Semantic Processing Of Words Research Articles

Phonological and Semantic Contributions to Verbal Short-Term Memory in Young Children With Developmental Stuttering.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the verbal short-term memory skills of children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) in 2 experiments, focusing on the influence of phonological and semantic similarity. Method Participants were 42 CWS and 42 CWNS between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 (years;months). In Experiment 1, children completed the phonological similarity task, in which they listened to lists of phonologically similar and dissimilar words and then repeated them when signaled to do so. In Experiment 2, children completed another forward span task, the semantic category task, which is similar to the phonological similarity task, except that it consisted of lists of semantically homogeneous and heterogeneous words. Main dependent variables were cumulative memory span, proportion of errors by type, and speech reaction time (SRT) for correct responses. Results The CWS exhibited significantly shorter memory spans for phonologically dissimilar words and were less affected by the phonological qualities of the words than the CWNS in Experiment 1, based on the findings of both between-groups and within-group analyses. In Experiment 2, although the groups did not differ in their performance in either condition, within-group analyses revealed that the CWNS benefitted from semantic similarity, whereas the CWS did not. The between-groups difference in absolute difference scores, however, did not reach significance. The CWS produced more omissions and false alarms than the CWNS in both experiments, but the 2 groups of children were otherwise comparable in SRT, although the CWS exhibited overall faster SRT than the CWNS in Experiment 2. Conclusions Verbal short-term memory is one domain-general cognitive process in which CWS display weakness relative to typically fluent peers. These weaknesses are likely due, in part, to differences in phonological and, perhaps, semantic processing of words to aid memory.

Alteration of Semantic Networks during Swear Words Processing in Schizophrenia.

ObjectivePositive symptoms, such as delusion and hallucination, commonly include negative emotional content in schizophrenia. We investigated the neural basis implicated during the processing of strong negative emotional words in patients with schizophrenia.MethodsIn our study, 35 patients with schizophrenia and 19 healthy controls were recruited, and the participants were asked to passively view the words that contained swearing and neutral content during functional magnetic resonance imaging.ResultsPatients with schizophrenia, compared to healthy controls, showed hypoactivation to the swear and neutral words stimuli in the left inferior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left angular/supramarginal gyrus. More specifically, patients with remitted schizophrenia were found to have greater activation to the stimuli in the left middle/inferior frontal gyrus than patients with active schizophrenia. Furthermore, in the analysis of regions of interests, the left inferior and middle frontal gyrus activity was related to the severity of positive symptoms, including delusion and suspiciousness.ConclusionOur results suggest that patients with schizophrenia have difficulty in semantic processing and inhibitory control of swear words, and these abnormalities may be connected with the severity of positive symptoms.

Lateralized Affective Word Priming and Gender Effect.

Affective priming research suggests that processing of affective words is a quick and short lived process. Using the divided visual field (DVF) paradigm, investigations of the lateralization of affective word processing have yielded inconsistent results. However, research on semantic processing of words generally suggests that the left hemisphere (LH) is the location where rapid processing occurs. We investigated the processing of affective (emotional) words using a combination of the DVF and affective priming paradigms, and four stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs)—0, 150, 300, and 750 ms. The priming pattern yielded by males (n = 32) showed quick priming (at 0-ms SOA) of affective words in the LH; there was slower right hemisphere (RH) priming of affective words (at 750-ms SOA). In females (n = 28), both hemispheres were associated with quick priming of affective words (at 300-ms SOA in the LH and at 150-ms SOA in the RH). Results demonstrate the capability of both cerebral hemispheres in the processing of words with affective meaning, along with leading role of the left hemisphere in this process. This is similar to the results of semantic research that suggest access to word meanings occurs in both hemispheres, but different mechanisms might be involved. While the LH seems to prime affective words quickly regardless of gender, gender differences are likely in the RH in that affective word processing probably occurs slowly in males but rapidly in females. This gender difference may result from increased sensitivity to the emotional feature of affective words in females.

Musical meaning modulates word acquisition

Musical excerpts have been shown to have the capacity to prime the processing of target words and vice versa, strongly suggesting that music can convey concepts. However, to date no study has investigated an influence of musical semantics on novel word acquisition, thus corroborating evidence for a similarity of underlying semantic processing of music and words behaviourally. The current study investigates whether semantic content of music can assist the acquisition of novel words. Forty novel words and their German translation were visually presented to 26 participants accompanied by either semantically congruent or incongruent music. Semantic congruence between music and words was expected to increase performance in the subsequent forced-choice recognition test. Participants performed significantly better on the retention of novel words presented with semantically congruent music compared to those presented with semantically incongruent music. This provides first evidence that semantic “enrichment” by music during novel word learning can augment novel word acquisition. This finding may lead to novel approaches in foreign language acquisition and language rehabilitation, and further strongly supports the concept that music has a strong capacity to iconically convey meaning.

The Differences in Semantic Processing of Pictures and Words between Dyslexic and Typical-Reading University Students

The present study compared the semantic processing of pictures and words by dyslexics to that of typical readers utilizing the electro-physiological (ERP) technique during a semantic categorization decision task. ERPs of 40 university students, 20 typical readers and 20 dyslexic readers were recorded while they participated in a categorization decision task. The subjects were presented with two kinds of stimuli—words and pictures. Results revealed longer reaction times in response to words as compared to pictures in both groups. Electrophysiological measures revealed differences in amplitudes and latencies of ERP components in addition to differences in the mean activity. The results illustrated that the differences between processing words and processing pictures were manifested in timing and in the brain areas involved in the tasks. It also illustrated that although dyslexic and typical readers displayed equal ability to read and understand familiar words, dyslexics could not perform as quickly as typical readers. The semantic domain may be one of the compensatory mechanisms which help compensated dyslexic readers reach and succeed in the higher education system.

Modulation of parafoveal word processing by cognitive load during modified visual search tasks

During visual search for simple items, the amount of information that can be processed in parafoveal vision depends on the cognitive resources that are available. However, whether this applies to the semantic processing of words remains controversial. This work was designed to manipulate simultaneously two sources of cognitive load to study their impact on the depth of parafoveal word processing during a modified visual search task. The participants had to search for target words among parafoveally presented semantic, orthographic or target-unrelated distractor words while their electroencephalogram was recorded. The task-related load was manipulated by either giving target words in advance (literal task) or giving only a semantic clue to define them (categorical task). The foveal load was manipulated by displaying either a word or hash symbols at the centre of the screen. Parafoveal orthographic and semantic distractors had an impact on the early event-related potential component P2a only in the literal task and when hash symbols were displayed at the fovea, i.e., when both the task-related and foveal loads were low. The data show that all sources of cognitive load must be considered to understand how parafoveal words are processed in visual search contexts.

The posterior semantic asymmetry (PSA): specific to written not auditory semantic word processing

The present study replicates the finding of a posterior semantic asymmetry (PSA; Koppehele-Gossel et al., Brain Lang 157-158:35-43, 2016), a lateralized event-related potential (ERP) suggested to reflect semantic activation from visually presented single words. This ERP negativity, derived from the subtraction of right-side from left-side scalp activity, again peaked around 300ms at temporoparietal electrodes and was more pronounced in a semantic task, compared to both a silent naming task and a passive viewing task. With analogous tasks, no comparable negativity was found for auditorily presented words. This suggests that the PSA specifically reflects visual-verbal semantic activation. For auditory words, a later variation with the demands on semantic processing was observed for a left-lateralized late positive potential (500-800ms), which, however, showed a remarkably similar topography as the PSA. Thus, while semantic processing of visual and auditory words converges on left temporoparietal brain areas, the exact patterns of brain electrical activation in terms of time course and polarity are different.

Language comprehension and neurocognition independently and concurrently contribute to formal thought disorder severity in schizophrenia

Formal thought disorder (FTD) in schizophrenia is a prevalent symptom that has a significant impact on patients but low remediation options. This is largely due to a still unclear aetiology, where both neurocognitive and language dysfunction have been shown to contribute. Given established relationships between neurocognition and language themselves, this study aimed to examine if language comprehension impairments have a significant effect on FTD severity independent of neurocognition. 54 schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder patients (M = 43.35, SD = 10.74) completed three measures of language comprehension along with the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery and the D-KEFS Colour Word Interference Test. Symptomatology was assessed using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale and the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language and Communication. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed syntactic sentence processing had a significant, and independent, contribution to positive FTD severity above neurocognition, while semantic sentence processing and single word semantic processing did not. The findings support the existence of a specific relationship between language comprehension dysfunction and FTD; however the question of generalisation to all aspects of language processing or FTD types needs further investigation. The establishment of a specific language-related impairment in schizophrenia which contributes independently to FTD severity supports the benefit of language-based remediation approaches for alleviating FTD symptoms and their effects. Clinical, aetiological and nosological implications of the results are discussed.

Revealing the Dynamic Modulations That Underpin a Resilient Neural Network for Semantic Cognition: An fMRI Investigation in Patients With Anterior Temporal Lobe Resection.

One critical feature of any well-engineered system is its resilience to perturbation and minor damage. The purpose of the current study was to investigate how resilience is achieved in higher cognitive systems, which we explored through the domain of semantic cognition. Convergent evidence implicates the bilateral anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) as a conceptual knowledge hub. While bilateral damage to this region produces profound semantic impairment, unilateral atrophy/resection or transient perturbation has a limited effect. Two neural mechanisms might underpin this resilience to unilateral ATL damage: 1) the undamaged ATL upregulates its activation in order to compensate; and/or 2) prefrontal regions involved in control of semantic retrieval upregulate to compensate for the impoverished semantic representations that follow from ATL damage. To test these possibilities, 34 postsurgical temporal lobe epilepsy patients and 20 age-matched controls were scanned whilst completing semantic tasks. Pictorial tasks, which produced bilateral frontal and temporal activation, showed few activation differences between patients and control participants. Written word tasks, however, produced a left-lateralized activation pattern and greater differences between the groups. Patients with right ATL resection increased activation in left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Patients with left ATL resection upregulated both the right ATL and right IFG. Consistent with recent computational models, these results indicate that 1) written word semantic processing in patients with ATL resection is supported by upregulation of semantic knowledge and control regions, principally in the undamaged hemisphere, and 2) pictorial semantic processing is less affected, presumably because it draws on a more bilateral network.

Meaning-based attentional guidance as a function of foveal and task-related cognitive loads

ABSTRACTThe depth of parafoveal word processing depends on the amount of cognitive resources available. Whether this principle applies to the parafoveal semantic processing of multiple words remains, however, controversial. This study therefore aimed at testing the impact of the amount of cognitive resources available on the parafoveal semantic processing of words, by manipulating the foveal and task-related cognitive loads. Participants searched for words in displays of three semantically related or unrelated words, one of which was presented in the centre of the screen and two within the parafovea. The nature of the task and the characteristics of the centred word were manipulated to vary respectively the load associated to the task and to the foveal load. Analyses revealed more first saccades toward the parafoveal semantic distractors when both loads were low. These results indicate that fast parafoveal semantic word processing is constrained by the availability of cognitive resources.

Individual variability in the semantic processing of English compound words.

Semantic transparency effects during compound word recognition provide critical insight into the organization of semantic knowledge and the nature of semantic processing. The past 25 years of psycholinguistic research on compound semantic transparency has produced discrepant effects, leaving the existence and nature of its influence unresolved. In the present study, we examined the influence of semantic transparency and individual reading experience on eye-movement behavior during sentence reading. Eye-movement data were collected from 138 non-college-bound 16- to 26-year-old speakers of English in a sentence-reading task representing a total of 455 different compound words. Measures of individual differences in reading experience were collected from the same participants and consisted of standardized assessments of exposure to printed materials, vocabulary size, and word recognition skill. Statistical analyses revealed facilitatory effects of both Modifier-Compound and Head-Compound transparency throughout the eye-movement record. Moreover, the study reports interactions between Head-Compound transparency and measures of reading experience. Readers with a small amount exposure to printed materials and a limited vocabulary size exhibited slower processing in late eye-movement measures when reading highly transparent compounds relative to opaque compounds. The opposite effect was observed for readers with a relatively large amount of exposure to printed materials and a relatively larger vocabulary size, such that highly transparent compounds facilitated lexical processing. To account for the results, the authors posit a trade-off between 2 cognitive mechanisms, which is modulated by individual reading experience; that is, the benefit of semantic coactivation of closely related concepts, and the cost of discriminating between those concepts. (PsycINFO Database Record

Food words distract the hungry: Evidence of involuntary semantic processing of task-irrelevant but biologically-relevant unexpected auditory words.

Rare changes in a stream of otherwise repeated task-irrelevant sounds break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task by triggering shifts of attention to and from the deviant sound (deviance distraction). Evidence indicates that the involuntary orientation of attention to unexpected sounds is followed by their semantic processing. However, past demonstrations relied on tasks in which the meaning of the deviant sounds overlapped with features of the primary task. Here we examine whether such processing is observed when no such overlap is present but sounds carry some relevance to the participants’ biological need to eat when hungry. We report the results of an experiment in which hungry and satiated participants partook in a cross-modal oddball task in which they categorized visual digits (odd/even) while ignoring task-irrelevant sounds. On most trials the irrelevant sound was a sinewave tone (standard sound). On the remaining trials, deviant sounds consisted of spoken words related to food (food deviants) or control words (control deviants). Questionnaire data confirmed state (but not trait) differences between the two groups with respect to food craving, as well as a greater desire to eat the food corresponding to the food-related words in the hungry relative to the satiated participants. The results of the oddball task revealed that food deviants produced greater distraction (longer response times) than control deviants in hungry participants while the reverse effect was observed in satiated participants. This effect was observed in the first block of trials but disappeared thereafter, reflecting semantic saturation. Our results suggest that (1) the semantic content of deviant sounds is involuntarily processed even when sharing no feature with the primary task; and that (2) distraction by deviant sounds can be modulated by the participants’ biological needs.

Resting state versus Task Based Exploration of Age-Related Changes of the Neurofunctional Connectome.

Event Abstract Back to Event Resting state versus Task Based Exploration of Age-Related Changes of the Neurofunctional Connectome. Perrine Ferre1* 1 Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM), Canada According to the World Health Organization, the proportion of individuals over age 60 is expected to double by 2050. Cognitive impairments can be extremely frequent in particular in older age, and has been recurrently shown to be the most feared health conditions associated with aging. In this context, a better understanding of the mechanisms that can support cognitive health during aging is crucial. Most of the current knowledge about the aged-related changes in brain neurofunctional organization stems from studies using cognitive tasks for which performance has a tendency to decrease with aging (e.g.: working memory). Few of those studies have looked at language processing related to vocabulary and semantic knowledge, abilities that have been shown to be relatively preserved in aging. The way by which the aging brain can continue to be efficient such as it is the case for vocabulary and semantic knowledge is still poorly looked at. Over the last decade, an increasing interest has been devoted to describing age-related changes in the functional connectivity of the brain. However, in most cases, these studies have been conducted while participants were in a “resting state”, namely without engaging in any particular cognitive task. Important changes in the pattern of functional connectivity has been described in such resting state conditions. It remains to be determined if age-related differences in functional connectivity are also present within the neurofunctional organization in specific cognitive contexts, and in particular when participants are engaged in tasks requiring verbal and semantic processing of words. In the present study, a brain connectome analysis was performed on 300 adults ranging from 18 to 80 years old. They were tested systematically for whole brain connectivity to search for consistent differences as a function of age, performance, education or cognitive reserve factors during an fMRI session of resting-state and while performing three lexical-semantic tasks (antonyms, synonyms, picture naming). Then, similarities in age effect on brain connectivity across all tasks was examined for language-related seed regions. Results confirm that performances for the lexical-semantic tasks are preserved. Brain imaging also shows the existence of qualitative discrepancies between task-evoked and resting state connectivity patterns. Mean functional connectivity shows a general tendency to decrease with age, whatever the cognitive context. However, during lexical-semantic tasks, enhanced connectivity in semantic and visual-attentional regions is revealed. No interactions were to be found between connectivity patterns and performance, education or cognitive reserve as a function of age, thus not bringing imaging support to some of the determinants of presumed compensation of cognitive aging. The results of the present study suggest that investigation of functional connectivity in aging cannot solely rely on resting-state imaging data, especially when interpretation of cognitive processes is at stake. Our results also challenge the current models of aging in their ability to account for age differences in the semantic-language domain. Keywords: lexical-semantics, Aging, functional connectivity (FC), Resting-state fMRI, Task-based functional connectivity Conference: Academy of Aphasia 56th Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 21 Oct - 23 Oct, 2018. Presentation Type: poster presentation Topic: not eligible for a student prize Citation: Ferre P (2019). Resting state versus Task Based Exploration of Age-Related Changes of the Neurofunctional Connectome. . Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 56th Annual Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2018.228.00011 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Apr 2018; Published Online: 22 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Miss. Perrine Ferre, Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM), Montréal, Canada, perrine_ferre@hotmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Perrine Ferre Google Perrine Ferre Google Scholar Perrine Ferre PubMed Perrine Ferre Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. 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Inhibitory effects of semantics of constituent kanji characters on semantic processing of Japanese kanji words

Inhibitory effects of semantics of constituent kanji characters on semantic processing of Japanese kanji words

The effects of left versus right anterior temporal lobe resection on semantic processing of words, objects, and faces

The effects of left versus right anterior temporal lobe resection on semantic processing of words, objects, and faces

Automatic text classification using BPLion-neural network and semantic word processing

ABSTRACTText mining has become a major research topic in which text classification is the important task for finding the relevant information from the new document. Accordingly, this paper presents a semantic word processing technique for text categorization that utilizes semantic keywords, instead of using independent features of the keywords in the documents. Hence, the dimensionality of the search space can be reduced. Here, the Back Propagation Lion algorithm (BP Lion algorithm) is also proposed to overcome the problem in updating the neuron weight. The proposed text classification methodology is experimented over two data sets, namely, 20 Newsgroup and Reuter. The performance of the proposed BPLion is analysed, in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy, and compared with the performance of the existing works. The result shows that the proposed BPLion algorithm and semantic processing methodology classifies the documents with less training time and more classification accuracy of 90.9%.

Spatial metaphors and weight metaphors of seniority rules in the semantic processing of kinship words of the same generation: Evidence from Chinese Korean nationality and the Han nationality

Spatial metaphors and weight metaphors of seniority rules in the semantic processing of kinship words of the same generation: Evidence from Chinese Korean nationality and the Han nationality

An fMRI study of executive control during translation and oral reading in Cantonese-English bilingual speakers

An fMRI study of executive control during translation and oral reading in Cantonese-English bilingual speakers

Semantic integration by pattern priming: experiment and cortical network model.

Neural network models describe semantic priming effects by way of mechanisms of activation of neurons coding for words that rely strongly on synaptic efficacies between pairs of neurons. Biologically inspired Hebbian learning defines efficacy values as a function of the activity of pre- and post-synaptic neurons only. It generates only pair associations between words in the semantic network. However, the statistical analysis of large text databases points to the frequent occurrence not only of pairs of words (e.g., "the way") but also of patterns of more than two words (e.g., "by the way"). The learning of these frequent patterns of words is not reducible to associations between pairs of words but must take into account the higher level of coding of three-word patterns. The processing and learning of pattern of words challenges classical Hebbian learning algorithms used in biologically inspired models of priming. The aim of the present study was to test the effects of patterns on the semantic processing of words and to investigate how an inter-synaptic learning algorithm succeeds at reproducing the experimental data. The experiment manipulates the frequency of occurrence of patterns of three words in a multiple-paradigm protocol. Results show for the first time that target words benefit more priming when embedded in a pattern with the two primes than when only associated with each prime in pairs. A biologically inspired inter-synaptic learning algorithm is tested that potentiates synapses as a function of the activation of more than two pre- and post-synaptic neurons. Simulations show that the network can learn patterns of three words to reproduce the experimental results.

Behavioural and electrophysiological outcomes in neurological restoration

The term “crowding” refers to impaired peripheral object identification due to the presence of nearby objects. In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate semantic processing of crowded Chinese words by combining a crowding task with a semantic-priming paradigm. Results showed that the N400 component, an index of semantic processing, was elicited by both crowded and uncrowded words. These results suggest that words were processed semantically despite crowding, and that features of the crowded words were integrated correctly.