| 1. |
- Alemán Bañón, José, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
-
Anticipating information structure : An event-related potentials study of focus assignment via the it-cleft
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 134
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study uses event-related potentials to investigate the role of prediction in the processing of information structure, a domain of language that belongs to the level of the discourse. Twenty-three native speakers of English read short contexts including three Noun Phrases (NPs) (e.g., Either an adviser or an agent can be helpful to a banker), followed by a wh-question that established the discourse role of each referent (In your opinion, which of the two should a banker hire?). The NP that the question was about (banker) was the Topic, and the two NPs that could fill the slot opened by the wh-question (adviser, agent) were the Focus NPs. The participants’ brain activity was recorded with EEG while they read the responses to the wh-questions, which differed along two dimensions: (1) the availability of the it-cleft construction (In my opinion, [it is] an agent…), a Focus-devoted device that makes Focus assignment predictable in the response; and (2) the discourse role of the target noun (Focus, Topic), which corresponds to the first referent in the response (In my opinion, [it is] an agent/a banker…). Crucially, we manipulated the phonological properties of the Focus and Topic nouns such that, if the Topic noun began with a consonant (e.g., a banker), both nouns that could fill the slot opened by the wh-question began with a vowel (e.g., an agent, an adviser) (counterbalanced in the overall design). This allowed us to measure effects of prediction at the prenominal article, before the integration of semantic and discourse information took place. The analyses on prenominal articles revealed an N400 effect for articles that were unexpected based on the phonological properties of the Focus nouns, but only in the conditions with the it-cleft. This effect emerged between 250 and 400 ms, with a frontal bias. The analyses on the noun revealed that violations of information structure (i.e., cases where the it-cleft was followed by the Topic noun) yielded a broadly distributed P600 effect, relative to appropriately clefted (i.e., focused) nouns. A similar (but numerically less robust) effect emerged for Topic relative to Focus NPs in the conditions without the it-cleft, suggesting that, in the absence of a constraining cue, comprehenders still assigned Focus to the first referent in the response. Overall, these results suggest that, when reading answers to wh-questions, comprehenders use information structure constraints (i.e., prior context + the it-cleft) to anticipate the form that the response should take (i.e., how information should be packaged).
|
|
| 2. |
- Alemán Bañón, José, et al.
(författare)
-
The role of crosslinguistic differences in second language anticipatory processing : An event-related potentials study
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 155
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study uses event-related potentials to investigate how crosslinguistic (dis)similarities modulate anticipatory processing in the second language (L2). Participants read predictive stories in English that made a genitive construction consisting of a third-person singular possessive pronoun and a kinship noun (e.g., his mother) likely in an upcoming continuation. The possessive pronoun?s form depended on the antecedent?s natural gender, which had been previously established in the stories. The continuation included either the expected genitive construction or an unexpected one with a possessive pronoun of the opposite gender. We manipulated crosslinguistic (dis)similarity by comparing advanced English learners with either Swedish or Spanish as their L1. While Swedish has equivalent possessive pronouns that mark the antecedent?s natural gender (i.e., hans/hennes ?his/her?), Spanish does not. In fact, Spanish possessive pronouns mark the syntactic features (number, gender) of the possessed noun (e.g., nosotros queremos a nuestra madre ?we-MASC love our-FEM mother-FEM). Twenty-four native speakers of English elicited an N400 effect for prenominal possessives that were unexpected based on the possessor noun?s natural gender, consistent with the possibility that they activated the pronoun?s form or its semantic features (natural gender). Thirty-two Swedish-speaking learners yielded a qualitatively and quantitatively native-like N400 for unexpected prenominal possessives. In contrast, twenty-five Spanish-speaking learners showed a P600 effect for unexpected possessives, consistent with the possibility that they experienced difficulty integrating a pronoun that mismatched the expected gender. Results suggest that differences with respect to the features encoded in the activated representation result in different predictive mechanisms among adult L2 learners.
|
|
| 3. |
- Andin, Josefine, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
-
Reorganization of large-scale brain networks in deaf signing adults: The role of auditory cortex in functional reorganization following deafness
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 166
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- If the brain is deprived of input from one or more senses during development, functional and structural reorganization of the deprived regions takes place. However, little is known about how sensory deprivation affects large-scale brain networks. In the present study, we use data-driven independent component analysis (ICA) to characterize large-scale brain networks in 15 deaf early signers and 24 hearing non-signers based on resting-state functional MRI data. We found differences between the groups in independent components representing the left lateralized control network, the default network, the ventral somatomotor network, and the attention network. In addition, we showed stronger functional connectivity for deaf compared to hearing individuals from the middle and superior temporal cortices to the cingulate cortex, insular cortex, cuneus and precuneus, supramarginal gyrus, supplementary motor area, and cerebellum crus 1, and stronger connectivity for hearing non-signers to hippocampus, middle and superior frontal gyri, pre- and postcentral gyri, and cerebellum crus 8. These results show that deafness induces large-scale network reorganization, with the middle/superior temporal cortex as a central node of plasticity. Cross-modal reorganization may be associated with behavioral adaptations to the environment, including superior ability in some visual functions such as visual working memory and visual attention, in deaf signers.
|
|
| 4. |
- Arshamian, Artin, et al.
(författare)
-
The functional neuroanatomy of odor evoked autobiographical memories cued by odors and words
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 51:1, s. 123-131
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Behavioral evidence indicates that odor evoked autobiographical memories (OEAMs) are older, more emotional, less thought of and induce stronger time traveling characteristics than autobiographical memories (AMs) evoked by other modalities. The main aim of this study was to explore the neural correlates of AMs evoked by odors as a function of retrieval cue. Participants were screened for specific OEAMs and later presented with the odor cue and its verbal referent in an fMRI paradigm. Because the same OEAM was retrieved across both cue formats (odor and word), potential cue dependent brain activations were investigated. The overall results showed that odor and word cued OEAMs activated regions typically associated with recollection of autobiographical information. Although no odors were presented, a verbal cuing of the OEAMs activated areas associated with olfactory perception (e.g., piriform cortex). However, relative to word cuing, an odor cuing of OEAMs resulted in more activity in MTL regions such as the parahippocampus, and areas involved in visual vividness (e.g., occipital gyrus and precuneus). Furthermore, odor cues activated areas related to emotional processing, such as limbic and tempopolar regions significantly more. In contrast, word cues relative to odor cues recruited a more widespread and bilateral prefrontal activity. Hippocampus activity did not vary as function of the remoteness of the memory, but recollection of OEAMs from the 1st vs the 2nd decade of life showed specific activation in the right OFC, whereas the 2nd reflected a higher activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus.
|
|
| 5. |
- Bellander, M, et al.
(författare)
-
Preliminary evidence that allelic variation in the LMX1A gene influences training-related working memory improvement
- 2011
-
Ingår i: NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 49:7, s. 1938-1942
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- LMX1A is a transcription factor involved in the development of dopamine (DA)-producing neurons in midbrain. Previous research has shown that allelic variations in three LMX1A single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were related to risk of Parkinson's disease (PD), suggesting that these SNPs may influence the number of mesencephalic DA neurons. Prompted by the established link between striatal DA functions and working memory (WM) performance, we examined two of these SNPs in relation to the ability to benefit from 4 weeks of WM training. One SNP (rs4657412) was strongly associated with the magnitude of training-related gains in verbal WM. The allele linked to larger gains has previously been suggested to be associated with higher dopaminergic nerve cell density. No differential gains of either SNP were observed for spatial WM, and the genotype groups were also indistinguishable in tests of attention, interference control, episodic memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning for both SNPs. This pattern of data is in agreement with previous findings from our group, suggesting that cognitive effects of DA-related genes may be more easily detected in a training context than for single-assessment performance scores.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Boraxbekk, Carl-Johan, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
-
Investigating the influence of KIBRA and CLSTN2 genetic polymorphisms on cross-sectional and longitudinal measures of memory performance and hippocampal volume in older individuals
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 78, s. 10-17
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The variability of episodic memory decline and hippocampal atrophy observed with increasing age may partly be explained by genetic factors. KIBRA (kidney and brain expressed protein) and CLSTN2 (calsyntenin 2) are two candidate genes previously linked to episodic memory performance and volume of the hippocampus, a key memory structure. However, whether polymorphisms in these two genes also influence age-related longitudinal memory decline and hippocampal atrophy is still unknown. Using data from two independent cohorts, the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study and the Older Australian Twins Study, we investigated whether the KIBRA and CLSTN2 genetic polymorphisms (rs17070145 and rs6439886) are associated with episodic memory performance and hippocampal volume in older adults (65–90 years at baseline). We were able to examine these polymorphisms in relation to memory and hippocampal volume using cross-sectional data and, more importantly, also using longitudinal data (2 years between testing occasions). Overall we did not find support for an association of KIBRA either alone or in combination with CLSTN2 with memory performance or hippocampal volume, nor did variation in these genes influence longitudinal memory decline or hippocampal atrophy in two cohorts of older adults.
|
|
| 8. |
- Boraxbekk, Carl-Johan, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
-
Motor and mental training in older people : Transfer, interference, and associated functional neural responses
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 89, s. 371-377
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Learning new motor skills may become more difficult with advanced age. In the present study, we randomized 56 older individuals, including 30 women (mean age 70.6 years), to 6 weeks of motor training, mental (motor imagery) training, or a combination of motor and mental training of a finger tapping sequence. Performance improvements and post-training functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used to investigate performance gains and associated underlying neural processes. Motor only training and a combination of motor and mental training improved performance in the trained task more than mental-only training. The fMRI data showed that motor training was associated with a representation in the premotor cortex and mental training with a representation in the secondary visual cortex. Combining motor and mental training resulted in both premotor and visual cortex representations. During fMRI scanning, reduced performance was observed in the combined motor and mental training group, possibly indicating interference between the two training methods. We concluded that motor and motor imagery training in older individuals is associated with different functional brain responses. Furthermore, adding mental training to motor training did not result in additional performance gains compared to motor-only training and combining training methods may result in interference between representations, reducing performance.
|
|
| 9. |
- Bruno, Davide, et al.
(författare)
-
A study on the specificity of the association between hippocampal volume and delayed primacy performance in cognitively intact elderly individuals.
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-3514 .- 0028-3932. ; 69, s. 1-8
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Delayed recall at the primacy position (first few items on a list) has been shown to predict cognitive decline in cognitively intact elderly participants, with poorer delayed primacy performance associated with more pronounced generalized cognitive decline during follow-up. We have previously suggested that this association is due to delayed primacy performance indexing memory consolidation, which in turn is thought to depend upon hippocampal function. Here, we test the hypothesis that hippocampal size is associated with delayed primacy performance in cognitively intact elderly individuals. Data were analyzed from a group (N=81) of cognitively intact participants, aged 60 or above. Serial position performance was measured with the Buschke selective reminding test (BSRT). Hippocampal size was automatically measured via MRI, and unbiased voxel-based analyses were also conducted to explore further regional specificity of memory performance. We conducted regression analyses of hippocampus volumes on serial position performance; other predictors included age, family history of Alzheimer's disease (AD), APOE ε4 status, education, and total intracranial volume. Our results collectively suggest that there is a preferential association between hippocampal volume and delayed primacy performance. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that delayed primacy consolidation is associated with hippocampal size, and shed light on the relationship between delayed primacy performance and generalized cognitive decline in cognitively intact individuals, suggesting that delayed primacy consolidation may serve as a sensitive marker of hippocampal health in these individuals.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
