Language Comprehension Research Articles

Three mechanisms of language comprehension are revealed through cluster analysis of individuals with language deficits

Analysis of linguistic abilities that are concurrently impaired in individuals with language deficits allows identification of a shared underlying mechanism. If any two linguistic abilities are mediated by the same underlying mechanism, then both abilities will be absent if this mechanism is broken. Clustering techniques automatically arrange these abilities according to their co-occurrence and therefore group together abilities mediated by the same mechanism. This study builds upon the discovery of three distinct mechanisms of language comprehension in 31,845 autistic individuals1. The current clustering analysis of a more diverse group of individuals with language impairments resulted in the three mechanisms identical to those found previously: (1) the most-basic command-language-comprehension-mechanism; (2) the intermediate modifier-language-comprehension-mechanism mediating comprehension of color, size, and number modifiers; and (3) the most-advanced syntactic-language-comprehension-mechanism. This discovery calls for mapping of the three empirically-defined language-comprehension-mechanisms in the context of cognitive neuroscience, which is the main goal of this study.

Bilinguals’ sensitivity to specificity and genericity: evidence from implicit and explicit knowledge

Abstract The present paper investigates whether school-aged French-English bilingual children’s implicit and explicit knowledge of article use is affected by cross-linguistic influence (CLI) during online and offline sentence comprehension. The studies focus on the encoding of plural and mass nouns in specific and generic contexts. We also explore whether individual measures of oral proficiency, language exposure and age play a role in the children’s performance. Forty-three 8-to-10-year-old French-English bilingual children took part in a Self-Paced Reading task, a Grammaticality Judgement task and a Cloze test in their two languages. Overall, CLI was observed across tasks in English and French. These findings suggest that CLI can be bi-directional and tap into school-aged bilinguals’ implicit and explicit representations during sentence comprehension and production. The data also makes a new contribution to our understanding of the relative amount of language exposure, oral proficiency and age on CLI.

Language and Cognitive Impairments in Multiple Sclerosis: a Comparative Study of RRMS and SPMS Patients.

Previous studies have reported that patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) face cognitive difficulties. Much less, however, is known about their language abilities. The present study aims to provide a clear view of the language abilities of adults with MS, considering their cognitive skills and the type of the disorder. Specifically, 20 patients with Relapsing-Remitting MS, 17 patients with Secondary Progressive MS, and two healthy control groups demographically matched with the clinical groups, took part in the study. Their language abilities were examined using the Adult Language Abilities Test, which explores morpho-syntactic and semantic phenomena of the Greek language in both comprehension and production modes. Our results did not reveal statistically significant differences between the two clinical groups on any cognitive or language subtest. Both groups, however, performed poorer than the control groups in producing the correct form of verbs, possessive and weak personal pronouns, and in comprehending relative and passive clauses. Participants' performance in morphosyntax was found to be related to their processing speed. Mapping the cognitive and language abilities of patients with MS is crucial for designing effective targeted interventions, which can help them adopt strategies to manage their specific cognitive and language symptoms.

The role of prosodic phrasing in silent reading

Prosodic phrasing plays a crucial role in sentence comprehension because it helps listeners resolve structural ambiguities. However, explicit prosody is not available in reading. According to the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis, readers are assumed to assign default prosody to sentences, which then guides parsing decisions (Fodor, 2002a, 2002b). This study tested this hypothesis by manipulating the lexical accent of phrases, which affects the prosodic phrasing of sentences in Japanese. The results of a self-paced silent reading experiment showed faster reading times for the structure that matched the prosodic phrasing than the structure that did not. This finding suggests that readers implicitly represent a prosodic structure that plays a functional role in syntactic processing.

The focus effect of sentence comprehension in natural reading of Chinese and English: a meta-analysis based on eye movement studies

The focus effect of sentence comprehension in natural reading of Chinese and English: a meta-analysis based on eye movement studies

Evaluating the Impact of STEM Academic Interventions on College Readiness for Rural Students

This study used a quasi-experimental cohort approach to investigate the impact of early academic interventions on rural students’ academic college readiness as measured by indicators of science, mathematics, and English language proficiency in the United States. The program, delivered by a higher education institution, implemented a range of academic supports for students, including tutoring and in-class and after-school support by credentialed instructors, with the aim of preparing students for success in secondary and post-secondary educational experiences. The American College Testing (ACT) Aspire scores in science, mathematics, English language comprehension, and reading for a cohort of 8th-grade students in their second year of program participation (n = 100) were compared to the scores of a cohort of non-participants (n = 86) from the same school. Students who had participated in the program were significantly more likely than non-participants to meet college readiness benchmarks in all content areas and scored significantly higher than the non-program cohort in terms of their average percentile ranks. More research is needed to understand how particular interventions or combinations of interventions implemented in middle school impact students’ college readiness.

Who Learns from Reading Texts in General Chemistry?

Understanding how student characteristics affect learning in General Chemistry can influence the pedagogical strategies employed by instructors. Previous studies have investigated the effects of characteristics including prior knowledge, math ability, and motivations on course performance. Student characteristics can also influence study strategies employed by students. Few studies, however, have focused on the role of language and reading comprehension skill in learning in chemistry. This work explores the effects of prior knowledge and reading comprehension skill on learning from reading texts about two chemistry concepts. Linear regression analyses were utilized to establish relationships between predictors and test scores after reading to determine whether reading comprehension skill influenced learning gains after reading texts. A meta-analysis of four large-scale studies showed that prior knowledge and reading comprehension correlated with post-test scores and that an effect called expertise reversal may help low prior knowledge students close the post-test score gap if they read texts with certain readability characteristics. However, our findings also suggest that texts with similar readability characteristics can hinder the learning of those with higher prior knowledge.

Narrow Focus Without Prosody: Some Observations from the Written Italian of University Students

In this work, we analyze the narrow focus strategies in the written Italian of university students. Although prosodic prominence is a characterizing feature of focus—functionally more important than morphosyntactic marking, according to some authors—we assume that prosody is essential for language comprehension and hence, in the written modality, focus prosody is assigned by the reader on the basis of the morphosyntactic cues that mark focus. The data on which we base our analysis are selected from two existing corpora, containing more formal and less formal monological texts produced by students attending university throughout Italy. The investigation brings to light a similar pattern, as well as some differences, between the two sub-corpora examined. Besides a widespread use of focus particles, and the virtual absence of the O(S)V strategy, we noticed many instances of focalization inside the copular domain, particularly in the more formal sub-corpus. This pattern is discussed in relation to some of the relevant literature and the nature of the texts examined.

Modality-Specific and Amodal Language Processing by Single Neurons.

According to psycholinguistic theories, during language processing, spoken and written words are first encoded along independent phonological and orthographic dimensions, then enter into modality-independent syntactic and semantic codes. Non-invasive brain imaging has isolated several cortical regions putatively associated with those processing stages, but lacks the resolution to identify the corresponding neural codes. Here, we describe the firing responses of over 1000 neurons, and mesoscale field potentials from over 1400 microwires and 1500 iEEG contacts in 21 awake neurosurgical patients with implanted electrodes during written and spoken sentence comprehension. Using forward modeling of temporal receptive fields, we determined which sensory or abstract dimensions are encoded. We observed a double dissociation between superior temporal neurons sensitive to phonemes and phonological features and previously unreported ventral occipito-temporal neurons sensitive to letters and orthographic features. We also discovered novel neurons, primarily located in middle temporal and inferior frontal areas, which are modality-independent and show responsiveness to higher linguistic features. Overall, these findings show how language processing can be linked to neural dynamics, across multiple brain regions at various resolutions and down to the level of single neurons.

Transdiagnostic and Diagnosis-Specific Morphological Similarity Related Transcriptional Profile in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are both highly heritable developmental psychiatric disorders and exhibit a high degree of comorbidity. Our objective is to enhance understanding of the transdiagnostic and diagnosis-specific structural alterations and related cellular and genetic pathophysiological mechanisms between ADHD and ASD. We used structural magnetic resonance imaging data of 247 subjects from the publicly available 1000 Functional Connectomes Project, including 91 individuals with ADHD, 49 individuals with ASD, and 107 age- and sex-matched controls. We performed morphological similarity networks (MSN) and gene transcriptional profile analysis on these image data to identify the anatomic changes and MSN-related genes. Enrichment analysis was further conducted on ADHD/ASD risk genes and MSN-related genes. Individuals with ADHD showed the diagnosis-specific MSN changes distributing in areas related to high-level cognitive functions, while ASD had MSN changes in areas related to language comprehension and spatial location. ADHD and ASD exhibited the transdiagnostic morphological increase in the right middle temporal gyrus. Gene transcriptional profile analysis showed enrichment of ADHD and ASD risk genes in more than ten biological processes, primary including function of synapse transmission and development. Genes in excitatory and inhibitory neurons also enriched in pathways with similar function. The transdiagnostic morphological dedifferentiation in the right middle temporal gyrus might indicate the shared motion impairments in ADHD and ASD. The evidence from the transcription of MSN-related genes further indicate a potential imbalance in excitatory and inhibitory neural pathways in ADHD and ASD. We worked to ensure sex and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure that the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way. We worked to ensure sex balance in the selection of non-human subjects. We worked to ensure diversity in experimental samples through the selection of the cell lines. We worked to ensure diversity in experimental samples through the selection of the genomic datasets. Diverse cell lines and/or genomic datasets were not available. We actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our author group. We actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our author group. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our reference list. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our reference list.

Listening beyond words: understanding theory of mind in hearing-impaired children with different hearing loss degree

ABSTRACT This study investigated Theory of Mind (ToM) development in children with hearing loss, comparing children with mild-to-moderate hearing loss (MHL, n = 26), severe-to-profound hearing loss (SHL, n = 31), and typical hearing (TH, n = 53), aiming to explore the differences between the three groups and potential factor related to the ToM development in children with hearing loss. Participants completed the ToM scale and language assessments. One-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc tests were used to analyze group differences, while Pearson's correlation examined relationships between ToM, language, and background variables. Results revealed that both MHL and SHL groups showed delays in overall ToM skills compared to TH peers, with the SHL group exhibiting more substantial delays. The MHL group demonstrated delays only in hidden emotion understanding, while the SHL group showed delays from knowledge access through false belief and hidden emotion tasks. Language comprehension was significantly correlated with ToM skills in both hearing loss groups. Aided audibility was associated with false belief understanding in the MHL group. The study highlights the impact of hearing loss severity on ToM development and emphasizes the crucial role of language comprehension in ToM skills. Findings suggest the need for tailored interventions addressing language and communication challenges to support ToM development in children with hearing loss.

Slow oscillation-spindle coupling predicts sequence-based language learning.

Sentence comprehension involves the rapid decoding of both semantic and grammatical information, a process fundamental to communication. As with other complex cognitive processes, language comprehension relies, in part, on long-term memory. However, the electrophysiological mechanisms underpinning the initial encoding and generalisation of higher-order linguistic knowledge remain elusive, particularly from a sleep-based consolidation perspective. One candidate mechanism that may support the consolidation of higher-order language is the temporal coordination of slow oscillations (SO) and sleep spindles during non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM). To examine this hypothesis, we analysed electroencephalographic (EEG) data recorded from 35 participants (Mage = 25.4, SD = 7.10; 16 males) during an artificial language learning task, contrasting performance between individuals who were given an 8hr nocturnal sleep period or an equivalent period of wake. We found that sleep relative to wake was associated with superior performance for rules that followed a sequence-based word order. Post-sleep sequence-based word order processing was further associated with less task-related theta desynchronisation, an electrophysiological signature of successful memory consolidation, as well as cognitive control and working memory. Frontal NREM SO-spindle coupling was also positively associated with behavioural sensitivity to sequence-based word order rules, as well as with task-related theta power. As such, theta activity during retrieval of previously learned information correlates with SO-spindle coupling, thus linking neural activity in the sleeping and waking brain. Taken together, this study presents converging behavioral and neurophysiological evidence for a role of NREM SO-spindle coupling and task-related theta activity as signatures of successful memory consolidation and retrieval in the context of higher-order language learning.Significance statement The endogenous temporal coordination of neural oscillations supports information processing during both wake and sleep states. Here we demonstrate that slow oscillation-spindle coupling during non-rapid eye movement sleep predicts the consolidation of complex grammatical rules and modulates task-related oscillatory dynamics previously implicated in sentence processing. We show that increases in theta power predict enhanced sensitivity to grammatical violations after a period of sleep and strong slow oscillation-spindle coupling modulates subsequent task-related theta activity to influence behaviour. Our findings reveal a complex interaction between both wake- and sleep-related oscillatory dynamics during the early stages of language learning beyond the single word level.

A New Path to Enhance Students' Comprehensive Language Literacy based on Intelligent Language Laboratory

With the acceleration of globalization and the rapid development of information technology, the enhancement of language ability has become an important part of students' comprehensive literacy. This paper discusses the concept of “Intelligent Language Laboratory” and its application in improving students' comprehensive language literacy. By integrating modern information technology, language learning theory and teaching practice, the Smart Language Lab provides an interactive and personalized language learning environment for students. The study shows that the laboratory can effectively improve students' language expression, listening and speaking skills and cross-cultural communication skills, thus opening up a new path for cultivating comprehensively developed language talents.

Psychometric Analysis of Validity and Reliability of The Indonesian Version of The Modified Fatigue Impact Scale in Chronic Disease Patients

Fatigue is a lack of physical or mental energy that can be felt by individuals and can disrupt daily activities. Fatigue causes a constant decrease in vitality, a lack of energy, and prevents sleep gaps from being filled, ultimately leading to a decline in productivity and quality of life. The prevalence of fatigue in chronic patients varies, as there is no specific data available. However, the prevalence of fatigue depends on the chronic disease in question, such as chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, and heart disease. To obtain a valid and reliable Indonesian version of the MFIS instrument that can measure fatigue in patients with chronic diseases. The sampling technique used was based on the population, using a non-probability sampling method with purposive sampling. The population in this study consisted of patients with chronic diseases (Diabetes Mellitus, Congestive Heart Failure, Stroke). The population was 244 respondents (4 respondents for language comprehension, 30 respondents for validity and reliability testing, and 210 respondents for the final instrument test). The validity test results, with a sample of (n=210 respondents), showed a loading factor value greater than 0.135, indicating that all MFIS items were valid and highly correlated. The reliability test (n=210 respondents) yielded a Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of 0.869. This study demonstrates that the Indonesian version of the MFIS instrument is valid and highly correlated. This instrument can be used to identify fatigue in chronic diseases and can serve as a guideline for nurses to implement fatigue interventions, thus helping to reduce and address fatigue issues in patients with chronic diseases.

Functional partitioning of sentence processing and emotional prosody in the right perisylvian cortex after perinatal stroke.

In healthy adults different language abilities-sentence processing versus emotional prosody-are supported by the left (LH) versus the right hemisphere (RH), respectively. However, after LH stroke in infancy, RH regions often support both abilities with normal outcomes. This finding raises an important question: How does the functional map of RH regions change to support both emotional prosody and also typically left-lateralized language functions after an early LH stroke? Does sentence processing simply become reflected into RH frontotemporal regions and overlap with emotional prosody processing? Or do these functions overlap less than would be expected with simple mirroring? In the current work we used task fMRI to examine precisely how sentence processing and emotional prosody processing are both organized in the intact RH of individuals who suffered a large LH perinatal arterial ischemic stroke (LHPS participants). We evaluated the activation of two fMRI tasks that probed auditory sentence processing and emotional prosody processing, comparing the overlap for these two functions in the RH of individuals with perinatal stroke with the symmetry of these functions in the LH and RH of their healthy siblings. We found less activation overlap in the RH of individuals with LH perinatal stroke than would be expected if both functions retained their typical spatial layout, suggesting that their spatial segregation may be an important feature of a functioning language system.

Prediction ability in bilingual individuals: an eye tracking study with younger and older adults

Studies with monolingual speakers show that people predict upcoming linguistic elements during sentence processing. Linguistic prediction behavior has been found to be less consistent in studies with bilingual individuals performing in their non-native language and in neurotypical older monolingual adults. The present study utilized an eye-tracking paradigm to investigate whether bilingual younger and older neurotypical individuals predict upcoming nouns in sentences that include constraining verbs, and if they do so both in their first language (L1) and in their second language (L2). Data were analyzed from 44 Norwegian-English proficient bilingual adults; 27 younger (20–35 years, mean age 27) and 17 older adults (54–81 years, mean age 64) who completed the eye-tracking experiment in each of the two languages, as well as cognitive and linguistic tests. The results demonstrated similar prediction abilities in L1 and L2 for both the younger and older participants on sentences with constraining verbs. Older adults predicted slower than younger adults. Participants’ working memory span and language proficiency did not explain prediction performance; cognate status of the stimuli partially did. The study adds to the relatively sparse existing data on prediction abilities in bilingual people and in older individuals.

Can Linguistic Knowledge Improve Multimodal Alignment in Vision-Language Pretraining?

The field of multimedia research has witnessed significant interest in leveraging multimodal pretrained neural network models to perceive and represent the physical world. Among these models, vision-language pretraining (VLP) has emerged as a captivating topic. Currently, the prevalent approach in VLP involves supervising the training process with paired image-text data. However, limited efforts have been dedicated to exploring the extraction of essential linguistic knowledge, such as semantics and syntax, during VLP and understanding its impact on multimodal alignment. In response, our study aims to shed light on the influence of comprehensive linguistic knowledge encompassing semantic expression and syntactic structure on multimodal alignment. To achieve this, we introduce SNARE , a large-scale multimodal alignment probing benchmark designed specifically for the detection of vital linguistic components, including lexical, semantic, and syntax knowledge. SNARE offers four distinct tasks: Semantic Structure, Negation Logic, Attribute Ownership, and Relationship Composition. Leveraging SNARE , we conduct holistic analyses of six advanced VLP models (BLIP, CLIP, Flava, X-VLM, BLIP2, and GPT-4), along with human performance, revealing key characteristics of the VLP model: (i) Insensitivity to complex syntax structures, relying primarily on content words for sentence comprehension. (ii) Limited comprehension of sentence combinations and negations. (iii) Challenges in determining actions or spatial relations within visual information, as well as difficulties in verifying the correctness of ternary relationships. Based on these findings, we propose the following strategies to enhance multimodal alignment in VLP: (1) Utilize a large generative language model as the language backbone in VLP to facilitate the understanding of complex sentences. (2) Establish high-quality datasets that emphasize content words and employ simple syntax, such as short-distance semantic composition, to improve multimodal alignment. (3) Incorporate more fine-grained visual knowledge, such as spatial relationships, into pretraining objectives. 1

Processing cataphoric they amidst pronominal innovation

When they encounter a cataphoric pronoun during real-time sentence processing, the comprehender begins searching actively for a feature-matched noun that can supply its reference. The present study investigates individual variation in this active search procedure, leveraging an ongoing change in the pronoun system of North American English. The types of referents compatible with the they-series of pronouns is expanding, with an increasing number of speakers allowing definite singular referents: especially but not exclusively when referring to someone with a nonbinary gender identity. Sociolinguistic work shows that the speakers who most accept innovative usages of singular they tend to be younger, or to be non-cisgender (e.g. transgender, nonbinary). Recruiting participants representing diverse ages and gender identities, the present experiment tracked reading times of sentences involving cataphora. Results shows that cataphoric they is processed differently than cataphoric s/he, across the board. There is a significant processing cost to reading a plural noun that follows cataphoric s/he, indicating that singular cataphors evoke strong number expectations. However, the cost of reading a singular noun after they is smaller and emerges later; they seems to evoke weak number expectations. Individual differences show that those expectations are especially weak for younger participants, perhaps reflecting a higher baseline familiarity with singular they. On the other hand, course-grained gender identity (cis vs. non-cis) does not seem to be a reliable predictor of how cataphoric they is processed. Integrating insights from sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, this study offers a novel view into ongoing language change and its manifestation in real-time processing measures.

Differential neural representations of syntactic and semantic information across languages in Chinese-English bilinguals

Bilingual individuals manage multiple languages that align in conceptual meaning but differ in forms and structures. While prior research has established foundational insights into the neural mechanisms in bilingual processing, the extent to which the first (L1) and second language (L2) systems overlap or diverge across different linguistic components remains unclear. This study probed the neural underpinnings of syntactic and semantic processing for L1 and L2 in Chinese-English bilinguals (N = 44) who performed sentence comprehension tasks and an N-back working memory task during functional MRI scanning. We observed that the increased activation for L2 processing was within the verbal working memory network, suggesting a greater cognitive demand for processing L2. Crucially, we looked for brain regions showing adaptation to the repetition of semantic information and syntactic structure, and found more robust adaptation effects in L1 in the middle and superior temporal cortical areas. The differential adaptation effects between L1 and L2 were more pronounced for the semantic condition. Multivariate pattern analysis further revealed distinct neural sensitivities to syntactic and semantic representations between L1 and L2 across frontotemporal language regions. Our findings suggest that while L1 and L2 engage similar neural systems, finer representation analyses uncover distinct neural patterns for both semantic and syntactic aspects in the two languages. This study advances our understanding of neural representations involved in different language components in bilingual individuals.

Controlling the narrative: the relationship between narrative ability and executive functioning in children with developmental language disorder.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) experience problems in language comprehension and/or production. In particular, storytelling or narrative ability is often impaired, as this type of discourse involves all domains of language. These problems may lead to a lower quality of social interaction and mental health. Moreover, problems in oral narrative ability during early development have a negative effect on later literacy. However, telling a story involves more than language alone. Executive functioning is thought to play an important part in stimulating narrative ability, as linguistic utterances need to be planned in a temporal and causal order, and switching is needed between multiple characters and events in the story. Research has shown that children with DLD experience problems with executive functioning, independent of their language ability. Thus, the difficulties in storytelling may be caused by both impaired language and executive functioning, as both domains follow hierarchical developmental paths during the early childhood years. In this review, we discuss three components of narrative ability (comprehension, production of macrostructure and production of microstructure) and how they may be interconnected to the three core components of executive functioning (working memory, switching and inhibition) and attention. This review shows that updating and monitoring information in working memory plays an important part in all three components of narrative ability, across multiple studies. This result may give direction in the development of narrative assessment and intervention, and urge further research to disentangle the interplay between language and executive control in DLD.