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A transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation study on verbal order memory J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Edith Kaan; Ivette De Aguiar; Christina Clarke; Damon G. Lamb; John B. Williamson; Eric C. Porges
Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) is a non-invasive, well-tolerated and inexpensive technique to stimulate the norepinephrinergic and other pathways in the brain. These pathways serve brain areas implicated in memory, emotion and cognitive control. We investigated the effect of tVNS on the ability of healthy adults to recall the order of words in a word list. Healthy young adults were tested
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The effect of congruent emotional context in emotional word processing during discourse comprehension J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2021-01-22 Qian Zhang; Jinfeng Ding; Zhenyu Zhang; Xiaohong Yang; Yufang Yang
This event-related potential (ERP) study examined the effect of congruent emotional context on the processing of subsequent emotional words during discourse comprehension. We used two-sentence discourses as materials and constructed three types of discourse: one where both sentences conveyed a negative emotion (Negative-Negative), one where the first sentence conveyed a neutral emotion and the second
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Cognitive inhibition mediates the relationship between ESL listening proficiency and English spoken word segmentation in Chinese learners: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2021-01-22 Yilong Yang; Yadan Li; Xuewei Wang; Nian Liu; Kexin Jiang; Shengting Zhang; Jiang Qiu
The ability to segment spoken words is vitally important for language learners since it is crucial for their language development and well predicts their future language skills. The possible influence of cognitive inhibition on this ability was proposed in theory. However, there is no direct evidence supporting the role and underlying mechanism of cognitive inhibition in spoken word segmentation (SWS)
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A linguistic complexity pattern that defies aging: The processing of multiple negations J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2021-01-09 Yosef Grodzinsky; Kim Behrent; Galit Agmon; Nora Bittner; Christiane Jockwitz; Svenja Caspers; Katrin Amunts; Stefan Heim
We know that linguistic ability tends to diminish in aging. The question we addressed was whether it is selectively affected, and if so, whether aging affects sentence processing in the same way it affects other cognitive abilities. To this end, we conducted a fine-grained investigation into a critical aspect of sentences – the number of negations they contain. We studied the processing costs of multiple
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The role of a critical left fronto-temporal network with its right-hemispheric homologue in syntactic learning based on word category information J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-25 Luyao Chen; Junjie Wu; Gesa Hartwigsen; Zhongshan Li; Peng Wang; Liping Feng
Word category information (WCI) is proposed to be fundamental for syntactic learning and processing. However, it remains largely unclear how left-hemispheric key regions for language, including BA 44 in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG), interact with their right-hemispheric homologues to support the WCI-based syntactic learning. To address this question, this study
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Segmental diagnostics of neurogenic and functional foreign accent syndrome J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-25 Nina Romö; Nick Miller; Amanda Cardoso
Previous research suggests differences in speech patterns between speakers with foreign accent syndrome (FAS) associated with a neurological (neurogenic FAS) versus a psychological aetiology (functional FAS). Differentiating sub-types holds important clinical implications, affecting the nature of follow-up assessment and treatment. To date, there exist no systematic comparisons between these sub-groups
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Embodied processing of disgust in Mandarin words: An ERP study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-22 Beixian Gu; Huili Wang; David Beltrán; Bo Liu; Tengfei Liang; Xiaoshuang Wang; Manuel de Vega
The embodiment theory of linguistic meaning posits that comprehension reuses the sensory-motor systems and their neural networks. The present study aims to verify the embodiment theory by investigating the spatiotemporal brain dynamics of processing disgust-related words in Mandarin. These words were chosen because disgust is a basic emotion (e.g., it recruits neural resources in the insula) that has
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Motor theory modulated by task load: Effects of tDCS over the LSTG on connectivity patterns for phonological processing J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-22 Lílian Rodrigues de Almeida; Paul A. Pope; Peter C. Hansen
Our previous work defended that the motor theory is modulated by task load, claiming that motoric participation in phonological processing plays a changing and complementary role with the “auditory part” of the phonological processing system from perception to production: the LIFG being increasingly relevant and the LSTG, decreasingly relevant. We previously targeted the LIFG with tDCS and observed
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L1 activation during L2 processing is modulated by both age of acquisition and proficiency J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-18 Robyn Berghoff; Jayde McLoughlin; Emanuel Bylund
It is well established that access to the bilingual lexicon is non-selective: even in an entirely monolingual context, elements of the non-target language are active. Research has also shown that activation of the non-target language is greater at higher proficiency levels, suggesting that it may be proficiency that drives cross-language lexical activation. At the same time, the potential role of age
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A neurophysiological study of noun-adjective agreement in Arabic: The impact of animacy and diglossia on the dynamics of language processing J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-15 Ali Idrissi; Eiman Mustafawi; Tariq Khwaileh; R. Muralikrishnan
We used event-related brain potentials to identify the neurophysiological responses of Arabic speakers to processing full and deflected agreement in plural noun-adjective constructions in (written) Standard Arabic. Under full agreement, an adjective fully agrees in number and gender with a preceding plural noun; but this happens only when this noun is human. However, under deflected agreement, the
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Is word-level lexical stress sensitivity affected by downregulation to the left superior temporal gyrus using TMS? J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 Gareth J. Williams; Stacey A. Bedwell; Charlotte A. Boatman; Suvobrata Mitra
This paper reports two experiments using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to investigate whether word-level lexical stress involves the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) using a grammar classification task designed to elicit a typicality effect. Experiment 1 used text presented stimuli and, although was not able to elicit a typicality effect, found response times were significantly slower in
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The effects of word concreteness on cross-language neural pattern similarity during semantic categorization J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-13 Huiling Li; Yumin Liang; Jing Qu; Yue Sun; Nan Jiang; Leilei Mei
Previous behavioral studies have suggested that word concreteness affects the similarity of semantic representations between native and second languages. However, it is unclear whether and how word concreteness influences the cross-language similarity in neural representations. In the present study, we quantified the neural pattern similarity between native and second languages by using representational
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Common neural circuit for semantic-based articulation of numbers and words: A case study of a patient with Broca's aphasia J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-11 Tian Li; Jiaxin Cui; Li Yuan; Xing Yu; Xinlin Zhou
Objective Studies have demonstrated that damage to Broca's area causes problems in phonological processing, but leaves semantic processing mostly preserved. The current investigation explored whether problems in phonological processing caused by injury to Broca's area extends to numbers. Method Patient LXM presented with an injury to the left anterior fronto-temporal cortex (including Broca's area)
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Grammatical processing in two languages: How individual differences in language experience and cognitive abilities shape comprehension in heritage bilinguals J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-07 Kinsey Bice; Judith F. Kroll
Recent studies have demonstrated variation in language processing for monolingual and bilingual speakers alike, suggesting that only by considering individual differences will an accurate picture of the consequences of language experience be adequately understood. This approach can be illustrated in ERP research that has shown that sentence contexts that traditionally elicit a P600 component in response
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Who is “oneself” in Chinese? ERP responses to the Chinese simple reflexive ziji in discourse comprehension J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-12-03 Shiqian Zhang; Delu Zhang; Junjie Wu; Lun Zhao; Taomei Guo
The Principle A of the Binding Theory (Chomsky, 1981, 1986) prescribes that a reflexive should refer to a local antecedent within the local syntactic domain containing the reflexive. However, the Chinese (simple) reflexive ziji (自己, standing for oneself) can refer not only to a local but also to a long-distance antecedent in sentences, leaving room for a long - distance/local anaphoric ambiguity in
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Integrity of arcuate fasciculus is a good predictor of language impairment after subcortical stroke J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-11-28 Jun Soo Noh; Sekwang Lee; Yoonhye Na; Minjae Cho; Yu Mi Hwang; Woo-Suk Tae; Sung-Bom Pyun
Subcortical aphasia results from damage to subcortical regions, but the exact underlying mechanism is unclear. We investigated the influence of arcuate fasciculus (AF) damage on the severity of subcortical aphasia after stroke using brain diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We enrolled subjects from the “Stroke Outcome Prediction (STOP)” database: 41 patients with first-ever, left hemispheric subcortical
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Sense combinations influence the neural mechanism of L2 comprehension in semantically violated sentences: Insights from emotioncy J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-11-14 Reza Pishghadam; Haniyeh Jajarmi; Shaghayegh Shayesteh
The influence of senses and their combinations has already proven invaluable to language comprehension studies; however, it is not clear to what extent they may add to the functional characteristics of the biphasic, language-related electrophysiological markers. Therefore, to integrate information from different sensory modalities and investigate how sense combinations modulate the N400 and LPC during
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Word stress processing integrates phonological abstraction with lexical access – An ERP study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-11-07 Karolina Broś; Martin Meyer; Maria Kliesch; Volker Dellwo
It is unclear whether word stress in a language is stored as part of the word or whether it is generated by a rule. We test the generativist hypothesis of lexical storage stating that only unpredictable stress is stored in long-term memory against the contrasting usage-based approach assuming that all phonetic information regardless of its (un)predictability is stored in the mental lexicon together
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Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy to study word production in the brain: A picture-word interference study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-11-06 Toru Hitomi; Robin Gerrits; Robert J. Hartsuiker
This study assessed the usefulness of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study word production in the brain. As a test case, we focused on the semantic interference effect (SIE), which has been demonstrated in many behavioral studies and has also been studied using neuroimaging techniques. Experiment 1 examined whether fNIRS can identify neural correlates of the SIE in a cross-modal picture-word
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The relationship between cognitive control and second language proficiency J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-10-20 Alicia Luque; Kara Morgan-Short
In the past 20 years, the field of bilingualism has made a substantial effort to better understand the set of cognitive mechanisms that allow bilinguals to functionally manage and use their languages. Among the mechanisms that have been identified, cognitive control has been posited to be key for proficient bilingual language processing and use. However, the role of cognitive control in developing
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The N400 and Post-N400 positivity effect in Mandarin classifier-noun congruence: An ERP study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-10-18 Fei Li; Xiangfei Hong; Yuxia Wang
The current study employed electrophysiological measures to investigate semantic processing within a local classifier-noun phrase in Chinese. Toward this aim, semantic congruence between classifiers and nouns was manipulated, resulting in four conditions: (i) a strong-constraint/high-cloze plausible (SP) condition, (ii) a weak-constraint/low-cloze plausible (WP) condition, (iii) a strong-constraint/implausible
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Neural signatures of inhibitory control in intra-sentential code-switching: Evidence from fMRI J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-09-23 Eleonora Rossi; Paola E. Dussias; Michele Diaz; Janet G. van Hell; Sharlene Newman
In this study we examined the neural control mechanisms that are at play when habitual code-switchers read code-switches embedded in a sentence context. The goal was also to understand if and to what extent the putative control network that is engaged during the comprehension of code-switched sentences is modulated by the linguistic regularity of those switches. Towards that goal, we tested two different
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Neural responses to Finnish inflected forms during overt and covert production: The role of stem frequency and stem allomorphy J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-09-19 Laura A. Hedlund; Patrik Wikman; Suzanne C.A. Hut; Alina Leminen
Despite extensive behavioral research on complex word recognition, the neural mechanisms involved in the production of inflections in agglutinative languages, such as Finnish, are still poorly understood. Finnish inflected nouns typically involve morphophonological alternations of the stem (i.e. consonant gradation; CG), which is less common in other languages. Behavioral research on recognition of
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Semantic context effects in monolingual and bilingual speakers J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-09-18 Abhijeet Patra; Arpita Bose; Theodoros Marinis
Most models of word production converge on the assumption that selecting a specific word to name is a competitive process. Monolingual speakers experience lexical competition in their spoken language (i.e., within-language competition), but bilingual speakers who constantly juggle two sets of lexical items face within- and between-language competition. It has been argued that one of the reasons bilingual
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Auditory processing and high task demands facilitate the bilingual executive control advantage in young adults J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-09-17 Jan R. Kuipers, Karla H. Westphal
Although bilingual children and elderly have been observed to outperform monolinguals in typical executive control tasks, this bilingual advantage is not consistently found in the young adult population. Proponents of the bilingual executive control advantage argue the reason for this is that task demands in the typical tasks used are not high enough, since young adults perform at ceiling level, whereas
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Gerstmann syndrome as a disconnection syndrome, evidence from DTI tractography: A case report J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-09-16 Vassilis E. Papadopoulos, Katerina Tsatsou, Panagiotis Toulas, Foteini Christidi, Efstratios Karavasilis, Maria K. Angelopoulou, Athina Euthimiou
Gerstmann's syndrome is a syndrome caused by lesions of the dominant parietal lobe. It has historically been a subject of dispute as it is often accompanied by other neuropsychological deficits such as aphasia. Novel neuropsychological tests and neuroimaging techniques have lately changed the perspective allowing to decode a conjunction of symptoms like Gerstmann's. In our case, we present Diffusion
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Reproducibility of the lateralization index in functional magnetic resonance imaging across language tasks J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-09-09 Kayako Matsuo, Kenta Kono, Kazutaka Shimoda, Yasushi Kaji, Kazufumi Akiyama
A major challenge in computing the lateralization index (LI) of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is the change in the index value according to the threshold applied and the task employed. To address this problem, we previously developed a threshold-free index called AveLI. AveLI is the average of the sub-LIs that are computed at all positive intensity values as the threshold. Thus, the
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Event related potentials at initial exposure in third language acquisition: Implications from an artificial mini-grammar study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Jorge González Alonso, José Alemán Bañón, Vincent DeLuca, David Miller, Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares, Eloi Puig-Mayenco, Sophie Slaats, Jason Rothman
The present article examines the proposal that typology is a major factor guiding transfer selectivity in L3/Ln acquisition. We tested first exposure in L3/Ln using two artificial languages (ALs) lexically based in English and Spanish, focusing on gender agreement between determiners and nouns, and between nouns and adjectives. 50 L1 Spanish-L2 English speakers took part in the experiment. After receiving
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Patterns of cortical interactivity supporting speech production and lexical retrieval: A graph signal processing approach at the individual level J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-08-28 S. Ries, S. Tavildar, R. Rohilla, C. Sperling, A. Ashrafi
Although seemingly easy, speech production is a complex action involving several processes and brain regions and is often studied through the use of picture naming paradigms. Several brain regions have been identified as being involved in speech production and lexical retrieval, including several areas of the left lateral, ventral, and medial temporal cortex, and of the left lateral and medial prefrontal
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Functional and structural neuroplasticity associated with second language proficiency: An MRI study of Chinese-English bilinguals J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-08-26 Ruiming Wang, Shuangshuang Ke, Qi Zhang, Ke Zhou, Ping Li, Jing Yang
Second language (L2) learning modulates functional and anatomical neuroplasticity, as amply demonstrated by previous studies (see Li, Legault, & Litcofsky, 2014, for review). This study, combining resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), task-based fMRI, and structural MRI (sMRI), examined L2 learning-induced cross-modality neural changes in Chinese-English bilinguals with low-
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Challenges and insights for the visual system: Are face and word recognition two sides of the same coin? J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-08-25 Carmen Moret-Tatay, Inmaculada Baixauli Fortea, María Dolores Grau Sevilla
Both word and face recognition processes are related to the fusiform gyrus which is located in the temporal and occipital lobes of the brain. Although both processes present several similarities, there are also remarkable differences between word and face recognition processes. These differences include a vast range of approaches and result from different groups of participants. However, how dissociated
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Onset age of second language acquisition and fractional anisotropy variation in multilingual young adults J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-08-20 Gigi Luk, Laura Mesite, Sibylla Leon Guerrero
The experience of speaking two languages, particularly the age of second language acquisition (L2AoA), has been robustly associated with differences in metrics indicative of white matter structure. However, bilingual language experience is complex, described not only by acquisition but also functional language usage and proficiency. We examined whether the onset age of the second most proficient language
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The role of animacy in metaphor processing of Mandarin Chinese: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-08-04 Haojie Ji, Senqing Qi, Shiyang Xu, Jinxin Chen, David Yun Dai, Yadan Li, Weiping Hu
Many ERP studies have highlighted processing difficulty for animacy violation in language, more so than non-violated sentences. However, all of these findings were for non-figurative language, and studies have rarely looked at the figurative language, such as metaphors involving animacy violation, which could be integrated to make novel and acceptable meaning. The present study aimed at assessing the
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On language and thought: Bilingual experience influences semantic associations J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-08-04 Siqi Ning, Sayuri Hayakawa, James Bartolotti, Viorica Marian
Language can influence cognition in domains as varied as temporal processing, spatial categorization, and color perception (Casasanto & Boroditsky, 2008; Levinson & Wilkins, 2006; Winawer et al., 2007). Here, we provide converging behavioral and neural evidence that bilingual experience can change semantic associations. In Experiment 1, Spanish- and English-speaking bilinguals rated semantically unrelated
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Using Network Science to Map What Montréal Bilinguals Talk about Across Languages and Communicative Contexts. J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-07-29 Mehrgol Tiv,Jason Gullifer,Ruo Feng,Debra Titone
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Interference and facilitation in phonological encoding: Two sides of the same coin? Evidence from bilingual aphasia J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-07-23 Marco Calabria, Nicholas Grunden, Federica Iaia, Carmen García-Sánchez
In the present study, we explored the underlying mechanisms of lexical retrieval in two languages when modulated by phonological context. To do so, we investigated the performance of bilingual patients with aphasia and healthy bilingual individuals on a blocked cyclic naming task as a measure of lexical activation and phonological encoding within their two languages. Highly proficient Catalan-Spanish
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Characterizing lexicalization and self-monitoring processes in bilingual speech production J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-07-20 Cristina Baus, Mikel Santesteban, Elin Runnqvist, Kristof Strijkers, Albert Costa
The present study aimed to explore the bilingual disadvantage in the course of speech production by comparing the naming performance and the temporal dynamics of object naming in three groups of participants: monolinguals, L1 bilinguals and L2 bilinguals. To determine the origin of the bilingual disadvantage, whether lexical or post-lexical, we manipulated the lexical frequency of the picture names
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Subject animacy and underspecified meaning: The conceptual and cortical underpinnings J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-07-14 Yao-Ying Lai, Cheryl Lacadie, Ashwini Deo, Maria Mercedes Piñango
We examine the distinction between animacy, a conceptual property, and agency, a conceptual and linguistic property involved in semantic role assignment. Are these two notions—agency and animacy—interchangeable in the mind/brain of the comprehender or are they distinct yet correlated? If the latter, does brain behavior show sensitivity to this distinction? Through a self-paced reading and an fMRI experiment
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Bilingualism modifies disengagement of attention networks across the scalp: A multivariate ERP investigation of the IOR paradigm J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-07-14 John G. Grundy, Elena Pavlenko, Ellen Bialystok
A recent approach to explaining the domain-general cognitive outcomes of bilingualism is to consider the role of disengagement of attention, rather than the engagement of focused attention or inhibition as is typical in most accounts. The present study pursues this approach by examining the neurophysiological changes associated with disengagement of attention in young adults performing an inhibition
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Understanding bilingual brain function and structure changes? U bet! A unified bilingual experience trajectory model J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-07-13 Vincent DeLuca, Katrien Segaert, Ali Mazaheri, Andrea Krott
A growing body of research shows that the brain adapts functionally and structurally to specific bilingual experiences. These brain adaptations seem related to modulations in cognitive processes (specifically the executive functions). However, the trajectory of these adaptations is varied and seems at least partially dependent on different aspects of language exposure and use. Here we provide a review
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Dynamics of morphological processing in pre-school children with and without familial risk for dyslexia J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-07-10 Natalia Louleli, Jarmo A. Hämäläinen, Lea Nieminen, Tiina Parviainen, Paavo H.T. Leppänen
Difficulties in phonological processing and speech perception are associated with developmental dyslexia, but there is considerable diversity across people with developmental dyslexia (e.g., dyslexics with and without phonological difficulties). Phonological and morphological awareness are both known to play an important role in reading acquisition. Problems in morpho-phonological information processing
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Behavioural and ERP correlates of bilingual language control and general-purpose inhibitory control predicted by L1 and L2 proficiency J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-06-30 Tanya Dash, Bhoomika R. Kar
Cognitive control is the ability to adapt flexibly to current demands by promoting task-relevant information in the face of interference, and this has been asserted as an advantage with bilinguals. Bilingual language control and general-purpose cognitive control are discussed in the literature using different types of stimuli, cognitive tasks, component processes (selection, interference, inhibition
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Non-linguistic abilities in aphasia J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-06-16 Rafael Gonzalez, Macarena Rojas, Alfredo Ardila
Background Understanding the pattern of non-linguistic abilities in aphasia has been a controversial question. We hypothesized that only some aphasia patients, particularly patients with fluent forms of aphasia and global aphasia, would present deficits in non-linguistic abilities. Methods & procedures We studied 200 vascular aphasia patients (119 men and 81 women; mean age = 57.37 years, SD = 15.56)
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Listener perceptions of foreignness, precision, and accent attribution in a case of foreign accent syndrome J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-05-04 Brian A. Farish, Lori A. Davis, Laura D. Wilson
Purpose This paper will examine how listeners perceive foreignness, precision, and speaker origin in the speech of a speaker with neurogenic foreign accent syndrome, as compared to an unimpaired native speaker, an unimpaired foreign speaker, and a native speaker with ataxic dysarthria. Method Listeners with and without experience in speech-language pathology rated degree of foreignness and precision
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Effects of computerized cognitive training for children with dyslexia: An ERP study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-04-15 Salahadin Lotfi, Reza Rostami, Mohsen Shokoohi-Yekta, Richard T. Ward, Negin Motamed-Yeganeh, Abel S. Mathew, Han-Joo Lee
This feasibility study investigated the effects of adaptive computerized cognitive training on visual-spatial working memory (VSWM), and reading performance in children with dyslexia. Children were assigned into a VSWM training group that received a 5-week (~30 h) computerized adaptive training program focusing on VSWM, or a waitlist control group. Behavioral and ERP measures of VSWM-related indices
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The time course of brain activity in reading identical cognates: An ERP study of Chinese - Japanese bilinguals J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-04-15 Kexin Xiong, Rinus G. Verdonschot, Katsuo Tamaoka
Previous studies suggest that bilinguals’ lexical access is language non-selective, especially for orthographically identical translation equivalents across languages (i.e., identical cognates). The present study investigated how such words (e.g., 学校 meaning “school” in both Chinese and Japanese) are processed in the (late) Chinese - Japanese bilingual brain. Using an L2-Japanese lexical decision task
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Bilinguals processing noun morphology: Evidence for the Language Distance Hypothesis from event-related potentials J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-04-10 Adam Zawiszewski, Itziar Laka
Evidence shows that second language (L2) processing depends on the Age of Acquisition (AoA), proficiency and differences between L1 and L2 grammar. Here we focus on the influence of the latter factor on L2 processing. To this end, we tested early (AoA = 3 years) and highly proficient Spanish-Basque and Basque-Spanish bilinguals by means of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) while processing noun morphology
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Functional organization of the ventral occipitotemporal regions for Chinese orthographic processing J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-04-06 Mengyu Tian, Hehui Li, Mingyuan Chu, Guosheng Ding
Previous studies have found that the orthographic representation of alphabetic languages is hierarchically organized from the posterior to the anterior parts of the left ventral occipitotemporal area (vOT). More word-like stimuli, such as real words and pseudo-words, induced higher activation in the middle and the anterior parts of the left vOT compared to false fonts or consonant letter strings, while
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Losing access to the second language and its effect on executive function development in childhood: The case of 'returnees' J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-03-31 Maki Kubota, Nicolas Chevalier, Antonella Sorace
This study examined how relative language proficiency and exposure influence the development of executive function (EF) in 7–12 year-old bilingual ‘returnee’ children. Returnees are children of immigrant families who were immersed in an environment where their second language (L2; English) was the majority societal language and returned to their native language (L1; Japanese) environment after the
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Can transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) facilitate language recovery in chronic global aphasia post-stroke? Evidence from a case study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-03-19 Anastasios M. Georgiou, Ioannis Phinikettos, Chrysa Giasafaki, Maria Kambanaros
The present study reports the findings of a 10-consecutive day neuronavigated continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) treatment over the right pars triangularis (pTr) for one individual with chronic global aphasia post-stroke. Baseline language and quality of life measures were collected twice prior to treatment, one day post-treatment, and then at two and 12-months follow up. Therapy was tolerated
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The lexical nature of alpha-beta oscillations in context-driven word production J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-03-14 Vitória Piai, Jana Klaus, Elena Rossetto
In context-driven word production, picture naming is faster following constrained than neutral sentential contexts (e.g., “The farmer milked the… [picture]” vs. “The child drew a… [picture]”, followed by the picture of a cow), suggesting conceptual-lexical pre-activation of the target response. Power decreases in the alpha-beta oscillatory band (8–25 Hz) are consistently found for constrained relative
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Working memory and not acoustic sensitivity is related to stress processing ability in a foreign language: An ERP study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-03-10 Sandra Schwab, Nathalie Giroud, Martin Meyer, Volker Dellwo
Listeners in fixed-stress languages are less sensitive in processing stress contrasts in a second language with contrastive stress (stress 'deafness'). We investigated whether native speakers of French (fixed-stress language) can acquire the ability to distinguish stress contrasts in Spanish (free-stress language). In behavioral experiments, we found that French listeners were able to improve their
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Do bilinguals represent between-language relationships beyond the word level in their lexicon? J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-03-09 Tianjiao Zeng, Holly P. Branigan, Martin J. Pickering
There is much evidence that the bilingual lexicon is well integrated at the level of individual words. In this article, we propose that it is also integrated at the multiword phrase (MWP) level. We first review the representation of single words within and across languages. Drawing upon this framework, we review current accounts of MWP representations and supporting empirical evidence. Based on the
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The English lexicon mirrors functional brain activation for a sensory hierarchy dominated by vision and audition: Point-counterpoint J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-02-27 Jamie Reilly, Maurice Flurie, Jonathan E. Peelle
Word meanings are often suffused with sensory, motor, and affective features. For many of us, a word such as beach evokes a diverse range of pleasant associations including blue skies (visual), gritty sand (tactile), crashing waves (auditory), and the distinctive smell of sunscreen (olfactory). Aristotle argued for a hierarchy of the senses where vision and audition eclipse the lesser modalities of
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Switching direction modulates the engagement of cognitive control in bilingual reading comprehension: An ERP study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-02-22 Evelyn Bosma, Leticia Pablos
While switching costs in production have been explained in terms of top-down cognitive control, researchers do not agree whether switching costs in comprehension should be interpreted in the same way. Within the BIA + model, it has been claimed that the comprehension of code-switches can be explained sufficiently in terms of bottom-up activation of lexical representations. In the current electrophysiological
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Incongruence of grammatical subjects activates brain regions involved in perspective taking in a sentence-sentence verification task J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-02-19 Toshiki Iwabuchi, Masato Ohba, Kenji Ogawa, Toshio Inui
Various sentences can describe the same event from different perspectives (e.g., “John kicked Mike.” and “Mike was kicked by John.”). Humans can easily verify propositional equivalence of these sentences, but the underlying brain mechanisms are unclear. The present study examined whether the perspective taking system is involved in the verification of propositional equivalence between two sentences
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Minimal overlap in language control across production and comprehension: Evidence from read-aloud versus eye-tracking tasks J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-02-07 Danbi Ahn, Matthew J. Abbott, Keith Rayner, Victor S. Ferreira, Tamar H. Gollan
Bilinguals are remarkable at language control—switching between languages only when they want. However, language control in production can involve switch costs. That is, switching to another language takes longer than staying in the same language. Moreover, bilinguals sometimes produce language intrusion errors, mistakenly producing words in an unintended language (e.g., Spanish–English bilinguals
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Asymmetric binarity as a cognitive universal: The rhythm of syntactic structures J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-02-01 Danielle Fahey, Dirk-Bart den Ouden
In syntactic and rhythmic structure, universal rules group elements hierarchically and asymmetrically. In syntax, the operation ‘merge’ is theorized to combine elements in phrasal structures, with one element governing the other, recursively, to form sentences. In rhythm, a similar asymmetric hierarchy of beats is proposed in the Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Just like syntactic processing, assigning
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Mapping vowel sounds onto phonemic categories in two regional varieties of French: An ERP study J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-01-31 Jonathan Bucci, Coriandre Vilain, Noël Nguyen, Jean-Luc Schwartz, Sophie Dufour
This study examines ERP correlates of the different processes associating two phones to one vs. two phonemic categories in two regional varieties of French. Two groups of French listeners are compared, respectively exploiting two regional varieties, with a contrast between the mid-low /ϵ/ and the mid-high /e/ for Northern French (NF) but not for Southern French (SF). It is expected that the competition
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Bilingualism and aging: A focused neuroscientific review J. Neurolinguistics (IF 1.853) Pub Date : 2020-01-29 Haoyun Zhang, Yan Jing Wu, Guillaume Thierry
Research has suggested that using two or more languages on a daily basis helps older adults maintain a heightened functional state and improves neurocomputational efficiency. In this review, we discuss studies that have examined the effect of life-long bilingualism on age-related cognitive and neural decline, with a focus on discrepancies between different sources of evidence. We intend to outline
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