Semantic Information Processing Research Articles

Increased Functional Connectivity of the Angular Gyrus During Imagined Music Performance.

The angular gyrus (AG) is a hub of several networks that are involved in various functions, including attention, self-processing, semantic information processing, emotion regulation, and mentalizing. Since these functions are required in music performance, it is likely that the AG plays a role in music performance. Considering that these functions emerge as network properties, this study analyzed the functional connectivity of the AG during the imagined music performance task and the resting condition. Our hypothesis was that the functional connectivity of the AG is modulated by imagined music performance. In the resting condition, the AG had connections with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and precuneus as well as the superior and inferior frontal gyri and with the temporal cortex. Compared with the resting condition, imagined music performance increased the functional connectivity of the AG with the superior frontal gyrus (SFG), mPFC, precuneus, PCC, hippocampal/parahippocampal gyrus (H/PHG), and amygdala. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) were newly engaged or added to the AG network during the task. In contrast, the supplementary motor area (SMA), sensorimotor areas, and occipital regions, which were anti-correlated with the AG in the resting condition, were disengaged during the task. These results lead to the conclusion that the functional connectivity of the AG is modulated by imagined music performance, which suggests that the AG plays a role in imagined music performance.

Adult age differences in the benefit of syntactic and semantic constraints for sentence processing.

Verbal working memory-intensive sentence processing declines with age. This might reflect older adults' difficulties with reducing the memory load by grouping single words into multiword chunks. Here we used a serial order task emphasizing syntactic and semantic relations. We evaluated the extent to which older compared with younger adults may differentially use linguistic constraints during sentence processing to cope with verbal working memory limitations. Probing syntactic-semantic interactions, age differences were hypothesized to be confined to the use of syntactic constraints and to be accompanied by an increased reliance on semantic information. Two experiments varying in verbal working memory demands were conducted: the sequence length was increased from eight items in Experiment 1 to 11 items in Experiment 2. We found the use of syntactic constraints to be compromised with aging, while the benefit of semantic information for sentence processing was comparable across age groups. Hence, we suggest that semantic information processing may become relatively more important for successful sentence processing with advancing adult age, possibly inducing a syntactic-to-semantic-processing strategy shift. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Fascynacja jako kategoria komunikacji w internecie (na przykładzie rosyjskiego portalu rambler.ru)

The subject of this article is fascination as a type of communicative influence on the addressees, the purpose of which is to attract or retain the attention to the message and/or its source. In public communication, fascination serves to activate the processing of semantic information, to create a positive image of the source of information and its preferences in the face of increasing market competition, the prolongation of communicative contact as an opportunity to distribute the advertising copies. Fascination is one of the definite characteristics of modern media culture. Fascination as a stylistic phenomenon is based on different means, which fall into four categories: the language code, the cognitive system (mental thesaurus, worldview), the system of social relations, and the physical environment. Semantic information is subordinated on the Internet to the principle of attractiveness. This concerns such its characteristics of it as the preference for events in the sphere of politics, occasionality, sensationalism, dangerous trains, intracultural attitude.

Brain and soccer: Functional patterns of brain activity during the generation of creative moves in real soccer decision-making situations.

This fMRI study investigated brain activity while soccer players were imagining creative moves in real soccer decision‐making situations. After presenting brief video clips of a soccer scene, participants had to imagine themselves as the acting player and think either of a creative or obvious move that might lead to a goal. Findings revealed stronger activation during trials in which the generation of obvious moves was required, relative to trials requiring creative moves. The reversed contrast (creative > obvious) showed no significant effects. Activations were mainly left‐lateralized, primarily involving the cuneus, middle temporal gyrus, and the rolandic operculum, which are known to support the processing of multimodal input from different sensory, motor and perceptual sources. Interestingly, more creative solutions in the soccer task were associated with smaller contrast values for the activation difference between obvious and creative trials, or even with more activation in the latter. Furthermore, higher trait creative potential (as assessed by a figural creativity test) was associated with stronger activation differences between both conditions. These findings suggest that with increasing soccer‐specific creative task performance, the processing of the manifold information provided by the soccer scenario becomes increasingly important, while in individuals with higher trait creative potential these processes were recruited to a minor degree. This study showed that soccer‐specific creativity tasks modulate activation levels in a network of regions supporting various cognitive functions such as semantic information processing, visual and motor imagery, and the processing and integration of sensorimotor and somatosensory information.

Shannon versus semantic information processing in the brain

Claude Shannon insisted that attributing an interpretation or meaning to information will destroy its generality and limit its scope. According to him it is only the statistical nature of information that matters. Semantic information is on the other hand, meaning of the information. Pattern recognition plays a big role in neural signal processing. Patterns can be thought of encoded semantic information in neural signals. In neuroscience both types of information have been studied extensively, without ever mentioning the term “semantic information,” whereas “Shannon information” has become a household name among the neuroscientists, often even without the term “Shannon.” In fact, neural information in general is a combination of both. In this review we highlight Shannon information theoretical aspects and semantic information theoretical aspects in neural information processing. In fact, neural information in general, is a combination of both. It has been elaborated how an organized study of semantic processing of neural information, particularly from a time series data mining point of view, can aid our understanding of information processing in the brain.This article is categorized under: Fundamental Concepts of Data and Knowledge > Knowledge Representation Algorithmic Development > Biological Data Mining Algorithmic Development > Structure Discovery

The relationship between the processing of semantic relation information and morphological awareness among Hong Kong Chinese children

In the present study, 151 third-grade Hong Kong children participated in two expression-picture matching experiments (a relation priming paradigm). In this paradigm, an unambiguous prime was first presented, followed by an ambiguous target that could be interpreted with either of two relations (i.e., Descriptor and Possessor). Children were asked to judge which picture matched with the compounds in both the prime and target sessions. The linear mixed model analysis was applied to investigate the semantic relation processing in novel ambiguous combination and its relationship with children’s performances on morphological awareness tasks. In Experiment 1, the relation priming effect (i.e., children preferred to select the target pictures involving the same relation with the primes) was observed. At the same time, children’s morphological awareness showed a positive moderation effect on relation priming. Experiment 2 investigated whether visual features, rather than semantic relations, produced priming effect. The interaction between semantic relation processing and morphological awareness was observed as well in the situation that the hints of visual features were removed. The results indicated that children with skilled morphological awareness, but not the children with less skilled morphological awareness, showed significant relation priming effect, even without the visual cues. Compared to children with less skilled morphological awareness, children with skilled morphological awareness were better in activating semantic relation information when reading compounds. These findings may help us understand the mechanism of the association between MA and Chinese literacy acquisition.

T63. TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE SEMANTIC MEMORY NETWORK IN SCHIZOPHRENIA: PRELIMINARY RESULTS USING MAGNETOENCEPHALOGRAPHY (MEG) IN SCHIZOTYPY

BackgroundSemantic memory (memory for facts, concepts, and knowledge of the external world) abnormalities are predicted to underlie disturbances in thought and language, deficits in cognitive domains, and the development and maintenance of delusions in patients with schizophrenia. Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings have successfully identified the neural time course for the processing of semantic information as an electrophysiological response between 300 and 500ms post stimulus (i.e., the N400). The N400 is a remarkably consistent and highly sensitive neural response to semantic relationships, and is thought to index the binding of current stimuli into context by detecting whether meaning is shared with recently processed stimuli or items in memory. To date, the N400 appears to be amodal: an index of semantic processing irrespective of stimulus type (e.g., word/picture stimuli alike), and has shown mixed findings in schizophrenia. However, existing literature has largely relied on EEG or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques, and these are constrained in spatial and temporal resolution, respectively. Comparatively, MEG provides excellent spatio-temporal resolution, not possible from other stand-alone neuroimaging techniques. We aimed to determine the neuromagnetic correlates of novel semantic triads in both lexical and picture form, and to determine N400m differences in high/low schizotypal samples.MethodsMEG was recorded (whole-head 306 channel Elekta Neuromag® TRIUX magnetometer system) in 35 nonclinical controls (18 male) while completing a novel explicit semantic association task. MEG data were continuously sampled at 1KHz (0.1Hz high pass filter). Following MaxFiltering, data was processed using MNE for Python. Data were filtered offline (40Hz lowpass) and epoched at -300ms to 800ms post- target stimulus onset. The largest peak was measured at sensor triplets at temporo-parietal sites in both hemispheres. High/low schizotypal samples were determined by a median split of the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (cognitive disorganisation scale; high=17, low=18).ResultsPreliminary sensor level analyses demonstrated an N400m at temporo-parietal sites in response to both word and picture stimulus sets (with an earlier peak to pictures). Neither amplitude nor latency was significantly different between schizotypal samples, however a significant task x hemisphere x group interaction was found for N400m latency, F(1.00,33.00) = 6.18, p<.02.DiscussionAn N400m was confirmed in response to the novel lexical task. The earlier peak (~200ms) to picture stimuli suggests that pictorial semantic information may be processed more rapidly than lexical information. The significant schizotypal group latency interaction demonstrated that while individuals low in schizotypal traits process lexical stimuli first in the right hemisphere (followed by the left) and picture stimuli first in the left hemisphere (followed by the right), individuals high in schizotypal traits do not demonstrate hemispheric specificity/laterality according to stimulus type. The data is currently being analysed for (i) source localisation, (ii) deep source contributions (e.g., hippocampus), and (iii) de/synchronisation of neural oscillations (across six frequency bands; 1-8Hz, 8-30Hz, 30-50Hz, 70-120Hz, 120-200Hz, and 200-300Hz).

Spatial metaphors in thinking about other people

ABSTRACTSpatial metaphors contribute to our capacity for abstract thought. Consistent with this idea, it has been shown that processing semantic information (related to valence, power, etc.) can bias performance in a spatial task. Advancing this line of work, the present study examined whether spatial metaphors have a role in thinking about other people. Participants read short vignettes about academic performance, health or social life, which described students in superior and inferior states. In Experiment 1, after reading each vignette, participants were explicitly asked to assign a location to each protagonist using a pen-and-paper task. Findings from this experiment provided initial indication that thinking about the protagonists could recruit spatial metaphors. In Experiments 2 and 3, each vignette was immediately followed by an implicit test of spatial association. In Experiment 2, participants performed a name-recognition task in response to the protagonists’ names presented above or below the central fixation. In this experiment, metaphorical congruency facilitated performance. In Experiment 3, participants were presented with names at central fixation, followed by a visual discrimination target (“X”/”O”) above or below fixation. In this experiment, metaphorical congruency interfered with performance. The diverging patterns of results are explained in terms of the conjunction and separation of the conceptual and perceptual components of the recognition task, respectively, in Experiments 2 and 3. Overall, the findings support the role of spatial metaphors in thinking about other people and, more generally, for the spontaneous use of space in conceptual processes.

Semantic invariant cross-domain image generation with generative adversarial networks

Abstract Recently, thanks to the state-of-the-art techniques in Generative Adversarial Networks, a lot of work achieves remarkable performance on learning the mapping between an input image and an output image without any paired relation. However, traditional methods on image-to-image translation merely consider the visual appearance properties, they fail to maintain the true semantics of an image during the transfer learning procedure from source to target domain. We propose a new approach that utilizes GAN to translate unpaired images between domains and remain high level semantic abstraction aligned. Our model controls the hierarchical semantics of images by processing semantic information on label level and spatial level respectively by constructing label and attention consistent losses. The experimental results on several benchmark datasets show that generated samples are both visually similar with target images and semantically consistent with their source counterparts. Furthermore, the experiment also suggests that our method can effectively improve the classification performance in unsupervised domain adaptation problem.

Healthy full-term infants’ brain responses to emotionally and linguistically relevant sounds using a multi-feature mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm

We evaluated the feasibility of a multi-feature mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm in studying auditory processing of healthy newborns. The aim was to examine the automatic change-detection and processing of semantic and emotional information in speech in newborns. Brain responses of 202 healthy newborns were recorded with a multi-feature paradigm including a Finnish bi-syllabic pseudo-word/ta-ta/as a standard stimulus, six linguistically relevant deviant stimuli and three emotionally relevant stimuli (happy, sad, angry). Clear responses to emotional sounds were found already at the early latency window 100–200 ms, whereas responses to linguistically relevant minor changes and emotional stimuli at the later latency window 300–500 ms did not reach significance. Moreover, significant interaction between gender and emotional stimuli was found in the early latency window. Further studies on using multi-feature paradigms with linguistic and emotional stimuli in newborns are needed, especially those containing of follow-ups, enabling the assessment of the predictive value of early variations between subjects.

The effect of verbal working memory load in speech/gesture integration processing

The effect of verbal working memory load in speech/gesture integration processing

Beyond cloze probability: Parafoveal processing of semantic and syntactic information during reading

Abstract Theories of eye movement control in reading assume that early oculomotor decisions are determined by a word’s frequency and cloze probability. This assumption is challenged by evidence that readers are sensitive to the contextual plausibility of an upcoming word: First-pass fixation probability and duration are reduced when the parafoveal preview is a plausible, but unpredictable, word relative to an implausible word. The present study sought to establish whether the source of this effect is sensitivity to violations of syntactic acceptability. In two experiments, the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm was used to compare contextually plausible previews to semantically acceptable and anomalous previews that either matched or violated syntactic rules. Results showed that readers benefited from the convergence of semantic and syntactic acceptability early enough in the timecourse of reading to affect skipping. In addition, both semantic and syntactic plausibility yielded preview effects on target fixation duration measures, providing direct evidence of parafoveal syntactic processing in reading. These results highlight the limitations of relying solely on cloze probability to index contextual influences on early lexical processing. The implications of the data for models of eye movement control and language comprehension are discussed.

Characteristics of gray matter morphological change in Parkinson’s disease patients with semantic abstract reasoning deficits

BackgroundSemantic abstract reasoning(SAR) is an important executive domain that is involved in semantic information processing and enables one to make sense of the attributes of objects, facts and concepts in the world. We sought to investigate whether Parkinson's disease subjects(PDs) have difficulty in SAR and to examine the associated pattern of gray matter morphological changes. MethodsEighty-six PDs and 30 healthy controls were enrolled. PDs were grouped into PD subjects with Similarities preservation(PDSP, n = 62) and PD subjects with Similarities impairment(PDSI, n = 24)according to their performance on the Similarities subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Brain structural images were captured with a 3T MRI scanner. Surface-based investigation of cortical thickness and automated segmentation of deep gray matter were conducted using FreeSurfer software. ResultsPDs performed notably worse on the Similarities test than controls(F = 13.56, P < 0.001).In the PDSI group, cortical thinning associated with Similarities scores was found in the left superior frontal, left superior parietal and left rostral middle frontal regions. Notable atrophy of the bilateral hippocampi was observed, but only the right hippocampus volume was positively correlated with the Similarities scores of the PDSI group. DiscussionPDs have difficulty in SAR, and this limitation may be associated with impaired conceptual abstraction and generalization along with semantic memory deficits. Cortical thinning in the left frontal and parietal regions and atrophy in the right hippocampus may explain these impairments among Chinese PDs.

The neural oscillations of speech processing and language comprehension: state of the art and emerging mechanisms.

Neural oscillations subserve a broad range of functions in speech processing and language comprehension. On the one hand, speech contains-somewhat-repetitive trains of air pressure bursts that occur at three dominant amplitude modulation frequencies, physically marking the linguistically meaningful progressions of phonemes, syllables and intonational phrase boundaries. To these acoustic events, neural oscillations of isomorphous operating frequencies are thought to synchronise, presumably resulting in an implicit temporal alignment of periods of neural excitability to linguistically meaningful spectral information on the three low-level linguistic description levels. On the other hand, speech is a carrier signal that codes for high-level linguistic meaning, such as syntactic structure and semantic information-which cannot be read from stimulus acoustics, but must be acquired during language acquisition and decoded for language comprehension. Neural oscillations subserve the processing of both syntactic structure and semantic information. Here, I synthesise a mapping from each linguistic processing domain to a unique set of subserving oscillatory mechanisms-the mapping is plausible given the role ascribed to different oscillatory mechanisms in different subfunctions of cortical information processing and faithful to the underlying electrophysiology. In sum, the present article provides an accessible and extensive review of the functional mechanisms that neural oscillations subserve in speech processing and language comprehension.

SCIENTIFIC PARADIGM SHIFT AS THE BACKGROUND OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION

Introduction . Recently, there has been a cardinal restructuring of university preparation. Linguistic education takes up nearly the last position in the new model of the higher school dictated by economic interests. Investments in linguistic projects are considered as unprofitable today. The linguistic component in educational programs of a bachelor degree is reduced to a minimum, and focused on language knowledge promoting as communication technologies. The aim of the work purposes to trace how the scientific and the linguistic paradigm shift have an impact on the domestic linguistic education system, and to show the unrealized potential capacity of linguistic knowledge. Methodology and research methods . The methodology of the offered research is based, on the one hand, upon the domestic periodical press review on the linguistic education problems for the last 15 years, on the other – on the philosophical analysis of science historical forms which change has caused the past, the present and the future of linguistics and linguistic education. The inductive methods to integrate different approaches are also used. Theoretical significance. The author emphasizes the need to consider the problems of higher education in philosophical aspect, through the interaction of a scientific and educational paradigm. Results and scientific novelty . At a time of global changes in domestic higher education the linguistic education is considered to be a display of the convergence process of natural sciences, technology and humanities. The philosophical study of the scientific paradigms – classical, non-classical and post-non-classical has revealed the regularities of the linguistic scientific paradigms – structural, communicative and cognitive. Each of the paradigms was traced in the frame of linguistic education functions alternation and constantly changing academic programs. A new take on the U-turn of a centrifugal vector in science has obviously demonstrated the tendencies of the domestic linguistic education flimsiness: fundamental linguistic education tends to become popularized linguistic knowledge; there is no conception of linguistic education based on all the basic language functions. However, the author notes the natural language to be the most difficult, most multipurpose and multidimensional sign system. Language simultaneously performs various functions: a form, way, tool, and means of structuring and systematized description of knowledge. Artificial computer languages provide the speed and efficiency of storage, processing and information transfer, i.e. perform tool function support not being a means of thought broadcasting. Semantic information processing is carried out by linguists «manually»; therefore, fundamental linguistic knowledge is required in the fields of semantics, syntactics, pragmatics of the language sign, laws of linguistic nominations, laws of references, regularities of perception and reproduction, mechanisms of understanding and interpretation, etc. Practical significance . Philosophical conceptualization of a modern paradigm of scientific linguistic knowledge allows to draw a conclusion on the need of fundamental linguistic education support at the high level on behalf of preservation, realization and full development of all unique functions of a natural language as means of thinking and communication, a tool of information technologies and a sign system, and, at last, as a cultural phenomenon.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE NON-DECLARATIVE MEMORY PRIMING DEFICIT OVER THE COURSE OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Word-stem completion priming is a form of non-declarative memory that is impaired in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) but not in patients with circumscribed amnesia due to hippocampal damage. It may, therefore, have theoretical and diagnostic importance related to neocortical network deterioration in AD. However, little is known about the development of the priming deficit over the course of AD (e.g., is it an early or late feature?). To address this question, we cross-sectionally examined priming performance at different time points prior to death in individuals with autopsy-confirmed AD. 54 individuals with autopsy-confirmed AD had been tested on a word-stem completion priming test, and several other cognitive tests, .10 to 26.3 years prior to death. In the priming task, subjects were first exposed to 10 target words (e.g., MOTEL, ABSTAIN) and asked to rate each word in terms of its “likability.” Following two presentations and ratings of the list, subjects were shown three-letter stems (e.g., MOT, ABS) of words that were and were not on the target list and asked to complete them with the “first word that comes to mind.” Half of the stems could be completed with previously presented words, while the other half allowed assessment of baseline guessing rates. There was a significant association, best described as a quadratic function, between word-stem completion priming score (i.e., difference between target completion and baseline guessing rates) and the interval between testing and death (R2=.29; p<.001), even after controlling for final level of plaque (partial r=.49; p<.001) and tangle (partial r=.51; p<.001) pathology. Priming ability declined steadily until approximately 12 years prior to death and then flattened out at an impaired level until time of death. Systematic decline in word-stem completion priming ability may begin more than 20 years prior to death in individuals with AD. Thus, the word-stem completion priming test could be an early neurocognitive marker of the disease. Although the neurobiological basis of the priming deficit in AD remains unknown, the results may reflect an early decline in network associations between lexical, semantic and word-form information processing that occurs in distinct neocortical regions.

Ontology-based Decision Support System with Analytic Hierarchy Process for Tour Package Selection

The popularity of Internet and growing B2C electronic commerce nowadays make product or service information easy to be acquired. However, making an optimal choice from the various alternative products becomes a laborious process. In this paper, an ontology-based Decision Support System (DSS) with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was proposed for the specific application of tour package selection. The system is composed of two subsystems, the product gatherer and the decision maker, which are used to find out right products and make an expected choice respectively. In the product gatherer subsystem, an ontology-based web service architecture with Web Ontology Language (OWL) was established for the semantic content processing of product information. The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is utilized to establish the communication interface and gather XML-based contents through Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) between the system and the database servers of travel agencies. In the decision maker subsystem, the Analytic Hierarchy Process is utilized to make an optimal decision for satisfying the requirement given by the consumer. The system aims to help consumers to avoid falling into decision-making hesitation and get an expected choice from various and similar products.

Endogenous Bioelectric Signaling Networks: Exploiting Voltage Gradients for Control of Growth and Form.

Living systems exhibit remarkable abilities to self-assemble, regenerate, and remodel complex shapes. How cellular networks construct and repair specific anatomical outcomes is an open question at the heart of the next-generation science of bioengineering. Developmental bioelectricity is an exciting emerging discipline that exploits endogenous bioelectric signaling among many cell types to regulate pattern formation. We provide a brief overview of this field, review recent data in which bioelectricity is used to control patterning in a range of model systems, and describe the molecular tools being used to probe the role of bioelectrics in the dynamic control of complex anatomy. We suggest that quantitative strategies recently developed to infer semantic content and information processing from ionic activity in the brain might provide important clues to cracking the bioelectric code. Gaining control of the mechanisms by which large-scale shape is regulated in vivo will drive transformative advances in bioengineering, regenerative medicine, and synthetic morphology, and could be used to therapeutically address birth defects, traumatic injury, and cancer.

Возможности мультимедиа для обучения аудированию иноязычного текста

Semantic information processing received at listening will be easier if it is accompanied by the creation of the visual image in iconic and symbolic form in the context of multimedia. Sounding information is consistently supported by opening the visual image that affects the listener with its dynamics and easy to understand. Development of symbolic-character code in the context of multimedia is required to develop automatic skill of binding the audible speech with the image. The technology of image creation is to help the listener adequately understand the meaning of the individual stories produced on the screen, put them into a single image, complete the image, and then use it as a structural model statements.

Semantic Processing of Sentences in Preschoolers With Specific Language Impairment: Evidence From the N400 Effect.

Given the complexity of sentence processing and the specific problems that children with specific language impairment (SLI) experience, we investigated the time course and characteristics of semantic processing at the sentence level in Dutch preschoolers with SLI. We measured N400 responses to semantically congruent and incongruent spoken sentences (e.g., "My father is eating an apple/*blanket") in a group of 37 Dutch preschoolers with SLI and in a group of 25 typically developing (TD) peers. We compared the time course and amplitude of the N400 effect between the two groups. The TD group showed a strong posterior N400 effect in time windows 300-500 ms and 500-800 ms. In contrast, the SLI group demonstrated only a reliable N400 effect in the later time window, 500-800 ms, and did not show a stronger presence at posterior electrodes. The findings suggest that the neuronal processing of semantic information at sentence level is atypical in preschoolers with SLI compared with TD children.