Processing Of Phonological Information Research Articles

The effects of phonological similarity on the semantic categorisation of pictorial and lexical stimuli: evidence from continuous behavioural measures

ABSTRACTBehavioural and neuroimaging studies provide evidence of automatic activation of phonology (e.g., covert speech) during the recognition of lexical stimuli. Implicit processing of phonological information was investigated in a kinematic study of semantic categorisation of pictures (session A) or words (session B). Participants clicked one of two items (target and distractor) based on their semantic congruency (artefact or natural) with a cued-word. Phonological similarity between cued-word and distractor was varied. The presence of the phonological distractor produced trajectories with greater curvature towards the competing semantic category than did the presence of a distractor not phonologically related. This suggests that the semantic categorisation of pictorial and lexical stimuli is influenced by the automatic activation of phonological information. Trajectories’ curvature reveals competition between partially activated phonological and semantic representations suggesting that phonological codes involved in linguistic processing influence the dynamic competition underlying the semantic categorisation of lexical and pictorial.

Lateralized frontal activity for Japanese phonological processing during child development.

Phonological awareness is essential for reading, and is common to all language systems, including alphabetic languages and Japanese. This cognitive factor develops during childhood, and is thought to be associated with shifts in brain activity. However, the nature of this neurobiological developmental shift is unclear for speakers of Japanese, which is not an alphabetical language. The present study aimed to reveal a shift in brain functions for processing phonological information in native-born Japanese children. We conducted a phonological awareness task and examined hemodynamic activity in 103 children aged 7–12 years. While younger children made mistakes and needed more time to sort phonological information in reverse order, older children completed the task quickly and accurately. Additionally, younger children exhibited increased activity in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which may be evidence of immature phonological processing skills. Older children exhibited dominant activity in the left compared with the right DLPFC, suggesting that they had already acquired phonological processing skills. We also found significant effects of age and lateralized activity on behavioral performance. During earlier stages of development, the degree of left lateralization appears to have a smaller effect on behavioral performance. Conversely, in later stages of development, the degree of left lateralization appears to have a stronger influence on behavioral performance. These initial findings regarding a neurobiological developmental shift in Japanese speakers suggest that common brain regions play a critical role in the development of phonological processing skills among different languages systems, such as Japanese and alphabetical languages.

Erros de base fonológica na escrita: codificação de surdas e sonoras, segmentação e juntura vocabular

Objetivo O estudo investigou características do processamento da informação fonológica, manifestadas na escrita sob ditado de sintagmas, capazes de indicar possíveis correlações e algum impacto preditor entre os erros ortográficos analisados (codificação de fonemas surdos e sonoros, segmentação indevida, juntura vocabular), segundo a rede de ensino. Métodos Foram selecionados 80 escolares, meninos e meninas, na faixa etária entre 6 e 11 anos, regularmente matriculados do 2º ao 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental, em escolas da rede pública estadual e particular, do município de São Paulo. Os participantes escreveram, sob ditado, 34 sintagmas nominais, formados por palavras de alta frequência. Resultados Os três tipos de erros correlacionaram-se segundo padrões diferentes, em cada rede de ensino. Na rede pública, os erros de codificação surda sonora e segmentações indevidas correlacionaram-se positivamente. Características de percepção direcionada ao pé métrico e à sílaba, podem ter influenciado o desempenho dos escolares. Na rede particular, a percepção da palavra fonológica, da frase fonológica e da frase entonacional pode ter influenciado as correlações entre os erros do tipo surdo sonoro e as junturas. Conclusão Os erros de codificação surdos sonoros, juntura vocabular e separação indevida diferenciaram-se nas redes de ensino, quanto ao desempenho em escrita. Apenas na rede particular os erros de codificação surdos sonoros puderam predizer os de juntura vocabular e segmentação indevida.

Uniformity and nonuniformity of neural activities correlated to different insight problem solving

Previous studies on the neural basis of insight reflected weak consistency except for the anterior cingulate cortex. The present work adopted the semantic and homophonic punny riddle to explore the uniformity and nonuniformity of neural activities correlated to different insight problem solving. Results showed that in the early period of insight solving, the semantic and homophonic punny riddles induced a common N350-500 over the central scalp. However, during −400 to 0ms before the riddles were solved, the semantic punny riddles induced a positive event-related potential (ERP) deflection over the temporal cortex for retrieving the extensive semantic information, while the homophonic punny riddles induced a positive ERP deflection over the temporal cortex and a negative one in the left frontal cortex which might reflect the semantic and phonological information processing respectively. Our study indicated that different insight problem solving should have the same cognitive process of detecting cognitive conflicts, but have different ways to solve the conflicts.

Spatio-temporal dynamics of automatic processing of phonological information in visual words

Sensory-specific cortices appear to be sensitive to information from another modality. Here we investigate whether the human brain automatically extracts the phonological information in visual words in early visual processing. We continuously presented native Chinese speakers peripherally with Chinese homophone characters in an oddball paradigm, while they performed a visual detection task presented in the centre of the visual field. We found the lexical tone phonology embedded in the characters is processed automatically by the brain of native speakers, as revealed by whole-head electrical recordings of the mismatch negativity (MMN). Source solution further revealed the MMN involved the neural activations from the visual cortex to the auditory cortex (130–460 ms). The spatial-temporal dynamics indicate a visual-auditory interaction in the early, automatic processing of phonological information in visual words.

Altered brain activity for phonological manipulation in dyslexic Japanese children.

Because of unique linguistic characteristics, the prevalence rate of developmental dyslexia is relatively low in the Japanese language. Paradoxically, Japanese children have serious difficulty analysing phonological processes when they have dyslexia. Neurobiological deficits in Japanese dyslexia remain unclear and need to be identified, and may lead to better understanding of the commonality and diversity in the disorder among different linguistic systems. The present study investigated brain activity that underlies deficits in phonological awareness in Japanese dyslexic children using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We developed and conducted a phonological manipulation task to extract phonological processing skills and to minimize the influence of auditory working memory on healthy adults, typically developing children, and dyslexic children. Current experiments revealed that several brain regions participated in manipulating the phonological information including left inferior and middle frontal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, and bilateral basal ganglia. Moreover, dyslexic children showed altered activity in two brain regions. They showed hyperactivity in the basal ganglia compared with the two other groups, which reflects inefficient phonological processing. Hypoactivity in the left superior temporal gyrus was also found, suggesting difficulty in composing and processing phonological information. The altered brain activity shares similarity with those of dyslexic children in countries speaking alphabetical languages, but disparity also occurs between these two populations. These are initial findings concerning the neurobiological impairments in dyslexic Japanese children.

Ventral and dorsal pathways of speech perception: An intracerebral ERP study

Recent theory of physiology of language suggests a dual stream dorsal/ventral organization of speech perception. Using intra-cerebral Event-related potentials (ERPs) during pre-surgical assessment of twelve drug-resistant epileptic patients, we aimed to single out electrophysiological patterns during both lexical–semantic and phonological monitoring tasks involving ventral and dorsal regions respectively. Phonological information processing predominantly occurred in the left supra-marginal gyrus (dorsal stream) and lexico-semantic information occurred in anterior/middle temporal and fusiform gyri (ventral stream). Similar latencies were identified in response to phonological and lexico-semantic tasks, suggesting parallel processing. Typical ERP components were strongly left lateralized since no evoked responses were recorded in homologous right structures. Finally, ERP patterns suggested the inferior frontal gyrus as the likely final common pathway of both dorsal and ventral streams. These results brought out detailed evidence of the spatial–temporal information processing in the dual pathways involved in speech perception.

The Spelling Skills of French‐Speaking Dyslexic Children

Learning to spell is very difficult for dyslexic children, a phenomenon explained by a deficit in processing phonological information. However, to spell correctly in an alphabetic language such as French, phonological knowledge is not enough. Indeed, the French written system requires the speller to acquire visuo-orthographical and morphological knowledge as well. To date, the majority of studies aimed at describing dyslexic children's spelling abilities related to English and reading. The general goal of this study is to describe the spelling performance, from an explanatory perspective, of 26 French-Canadian dyslexic children, aged 9 to 12 years. The specific goals are to describe the spelling performances of these pupils in the context of free production and to compare them with the performances of 26 normally achieving children matched on age (CA) and with those of 29 younger normally achieving children matched on reading age (RA). To do so, errors were classified according to phonological, visuo-orthographical and morphological properties of French written words. The results indicate that the dyslexic group scored lower than the CA group but sometimes also lower than the RA group. The results are discussed according to the types of knowledge required to spell correctly in French.

Ageing makes us dyslexic

Background: The effects of typical ageing on spoken language are well known: word production is disproportionately affected while syntactic processing is relatively well preserved. Little is known, however, about how ageing affects reading. Aims: What effect does ageing have on written language processing? In particular, how does it affect our ability to read words? How does it affect phonological awareness (our ability to manipulate the sounds of our language)? Methods & Procedures: We tested 14 people with Parkinson's disease (PD), 14 typically ageing adults (TAA), and 14 healthy younger adults on a range of background neuropsychological tests and tests of phonological awareness. We then carried out an oral naming experiment where we manipulated consistency, and a nonword repetition task where we manipulated the word-likeness of the nonwords. Outcomes & Results: We find that normal ageing causes individuals to become mildly phonologically dyslexic in that people have difficulty pronouncing nonwords. People with Parkinson's disease perform particularly poorly on language tasks involving oral naming and metalinguistic processing. We also find that ageing causes difficulty in repeating nonwords. We show that these problems are associated with a more general difficulty in processing phonological information, supporting the idea that language difficulties, including poorer reading in older age, can result from a general phonological deficit. Conclusions: We suggest that neurally this age-induced dyslexia is associated with frontal deterioration (and perhaps deterioration in other regions) and cognitively to the loss of executive processes that enable us to manipulate spoken and written language. We discuss implications for therapy and treatment.

Reading for sound with dyslexia: Evidence for early orthographic and late phonological integration deficits

Deteriorated phonological representations are widely assumed to be the underlying cause of reading difficulties in developmental dyslexia; however, existing evidence also implicates degraded orthographic processing. Here, we used event-related potentials whilst dyslexic and control adults performed a pseudoword-word priming task requiring deep phonological analysis to examine phonological and orthographic priming, respectively. Pseudowords were manipulated to be homophonic or non-homophonic to a target word and more or less orthographically similar. Since previous ERP research with normal readers has established phonologically driven differences as early as 250ms from word presentation, degraded phonological representations were expected to reveal reduced phonological priming in dyslexic readers from 250ms after target word onset. However, phonological priming main effects in both the N2 and P3 ranges were indistinguishable in amplitude between groups. Critically, we found group differences in the N1 range, such that orthographic modulations observed in controls were absent in the dyslexic group. Furthermore, early group differences in phonological priming transpired as interactions with orthographic priming (in P2, N2 and P3 ranges). A group difference in phonological priming did not emerge until the P600 range, in which the dyslexic group showed significantly attenuated priming. As the P600 is classically associated with online monitoring and reanalysis, this pattern of results suggest that during deliberate phonological processing, the phonological deficit in reading may relate more to inefficient monitoring rather than deficient detection. Meanwhile, early differences in perceptual processing of phonological information may be driven by the strength of engagement with orthographic information.

Working memory functions in children with different degrees of intellectual disability

In recent years, there has been increased research interest in the functioning of working memory in people with intellectual disabilities. Although studies have repeatedly found these individuals to have weak working memory skills, few investigations have distinguished between different degrees of intellectual disability. This study aims to help close this research gap and, in so doing, to examine whether the deficits observed reflect a developmental lag or a qualitative deviation from normal development. In a 5-group design, the working memory performance of a group of 15-year-olds with mild intellectual disability (IQ 50-69) was compared with that of two groups of children (aged 10 and 15 years) with borderline intellectual disability (IQ 70-84) and with that of two groups of children with average intellectual abilities (IQ 90-115) matched for mental and chronological age (aged 7 and 15 years). All children were administered a comprehensive battery of tests assessing the central executive, the visual-spatial sketchpad, and the phonological loop. The results showed deficits in all three components of working memory, and revealed that these deficits increased with the degree of intellectual disability. The findings indicate that, relative to their mental age peers, children with learning difficulties show structural abnormalities in the phonological store of the phonological loop, but developmental lags in the other two subsystems. Similar patterns of results emerged for both subgroups of children with intellectual disability, indicating that problems with phonological information processing seem to be one of the causes of cognitive impairment in individuals with intellectual disability.

Different roles of cytoarchitectonic BA 44 and BA 45 in phonological and semantic verbal fluency as revealed by dynamic causal modelling

The interactions of left cytoarchitectonic BA 44 and BA 45 during semantic and phonological verbal fluency tasks were investigated using dynamic causal modelling (DCM). Three different models were tested, all of which featured BA 44 and BA 45 as top-down driven interconnected nodes projecting to the motor cortex as the final output region. Model #1 represents the hypothesis that BA 45 is involved in lexical retrieval including both semantic and phonological processes, while BA 44 supports other phonological processes. Model #2 reflects the notion of a clear-cut segregation of computational processes sustained by BA 44 (phonological processing) and BA 45 (semantic processing). Model #3 was based on the hypothesis that both BA 44 and BA 45 support semantic and phonological processing. When these models were compared against each other by Bayesian model selection, evidence emerged in favour of the first model, implying that BA 45 supports word retrieval processes whereas BA 44 is involved in processing phonological information during word generation. In a subsequent analysis of the derived model parameters for model #1, all connection strengths were significantly positive except for the inhibitory coupling between BA 44 and BA 45. This inhibition may reflect how the phonological analysis in BA 44 during word generation constrains lexical word retrieval in BA 45. To conclude, DCM provided additional insights into the roles of BA 44 and BA 45 during verbal fluency revealing the involvement of BA 45 in lexical retrieval and the relevance of BA 44 for phonological processing during word generation.

An fMRI study of phonological and spatial working memory using identical stimuli

The aim of the present fMRI study was to localize brain areas that were uniquely activated for phonological versus spatial working memory. Previous studies have reported inconsistent results, most likely because of methodological heterogeneity varying both stimuli and instructions in the same study. Here, identical consonant-vowel-consonant non-words were visually presented to the subjects in a 2-back paradigm under two different instructions; the subjects either had to memorize the non-words per se or their location. The results give evidence for a hemispheric organization of working memory, with dominance for processing of phonological information in the left hemisphere and frontal cortex, and spatial information in the right hemisphere and parietal cortex. The results also reflect a certain overlap between the neuronal network for working memory and processing of verbal and spatial material. These findings are discussed with regard to processing specificity and the extent that activated areas also may reflect perceptual processes.

Pseudohomophone effects provide evidence of early lexico‐phonological processing in visual word recognition

Previous research using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) suggested that phonological processing in visual word recognition occurs rather late, typically after semantic or syntactic processing. Here, we show that phonological activation in visual word recognition can be observed much earlier. Using a lexical decision task, we show that ERPs to pseudohomophones (PsHs) (e.g., ROZE) differed from well-matched spelling controls (e.g., ROFE) as early as 150 ms (P150) after stimulus onset. The PsH effect occurred as early as the word frequency effect suggesting that phonological activation occurs early enough to influence lexical access. Low-resolution electromagnetic tomography analysis (LORETA) revealed that left temporoparietal and right frontotemporal areas are the likely brain regions associated with the processing of phonological information at the lexical level. Altogether, the results show that phonological processes are activated early in visual word recognition and play an important role in lexical access.

Specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia: The same or different?

Specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia: The same or different?

Visuospatial Immediate Memory in Specific Language Impairment

Investigations of the cognitive processes underlying specific language impairment (SLI) have implicated deficits in verbal short-term and working memory and in particular the storage and processing of phonological information. This study investigated short-term and working memory for visuospatial material for a group of children with SLI, to test whether the verbal memory impairments already established extend to the visuospatial domain. Fifteen children with SLI and control groups of children matched on chronological age and language age completed tests of visuospatial short-term and working memory. The SLI group performed comparably with age-matched control children on all measures and at a higher level than the language-age control group on several measures. The visuospatial short-term and working memory abilities were at age-appropriate levels in this SLI group. This contrasts markedly with their impairments on tests of verbal short-term and working memory.

Short‐term and working memory in specific language impairment

Investigations of the cognitive processes underlying specific language impairment (SLI) have implicated deficits in the storage and processing of phonological information, but to date these abilities have not been studied in the same group of children with SLI. To examine the extent to which deficits in immediate verbal short-term and working memory may co-occur in a group of children with SLI. Twenty children aged 7-11 years with SLI completed a comprehensive battery of short-term and working memory, as well as two phonological awareness tasks. The majority of the group had deficits in both verbal short-term and working memory, which persisted after the general language abilities of the children were taken into account. A substantial minority showed deficits on visuospatial short-term memory, while impairments of phonological awareness were less marked. The data indicate dual deficits in verbal short-term and working memory that exceed criterial language abilities characteristic of SLI and may plausibly underpin some of the language learning difficulties experienced by these children.

An fMRI investigation of strategies for word recognition

A common procedure used to study visual word recognition is the lexical decision task (LDT). Behavioral studies have demonstrated that overall performance in this task is modulated by the type of foils presented. There are divergent claims about the impact of different types of foils on overall processing strategies in the LDT: some researchers claim that pseudohomophone foils (e.g., BRANE) encourage participants to selectively de-emphasize phonological processing, while other researchers claim that pseudohomophone foils encourage participants to engage in more extensive processing of all types (orthographic, phonological, and semantic). To evaluate these claims, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Participants ( N = 18) completed three lexical decision tasks, each with a different foil type: consonant strings (e.g., BVRNT), pseudowords (e.g., BLINT), and pseudohomophones (e.g., BRANE). We presented homophones (e.g., MAID) and nonhomophones (e.g., MESS) on word trials in order to be able to calculate the homophone effect as a marker of phonological processing for word stimuli in each foil condition. Comparison of behavioral results in the different foil conditions showed that reaction times were longest, error rates were highest, and homophone effects were largest in the LDT with pseudohomophones. Imaging results showed the greatest magnitude of activity in several regions, including the inferior frontal cortex, during the LDT with pseudohomophone foils. A comparison to inferior frontal activity produced during an additional task (rhyme judgment) supported the conclusion that LDT with pseudohomophone foils is a difficult task in which readers engage in an overall response strategy involving extensive processing of phonological information.

Semantic and phonological processing in illiteracy

Researchers of cognitive processing in illiteracy have proposed that the acquisition of literacy modifies the functional organization of the brain. They have suggested that, while illiterate individuals have access only to innate semantic processing skills, those who have learned the correspondence between graphemes and phonemes have several mechanisms available to them through which to process oral language. We conducted 2 experiments to verify that suggestion with respect to language processing, and to elucidate further the differences between literate and illiterate individuals in the cognitive strategies used to process oral language, as well as hemispheric specialization for these processes. Our findings suggest that semantic processing strategies are qualitatively the same in literates and illiterates, despite the fact that overall performance is augmented by increased education. In contrast, explicit processing of oral information based on phonological characteristics appears to be qualitatively different between literates and illiterates: effective strategies in the processing of phonological information depend upon having had a formal education, regardless of the level of education. We also confirmed the differential abilities needed for the processing of semantic and phonological information and related them to hemisphere-specific processing.

Processing phonological information in a semi-syllabic script: Developmental data from Telugu

Three experiments were undertaken to examinesecond and fifth grade Telugu-speaking children's awareness of phonological andorthographic properties of familiar Teluguwords. Experiment 1 focused on the strategies thechildren used in completing word fragments.Experiment 2 examined the children's ability tojudge and generate rhyming words, and Experiment 3examined the children's strategies incomprehending meanings of orthographicallysimilar rhyming vs. non-rhyming word pairs in asentence completion task. The results demonstrated that specific features ofsemi-syllabic alphabets such as Telugu interactwith phonological knowledge during theprocessing of meaningful words such thatchildren with more formal instruction inreading are able to access phonologicalinformation better than younger children withless well developed orthographic knowledge.Some pedagogic implications of the results arediscussed.