, we provide evidence that sentence-level information is encoded throughout a cortical network, rather than in a single region.

Effects of Dispositional Affect on the N400: Language Processing and Socially Situated Context

We examined whether the N400 Event-Related Potential (ERP) component would be modulated by dispositional affect during sentence processing. In this study, 33 participants read sentences manipulated by direct object type (congruent vs. incongruent) and object determiner type (definite vs. demonstrative). We were particularly interested in sentences of the form: (i) The connoisseur tasted the wine on the tour vs. (ii) The connoisseur tasted the # roof … We expected that processing incongruent direct objects (#roof) vs. congruent objects (wine) would elicit N400 effects. Previous ERP language experiments have shown that participants in (induced) positive and negative moods were differentially sensitive to semantic anomaly, resulting in different N400 effects. Presently, we ask whether individual dispositional affect scores (as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; PANAS) would modulate N400 effects as shown previously. Namely, previous results showed larger N400 effects associated with happy moods and attenuated amplitudes associated with sad moods. Results revealed significant N400 effects, driven by the #roof vs. the wine, where larger amplitude differences were found for individuals showing smaller negative affect (NA) scores, thus partially replicating previous findings. We discuss our results in terms of theories of local (lexical) inhibition, such that low NA promotes stronger lexico-semantic links in sentences. Finally, our results support accounts of language processing that include social and biological characteristics of individuals during real-time sentence comprehension.

The Principle of Least Effort and Comprehension of Spoken Sentences by Younger and Older Adults

There is considerable evidence that listeners' understanding of a spoken sentence need not always follow from a full analysis of the words and syntax of the utterance. Rather, listeners may instead conduct a superficial analysis, sampling some words and using presumed plausibility to arrive at an understanding of the sentence meaning. Because this latter strategy occurs more often for sentences with complex syntax that place a heavier processing burden on the listener than sentences with simpler syntax, shallow processing may represent a resource conserving strategy reflected in reduced processing effort. This factor may be even more important for older adults who as a group are known to have more limited working memory resources. In the present experiment, 40 older adults (M age = 75.5 years) and 20 younger adults (M age = 20.7) were tested for comprehension of plausible and implausible sentences with a simpler subject-relative embedded clause structure or a more complex object-relative embedded clause structure. Dilation of the pupil of the eye was recorded as an index of processing effort. Results confirmed greater comprehension accuracy for plausible than implausible sentences, and for sentences with simpler than more complex syntax, with both effects amplified for the older adults. Analysis of peak pupil dilations for implausible sentences revealed a complex three-way interaction between age, syntactic complexity, and plausibility. Results are discussed in terms of models of sentence comprehension, and pupillometry as an index of intentional task engagement.

Context Breeds False Memories for Indeterminate Sentences

What are the roles of semantic and pragmatic processes in the interpretation of sentences in context? And how do we attain such interpretations when sentences are deemed indeterminate? Consider a sentence such as "Lisa began the book" which does not overtly express the activity that Lisa began doing with the book. Although it is believed that individuals compute a specified event to enrich the sentential representation - yielding, e.g., "began [reading] the book" - there is no evidence that a default event meaning is attained. Moreover, if indeterminate sentences are enriched, it is not clear where the information required to generate enriched interpretations come from. Experiment 1 showed that, in isolation, there is no default interpretation for indeterminate sentences. The experiment also showed that biasing contexts constrain event interpretations and improve plausibility judgments, suggesting that event representations for indeterminate sentences are generated by context. In Experiment 2, participants heard biasing discourse contexts and later falsely recognized foil sentences containing the biased events ("Lisa began reading the book") at the same proportion and with the same confidence as the original indeterminate sentence ("Lisa began the book"). We suggest that indeterminate sentences trigger event-enriching inferences but only in sufficiently constraining contexts. We also suggest that indeterminate sentences create two memory traces, one for the proposition consistent with the denotational, compositional meaning, and another for the proposition that is enriched pragmatically over time.

Delving Into the Working Mechanism of Prediction in Sentence Comprehension: An ERP Study

The present study aims to delineate the working mechanism of prediction in sentence comprehension, by disentangling the influence of the facilitated general memory retrieval from the coexistent influence of the predicted language-specific semantic and/or syntactic information for the first time. The results support that prediction might influence the downstream cognitive processing in two aspects: (1) the pre-activated information facilitates the retrieval of a matched input in memory and, (2) the pre-activated information interacts with higher-level semantic/syntactic processing. More importantly, the present findings suggest that these two types of influences seem to occur at different stages of sentence comprehension: the facilitated memory retrieval of the input modulates N400 amplitude and the latency of post-N400 late central-parietal positivity/P600, while the predicted semantic/syntactic information and/or their interactions modulate the amplitude of the late positivity. The present findings would be helpful for interpreting the underlying mechanism of observed effects in prediction studies.

Effects of animacy and sentence type on silent reading comprehension in aphasia: An eye-tracking study

The present study examined how healthy aging and aphasia influence the capacity for readers to generate structural predictions during online reading, and how animacy cues influence this process. Non-brain-damaged younger (n =24) and older (n =12) adults (Experiment 1) and individuals with aphasia (IWA; n =11; Experiment 2) read subject relative and object relative sentences in an eye-tracking experiment. Half of the sentences included animate sentential subjects, and the other half included inanimate sentential subjects. All three groups used animacy information to mitigate effects of syntactic complexity. These effects were greater in older than younger adults. IWA were sensitive to structural frequency, with longer reading times for object relative than subject relative sentences. As in previous work, effects of structural complexity did not emerge on IWA's first pass through the sentence, but were observed when IWA reread critical segments of the sentences. Thus, IWA may adopt atypical reading strategies when they encounter low frequency or complex sentence structures, but they are able to use animacy information to reduce the processing disruptions associated with these structures.

Thematic Integration Impairments in Primary Progressive Aphasia: Evidence From Eye-Tracking

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a degenerative disease affecting language while leaving other cognitive facilities relatively unscathed. The agrammatic subtype of PPA (PPA-G) is characterized by agrammatic language production with impaired comprehension of noncanonical filler-gap syntactic structures, such as object-relatives [e.g., The sandwich that the girl ate (gap) was tasty], in which the filler (the sandwich) is displaced from the object position within the relative clause to a position preceding both the verb and the agent (the girl) and is replaced by a gap linked with the filler. One hypothesis suggests that the observed deficits of these structures reflect impaired thematic integration, including impaired prediction of the thematic role of the filler and impaired thematic integration at the gap, but spared structure building (i.e., creation of the gap). In the current study, we examined the on-line comprehension of object-relative and subject-relative clauses in healthy controls and individuals with agrammatic and logopenic PPA using eye-tracking. Eye-movement patterns in canonical subject-relative clause structures were essentially spared in both PPA groups. In contrast, eye-movement patterns in noncanonical object-relative clauses revealed delayed thematic prediction in both agrammatic and logopenic PPA, on-time structure building (i.e., gap-filling) in both groups, and abnormal thematic integration in agrammatic, but not logopenic, PPA. We argue that these results are consistent with the hypothesis that agrammatic comprehension deficits reflect impaired thematic integration.

Subthalamic Nucleus Stimulation Impairs Sequence Processing in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

BACKGROUND

Maintaining and manipulating sequences online is essential for language and memory. In Parkinson's disease (PD), poor performance in sequencing tasks has been associated with basal ganglia dysfunction, especially subthalamic hyperactivity.

OBJECTIVE

This study is aimed to investigate the impact of high-frequency subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) on sequence processing in PD.

METHODS

Twenty-nine patients with PD (17 women) completed a 'before/after' sentence task and a digit ordering task with STN DBS ON and OFF. In the sentence task, patients read a sequence of events expressed in the actual order of occurrence ('after' sentences) or reversed order ('before' sentences) for comprehension. In the digit task, patients recalled a sequence of ordered digits (ordered trials) or reordered and recalled random digits in ascending order (random trials). Volumes of tissue activated (VTAs) were estimated for the motor and associative STN.

RESULTS

Patients were slower with STN DBS ON versus OFF in both tasks, although their motor symptoms were significantly improved under DBS. In the sentence task, patients showed higher ordering-related reaction time costs ('before' > 'after') with DBS ON versus OFF. Moreover, patients with larger left associative VTAs, smaller total motor VTAs, and more daily exposure to dopaminergic drugs tended to show larger reaction time cost increases under DBS. In the digit ordering task, patients with too large or too small right associative VTAs tended to show larger reaction time cost increases under DBS.

CONCLUSION

Stimulating the STN, especially its associative part, might impair sequence processing in language and memory.

When event knowledge overrides word order in sentence comprehension: Learning a first language after childhood

Limited language experience in childhood is common among deaf individuals, which prior research has shown to lead to low levels of language processing. Although basic structures such as word order have been found to be resilient to conditions of sparse language input in early life, whether they are robust to conditions of extreme language delay is unknown. The sentence comprehension strategies of post-childhood, first-language (L1) learners of American Sign Language (ASL) with at least 9 years of language experience were investigated, in comparison to two control groups of learners with full access to language from birth (deaf native signers and hearing L2 learners who were native English speakers). The results of a sentence-to-picture matching experiment show that event knowledge overrides word order for post-childhood L1 learners, regardless of the animacy of the subject, while both deaf native signers and hearing L2 signers consistently rely on word order to comprehend sentences. Language inaccessibility throughout early childhood impedes the acquisition of even basic word order. Similar to the strategies used by very young children prior to the development of basic sentence structure, post-childhood L1 learners rely more on context and event knowledge to comprehend sentences. Language experience during childhood is critical to the development of basic sentence structure.

Testing limits: ERP evidence for word form preactivation during speeded sentence reading

While it is commonly agreed upon that language comprehenders preactivate information at multiple levels, there is less consensus regarding what and when information is predicted, under which circumstances, and via which mechanism(s). Regarding when, Ito, Corley, Pickering, Martin, & Nieuwland (2016) concluded that during sentence processing, word form-unlike semantic-preactivation crucially relies on the time available to generate late-stage predictions via language production mechanisms, setting this limit between 500 and 700 ms/word. The current event-related brain potential (ERP) study tests this proposal at a substantially faster serial visual presentation (SVP) rate of four words/s, on par with normal reading. We utilize the experimental design and replicate the general ERP findings of the two words/s SVP study of DeLong, Chan, & Kutas (2019), with results showing similar N400 reductions to unpredictable sentence continuations whether semantically or orthographically related to contextually predictable words, as well as an increased late posterior positivity to orthographic neighbors. These findings indicate that processing of written word information can be rapidly facilitated through context-based expectancies, establishing that if there is a time constraint for word form preactivation, it must be far less than limits specified by the prediction-by-production comprehension model championed by Ito et al.

Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Dynamic Updating of Native Language

Language users encounter different sentence structures from different people in different contexts. Although syntactic variability and adults' ability to adapt to it are both widely acknowledged, the relevant mechanisms and neural substrates are unknown. We hypothesized that syntactic updating might rely on cognitive control, which can help detect and resolve mismatch between prior linguistic expectations and new language experiences that countervail those expectations and thereby assist in accurately encoding new input. Using functional neuroimaging (fMRI), we investigated updating in garden-path sentence comprehension to test the prediction that regions within the left inferior frontal cortex might be relevant neural substrates, and additionally, explored the role of regions within the multiple demand network. Participants read ambiguous and unambiguous main-verb and relative-clause sentences. Ambiguous relative-clause sentences led to a garden-path effect in the left pars opercularis within the lateral frontal cortex and the left anterior insula/frontal operculum within the multiple demand network. This effect decreased upon repeated exposure to relative-clause sentences, consistent with updating. The two regions showed several contrastive patterns, including different activation relative to baseline, correlation with performance in a cognitive control task (the Stroop task), and verb-specificity versus generality in adaptation. Together, these results offer new insight into how the brain updates native language. They demonstrate the involvement of left frontal brain regions in helping the language system adjust to new experiences, with different areas playing distinct functional roles.

Linguistic Structure and Meaning Organize Neural Oscillations into a Content-Specific Hierarchy

Neural oscillations track linguistic information during speech comprehension (Ding et al., 2016; Keitel et al., 2018), and are known to be modulated by acoustic landmarks and speech intelligibility (Doelling et al., 2014; Zoefel and VanRullen, 2015). However, studies investigating linguistic tracking have either relied on non-naturalistic isochronous stimuli or failed to fully control for prosody. Therefore, it is still unclear whether low-frequency activity tracks linguistic structure during natural speech, where linguistic structure does not follow such a palpable temporal pattern. Here, we measured electroencephalography (EEG) and manipulated the presence of semantic and syntactic information apart from the timescale of their occurrence, while carefully controlling for the acoustic-prosodic and lexical-semantic information in the signal. EEG was recorded while 29 adult native speakers (22 women, 7 men) listened to naturally spoken Dutch sentences, jabberwocky controls with morphemes and sentential prosody, word lists with lexical content but no phrase structure, and backward acoustically matched controls. Mutual information (MI) analysis revealed sensitivity to linguistic content: MI was highest for sentences at the phrasal (0.8-1.1 Hz) and lexical (1.9-2.8 Hz) timescales, suggesting that the delta-band is modulated by lexically driven combinatorial processing beyond prosody, and that linguistic content (i.e., structure and meaning) organizes neural oscillations beyond the timescale and rhythmicity of the stimulus. This pattern is consistent with neurophysiologically inspired models of language comprehension (Martin, 2016, 2020; Martin and Doumas, 2017) where oscillations encode endogenously generated linguistic content over and above exogenous or stimulus-driven timing and rhythm information.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Biological systems like the brain encode their environment not only by reacting in a series of stimulus-driven responses, but by combining stimulus-driven information with endogenous, internally generated, inferential knowledge and meaning. Understanding language from speech is the human benchmark for this. Much research focuses on the purely stimulus-driven response, but here, we focus on the goal of language behavior: conveying structure and meaning. To that end, we use naturalistic stimuli that contrast acoustic-prosodic and lexical-semantic information to show that, during spoken language comprehension, oscillatory modulations reflect computations related to inferring structure and meaning from the acoustic signal. Our experiment provides the first evidence to date that compositional structure and meaning organize the oscillatory response, above and beyond prosodic and lexical controls.

Cognitive and neural predictors of speech comprehension in noisy backgrounds in older adults

Older adults often experience difficulties comprehending speech in noisy backgrounds, which hearing loss does not fully explain. It remains unknown how cognitive abilities, brain networks, and age-related hearing loss may uniquely contribute to speech in noise comprehension at the sentence level. In 31 older adults, using cognitive measures and resting-state fMRI, we investigated the cognitive and neural predictors of speech comprehension with energetic (broadband noise) and informational masking (multi-speakers) effects. Better hearing thresholds and greater working memory abilities were associated with better speech comprehension with energetic masking. Conversely, faster processing speed and stronger functional connectivity between frontoparietal and language networks were associated with better speech comprehension with informational masking. Our findings highlight the importance of the frontoparietal network in older adults' ability to comprehend speech in multi-speaker backgrounds, and that hearing loss and working memory in older adults contributes to speech comprehension abilities related to energetic, but not informational masking.

(Not so) Great Expectations: Listening to Foreign-Accented Speech Reduces the Brain's Anticipatory Processes

This study examines the effect of foreign-accented speech on the predictive ability of our brain. Listeners actively anticipate upcoming linguistic information in the speech signal so as to facilitate and reduce processing load. However, it is unclear whether or not listeners also do this when they are exposed to speech from non-native speakers. In the present study, we exposed native Dutch listeners to sentences produced by native and non-native speakers while measuring their brain activity using electroencephalography. We found that listeners’ brain activity differed depending on whether they listened to native or non-native speech. However, participants’ overall performance as measured by word recall rate was unaffected. We discussed the results in relation to previous findings as well as the automaticity of anticipation.

FN400 and LPC Responses to Different Degrees of Sensory Involvement: A Study of Sentence Comprehension

The current study tested the likely effect of sensory involvement on the FN400 and late positive complex (LPC) responses to semantic and pragmatic comprehension of English sentences. Fifteen English language learners took part in the event-related potential (ERP) experiment and determined the acceptability of 432 sentences under congruent, semantically incongruent, and pragmatically incongruent conditions. Prior to the ERP recording, the subjects received different sensory instructions for six vocabulary items about which they had no previous knowledge. No sensory instruction was given for three extra words, and these served as the control group. The behavioral data corroborated that integration of more senses in instruction improved learners' pragmatic comprehension. The ERP data revealed that full sensory involvement (involvement) reduced the FN400 amplitude, facilitating real world knowledge retrieval and pragmatic comprehension. The LPC responses to semantic comprehension showed that learners reanalyzed the sentences instructed through limited sensory involvement (exvolvement) more deeply.

Children's online use of word order and morphosyntactic markers in Tagalog thematic role assignment: an eye-tracking study

We investigated whether Tagalog-speaking children incrementally interpret the first noun as the agent, even if verbal and nominal markers for assigning thematic roles are given early in Tagalog sentences. We asked five- and seven-year-old children and adult controls to select which of two pictures of reversible actions matched the sentence they heard, while their looks to the pictures were tracked. Accuracy and eye-tracking data showed that agent-initial sentences were easier to comprehend than patient-initial sentences, but the effect of word order was modulated by voice. Moreover, our eye-tracking data provided evidence that, by the first noun phrase, seven-year-old children looked more to the target in the agent-initial compared to the patient-initial conditions, but this word order advantage was no longer observed by the second noun phrase. The findings support language processing and acquisition models which emphasize the role of frequency in developing heuristic strategies (e.g., Chang, Dell, & Bock, 2006).

Target Complexity Modulates Syntactic Priming During Comprehension

Syntactic priming is known to facilitate comprehension of the target sentence if the syntactic structure of the target sentence aligns with the structure of the prime (Branigan et al., 2005; Tooley and Traxler, 2010). Such a processing facilitation is understood to be constrained due to factors such as lexical overlap between the prime and the target, frequency of the prime structure, etc. Syntactic priming in SOV languages is also understood to be influenced by similar constraints (Arai, 2012). Sentence comprehension in SOV languages is known to be incremental and predictive. Such a top-down parsing process involves establishing various syntactic relations based on the linguistic cues of a sentence and the role of preverbal case-markers in achieving this is known to be critical. Given the evidence of syntactic priming during comprehension in these languages, this aspect of the comprehension process and its effect on syntactic priming becomes important. In this work, we show that syntactic priming during comprehension is affected by the probability of using the prime structure while parsing the target sentence. If the prime structure has a low probability given the sentential cues (e.g., nominal case-markers) in the target sentence, then the chances of persisting with the prime structure in the target reduces. Our work demonstrates the role of structural complexity of the target with regard to syntactic priming during comprehension and highlights that syntactic priming is modulated by an overarching preference of the parser to avoid rare structures.

The Effect of Distance on Sentence Processing by Older Adults

In sentences with long-distance dependency relations (“The man whom the police arrested is thin”), there are two kinds of distance between the gap (object position of arrested) and the filler man: linear (the intervening words in linear order), and structural (the intervening nodes in the syntactic tree). Previous studies found that older adults have difficulty comprehending sentences with long-distance dependency relations. However, it is not clear whether they are more disrupted by longer structural distance between gaps and fillers, or longer linear distance. There is a distinction between linear distance and structural distance, in that the former is directly related to working memory whereas the latter is associated with syntactic ability. By examining the effect of linear distance and structural distance on sentence processing by older adults, we can identify whether age-related decline in sentence comprehension is attributed to working memory dysfunction or syntactic decline. For this purpose, structural distance and linear distance were manipulated in Mandarin relative clauses (RCs). 30 older adults and 33 younger adults were instructed to perform a self-paced reading task. We found that both groups performed more slowly as structural distance increased, and less accurately when linear distance increased. More importantly, there was a significant interaction between linear distance and age group in the accuracy of comprehension, with linear distance disrupting older adults more than younger adults in offline processing. The findings suggest that the age-related decline in offline sentence comprehension might be attributable to the decline in working memory, rather than syntactic ability. Practical implications, limitations, and directions for future studies are discussed.

An Integrated Neural Decoder of Linguistic and Experiential Meaning

The brain is thought to combine linguistic knowledge of words and nonlinguistic knowledge of their referents to encode sentence meaning. However, functional neuroimaging studies aiming at decoding language meaning from neural activity have mostly relied on distributional models of word semantics, which are based on patterns of word co-occurrence in text corpora. Here, we present initial evidence that modeling nonlinguistic "experiential" knowledge contributes to decoding neural representations of sentence meaning. We model attributes of peoples' sensory, motor, social, emotional, and cognitive experiences with words using behavioral ratings. We demonstrate that fMRI activation elicited in sentence reading is more accurately decoded when this experiential attribute model is integrated with a text-based model than when either model is applied in isolation (participants were 5 males and 9 females). Our decoding approach exploits a representation-similarity-based framework, which benefits from being parameter free, while performing at accuracy levels comparable with those from parameter fitting approaches, such as ridge regression. We find that the text-based model contributes particularly to the decoding of sentences containing linguistically oriented "abstract" words and reveal tentative evidence that the experiential model improves decoding of more concrete sentences. Finally, we introduce a cross-participant decoding method to estimate an upper bound on model-based decoding accuracy. We demonstrate that a substantial fraction of neural signal remains unexplained, and leverage this gap to pinpoint characteristics of weakly decoded sentences and hence identify model weaknesses to guide future model development.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Language gives humans the unique ability to communicate about historical events, theoretical concepts, and fiction. Although words are learned through language and defined by their relations to other words in dictionaries, our understanding of word meaning presumably draws heavily on our nonlinguistic sensory, motor, interoceptive, and emotional experiences with words and their referents. Behavioral experiments lend support to the intuition that word meaning integrates aspects of linguistic and nonlinguistic "experiential" knowledge. However, behavioral measures do not provide a window on how meaning is represented in the brain and tend to necessitate artificial experimental paradigms. We present a model-based approach that reveals early evidence that experiential and linguistically acquired knowledge can be detected in brain activity elicited in reading natural sentences.