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- Arvidsson, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
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Conversational production and comprehension: fMRI-evidence reminiscent of but deviant from the classical Broca–Wernicke model
- 2024
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Ingår i: Cerebral Cortex. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1047-3211 .- 1460-2199. ; 34:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A key question in research on the neurobiology of language is to which extent the language production and comprehension systems share neural infrastructure, but this question has not been addressed in the context of conversation. We utilized a public fMRI dataset where 24 participants engaged in unscripted conversations with a confederate outside the scanner, via an audio-video link. We provide evidence indicating that the two systems share neural infrastructure in the left-lateralized perisylvian language network, but diverge regarding the level of activation in regions within the network. Activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus was stronger in production compared to comprehension, while comprehension showed stronger recruitment of the left anterior middle temporal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus, compared to production. Although our results are reminiscent of the classical Broca–Wernicke model, the anterior (rather than posterior) temporal activation is a notable difference from that model. This is one of the findings that may be a consequence of the conversational setting, another being that conversational production activated what we interpret as higher-level socio-pragmatic processes. In conclusion, we present evidence for partial overlap and functional asymmetry of the neural infrastructure of production and comprehension, in the above-mentioned frontal vs temporal regions during conversation.
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| 2. |
- Arvidsson, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
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Conversational production and comprehension: fMRI-evidence reminiscent of the classic Broca-Wernicke model
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A key question in neurolinguistics is whether language production and comprehension share neural infrastructure, but this question has not been addressed in the context of actual conversation. We utilized a public fMRI dataset where participants (N=24) engaged in unscripted conversations with a confederate outside the scanner via an audio-video link. We provide evidence indicating that production and comprehension, in a conversational setting, diverge with respect to how they modulate the recruitment of regions in the left-lateralized perisylvian language network. Activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus was stronger in production than in comprehension. Compared to production, comprehension showed stronger recruitment of the left anterior middle temporal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus, but this was not the case for the posterior aspect of these loci. Although our results are reminiscent of the classic Broca-Wernicke model, the anterior temporal activation is a notable difference from that model. This is one of the findings which may be a consequence of the conversational setting, another being that conversational production activated what we interpret as higher-level socio-pragmatic processes. In conclusion, we present evidence supporting that the above-mentioned frontal vs temporal regions in the language network are functionally segregated during conversation.
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| 3. |
- Arvidsson, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
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The Brain in Conversation : Mapping Turn-taking, Production and Comprehension with fMRI
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- INTRODUCTION: Conversation is the most ubiquitous form of language use. A hallmark of conversation is turn-taking, in which speakers rapidly alternate between speaker and listener roles without conscious effort, while simultaneously planning their upcoming turn. Since previous neurolinguistic studies have mainly investigated single or few linguistic processes in isolated environments that lack resemblance to real-world language use, the neurobiology of turntaking, production, and comprehension during real-time conversation is currently under-explored. In this fMRI investigation, we asked whether turn initiations would activate areas outside the classical perisylvian core language network and whether we would observe differences in activation during conversational production vs. conversational comprehension. METHODS: We utilized a publicly available fMRI dataset in which participants (N = 23) engaged in unscripted conversations via an audio-video link with a confederate outside the scanner. Each conversation (24 per participant) lasted for one minute. Conversational events were defined from the participant’s perspective. These events included turn initiations, defined as a 600 ms time window whose offset coincided with the onset of the participant’s turn. The duration of turn initiations was based on the reported minimum latency of speech preparation. The other events investigated in this study were production (defined as participant speech), and comprehension (defined as confederate speech). RESULTS: Turn initiations were associated with frontal regions outside of the classical perisylvian core language network. One cluster (2796 voxels, significant with FWE-correction used throughout) was observed in the medial prefrontal cortex bilaterally, spanning from the dorsal portion to the most ventral anterior cingulate cortex. Activation during turn initiations was also observed in the left middle frontal gyrus. Furthermore, both production and comprehension during conversation were associated with core language regions in the bilateral temporal lobes, but activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) was only present for production. Moreover, larger parts of the occipital cortex, and specifically the fusiform face area, were activated in comprehension than in production. DISCUSSION: We suggest that the observed frontal activation during turn initiations reflects sociopragmatic processes involved in intention processing and attentional control – processes that have not previously been localized outside the core perisylvian language network but have been hypothesized to play a crucial role in speech preparation during interaction. Furthermore, we interpret the fusiform face area activation during comprehension as an indication that listeners are aided by their interlocutor’s facial gestures specifically when comprehending speech input during real-time conversation. Finally, LIFG activation in conversational production but not comprehension may reflect the syntactic and semantic heuristics at play in conversational comprehension, minimizing the need for a full syntactic parse. The utilization of such heuristics may be a possible prerequisite for consistently meeting the expectations of timing in turn-taking.
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| 4. |
- Ekaterina, Torubarova, et al.
(författare)
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Investigating Conversational Dynamics in Human-Robot Interaction with fMRI
- 2023
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigated how verbal communication with a robot differs from talking to a human in terms of brain activity by analysing an open-source fMRI dataset. We focused on modeling conversational dynamics rather than conversation as a whole, by analysing fine-grained events, in particular turn initiation. The results indicate that turn initiation in a conversation with a human involves higher activation in auditory and visual cortex than turn initiation with a robot. Conversely, listening to the robot showed higher engagement of auditory cortex than listening to a human. We suggest that verbal and non-verbal turn-taking cues provided by the human agent engage more cognitive processing for picking up the turn. On the other hand, listening to a robot agent requires more processing than listening to a human. Both findings suggest that the accurate simulation of appropriate turn-taking cues and behaviors will help robots to establish more natural conversation dynamics and that the use of brain imaging can provide valuable objective measurements for assessing user states in human-robot interaction.
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