Semantic Integration Processes Research Articles

The Effects of Age and Reading Experience on the Lifespan Neurodevelopment for Reading Comprehension.

Reading comprehension is a vital cognitive skill that individuals use throughout their lives. The neurodevelopment of reading comprehension across the lifespan, however, remains underresearched. Furthermore, factors such as maturation and experience significantly influence functional brain development. Given the complexity of reading comprehension, which incorporates lower-level word reading process and higher-level semantic integration process, our study aims to investigate how age and reading experience influence the neurobiology underpinning these two processes across the lifespan. fMRI data of 158 participants aged from 7 to 77 years were collected during a passive word viewing task and a sentence comprehension task to engage the lower- and higher-level processes, respectively. We found that the neurodevelopment of the lower-level process was primarily influenced by age, showing increased activation and connectivity with age in parieto-occipital and middle/inferior frontal lobes related to morphological-semantic mapping while decreased activation in the temporoparietal regions linked to phonological processing. However, the brain function of the higher-level process was primarily influenced by reading experience, exhibiting a greater reliance on the frontotemporal semantic network with enhanced sentence-level reading performance. Furthermore, reading experience did not significantly affect the brain function of children, but had a positive effect on young adults in the lower-level process and on middle-aged and older adults in the higher-level process. These findings indicate that the brain function for lower- and higher-level processes of reading comprehension is differently affected by maturation and reading experience, and the experience effect is contingent on age regarding the two processes.

An Individual-Differences Approach to Poetic Metaphor: Impact of Aptness and Familiarity

ABSTRACT Using poetic metaphors in the Serbian language, we identified systematic variations in the impact of fluid and crystalized intelligence on comprehension of metaphors that varied in rated aptness and familiarity. Overall, comprehension scores were higher for metaphors that were high rather than low in aptness, and high rather than low in familiarity. A measure of crystalized intelligence was a robust predictor of comprehension across the full range of metaphors, but especially for those that were either relatively unfamiliar or more apt. In contrast, individual differences associated with fluid intelligence were clearly found only for metaphors that were low in aptness. Superior verbal knowledge appears to be particularly important when trying to find meaning in novel metaphorical expressions, and also when exploring the rich interpretive potential of apt metaphors. The broad role of crystalized intelligence in metaphor comprehension is consistent with the view that metaphors are largely understood using semantic integration processes continuous with those that operate in understanding literal language.

Effects of syntactic structure on the processing of lexical repetition during sentence reading.

Previous research has demonstrated that the ease or difficulty of processing complex semantic expressions depends on sentence structure: Processing difficulty emerges when the constituents that create the complex meaning appear in the same clause, whereas difficulty is reduced when the constituents appear in separate clauses. The goal of the current eye-tracking-while-reading experiments was to determine how changes to sentence structure affect the processing of lexical repetition, as this manipulation enabled us to isolate processes involved in word recognition (repetition priming) from those involved in sentence interpretation (felicity of the repetition). When repetition of the target word was felicitous (Experiment 1), we observed robust effects of repetition priming with some evidence that these effects were weaker when repetition occurred within a clause versus across a clause boundary. In contrast, when repetition of the target word was infelicitous (Experiment 2), readers experienced an immediate repetition cost when repetition occurred within a clause, but this cost was eliminated entirely when repetition occurred across clause boundaries. The results have implications for word recognition during reading, processes of semantic integration, and the role of sentence structure in guiding these linguistic representations.

Age effects on cognitive functions and speech-in-noise processing: An event-related potential study with cochlear-implant users and normal-hearing listeners.

A cochlear implant (CI) can partially restore hearing in individuals with profound sensorineural hearing loss. However, electrical hearing with a CI is limited and highly variable. The current study aimed to better understand the different factors contributing to this variability by examining how age affects cognitive functions and cortical speech processing in CI users. Electroencephalography (EEG) was applied while two groups of CI users (young and elderly; N = 13 each) and normal-hearing (NH) listeners (young and elderly; N = 13 each) performed an auditory sentence categorization task, including semantically correct and incorrect sentences presented either with or without background noise. Event-related potentials (ERPs) representing earlier, sensory-driven processes (N1-P2 complex to sentence onset) and later, cognitive-linguistic integration processes (N400 to semantically correct/incorrect sentence-final words) were compared between the different groups and speech conditions. The results revealed reduced amplitudes and prolonged latencies of auditory ERPs in CI users compared to NH listeners, both at earlier (N1, P2) and later processing stages (N400 effect). In addition to this hearing-group effect, CI users and NH listeners showed a comparable background-noise effect, as indicated by reduced hit rates and reduced (P2) and delayed (N1/P2) ERPs in conditions with background noise. Moreover, we observed an age effect in CI users and NH listeners, with young individuals showing improved specific cognitive functions (working memory capacity, cognitive flexibility and verbal learning/retrieval), reduced latencies (N1/P2), decreased N1 amplitudes and an increased N400 effect when compared to the elderly. In sum, our findings extend previous research by showing that the CI users' speech processing is impaired not only at earlier (sensory) but also at later (semantic integration) processing stages, both in conditions with and without background noise. Using objective ERP measures, our study provides further evidence of strong age effects on cortical speech processing, which can be observed in both the NH listeners and the CI users. We conclude that elderly individuals require more effortful processing at sensory stages of speech processing, which however seems to be at the cost of the limited resources available for the later semantic integration processes.

Role of visual awareness on semantic integration of sequentially presented words: An fMRI study

Reading comprehension requires the semantic integration of words across space and time. However, it remains unclear whether comprehension requires visual awareness for such semantic integration. Compared to earlier studies that investigated semantic integration indirectly from its priming effect, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to directly examine the processes of semantic integration with or without visual awareness. Specifically, we manipulated participants’ visual awareness by continuous flash suppression (CFS) while they viewed a meaningful sequence of four Chinese words (i.e., an idiom) or its meaningless counterpart (i.e., a random sequence). Behaviorally, participants had better recognition memory for idioms than random sequences only when their visual awareness was interfered rather than blocked by CFS. Neurally, semantics-processing areas, such as the superior temporal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus, were significantly activated only when participants were aware of word sequences, be they meaningful or meaningless. By contrast, orthography-processing areas, such as the fusiform gyrus and inferior occipital gyrus, were significantly activated regardless of visual awareness or word sequence. Taken together, these results suggest that visual awareness modules the functioning of the semantic neural network in the brain and facilitates reading comprehension.

Semantic Integration of Raster Data for Earth Observation on Territorial Units

Semantic technologies have proven their relevance in facilitating the interpretation of Earth Observation (EO) data through formats such as RDF and reusable models, especially for the representation of space and time. While rasters are the usual data format for the results of image processing algorithms, a recurrent problem is transferring the pixel values of these rasters into features that make sense of the areas of interest on the Earth, thus facilitating the interpretation of their content. This paper addresses this issue through a semantic data integration process based on spatial and temporal properties. We propose (i) a modular and generic semantic model for the homogeneous representation of data qualifying a geographical area of interest thanks to territorial units (land parcels, administrative units, forest areas, etc.) that we define as divisions of a larger territory according to a criteria in relation with human activities; and (ii) a semantic extraction, transformation and load (ETL) process that builds on the model and the data extracted from rasters and that maps aggregated data to the corresponding unit areas. We evaluate our approach in terms of the (i) adaptability of the proposed model and pipeline to accommodate different use cases (vineyard and urban expansion monitoring), (ii) added value of the generated datasets to assist in decision making, and (iii) scalability of the approach.

Conceptual expansion via novel metaphor processing: An ERP replication and extension study examining individual differences in creativity

The aims of the present ERP study were twofold. First, to determine whether a previous study on creative cognition could be replicated, and second, to extend these findings by examining individual differences in creativity. Conceptual expansion, a capacity that is central to creativity, was induced via the processing of novel metaphors. Brain activity patterns in relation to these were compared to the processing of literal and nonsense phrases. The previous findings were replicated in that the N400, known for its sensitivity to semantic anomalies, indexed the originality of the phrases, while a post-N400 late component (LC), which is linked to semantic integration processes, indexed the appropriateness of the phrases. Moreover, only the LC was significantly sensitive to individual differences in creativity in the processing of these phrases. Differences at the level of semantic integration processes as well as the structure of knowledge organization are thereby implicated in individual differences in creativity.

Electrophysiological evidence for the coexistence of expectancy fulfillment and semantic integration during the processing of binding and compound nouns

This study employed electrophysiological measures to investigate the processes of expectancy fulfillment and semantic integration during the processing of binding and compound nouns in Chinese. Sequential expectancy and cloze probability between the two constituents of a two-character noun were manipulated in two experiments, resulting in four types of target characters (i.e., the final characters of two-character nouns): (i) high-cloze, binding character (HB); (ii) high-cloze, compound character (HC); (iii) low-cloze, binding character (LB); (iv) low-cloze, compound character (LC). Participants were asked to judge as quickly and accurately as possible whether the two characters, presented sequentially, formed a real word. The two experiments varied in stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the initial and the target characters: 1000 ms and 300 ms. ERPs acquired at the target characters revealed a significant semantic integration effect in both experiments whereby low-cloze target characters elicited more negative-going activities than high-cloze target characters (L > H) with both long and short SOAs. Importantly, there was a graded N400 effect (LC = LB > HC > HB) at the central region: a clearly visible positive deflection for HB relative to HC in synchrony with an equivalence in negativity for LB and LC. This graded pattern was observed with an SOA of 1000 ms but not 300 ms. These results are discussed in terms of the possible coexistence of an expectancy fulfillment mechanism indexed by the P300 that monitors incoming information for realization of expectancies based on stored mental representations and a semantic integration mechanism indexed by the N400 that incorporates incoming information into the preceding context based on semantic-pragmatic knowledge. Manifestation of this coexistence appears sensitive to SOA-modulated attention orientation.

Enhancement of semantic integration reasoning by tRNS.

The right hemisphere is involved with the integrative processes necessary to achieve global coherence during reasoning and discourse processing. Specifically, the right temporal lobe has been proven to facilitate the processing of distant associate relationships, such as generating novel ideas. Previous studies showed a specific swing of alpha and gamma oscillatory activity over the right parieto-occipital lobe and the right anterior temporal lobe respectively, when people solve semantic problems with a specific strategy, i.e., insight problem-solving. In this study, we investigated the specificity of the right parietal and temporal lobes for semantic integration using transcranial Random Noise Stimulation (tRNS). We administered a set of pure semantics (i.e., Compound Remote Associates [CRA]) and visuo-semantic problems (i.e., Rebus Puzzles) to a sample of 31 healthy volunteers. Behavioral results showed that tRNS stimulation over the right temporal lobe enhances CRA accuracy (+12%), while stimulation on the right parietal lobe causesa decrease of response time on the same task (-2,100 ms). No effects were detected for Rebus Puzzles. Our findings corroborate the involvement of the right temporal and parietal lobes when solving purely semantic problems but not when they involve visuo-semantic material, also providing causal evidence for their postulated different roles in the semantic integration process and promoting tRNS as a candidate tool to boost verbal reasoning in humans.

Co-stimulation-removed audiovisual semantic integration and modulation of attention: An event-related potential study

The integration of multisensory objects containing semantic information involves processing of both low-level co-stimulation and high-order semantic integration. To investigate audiovisual semantic integration, we utilized bimodal stimuli (AV, simultaneous presentation of an auditory sound and a visual picture; An, simultaneous presentation of an auditory sound and a visual noise; Vn, simultaneous presentation of a visual picture and an auditory noise; Fn, simultaneous presentation of an auditory noise and a visual noise) to remove the effect of co-stimulation integration and extract data regarding high-order semantic integration. Electroencephalography with a high temporal resolution was used to examine the neural mechanisms associated with co-stimulation-removed audiovisual semantic integration in attended and unattended conditions. By comparing the (AV + Fn) and (An+Vn), we identified three effects related to co-stimulation-removed audiovisual semantic integration. In the attended condition, two semantic integration effects over bilateral occipito-temporal regions at 220–240 ms and over frontal region at 560–600 ms were observed. In the unattended condition, only one semantic integration effect over centro-frontal region at 340–360 ms was observed. These effects reflected the semantic integration processes of pictures and sounds after removing the co-stimulation caused by spatiotemporal consistency. Moreover, the discrepancy in these effects in temporal and spatial distribution implied distinct neural mechanisms underlying attended and unattended semantic integration. In the attended condition, the audiovisual semantic information was initially integrated based on the semantic congruency (220–240 ms) and then reanalyzed according to the current task (560–600 ms), which was a goal-driven process and influenced by top-down attention. Contrastingly, in the unattended condition, no attention resources were allocated and the semantic integration (340–360 ms) was an unconscious automatic process.

Event-related brain potentials reveal how multiple aspects of semantic processing unfold across parafoveal and foveal vision during sentence reading.

Recent event-related brain potential (ERP) experiments have demonstrated parafoveal N400 expectancy and congruity effects, showing that semantic information can be accessed from words in parafoveal vision (a conclusion also supported by some eye-tracking work). At the same time, it is unclear how higher-order integrative aspects of language comprehension unfold across the visual field during reading. In the current study, we recorded ERPs in a parafoveal flanker paradigm, while readers were instructed to read passively for comprehension or to judge the plausibility of sentences in which target words varied in their semantic expectancy and congruity. We directly replicated prior work showing graded N400 effects for parafoveal viewing, which are then not duplicated when the target words are processed foveally. Critically, although N400 effects were not modulated by task goals, a posteriorly distributed late positive component thought to reflect semantic integration processes was observed to semantic incongruities only in the plausibility judgment task. However, this effect was observed at a considerable delay, appearing only after words had moved into foveal vision. Our findings thus suggest that semantic access can be initiated in parafoveal vision, whereas central foveal vision may be necessary to enact higher-order (and task-dependent) integrative processing.

Controlled semantic processes within and between the two cerebral hemispheres

ABSTRACTTo test the separate and combined abilities of the two cerebral hemispheres to perform controlled semantic selection and integration processes, Hebrew readers saw pairs of words and had to decide whether the two words were semantically related. The first word in each pair was presented centrally. The second word was presented in the left, right, or central visual field (LVF, RVF, and CVF). We compared response latencies for related pairs in two conditions: In the ambiguous condition, the first word was a homograph (either homophonic or heterophonic) and the second word was related to either its dominant or subordinate meaning. In the unambiguous condition, homographs were replaced with unambiguous control words. Irrespective of VF or homograph type, response times for ambiguous pairs were significantly longer than for unambiguous pairs only when targets were related to the subordinate meaning of the homograph. In the left hemisphere (RVF/LH), this ambiguity effect was larger for heterophones than for homophones, whereas in the right hemisphere (LVF/RH), similar patterns were observed for both types of homographs. Finally, performance patterns in the CVF revealed the same patterns as those in the RVF/LH, and were different from those in the LVF/RH. The implications of these results are discussed.

Processing changes when listening to foreign-accented speech.

This study investigates the mechanisms responsible for fast changes in processing foreign-accented speech. Event Related brain Potentials (ERPs) were obtained while native speakers of Spanish listened to native and foreign-accented speakers of Spanish. We observed a less positive P200 component for foreign-accented speech relative to native speech comprehension. This suggests that the extraction of spectral information and other important acoustic features was hampered during foreign-accented speech comprehension. However, the amplitude of the N400 component for foreign-accented speech comprehension decreased across the experiment, suggesting the use of a higher level, lexical mechanism. Furthermore, during native speech comprehension, semantic violations in the critical words elicited an N400 effect followed by a late positivity. During foreign-accented speech comprehension, semantic violations only elicited an N400 effect. Overall, our results suggest that, despite a lack of improvement in phonetic discrimination, native listeners experience changes at lexical-semantic levels of processing after brief exposure to foreign-accented speech. Moreover, these results suggest that lexical access, semantic integration and linguistic re-analysis processes are permeable to external factors, such as the accent of the speaker.

Risk for Mild Cognitive Impairment Is Associated With Semantic Integration Deficits in Sentence Processing and Memory.

We examined the degree to which online sentence processing and offline sentence memory differed among older adults who showed risk for amnestic and nonamnestic varieties of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), based on psychometric classification. Participants (N = 439) read a series of sentences in a self-paced word-by-word reading paradigm for subsequent recall and completed a standardized cognitive test battery. Participants were classified into 3 groups: unimpaired controls (N = 281), amnestic MCI (N = 94), or nonamnestic MCI (N = 64). Relative to controls, both MCI groups had poorer sentence memory and showed reduced sentence wrap-up effects, indicating reduced allocation to semantic integration processes. Wrap-up effects predicted subsequent recall in the control and nonamnestic groups. The amnestic MCI group showed poorer recall than the nonamnestic MCI group, and only the amnestic MCI group showed no relationship between sentence wrap-up and recall. Our findings suggest that psychometrically defined sub-types of MCI are associated with unique deficits in sentence processing and can differentiate between the engagement of attentional resources during reading and the effectiveness of engaging attentional resources in producing improved memory.

Electrophysiological correlates of cross-linguistic semantic integration in hearing signers: N400 and LPC

We explored semantic integration mechanisms in native and non-native hearing users of sign language and non-signing controls. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a semantic decision task for priming lexeme pairs. Pairs were presented either within speech or across speech and sign language. Target-related ERP responses were subjected to principal component analyses (PCA), and neurocognitive basis of semantic integration processes were assessed by analyzing the N400 and the late positive complex (LPC) components in response to spoken (auditory) and signed (visual) antonymic and unrelated targets. Semantically-related effects triggered across modalities would indicate a similar tight interconnection between the signers׳ two languages like that described for spoken language bilinguals. Remarkable structural similarity of the N400 and LPC components with varying group differences between the spoken and signed targets were found. The LPC was the dominant response. The controls׳ LPC differed from the LPC of the two signing groups. It was reduced to the auditory unrelated targets and was less frontal for all the visual targets. The visual LPC was more broadly distributed in native than non-native signers and was left-lateralized for the unrelated targets in the native hearing signers only. Semantic priming effects were found for the auditory N400 in all groups, but only native hearing signers revealed a clear N400 effect to the visual targets. Surprisingly, the non-native signers revealed no semantically-related processing effect to the visual targets reflected in the N400 or the LPC; instead they appeared to rely more on visual post-lexical analyzing stages than native signers. We conclude that native and non-native signers employed different processing strategies to integrate signed and spoken semantic content. It appeared that the signers׳ semantic processing system was affected by group-specific factors like language background and/or usage.

Attentional control and asymmetric associative priming.

Participants completed a battery of 3 attentional control (AC) tasks (OSPAN, antisaccade, and Stroop, as in Hutchison, 2007) and performed a lexical decision task with symmetrically associated (e.g., sister-brother) and asymmetrically related primes and targets presented in both the forward (e.g., atom-bomb) and backward (e.g., fire-blaze) directions at either a 250- or 1,250-ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). As predicted, high-AC individuals showed greater forward priming than low-AC individuals. There was also some evidence that low-AC individuals exhibited greater backward priming than high-AC individuals, and this difference was most pronounced in the later portions of the reaction time distribution. These results suggest that high-AC individuals are more likely to prospectively generate and maintain expected targets in working memory, whereas low-AC individuals are more likely to rely on a retrospective semantic matching or integration processes. These findings support the distinction between proactive and reactive forms of cognitive control embodied in Braver, Gray, and Burgess's (2007) dual-mechanism model of cognitive control.

Semantic Integration Process of Business Components to Support Information System Designers

The present work is inscribed within the intersection of two scientific thematic: the engineering by reuse of components and ontologies alignment. The integration of Business Components (BC) is a research problem that has been identified in the field of engineering by reuse. Our proposal aims to provide assistance to designers of information systems in the integration phase. It is a process guided by domain ontology to provide semantic integration of BC. This process allows the detection and resolution of semantic conflicts naming type encountered in the process of integration of BC.

Semantic Integration Process of Business Components through Ontology Alignment

Ontology Alignment (OA) identifies semantically matching of different entities, OA continues to attract great attention within the database, information system and artificial intelligence communities. OA used to solve the semantic heterogeneity and hide the complexity of retrieving entities of heterogeneous source. That’s why we rely on the OA for resolving semantic conflict during design phase of information system, particularly in semantic integration of Business Components (BC). Our contribution concerns a solution for the integration of BC based on the ontologies alignment in order to support information system designers.

Aging, parafoveal preview, and semantic integration in sentence processing: Testing the cognitive workload of wrap-up.

The current study investigated the degree to which semantic-integration processes ("wrap-up") during sentence understanding demand attentional resources by examining the effects of clause and sentence wrap-up on the parafoveal preview benefit (PPB) in younger and older adults. The PPB is defined as facilitation in processing word N + 1, based on information extracted while the eyes are fixated on word N, and is known to be reduced by processing difficulty at word N. Participants read passages in which word N occurred in a sentence-internal, clause-final, or sentence-final position, and a gaze-contingent boundary-change paradigm was used to manipulate the information available in parafoveal vision for word N + 1. Wrap-up effects were found on word N for both younger and older adults. Early-pass measures (first-fixation duration and single-fixation duration) of the PPB on word N + 1 were reduced by clause wrap-up and sentence wrap-up on word N, with similar effects for younger and older adults. However, for intermediate (gaze duration) and later-pass measures (regression-path duration, and selective regression-path duration), sentence wrap-up (but not clause wrap-up) on word N differentially reduced the PPB of word N + 1 for older adults. These findings suggest that wrap-up is demanding and may be less efficient with advancing age, resulting in a greater cognitive processing load for older readers.

Sentence comprehension in proficient adult cochlear implant users: On the vulnerability of syntax

Comprehending language via a cochlear implant, a neural prosthesis which stimulates the acoustic nerve electrically, poses a remarkable challenge to the brain. We investigated auditory sentence comprehension in a group of thirteen high proficient adult cochlear implant patients using event-related brain potentials. Four types of sentences were examined: correct sentences with either high (1) or low (2) expectancy of the sentence final word (cloze probability), semantically incorrect sentences (3), and sentences violating the argument structure of the verb (4). Participants judged the acceptability of the sentences. Relative to correct sentences with a high cloze probability all other conditions elicited a N400 effect in both the patient group and a matched control group, although the timing of the effect differed between the two groups. Moreover, whereas the argument structure violation elicited a late positivity in addition to the N400 effect in the control group, no such effect was observable in the cochlear implant group. We take these data to indicate that under adverse input conditions, processes of syntactic repair reflected in the P600 effect, are much more vulnerable than processes of semantic integration reflected in N400 effects.