| 1. |
- Hed, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Neural correlates of second language acquisition of tone-grammar associations
- 2019
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Ingår i: Mental Lexicon. - : John Benjamins Publishing Company. - 1871-1340 .- 1871-1375. ; 14:1, s. 98-123
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Native speakers of Swedish use tones on stems to predict which suffix is to follow. This is seen behaviorally in reduced response times for matching tone-suffix pairs. Neurophysiologically, online prediction is reflected in the event-related potential (ERP) component pre-activation negativity (PrAN) occurring for tones with a higher predictive value. Invalid suffixes relative to the tone produce a left anterior negativity (LAN), or a broadly distributed negativity, and a P600. When native speakers make decisions about the inflection of words, response times are also longer for invalid tone-suffix combinations. In this study, low to intermediate level second language learners with non-tonal native languages trained tone-suffix associations for two weeks. Before and after training, they participated in a perception test where they listened to nouns with valid and invalid tone-suffix combinations and performed a singular/plural judgment task. During the test, electroencephalography (EEG) and response times were measured. After training, the PrAN effect increased, and a LAN emerged for invalid stimuli, indicating that the participants had acquired the tone-suffix association, using the tones as predictors more extensively post-training. However, neither a P600 nor longer response times for invalidity were found, suggesting potential differences in native and second language processing of the tone-suffix association.
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| 2. |
- Novén, Mikael, et al.
(författare)
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Cortical thickness and surface area of left anterior temporal areas affects processing of phonological cues to morphosyntax
- 2021
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Ingår i: Brain Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0006-8993. ; 1750
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lack of methods to experimentally assess the perceptual processing of sound features and allow one to measure differences in phonological proficiency has been a limitation for speech processing studies in native speakers. Tonal features associated with Swedish word-stems, word accents, which cue grammatical suffixes, constitute, however, such sound features that can be exploited to generate measures of reliance on morphosyntactically relevant phonological information during word processing. Specifically, there is a natural variance between native speakers in response time (RT) difference between phonologically valid and invalid word accent-suffix combinations that can be used to quantify perceptual phonological proficiency. This study uses ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate word accents as phonological cues to morphosyntactic meaning. The study adds to the understanding of the neural basis for both morphosyntactically relevant phonological cues by reporting correlations between differences in listeners’ RT for validly and invalidly cued suffixes and cortical thickness in left anterior and middle temporal gyrus, and the left anterior superior temporal sulcus as well as cortical surface area in the left middle and inferior temporal gyri. The cortical areas studied are known constituents of the ventral speech processing stream, necessary for word and phrase recognition.
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| 3. |
- Novén, Mikael, et al.
(författare)
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Cortical thickness of Broca's area and right homologue is related to grammar learning aptitude and pitch discrimination proficiency
- 2019
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Ingår i: Brain and Language. - : Elsevier BV. - 0093-934X. ; 188, s. 42-47
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aptitude for and proficiency in acquiring new languages varies in the human population but their neural bases are largely unknown. We investigated the influence of cortical thickness on language learning predictors measured by the LLAMA tests and a pitch-change discrimination test. The LLAMA tests are first language-independent assessments of language learning aptitude for vocabulary, phonetic working memory, sound-symbol correspondence (not used in this study), and grammatical inferencing. Pitch perception proficiency is known to predict aptitude for learning new phonology. Results show a correlation between scores in a grammatical meaning-inferencing aptitude test and cortical thickness of Broca's area (r(30) = 0.65, p = 0.0202) and other frontal areas (r(30) = 0.66, p = 0.0137). Further, a correlation was found between proficiency in discriminating pitch-change direction and cortical thickness of the right Broca homologue (r(30) = 0.57, p = 0.0006). However, no correlations were found for aptitude for vocabulary learning or phonetic working memory. Results contribute to locating cortical regions important for language-learning aptitude.
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| 4. |
- Schremm, Andrea, et al.
(författare)
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Brain responses to morphologically complex verbs : An electrophysiological study of Swedish regular and irregular past tense forms
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Neurolinguistics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0911-6044. ; 51, s. 76-83
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present electrophysiological study investigated irregular versus regular verb form processing in Swedish during reading. In line with previous results from other languages, overregularized verbs, i.e. incorrect irregular stem + regular past tense suffix combinations (e.g. *stjäl + de ‘steal + past tense’), elicited a left-lateralized negativity (LAN) relative to correct irregulars (stal ‘stole’), suggesting rule-based decomposition of regularly inflected words. Lack of a similar effect for misapplication of the irregular stem formation pattern on regular verbs (e.g. *löft ‘lifted’ instead of lyfte) suggests the involvement of different processing mechanisms, possibly whole word access, for irregular items, at least to some degree. A P600 showing reprocessing was seen for all incorrect forms. The results add cross-linguistic support for morphological decomposition in the verbal inflection of a language where results from previous neurolinguistic studies of nominal inflection have only suggested the use of full-form access to words.
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| 5. |
- Schremm, Andrea, et al.
(författare)
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Brain responses to morphologically complex words: an electrophysiological study on Swedish past tense forms
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Dual system models postulate two distinct neural mechanisms for the processing of inflected words: irregular forms (e.g. ‘went’) are assumed to be directly accessed as whole word representations, whereas regularly inflected items (e.g. ‘played’) might undergo rule-based decomposition (Pinker & Ullman, 2002). Irregular verb stems incorrectly carrying a regular inflectional suffix have been reported to elicit a left anterior negativity (LAN), commonly interpreted as indexing violation of morphosyntactic regularities, and thus indicating rule application associated with the regular inflection (e.g. Penke et al., 1997). In the first electrophysiological study on Swedish regular/irregular verb morphology, we recorded brain responses to correct versus incorrect past tense verbs visually presented in sentences. Irregular verb stems incorrectly inflected with the regular suffix generated an increased left-lateralized negativity, interpreted as a LAN for misapplication of the morphological inflection rule. No negativity was observed for regular verb stems incorrectly containing a stem vowel change on analogy to irregular verb patterns. These findings are in line with previous results suggesting that a rule-based processing route is available for regularly inflected items. Alternatively, the observed waveforms might be interpreted in terms of a decreased negativity for correct irregular verbs. Such verbs would then be directly accessed in the lexicon while the other conditions would involve morphological analysis, eliciting increased left-lateralized negativities, including incorrect regular verbs where rule-based processing might have been triggered by regularities in the stem vowel change. From this perspective, LAN might signal morphological rule application instead of detection of rule violation (Krott & Lebib, 2013).
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| 6. |
- Schremm, Andrea, et al.
(författare)
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Brain responses to syntax constrained by time-driven implicit prosodic phrases
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Neurolinguistics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0911-6044. ; 35, s. 68-84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous research suggests that time-based working memory limits of 2-3 s constrain the integration of verbal information, and that speakers tend to parse sentences into prosodic phrases that do not extend beyond this time window. The present study used Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to investigate how time-driven implicit prosodic phrasing influences the syntactic processing of embedded clauses. Participants read Swedish sentences in which the first embedded clause had a subordinate, main or neutral clause structure cued by the position of the sentence adverb. The presentation rate was manipulated so that either one or two clauses were read within 2.7 s. When the 2.7 s time limit was reached before the onset of the embedded clause, the sentence adverb indicating subordinate clause structure elicited a posterior negativity and a late positivity. These effects were interpreted to reflect the detection of unexpected word order, followed by the revision of the anticipated main clause structure. A positive shift that correlated with individual working memory span was also seen at the clause-final word after 2.7 s, possibly indicating closure of an implicit prosodic phrase. These results suggest that prosodic phrasing was influenced by time-based working memory limits, which in turn affected syntactic analysis: readers were more likely to interpret an embedded clause as a main clause if it could be associated with the beginning of a new prosodic phrase.
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| 7. |
- Schremm, Andrea
(författare)
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Cognitive and neural mechanisms of inflectional morphology processing : Studies of native speakers and second language learners of Swedish
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present dissertation investigates inflectional morphology processing in native speakers and second language (L2) learners of Swedish. Results of Study 1 suggest that two separate neural mechanisms might be available for native comprehension of inflected words, as reflected in event-related brain potentials obtained for visually presented verb forms. Overregularized verbs (e.g. *bär+de ‘bear + past tense’) yielded a left anterior negativity (LAN), indicating decompositional processing of the regular tense inflection versus whole-word retrieval of correct irregular verb forms (e.g. bär ‘bore’). Enhanced long-range neural oscillatory phase synchrony observed for familiar irregular words potentially reflected increased engagement of the ventral language processing stream during whole-word access. As Swedish is characterized by a predictive association between specific word stem tones and upcoming suffixes, facilitating speech processing, Study 2 examines the integration of tonal cues into the native morphological system. Correlational analysis was conducted between cortical thickness in selected brain regions and individual participants’ response time patterns for suffix recognition following the tonal cue in real words (e.g. hattAccent 1+en ‘hat+sg’) and pseudowords (e.g. kvutAccent 1+en ‘kvut+sg’). Results suggest that the left planum temporale might play a role when tones are accessed as part of whole-word memory representations, whereas the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus could potentially support rule-based decompositional analysis of cued suffixes when no stored full-form representations are present. Study 3 focuses on the L2 acquisition of the tonal aspects of Swedish inflectional morphology. Response time patterns to inflected verbs indicate facilitated processing of word endings validly cued by the preceding stem tone in proficient L2 learners of Swedish, who had not received any explicit information about the tested L2 regularity. As these results suggested gradual and slow implicit acquisition of tone-suffix associations through exposure to L2 input, Study 4 explores possibilities of training the L2 feature at earlier stages of learning. Performance data collected during a two-week-period of training with a game prototype show gradually faster and more accurate responses to suffixes cued by preceding tones, indicating that low proficient learners start to integrate Swedish word accents into their L2 morphological processing system.
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| 8. |
- Schremm, Andrea, et al.
(författare)
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Cortical thickness of planum temporale and pars opercularis in native language tone processing
- 2018
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Ingår i: Brain and Language. - : Elsevier BV. - 1090-2155 .- 0093-934X. ; 176, s. 42-47
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study investigated the relationship between linguistic tone processing and cortical thickness of bilateral planum temporale (PT) and pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFGpo). Swedish tones on word stems function as cues to upcoming endings. Correlating structural brain imaging data with participants’ response time patterns for suffixes, we found that thicker cortex in the left PT was associated with greater reliance on tones to anticipate upcoming inflections on real words. On inflected pseudoword stems, however, the cortical thickness of left IFGpo was associated with tone-suffix processing. Thus cortical thickness of the left PT might play a role in processing tones as part of stored representations for familiar speech segments, most likely when inflected forms are accessed as whole words. In the absence of stored representations, listeners might need to rely on morphosyntactic rules specifying tone-suffix associations, potentially facilitated by greater cortical thickness of left IFGpo.
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| 9. |
- Schremm, Andrea, et al.
(författare)
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Cortical thickness of Planum Temporale in native language tone processing
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- INTRODUCTION: Non-native linguistic tone learning ability has been found to be influenced by the anatomy of primary auditory regions in the left hemisphere (Wong et al., 2008). In native speakers, however, where phonemic categories are firmly established, variations in the macrostructure of more secondary auditory processing areas might be expected to affect performance. The present study investigated the relationship between cortical thickness of the Planum Temporale (PT) and the processing of tones in natural language stimuli by Swedish native speakers. PT has previously been found to be involved in processing Thai (Xu et al., 2006) and Swedish tones (Roll et al., 2015), and in phonological processing generally (Graves et al., 2008). In Swedish, tones on word stems function as predictive cues to upcoming morphosyntactic structure, due to associations between stem tone patterns and specific grammatical suffixes. The degree to which listeners evidence anticipatory behaviour in their responses to such cued suffixes thus can be assumed to be mediated by individual variation in processing preceding tonal cues. METHODS: Magnetic resonance imaging scans were collected from native speakers of Swedish. Participants listened to sentences in which the inflectional suffix on the target word was either validly or invalidly cued by the preceding tone. The time it took to decide on suffix meaning (singular/plural) after suffix onset was measured. Cortical reconstruction and volumetric segmentation was performed using the FreeSurfer image analysis suite (http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/). Each processed subject was transformed into common space (fsaverage) and the average cortical thickness of PT was extracted in FreeSurfer after transformation of estimation of PT as defined in the Harvard-Oxford cortical and subcortical structural atlases in FMRIB Software Library (FSL) into common space. RESULTS: Individual participants’ response time advantage for valid over invalidly cued suffixes positively correlated with cortical thickness in the left PT, but not in the right PT. Thus, thicker left PT cortex was associated with relatively greater disruption in speech comprehension caused by an invalid tonal cue. Subgroup comparison also showed generally faster response times for participants with relatively thicker left PT cortex compared to individuals with thinner cortex in the same area. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the cortical anatomy of the left PT affects native linguistic tone processing. The PT has been proposed to constitute a computational interface between incoming sound patterns, analysed into components, and stored auditory objects (Griffiths & Warren, 2002). From this perspective, the present results might indicate that the cortical thickness of the left PT plays a facilitating role in the extraction of linguistic tone patterns from stimuli and their matching with stored representations in memory.
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| 10. |
- Schremm, Andrea, et al.
(författare)
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Implicit acquisition of tone-suffix connections in L2 learners of Swedish
- 2016
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Ingår i: The Mental Lexicon. - : John Benjamins Publishing Company. - 1871-1340 .- 1871-1375. ; 11:1, s. 55-75
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Swedish native speakers (NSs) unconsciously use tones realized on word stems to predict upcoming suffixes during speech comprehension. The present response time study investigated whether relatively proficient second language (L2) learners of Swedish have acquired the underlying association between tones and suffixes without explicit instruction, internalizing a feature that is specific to their L2. Learners listened to sentences in which the tone on the verb stem either validly or invalidly cued the following present or past tense inflection. Invalidly cued suffixes led to increased decision latencies in a verb tense identification task, suggesting that learners pre-activated suffixes associated with stem tones in a manner similar to NSs. Thus, L2 learners seemed to have acquired the tone-suffix connections through implicit mechanisms. Correctly cued suffixes were associated with a smaller processing advantage in the L2 group relative to NSs performing the same task; nevertheless, results suggest a tendency for increasingly native-like tone processing with cumulative language experience. The way suffix type affected response times also indicates exposure-related effects.
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