Naturalistic Narratives Research Articles

Information flow across the cortical timescale hierarchy during narrative construction

When listening to spoken narratives, we must integrate information over multiple, concurrent timescales, building up from words to sentences to paragraphs to a coherent narrative. Recent evidence suggests that the brain relies on a chain of hierarchically organized areas with increasing temporal receptive windows to process naturalistic narratives. We hypothesized that the structure of this cortical processing hierarchy should result in an observable sequence of response lags between networks comprising the hierarchy during narrative comprehension. This study uses functional MRI to estimate the response lags between functional networks during narrative comprehension. We use intersubject cross-correlation analysis to capture network connectivity driven by the shared stimulus. We found a fixed temporal sequence of response lags-on the scale of several seconds-starting in early auditory areas, followed by language areas, the attention network, and lastly the default mode network. This gradient is consistent across eight distinct stories but absent in data acquired during rest or using a scrambled story stimulus, supporting our hypothesis that narrative construction gives rise to internetwork lags. Finally, we build a simple computational model for the neural dynamics underlying the construction of nested narrative features. Our simulations illustrate how the gradual accumulation of information within the boundaries of nested linguistic events, accompanied by increased activity at each level of the processing hierarchy, can give rise to the observed lag gradient.

Body into Narrative: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Signatures of Action Text Processing After Ecological Motor Training

Embodied cognition research indicates that sensorimotor training can influence action concept processing. Yet, most studies employ isolated (pseudo)randomized stimuli and require repetitive single-effector responses, thus lacking ecological validity. Moreover, the neural signatures of these effects remain poorly understood. Here, we examined whether immersive bodily training can modulate behavioral and functional connectivity correlates of action-verb processing in naturalistic narratives. The study involved three phases. First, in the Pre-training phase, 32 healthy persons listened to an action text (rich in movement descriptions) and a non-action text (focused on its characters’ perceptual and mental processes), completed comprehension questionnaires, and underwent resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. Second, in the four-day Training phase, half the participants completed an exergaming intervention (eliciting full-body movements for 60 min a day) while the remaining half played static videogames (requiring no bodily engagement other than button presses). Finally, in the Post-training phase, all participants repeated the Pre-training protocol with different action and non-action texts and a new EEG session. We found that exergaming selectively reduced action-verb outcomes and fronto-posterior functional connectivity in the motor-sensitive ∼ 10–20 Hz range, both patterns being positively correlated. Conversely, static videogame playing yielded no specific effect on any linguistic category and did not modulate functional connectivity. Together, these findings suggest that action-verb processing and key neural correlates can be focally influenced by full-body motor training in a highly ecological setting. Our study illuminates the role of situated experience and sensorimotor circuits in action-concept processing, addressing calls for naturalistic insights on language embodiment.

Electrifying discourse: Anodal tDCS of the primary motor cortex selectively reduces action appraisal in naturalistic narratives

Non-invasive stimulation of the primary motor cortex (M1) modulates processing of decontextualized action words and sentences (i.e., verbal units denoting bodily motion). This suggests that language comprehension hinges on brain circuits mediating the bodily experiences evoked by verbal material. Yet, despite its relevance to constrain mechanistic language models, such a finding fails to reveal whether and how relevant circuits operate in the face of full-blown, everyday texts. Using a novel naturalistic discourse paradigm, we examined whether direct modulation of M1 excitability influences the grasping of narrated actions. Following random group assignment, participants received anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left M1, or sham stimulation of the same area, or anodal stimulation of the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Immediately afterwards, they listened to action-laden and neutral stories and answered questions on information realized by verbs (denoting action and non-action processes) and circumstances (conveying locative or temporal details). Anodal stimulation of the left M1 selectively decreased outcomes on action-relative to non-action information –a pattern that discriminated between stimulated and sham participants with 74% accuracy. This result was particular to M1 and held irrespective of the subjects’ working memory and vocabulary skills, further attesting to its specificity. Our findings suggest that offline modulation of motor-network excitability might lead to transient unavailability of putative resources needed to evoke actions in naturalistic texts, opening promising avenues for the language embodiment framework.

Motor-system dynamics during naturalistic reading of action narratives in first and second language

Do embodied semantic systems play different roles depending on when and how well a given language was learned? Emergent evidence suggests that this is the case for isolated, decontextualized stimuli, but no study has addressed the issue considering naturalistic narratives. Seeking to bridge this gap, we assessed motor-system dynamics in 26 Spanish-English bilinguals as they engaged in free, unconstrained reading of naturalistic action texts (ATs, highlighting the characters’ movements) and neutral texts (NTs, featuring low motility) in their first and second language (L1, L2). To explore functional connectivity spread over each reading session, we recorded ongoing high-density electroencephalographic signals and subjected them to functional connectivity analysis via a spatial clustering approach. Results showed that, in L1, AT (relative to NT) reading involved increased connectivity between left and right central electrodes consistently implicated in action-related processes, as well as distinct source-level modulations in motor regions. In L2, despite null group-level effects, enhanced motor-related connectivity during AT reading correlated positively with L2 proficiency and negatively with age of L2 learning. Taken together, these findings suggest that action simulations during unconstrained narrative reading involve neural couplings between motor-sensitive mechanisms, in proportion to how consolidated a language is. More generally, such evidence addresses recent calls to test the ecological validity of motor-resonance effects while offering new insights on their relation with experiential variables.

Systemic functional grammar as a tool for experimental stimulus design: new appliable horizons in psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Since their onset more than 50 years ago, both psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics have provided crucial breakthroughs for understanding the cognitive bases of language. Despite their major contributions, however, both fields have been undermined by a tradeoff between ecological validity (i.e., the degree to which tasks reflect the conditions of everyday communication) and experimental control (the manipulation of fine-grained variables, which is typically achieved by matching lists of decontextualized words and sentences). Specifically, most extant research sacrifices the former requisite in pursuit of the latter, or vice versa, but both are rarely met in combination. To overcome this problem, we have relied on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and designed a protocol for constructing carefully matched but fully naturalistic narratives usable in experimental settings. First, we describe the limitations of mainstream language experiments and their poor ecological validity. Second, we introduce an SFL-based protocol that allows constructing naturalistic stories that differ in one critical target variable while guaranteeing statistical comparability in multiple other factors. Third, we illustrate how the protocol has been successfully implemented in two groundbreaking studies exploring the links between biological motor systems and lexico-semantic processing. Finally, we discuss the potential gains springing from future collaborations between SFL and experimental language research.

A moving story: Whole-body motor training selectively improves the appraisal of action meanings in naturalistic narratives

This study examined whether systematic whole-body stimulation and increased attention to visuospatial motion patterns can enhance the appraisal of action meanings evoked by naturalistic texts. Participants listened to action and neutral (non-action) narratives before and after videogame-based bodily training, and responded to questions on information realized by verbs (denoting abstract and action processes) and circumstances (conveying locative or temporal details, for example). Strategically, we worked with dyslexic children, whose potential comprehension deficits could give room to post-training improvements. Results showed a selective boost in understanding of action information, even when controlling for baseline performance. Also, this effect proved uninfluenced by short-term memory skills, and it was absent when training relied on non-action videogames requiring minimal bodily engagement. Of note, the movements described in the texts did not match those performed by participants, suggesting that well-established effector- and direction-specific language embodiment effects may be accompanied by more coarse-grained sensorimotor resonance, driven by activation of motor and visuospatial sensory systems. In sum, the stimulation of movement-related mechanisms seems to selectively boost the appraisal of actions evoked by naturalistic texts. By demonstrating such links between two real-life activities, our study offers an empirical tie between embodied and situated accounts of cognition.

An exploration of malayalam basic and nonbasic color terms during a color naming task and in naturalistic narratives

AbstractLanguages show variations in their basic color terms [Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press; 1969]. Evidence for languages that have or lack basic color terms mainly comes from standardized naming tasks [The World Color Survey. Stanford, CA: CSLI; 2010]. In this article, we take a somewhat different perspective on the issue of color naming in languages. Starting from a language, Malayalam, with a limited number of basic color terms, and thus with a mixed color naming system, we ask how language users behave when they are asked to produce spontaneous narratives in a communicative setting in which color is manipulated systematically. Do narrators behave as predicted by naming task results and grammars, or do they behave (systematically) differently? In this article, we explore how two different color naming settings affect the expression of colors that have basic color terms in contrast with nonbasic terms. For this purpose, a color naming task was administered to validate basic and nonbasic color terms in Malayalam. The result showed that Malayalam has six colors considered simple color terms (e.g., chuvappu ‘red’) and five complex color terms (e.g., tavittu‐niram brown “color of rice bran”). This result was used to develop eight short stories in two color term conditions. The color terms extracted out from “naturalistic narratives” were more varied than those that were predicted by the color naming task. In the Malayalam primary color condition, respondents often used complex constructions rather than simple color terms only [e.g., chuvappu niram(ulla)]. In the secondary color condition, respondents, as expected, used more complex constructions, but they also avoided complex constructions in interesting ways. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 42, 193–202, 2017

Literature and event understanding

We believe that the scientific study of narrative comprehension will move from using short, laboratory-contrived “textoids” to longer, naturalistic narratives. This move is being driven by technological developments and by theoretical interest in event comprehension mechanisms in reading. One mechanism in which we have been particularly interested is event segmentation, which is the spontaneous organization of incoming information into meaningful discrete events. Behavioral and neurophysiological studies suggest that similar principles govern event segmentation in reading and in the perception of movies and live action. Some of these studies contribute to a growing body of evidence that readers mentally simulate events as they read, including some of their perceptual and motor properties. Based on these trends we look forward to a scientific study of narrative comprehension that is increasingly integrated with broad general theories of perception and memory.

Identifying the Remains: George Eliot's Death in the London Religious Press by K. K. Collins

834 Reviews methods of the most recognized authors of thenaturalistic genre-Frank Norris, Jack London, Stephen Crane, and Theodore Dreiser-incorporate, forLink, both roman tic and naturalistic elements.With respect toDreiser, claims Link, 'we discover that works such as Sister Carrie and The Financier implement a romantic symbolism that seeks to embody and reveal the abstract, hidden forces innature in a way more reminiscent of the romantics than the realists' (p. 62). InChapter 3Link stresses the importance of recognizing common ground between utopian fictionand naturalistic texts.He offers,forexample, a revision of the relation ship between historical context and literary text as itconcerns thisgenre, dialogizing accounts of the influence of evolutionary theory in redefining naturalism. For Link, both the darkerMalthusian current and the utopian evolutionary theory of Spencer contribute to a broader conception of naturalism. Reading theworks ofUpton Sin clair, among others, against thispolyvalent determinism allows us to see thatSinclair 'moved through both positive and negative naturalistic orientations' (p. 74). Chapter 4 addresses the assumption that critics fault naturalistic narratives for refusing touphold a strict determinism, forpermitting characters to have freewill. Challenging this assessment, Link argues thatNorris, Crane, and London created narratives that 'dialogically interacted with deterministic ideologies' (p. 104). The use ofWilliam James's notion of hard and softdeterminism enables Link to demon strate compellingly thecomplex positioning ofFleming's determinism inCrane's The Red Badge ofCourage, showing thathe 'oscillates between deterministic and indeter ministic interpretations of nature and experience' (p. 13 I).While Link's study begins slowly,he creatively and successfully applies Bakhtinian theory to a genre and school of criticism to transform it into offering a variety ofmethodological approaches that permit it to engage post-structuralism and new historicism. UNIVERSITY OF WINDSOR, ONTARIO SEAN PALMER Identifying the Remains: George Eliot's Death in theLondon Religious Press. By K. K. COLLINS. Victoria, BC: ELS Editions. 2006. II9 pp. $i8. ISBN 978-o 920604-94-6. This compact but well-researched study of the contemporary responses toGeorge Eliot's death offers a fascinating snapshot ofVictorian attitudes both to religion and to literature.K. K. Collins sets out to challenge the standard account of the reception of Eliot's work inwhich the central problem is seen to be the disparity between the 'imagined' or implied author, a gentle and wise upholder ofChristian morality, and the 'real' author, the radical propounder through essays and translations ofwhat one con temporary critic called 'thegodless humanitarianism ofStrauss and Feuerbach' (p. 2). Part of the solution to thisproblem, as Collins demonstrates, was the continuation long after the unveiling of her pseudonym in i859 of 'a persistent uncertainty over who shewas and what she believed' (p. 4). As late as I875 theninth edition ofMen of theTime, a trusted authority towhom many journalists turned for information,was reporting her as the daughter of a poor clergyman adopted early in lifeby awealthy one. Lacking reliable information about her lifeand beliefs, partly as a result of her own reluctance to adopt a public persona in any other form than through her works, theobituaries attempted to supply herwith at least some kind of religious identity to which their readers could attachmeaning. Collins traces a number of false legends that arose (rather in themanner Strauss had supposed of theGospels) from thediscovery of a copy of The Imitation ofChrist by her bedside along with another rumour about the supposed discovery of an unpub lished study of varying ideas of a future life.He reports at some length the coverage MLR, I03.3, 2008 835 of Eliot's surprisingly conventional funeral service. The fact that passages from the Book of Common Prayer were employed rather than the liturgy of theReligion of Humanity (towhich she had herself contributed her 'hymn'on 'The Choir Invisible') was again taken by the religious press as a sign of returning sympathy towards Chris tianity. Almost all denominations, in fact,apart from theRoman Catholics, seem to have claimed her as (secretly or in some significant respects) one of theirown. One significant omission fromCollins's account isanymention of the controversy over thepossibility ofher funeral takingplace in Westminster Abbey. The thenDean, Arthur Stanley, told JohnCross thathe would offerno insurmountable objections if therewere sufficientdemand. The opposition ironically came rather fromagnostics such as...

Patterns of On-line Resource Allocation to Narrative Text by Younger and Older Readers

Younger and older adults read narrative texts word by word for immediate recall. There were no age differences in recall performance, showing that older adults were effective in narrative memory. Analysis of reading times demonstrated the existence of interindividual variability in sensitivity to text demands, which was predictive of subsequent memory performance. Contrary to the view that older readers do not encode text analytically, for these naturalistic narratives both younger and older adults optimized memory through the allocation of processing resources to the construction of a proposition-based representation of content. Overall, attentiveness to narrative structure also facilitated narrative memory, but this relationship was more reliable among older readers.

Wand oder keine Wand? Die Repräsentation räumlicher Veränderungen in Situationsmodellen

Zusammenfassung. Mit zwei Experimenten wurde untersucht, ob in natürlicheren Texten beschriebene Veränderungen von räumlichen Gegebenheiten während des Lesens in ein Situationsmodell integriert werden und wie sich räumliche Veränderungen auf die Verfügbarkeit von Textinhalten auswirken. In beiden Experimenten lernten die Probanden zunächst den Grundriß eines Gebäudes mit den Raumnamen sowie den in den Räumen enthaltenen Objekten kennen. Innerhalb einer längeren Rahmenhandlung wurde sodann beschrieben, wie das Gebäude zweimal umgebaut wird, indem Wände ein- und ausgebaut werden. Nach jedem Umbau lasen die Probanden mehrere Episoden, die in dem Gebäude spielten. Dabei wurden sowohl die Repräsentation der Umbauten als auch die Verfügbarkeit der gelernten Objekte durch die Lesezeiten kritischer Sätze getestet. Beide Experimente zeigten, daß Leser die Veränderungen der räumlichen Gegebenheiten in ihrem Situationsmodell repräsentieren und diese Veränderungen bei der Repräsentation von Bewegungen der Hauptpersonen beachten. Ein konsistenter Distanzeffekt, d. h. eine Abhängigkeit der Objektverfügbarkeit von der räumlichen Distanz zwischen Objekt und Protagonist, wurde hingegen nicht gefunden.

Learning-disabled adolescents' comprehension of naturalistic narratives.

Learning-disabled adolescents' comprehension of naturalistic narratives.

Learning-disabled adolescents' comprehension of naturalistic narratives.

The ability of 20 normally achieving and 20 learning-disabled 8th- and 9th-grade readers to comprehend and interpret 2 fairly long and complex narratives, describing the emotional reactions of characters to realistic situations, was compared. The pattern of recall across story categories was similar for both groups. However, the learning-disabled readers not only recalled less overall than the normal readers, they were also less successful at differentiating levels of importance in the macrostructure of the stories. All students included less of the information needed to understand the characters' interactions in the more difficult story than in the easier story. Although normal readers could supply this information when directly probed for it, learning-disabled students were less successful in this respect, suggesting serious weaknesses in their ability to construct an appropriate situation model. Implications for the instruction of learning-disabled students are discussed.