Nonverbal Stimuli Research Articles

Conceptual control across modalities: graded specialisation for pictures and words in inferior frontal and posterior temporal cortex

Controlled semantic retrieval to words elicits co-activation of inferior frontal (IFG) and left posterior temporal cortex (pMTG), but research has not yet established (i) the distinct contributions of these regions or (ii) whether the same processes are recruited for non-verbal stimuli. Words have relatively flexible meanings – as a consequence, identifying the context that links two specific words is relatively demanding. In contrast, pictures are richer stimuli and their precise meaning is better specified by their visible features – however, not all of these features will be relevant to uncovering a given association, tapping selection/inhibition processes. To explore potential differences across modalities, we took a commonly-used manipulation of controlled retrieval demands, namely the identification of weak vs. strong associations, and compared word and picture versions. There were 4 key findings: (1) Regions of interest (ROIs) in posterior IFG (BA44) showed graded effects of modality (e.g., words>pictures in left BA44; pictures>words in right BA44). (2) An equivalent response was observed in left mid-IFG (BA45) across modalities, consistent with the multimodal semantic control deficits that typically follow LIFG lesions. (3) The anterior IFG (BA47) ROI showed a stronger response to verbal than pictorial associations, potentially reflecting a role for this region in establishing a meaningful context that can be used to direct semantic retrieval. (4) The left pMTG ROI also responded to difficulty across modalities yet showed a stronger response overall to verbal stimuli, helping to reconcile two distinct literatures that have implicated this site in semantic control and lexical-semantic access respectively. We propose that left anterior IFG and pMTG work together to maintain a meaningful context that shapes ongoing semantic processing, and that this process is more strongly taxed by word than picture associations.

Recollection and familiarity components of recognition: effect of side of mesio-temporal damage

We investigated the memory performance of three patients with unilateral mesio-temporal lobe damage with the aim of evaluating the roles of the left and right hemispheres in recollection and familiarity. Consistent with the “Material Specificity Hypothesis”, the right brain-damaged individual was selectively poor on recollection and familiarity tests for faces. Conversely, left-lesioned patients were severely deficient in recollection and familiarity of verbal material but mildly deficient on visual-spatial tests. This partially unexpected finding is interpreted in light of the ability of humans to verbally recode almost any material, thus giving rise to left-hemisphere effects for nominally nonverbal stimuli.

Sensory Symptoms and Processing of Nonverbal Auditory and Visual Stimuli in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Atypical sensory responses are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While evidence suggests impaired auditory-visual integration for verbal information, findings for nonverbal stimuli are inconsistent. We tested for sensory symptoms in children with ASD (using the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile) and examined unisensory and bisensory processing with a nonverbal auditory-visual paradigm, for which neurotypical adults show bisensory facilitation. ASD participants reported more atypical sensory symptoms overall, most prominently in the auditory modality. On the experimental task, reduced response times for bisensory compared to unisensory trials were seen in both ASD and control groups, but neither group showed significant race model violation (evidence of intermodal integration). Findings do not support impaired bisensory processing for simple nonverbal stimuli in high-functioning children with ASD.

First things first: similar list length and output order effects for verbal and nonverbal stimuli.

When participants are presented with a short list of unrelated words and they are instructed that they may recall in any order, they nevertheless show a very strong tendency to recall in forward serial order. Thus, if asked to recall in any order: "hat, mouse, tea, stairs," participants often respond "hat, mouse, tea, stairs" even though there was no forward order requirement of the task. In 4 experiments, we examined whether this tendency is language-specific, reflecting mechanisms involved with speech perception, speech production, and/or verbal short-term memory. Specifically, we examined whether we would observe similar findings when participants were asked to recall, in any order, lists of between 1 and 15 nonverbal stimuli, such as visuospatial locations (Experiment 1, Experiment 3, Experiment 4), or touched facial locations (Experiment 2). Contrary to a language-specific explanation, we found corresponding tendencies (albeit somewhat reduced) in the immediate free recall of these nonverbal stimuli. We conclude that the tendency to initiate recall of a short sequence of items with the first item is a general property of memory, which may be augmented by verbal coding.

Effects of bilingualism and aging on executive function and working memory.

Two studies are reported in which younger and older monolingual and bilingual adults performed executive function tasks. In Study 1, 130 participants performed a Stroop task and bilinguals in both age groups showed less interference than monolinguals with a greater benefit for older adults. In Study 2, 108 participants performed a complex working memory task based on verbal or nonverbal stimuli. Bilinguals showed less interference than monolinguals, with a larger bilingual advantage in the older adult group and in the nonverbal task. Together, these results show that bilingual advantages in executive function depend on characteristics of the participants and features of the tasks, with larger effects found for older than younger adults and for complex tasks using nonverbal material.

The Construction Principles and Problems of the Long Version EI-DARL-V2 Original Measurement Methodology of Emotional Intelligence

An original methodology for assessing emotional intelligence (EI) has been created, which consists of two versions – the short version EI-DARL-V1 and the long version EI-DARL-V2. The short version of the test EI-DARL-V1 was constructed on the basis of evaluating the degree of agreeing with the statement or rejecting it, and covers such EI dimensions as Emotion Perception, the control of your emotions, the understanding of other’s emotions, the control of other’s emotions and manipulations, i.e. the ability to control the behaviour of people around by taking advantage of their emotions.The long version of the text, presented in this article, was constructed in order to grasp deeper the cognitive aspect of EI. EI-DARL-V2 test version, in addition to the questionnaire used in the test EI-DARL-V1 is supplemented by two more – the scale of identification of nonverbal facial expressions and the scale of solutions to emotional social and interpersonal situations. The test part of identification of facial emotions consists of 20 nonverbal stimuli i.e. pictures. The mean of the overall test solution M=0,65, SD=0,12. The internal consistency index of the identification of facial expressions – Cronbach α=0,54. The test solutions to emotional-social and interpersonal situations consists of 10 situations, where each of them has two decision tasks and it is asked to select one of the options in the test responses for each of them. Internal consistency index for this test Cronbach α=0,71.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.84.2.7486

Explicit and implicit affiliation motives predict verbal and nonverbal social behavior in sports competition

ObjectivesThe present study investigated the predictive value of the explicit and implicit affiliation motive for social behavior in sport competitions. From an information processing perspective, an explicit motive is linked to verbal cues and respondent behavior. The implicit motive in turn is linked to nonverbal stimuli and operant behavior (McClelland, Koestner, & Weinberger, 1989; Schultheiss, 2008). Both respondent affiliative behavior (e.g., verbal interactions with teammates) and operant nonverbal social behavior (e.g., pleasant to opponents) can be observed in racquet sports team competitions. Design & MethodsFifty-two male racquet sportsmen completed the Personality Research Form (explicit affiliation motive) and the Operant Motive Test (implicit affiliation motive). Motive measures were used to predict social behavior during competitions using multiple regression analyses. To this aim real competitive matches were videotaped and analyzed. ResultsResults show that the explicit affiliation motive is associated with time spent in verbal team contact. The implicit affiliation motive, by contrast, is linked to pleasant nonverbal behavior shown toward opponents. ConclusionsFindings suggest that implicit and explicit affiliation motives predict different kinds of social behavior in sports competition respectively. Indirect motive measures may be of additional predictive value for different behavior in real sports settings.

Memory Encoding Processes in Young and Old Adults

Context: Information processing requires a series of mental operations from encoding to storage and retrieval. A large number of studies have examined the retrieval process, but less attention has been paid to the encoding process. Evidence Acquisition: The aims of this paper were to provide an overview of perceptual and semantic encoding processes as well as identify and compare the structural and functional changes in the memory encoding process of young and old adults. A review of encoding was conducted based on findings from two recent memory encoding studies and a literature search on memory encoding. It included studies published from January 1980 to December 2013 and appeared in the databases of CINAHL, MEDLINE, AMED, Journals@Ovid and the ISI Web of Science. Results: Five stages of encoding were identified. They were: 1) early perceptual processing; 2) prelexical feature detection and early lexical processing; 3) initial selection of information from competing information for processing in the working memory; 4) semantic, syntactic, or lexical processing; and 5) updating of working memory with the newly created item representation and elaborate processing. Perceptual encoding appears to be modulated by sensory cortices, in which stimuli are initially perceived and processed, whereas semantic encoding involves the left prefrontal cortex temporal regions by both verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Conclusions: Early perceptual processing and the selection of information processes associated with memory encoding are comparable between young and old adults. However, they showed differences in semantic processing, updating of working memory, and elaborate processing. These differences might be due to reduced volume and functional capacity of the hippocampus and frontal lobes, shrinkage in the white matter and its associated tracts, as well as inability of the aging brain to produce levels of dopamine comparable to its previous levels.

The relationship between verbal and nonverbal auditory signal processing in conduction aphasia: behavioral and anatomical evidence for common decoding mechanisms

The processing of nonverbal auditory stimuli has not yet been sufficiently investigated in patients with aphasia. On the basis of a duration discrimination task, we examined whether patients with left-sided cerebrovascular lesions were able to perceive time differences in the scale of approximately 150 ms. Further linguistic and memory-related tasks were used to characterize more exactly the relationships in the performances between auditory nonverbal task and selective linguistic or mnemonic disturbances. All examined conduction aphasics showed increased thresholds in the duration discrimination task. The low thresholds on this task were in a strong correlative relation to the reduced performances in repetition and working memory task. This was interpreted as an indication of a pronounced disturbance in integrating auditory verbal information into a long-term window (sampling disturbance) resulting in an additional load of working memory. In order to determine the lesion topography of patients with sampling disturbances, the anatomical and psychophysical data were correlated on the basis of a voxelwise statistical approach. It was found that tissue damage extending through the insula, the posterior superior temporal gyrus, and the supramarginal gyrus causes impairments in sequencing of time-sensitive information.

Neurocognitive insights on conceptual knowledge and its breakdown.

Conceptual knowledge reflects our multi-modal ‘semantic database’. As such, it brings meaning to all verbal and non-verbal stimuli, is the foundation for verbal and non-verbal expression and provides the basis for computing appropriate semantic generalizations. Multiple disciplines (e.g. philosophy, cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience and behavioural neurology) have striven to answer the questions of how concepts are formed, how they are represented in the brain and how they break down differentially in various neurological patient groups. A long-standing and prominent hypothesis is that concepts are distilled from our multi-modal verbal and non-verbal experience such that sensation in one modality (e.g. the smell of an apple) not only activates the intramodality long-term knowledge, but also reactivates the relevant intermodality information about that item (i.e. all the things you know about and can do with an apple). This multi-modal view of conceptualization fits with contemporary functional neuroimaging studies that observe systematic variation of activation across different modality-specific association regions dependent on the conceptual category or type of information. A second vein of interdisciplinary work argues, however, that even a smorgasbord of multi-modal features is insufficient to build coherent, generalizable concepts. Instead, an additional process or intermediate representation is required. Recent multidisciplinary work, which combines neuropsychology, neuroscience and computational models, offers evidence that conceptualization follows from a combination of modality-specific sources of information plus a transmodal ‘hub’ representational system that is supported primarily by regions within the anterior temporal lobe, bilaterally.

EPA-1252 – Cognitive decline correlates with anticardiolipin antibodies and anti-dsdna in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Introduction Cognitive dysfunction (CD) affects 10-36% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Its pathogenesis comprise direct neurocytoxicity, vasculopathy, thrombosis, hipercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate CD in SLE patients and to investigate whether it is influenced by selected immunological and cardiological parameters. Methods Thirty-two SLE patients in remission were enrolled. Anti-cardiolipin and anti-dsDNA antibodies were estimated using immunoenzymatic techniques. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed using Acuson CV70. Since at least some tests proposed by the American College of Rheumatology for neuropsychological evaluation have Polish language version, we have used the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (Cantab) that employs non-verbal stimuli and requires non-verbal responses. The following Cantab tests were used: Motor screening (MOT); Big little circle (BLC); Paired associated learning (PAL); Stockings of Cambridge (SOC); Graded naming test (GNT). Results In SLE results obtained in BLC, PAL, SOC PSMM, and GNT were lower than those of controls. SOC Mean initial thinking time correlated with ACL IgG (r=0.42; p=0.42) and anti-dsDNA antibodies (r=0.47, p=0.23) and, also, with aorticdiameter (r=0.48; p=0.036). SOC Mean subsequent thinking time negatively correlated with Left-ventricular-end-systolic diameter (r=-0.5; p=0.02). GNT correlated positively with posterior-wall-systolic-diameter (r=0.45; p=0.049) and interventricular-septum-systolic diameter (r=0.61; p=0.005). Conclusions SLE patients are cognitively compromised. Immunological and cardiological correlates may indicate underlying vascular brain damage. Biological explanation of the observed correlates is, however, unclear and possible causality needs further studies to become elucidated.

When do words hurt? A multiprocess view of the effects of verbalization on visual memory.

Verbal overshadowing reflects the impairment in memory performance following verbalization of nonverbal stimuli. However, it is not clear whether the same mechanisms are responsible for verbal overshadowing effects observed with different stimuli and task demands. In the present article, we propose a multiprocess view that reconciles the main theoretical explanations of verbal overshadowing deriving from the use of different paradigms. Within a single paradigm, we manipulated both the nature of verbalization at encoding (nameability of the stimuli) and postencoding (verbal descriptions), as well as the nature (image transformation or recognition) and, by implication, the demands of the final memory task (global or featural). Results from 3 experiments replicated the negative effects of encoding and postencoding verbalization in imagery and recognition tasks, respectively. However, they also showed that the demands of the final memory task can modulate or even reverse verbal overshadowing effects due to both postencoding verbalization and naming during encoding.

Differential patterns of prefrontal MEG activation during verbal & visual encoding and retrieval.

The spatiotemporal profile of activation of the prefrontal cortex in verbal and non-verbal recognition memory was examined using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Sixteen neurologically healthy right-handed participants were scanned whilst carrying out a modified version of the Doors and People Test of recognition memory. A pattern of significant prefrontal activity was found for non-verbal and verbal encoding and recognition. During the encoding, verbal stimuli activated an area in the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and non-verbal stimuli activated an area in the right. A region in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex also showed significant activation during the encoding of non-verbal stimuli. Both verbal and non-verbal stimuli significantly activated an area in the right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the right anterior prefrontal cortex during successful recognition, however these areas showed temporally distinct activation dependent on material, with non-verbal showing activation earlier than verbal stimuli. Additionally, non-verbal material activated an area in the left anterior prefrontal cortex during recognition. These findings suggest a material-specific laterality in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex during encoding for verbal and non-verbal but also support the HERA model for verbal material. The discovery of two process dependent areas during recognition that showed patterns of temporal activation dependent on material demonstrates the need for the application of more temporally sensitive techniques to the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in recognition memory.

Is Central Auditory Processing Disorder Present in Psychosis?

The scope of this study was to trace central auditory processing issues in patients with first-episode psychosis using a psychoacoustic test battery approach. Patients (n = 17) and volunteer control subjects (n = 17) with no personal or family history of schizophrenia were included in the study on the basis of normal hearing sensitivity. The authors implemented a central auditory processing battery consisting of monaural and binaural tests with verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Perceptual deficits in both nonverbal and verbal auditory stimuli are reported in this study, with temporal central auditory processing deficits and a mean left-ear advantage documented in the patient group. This study points to the possibility of the existence of central auditory processing deficits in first-episode psychosis leading to schizophrenia. Audiologists should be aware of the psychiatric research pointing to enhanced verbal memory as a result of auditory training, linking bottom-up remediation with top-down improvement.

New Findings About Social Intelligence

Social intelligence (SI) is an ability construct with a long history in scientific psychology which has yet to be clearly established. SI tests show low convergent validity and can hardly be distinguished from academic intelligence. This may be the result of conceptual ambiguity and a lack of reliable and valid performappance tests that apply nonverbal stimuli. The Magdeburg Test of Social Intelligence (MTSI) is a new multimedia-based performance test battery relying on a potential-based concept of SI. It presently comprises subtests for social understanding, social memory, and social perception, each of which is measured with real auditory, video-based, pictorial, and verbal task material. It applies target scoring to the social understanding tasks. Two studies with 127 and 190 participants, respectively, examined the psychometric properties and construct validity of the MTSI. Discriminant construct validation was conducted with well-established academic intelligence and personality tests. The findings revealed satisfactory psychometric properties for nearly all of the 22 tasks. A general SI and a social perception factor were not substantiated. Social understanding was separate from academic intelligence, whereas social memory and social perception tasks showed systematic correlations with academic intelligence. The SI tasks were not systematically related to personality traits.

Perceiving nonverbal behavior: Neural correlates of processing movement fluency and contingency in dyadic interactions

Despite the fact that nonverbal dyadic social interactions are abundant in the environment, the neural mechanisms underlying their processing are not yet fully understood. Research in the field of social neuroscience has suggested that two neural networks appear to be involved in social understanding: (1) the action observation network (AON) and (2) the social neural network (SNN). The aim of this study was to determine the differential contributions of the AON and the SNN to the processing of nonverbal behavior as observed in dyadic social interactions. To this end, we used short computer animation sequences displaying dyadic social interactions between two virtual characters and systematically manipulated two key features of movement activity, which are known to influence the perception of meaning in nonverbal stimuli: (1) movement fluency and (2) contingency of movement patterns. A group of 21 male participants rated the "naturalness" of the observed scenes on a four-point scale while undergoing fMRI. Behavioral results showed that both fluency and contingency significantly influenced the "naturalness" experience of the presented animations. Neurally, the AON was preferentially engaged when processing contingent movement patterns, but did not discriminate between different degrees of movement fluency. In contrast, regions of the SNN were engaged more strongly when observing dyads with disturbed movement fluency. In conclusion, while the AON is involved in the general processing of contingent social actions, irrespective of their kinematic properties, the SNN is preferentially recruited when atypical kinematic properties prompt inferences about the agents' intentions.

Neurophysiological indicators of action quality at solving verbal and nonverbal tasks

Neurophysiological mechanisms of recognition of verbal and nonverbal stimuli have been studied. It was determined that subjects solved nonverbal tasks faster and more effectively with their left hands, while they used two strategies of recognition to solve verbal tasks (fast reactions with right and left hand). Analysis of spectral characteristics of EEG revealed that mechanisms of both anterior and posterior attention systems were simultaneously involved in the process of effective recognition of nonverbal stimuli and ineffective recognition of verbal stimuli. Analysis of the event-related potentials (ERPs) showed that ineffective recognition of verbal and nonverbal stimuli resulted in an increase in the amplitude of sensory components of ERPs (N1m, P1m), while effective recognition increased the amplitude of cognitive components of ERPs (P2m, P3m).

Action Video Games Make Dyslexic Children Read Better

Learning to read is extremely difficult for about 10% of children; they are affected by a neurodevelopmental disorder called dyslexia [1, 2]. The neurocognitive causes of dyslexia are still hotly debated [3-12]. Dyslexia remediation is far from being fully achieved [13], and the current treatments demand high levels of resources [1]. Here, we demonstrate that only 12 hr of playing action video games-not involving any direct phonological or orthographic training-drastically improve the reading abilities of children with dyslexia. We tested reading, phonological, and attentional skills in two matched groups of children with dyslexia before and after they played action or nonaction video games for nine sessions of 80 min per day. We found that only playing action video games improved children's reading speed, without any cost in accuracy, more so than 1 year of spontaneous reading development and more than or equal to highly demanding traditional reading treatments. Attentional skills also improved during action video game training. It has been demonstrated that action video games efficiently improve attention abilities [14, 15]; our results showed that this attention improvement can directly translate into better reading abilities, providing a new, fast, fun remediation of dyslexia that has theoretical relevance in unveiling the causal role of attention in reading acquisition.

Serial recall of visuospatial and verbal information with and without material-specific interference: Implications for contemporary models of working memory

A longstanding question in working memory (WM) research concerns the fractionation of verbal and nonverbal processing. Although some contemporary models include both domain-specific and general-purpose mechanisms, the necessity to postulate differential processing of verbal and nonverbal material remains unclear. In the present two-experiment series we revisit the order reconstruction paradigm that Jones, Farrand, Stuart, and Morris (1995) used to support a unitary model of WM. Goals were to assess (1) whether serial position curves for dot positions differ from curves for letter names; and (2) whether selective interference can be demonstrated. Although we replicated Jones et al.'s finding of similar serial position curves for the two tasks, this similarity could reflect the demands of the order reconstruction paradigm rather than undifferentiated processing of verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Both generalised and material-specific interference was found, which can be attributed to competition between primary and secondary tasks for attentional resources. As performance levels for the combined primary and secondary tasks exceed active WM capacity limits, primary task items apparently are removed from active memory during processing of the secondary list and held temporarily in maintenance storage. We conclude that active WM is multimodal but maintenance stores may be domain specific.

Differences between visual hemifields in identifying rapidly presented target stimuli: letters and digits, faces, and shapes

The right hemisphere has been shown to play a dominant role in processing of visuo-spatial information. Recently, this role has been studied in the two-stream rapid serial visual presentation task. In this task, two alphanumerical targets are embedded in left and right simultaneous streams of rapidly changing letters. The second target (T2) is identified better in the left than in the right visual field. This difference has been interpreted as advantage of the right hemisphere (RH). However, a disadvantage of the left hemisphere (LH) could not be excluded so far. The LH, specialized for processing of verbal stimuli, might be overloaded due to constant input of letters from both visual fields. In the present study, this overload hypothesis was tested by reducing demands on verbal processing (Experiment 1), and by overloading the RH with non-verbal stimuli: faces (Experiment 2) and irregular shapes (Experiment 3). The left visual field advantage proved to be largely independent from the level of verbal load and from stimulus type. Therefore, although not entirely disproving the overload hypothesis, these results suggest as the most parsimonious explanation this asymmetry reflects a RH advantage, presumably in perceptual and attentional processing, rather than a LH disadvantage caused by verbal overload.