bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Syntactic Unification Operations Are Reflected in Oscillatory Dynamics during On-line Sentence Comprehension
Authors: Bastiaansen Marcel , Magyari Lilla , Hagoort Peter 
Published: July 2009

Abstract
There is growing evidence suggesting that synchronization changes in the oscillatory neuronal dynamics in the EEG or MEG reflect the transient coupling and uncoupling of functional networks related to different aspects of language comprehension. In this work, we examine how sentence-level syntactic unification operations are reflected in the oscillatory dynamics of the MEG. Participants read sentences that were either correct, contained a word category violation, or were constituted of random word sequences devoid of syntactic structure. A time–frequency analysis of MEG power changes revealed three types of effects. The first type of effect was related to the detection of a (word category) violation in a syntactically structured sentence, and was found in the alpha and gamma frequency bands. A second type of effect was maximally sensitive to the syntactic manipulations: A linear increase in beta power across the sentence was present for correct sentences, was disrupted upon the occurrence of a word category violation, and was absent in syntactically unstructured random word sequences. We therefore relate this effect to syntactic unification operations. Thirdly, we observed a linear increase in theta power across the sentence for all syntactically structured sentences. The effects are tentatively related to the building of a working memory trace of the linguistic input. In conclusion, the data seem to suggest that syntactic unification is reflected by neuronal synchronization in the lower-beta frequency band.
Momentary Fluctuations in Allocation of Attention: Cross-modal Effects of Visual Task Load on Auditory Discrimination
Authors: Haroush Keren , Hochstein Shaul , Deouell Leon Y. 
Published: July 2009

Abstract
Even when our attention is dedicated to an important task, background processes monitor the environment for significant events. The mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potential is thought to reflect such a monitoring process. Nevertheless, there is continuing debate concerning the susceptibility of the MMN to attentional manipulation. We investigated the trial-by-trial relationship between brain activity related to change detection, reflected in the MMN, and visual psychophysical performance—while varying task difficulty. We find that auditory change detection is indeed “automatic” in that MMN remains robust despite increasing (visual) task load. However, the MMN amplitude and latency are susceptible to both visual load and to momentary attentional fluctuations as reflected in success or failure to identify a following visual target. We conclude that background central auditory processing is sensitive to the demands of a visual task, and fluctuates based on moment-to-moment allocation of attentional resources to the visual task.
The Involvement of Occipital Cortex in the Early Blind in Auditory and Tactile Duration Discrimination Tasks
Authors: Van der Lubbe Rob H. J. , Van Mierlo Christa M. , Postma Albert 
Published: July 2009

Abstract
Early blind participants outperform controls on several spatially oriented perceptual tasks such as sound localization and tactile orientation discrimination. Previous studies have suggested that the recruitment of occipital cortex in the blind is responsible for this improvement. For example, electroencephalographic studies showed an enlarged posterior negativity for the blind in these tasks compared to controls. In our study, the question was raised whether the early blind are also better at tasks in which the duration of auditory and tactile stimuli must be discriminated. The answer was affirmative. Our electroencephalographic data revealed an enlarged posterior negativity for the blind relative to controls. Source analyses showed comparable solutions in the case of auditory and tactile targets for the blind. These findings support the interpretation of these negativities in terms of a supramodal rather than a modality-specific process, although confirmation with more spatially sensitive methods seems necessary. We additionally examined whether the early blind are less affected by irrelevant tactile or auditory exogenous cues preceding auditory or tactile targets than controls. No differences in alerting and orienting effects of these cues were found between the blind and the controls. Together, our results support the view that major differences between early blind participants and sighted controls on auditory and tactile duration discrimination tasks relate to a late and likely supramodal process that takes place in occipital areas.
Shared Neural Circuits for Mentalizing about the Self and Others
Authors: Lombardo Michael V. , Chakrabarti Bhismadev , Bullmore Edward T. , Wheelwright Sally J. , Sadek Susan A. , Suckling John ,   MRC AIMS Consortium, Baron-Cohen Simon 
Published: July 2009

Abstract
Although many examples exist for shared neural representations of self and other, it is unknown how such shared representations interact with the rest of the brain. Furthermore, do high-level inference-based shared mentalizing representations interact with lower level embodied/simulation-based shared representations? We used functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and a functional connectivity approach to assess these questions during high-level inference-based mentalizing. Shared mentalizing representations in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate/precuneus, and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) all exhibited identical functional connectivity patterns during mentalizing of both self and other. Connectivity patterns were distributed across low-level embodied neural systems such as the frontal operculum/ventral premotor cortex, the anterior insula, the primary sensorimotor cortex, and the presupplementary motor area. These results demonstrate that identical neural circuits are implementing processes involved in mentalizing of both self and other and that the nature of such processes may be the integration of low-level embodied processes within higher level inference-based mentalizing.
Dissociable Neural Effects of Long-term Stimulus–Reward Pairing in Macaque Visual Cortex
Authors: Frankó Edit , Seitz Aaron R. , Vogels Rufin 
Published: July 2009

Abstract
It has been proposed that perceptual learning may occur through a reinforcement process, in which consistently pairing stimuli with reward is sufficient for learning. We tested whether stimulus–reward pairing is sufficient to increase the sensorial representation of a stimulus by recording local field potentials (LFPs) in macaque extrastriate area V4 with chronically implanted electrodes. Two oriented gratings were repeatedly presented; one was paired with a fluid reward, whereas no reward was given at any other time. During the course of conditioning the LFP increased for the rewarded compared to the unrewarded orientation. The time course of the effect of stimulus–reward pairing and its reversal differed between an early and late interval of the LFP response: a fast change in the later part of the neural response that was dissociated from a slower change in the early part of the response. The fast change of the late interval LFP suggests that this late LFP change is related to enhanced attention during the presentation of the rewarded stimulus. The slower time course of the early interval response suggests an effect of sensorial learning. Thus, simple stimulus–reward pairing is sufficient to strengthen stimulus representations in visual cortex and does this by means of two dissociable mechanisms.
Elucidating the Nature of Deregulated Semantic Cognition in Semantic Aphasia: Evidence for the Roles of Prefrontal and Temporo-parietal Cortices
Authors: Noonan Krist A. , Jefferies Elizabeth , Corbett Faye , Lambon Ralph Matthew A. 
Published: July 2009

Abstract
Semantic cognition—semantically driven verbal and nonverbal behavior—is composed of at least two interactive principal components: conceptual representations and executive control processes that regulate and shape activation within the semantic system. Previous studies indicate that semantic dementia follows from a progressive yet specific degradation of conceptual knowledge. In contrast, multimodal semantic impairment in aphasic patients (semantic aphasia [SA]) reflects damage to the control component of semantic cognition [Jefferies, E., & Lambon Ralph, M. A. Semantic impairment in stroke aphasia versus semantic dementia: A case-series comparison. Brain, 129, 2132–2147, 2006]. The purpose of the present study was to examine the nature of the semantic control deficits in SA in detail for the first time. Seven patients with SA were tested on four comprehension and naming tasks that directly manipulated the requirement for executive control in different ways. In line with many theories of cognitive control, the SA patients demonstrated three core features of impaired control: (i) they exhibited poor on-line manipulation and exploration of semantic knowledge; (ii) they exhibited poor inhibition of strongly associated distractors; and (iii) they exhibited reduced ability to focus on or augment less dominant aspects of semantic information, although the knowledge itself remained and could be successfully cued by external constraints provided by the examiner. Our findings are consistent with the notion that the anterior temporal lobes are crucial for conceptual knowledge whereas the left prefrontal and temporo-parietal cortices, damaged in patients with SA, play a critical role in regulating semantic activation in a task-appropriate fashion.
Interactions between Language and Attention Systems: Early Automatic Lexical Processing?
Authors: Shtyrov Yury , Kujala Teija , Pulvermüller Friedemann 
Published: July 2009

AbstractAn ongoing debate is whether and to what extent access to cortical representations is automatic or dependent on attentional processes. To address this, we modulated the level of attention on auditory input and recorded ERPs elicited by syllables completing acoustically matched words and pseudowords. Under nonattend conditions, the word-elicited response (peaking at ∼120 msec) was larger than that to pseudowords, confirming early activation of lexical memory traces. However, when attention was directed toward the auditory input, such word–pseudoword difference disappeared. Whereas responses to words seemed unchanged by attentional variation, early pseudoword responses were modulated significantly by attention. Later on, attention modulated a positive deflection at ∼230 msec and a second negativity at ∼370 msec for all stimuli. The data indicate that the earliest stages of word processing are not affected by attentional demands and may thus possess certain automaticity, with attention effects on lexical processing accumulating after 150–200 msec. We explain this by robustness of preexisting memory networks for words whose strong internal connections guarantee rapid full-scale activation irrespective of the attentional resources available. Conversely, the processing of pseudowords, which do not have such stimulus-specific cortical representations, appears to be strongly modulated by the availability of attentional resources, even at its earliest stages. Topography analysis and source reconstruction indicated that left peri-sylvian cortices mediate attention effects on memory trace activation.
Predictive Mechanisms in Idiom Comprehension
Authors: Vespignani Francesco , Canal Paolo , Molinaro Nicola , Fonda Sergio , Cacciari Cristina 
Published: July 2009

AbstractPrediction is pervasive in human cognition and plays a central role in language comprehension. At an electrophysiological level, this cognitive function contributes substantially in determining the amplitude of the N400. In fact, the amplitude of the N400 to words within a sentence has been shown to depend on how predictable those words are: The more predictable a word, the smaller the N400 elicited. However, predictive processing can be based on different sources of information that allow anticipation of upcoming constituents and integration in context. In this study, we investigated the ERPs elicited during the comprehension of idioms, that is, prefabricated multiword strings stored in semantic memory. When a reader recognizes a string of words as an idiom before the idiom ends, she or he can develop expectations concerning the incoming idiomatic constituents. We hypothesized that the expectations driven by the activation of an idiom might differ from those driven by discourse-based constraints. To this aim, we compared the ERP waveforms elicited by idioms and two literal control conditions. The results showed that, in both cases, the literal conditions exhibited a more negative potential than the idiomatic condition. Our analyses suggest that before idiom recognition the effect is due to modulation of the N400 amplitude, whereas after idiom recognition a P300 for the idiomatic sentence has a fundamental role in the composition of the effect. These results suggest that two distinct predictive mechanisms are at work during language comprehension, based respectively on probabilistic information and on categorical template matching.
Electrophysiological Evidence for Different Types of Change Detection and Change Blindness
Authors: Busch Niko A. , Fründ Ingo , Herrmann Christoph S. 
Published: July 2009

AbstractNumerous studies have demonstrated that observers often fail to notice large changes in visual scenes, a phenomenon known as change blindness. Some experiments have suggested that phenomenological experience in change blindness experiments is more diverse than the common distinction between change detection and change blindness allows to resolve. Recently, it has been debated whether changes in visual scenes can be detected (“sensed”) without a corresponding perception of the changing object (“seeing”) and whether these phenomena build on fundamentally different perceptual processes. The present study investigated whether phenomenologically different perceptual processes such as sensing and seeing rely on different or similar neural processes. We studied ERP effects of visual change processing (as compared to change blindness) when observers merely detected the presence of a change (“sensing”) and when they identified the changing object in addition to detection (“seeing”). Although the visual awareness negativity (VAN)/selection negativity was similar for detection with and without identification, a change-related positivity and the N2pc contralateral to changes were found exclusively when the change was fully identified. This finding indicates that change identification requires perceptual and neural processes that are not involved in mere detection. In a second experiment, we demonstrated that the VAN and N2pc effects are similar to effects of selective attention in a visual search task. By contrast, the change-related positivity was specific for conscious processing of visual changes. The results suggest that changes can be detected (“sensed”) without perception of the changing object. Furthermore, sensing and seeing seem to rely on different neural processes and seem to constitute different types of visual perception. These findings bear implications for how different categories of visual awareness are related to different stages in visual processing.
Morphosyntactic Processing in Late Second-Language Learners
Authors: Dowens Margaret Gillon , Vergara Marta , Barber Horacio A. , Carreiras Manuel 
Published: July 2009

AbstractThe goal of the present study was to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of second-language (L2) morphosyntactic processing in highly proficient late learners of an L2 with long exposure to the L2 environment. ERPs were collected from 22 English–Spanish late learners while they read sentences in which morphosyntactic features of the L2 present or not present in the first language (number and gender agreement, respectively) were manipulated at two different sentence positions—within and across phrases. The results for a control group of age-matched native-speaker Spanish participants included an ERP pattern of LAN-type early negativity followed by P600 effect in response to both agreement violations and for both sentence positions. The late L2 learner results included a similar pattern, consisting of early negativity followed by P600, in the first sentence position (within-phrase agreement violations) but only P600 effects in the second sentence position (across-phrase agreement violation), as well as significant amplitude and onset latency differences between the gender and the number violation effects in both sentence positions. These results reveal that highly proficient learners can show electrophysiological correlates during L2 processing that are qualitatively similar to those of native speakers, but the results also indicate the contribution of factors such as age of acquisition and transfer processes from first language to L2.
Temporal Aspects of the Feeling of Familiarity for Music and the Emergence of Conceptual Processing
Authors: Daltrozzo Jérôme , Tillmann Barbara , Platel Hervé , Schön Daniele 
Published: July 2009

Abstract
We tested whether the emergence of familiarity to a melody may trigger or co-occur with the processing of the concept(s) conveyed by emotions to, or semantic association with, the melody. With this objective, we recorded ERPs while participants were presented with highly familiar and less familiar melodies in a gating paradigm. The ERPs time locked to a tone of the melody called the “familiarity emergence point” showed a larger fronto-central negativity for highly familiar compared with less familiar melodies between 200 and 500 msec, with a peak latency around 400 msec. This latency and the sensitivity to the degree of familiarity/conceptual information suggest that this component was an N400, a marker of conceptual processing. Our data suggest that the feeling of familiarity evoked by a musical excerpt could be accompanied by other processing mechanisms at the conceptual level. Coupling the gating paradigm with ERP analyses might become a new avenue for investigating the neurocognitive basis of implicit musical knowledge.
Cooperative Piety among Monastic and Secular Women in Late Medieval Germany
Authors: Mecham June 
Published: July 2009

AbstractScholarship has demonstrated that religious life for women was more fluid, more tied to the secular world and to gender ideologies, than strict categorizations of monastic versus lay, regular versus extraregular, visual versus intellectual allows. This article argues for the conceptualization and study of female monasticism, and female spirituality in general, as part of a broad continuum—as part of a shared culture of devotional practices—accepted and embraced (to a greater or lesser extent) by both men and women, secular and lay. More specifically, it explores the interaction between secular and professed women in support of monastic life, monastic devotion, and more broadly, medieval religious culture. Religious and lay women collaborated and cooperated to support specific religious communities and particular devotional practices, like the nuns' performance of the liturgy or their duty to remember patrons as part of the monastic memoria. Such collaboration and cooperation, however, has often escaped the notice of historians.
Genome-wide scans using archived neonatal dried blood spot samples
Authors: Hollegaard Mads V , Grauholm Jonas , Børglum Anders , Nyegaard Mette , Nørgaard-Pedersen Bent , Ørntoft Torben , Mortensen Preben B , Wiuf Carsten , Mors Ole , Didriksen Michael , Thorsen Poul , Hougaard David M 
Published: July 2009

Abstract

Background
Identification of disease susceptible genes requires access to DNA from numerous well-characterised subjects. Archived residual dried blood spot samples from national newborn screening programs may provide DNA from entire populations and medical registries the corresponding clinical information. The amount of DNA available in these samples is however rarely sufficient for reliable genome-wide scans, and whole-genome amplification may thus be necessary. This study assess the quality of DNA obtained from different amplification protocols by evaluating fidelity and robustness of the genotyping of 610,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms, using the Illumina Infinium HD Human610-Quad BeadChip. Whole-genome amplified DNA from 24 neonatal dried blood spot samples stored between 15 to 25 years was tested, and high-quality genomic DNA from 8 of the same individuals was used as reference.

Results
Using 3.2 mm disks from dried blood spot samples the optimal DNA-extraction and amplification protocol resulted in call-rates between 99.15% – 99.73% (mean 99.56%, N = 16), and conflicts with reference DNA in only three per 10,000 genotype calls.

Conclusion
Whole-genome amplified DNA from archived neonatal dried blood spot samples can be used for reliable genome-wide scans and is a cost-efficient alternative to collecting new samples.
A protocol for classifying normal‐ and flat‐arched foot posture for research studies using clinical and radiographic measurements
Authors: Murley George S , Menz Hylton B , Landorf Karl B 
Published: July 2009

AbstractBackgroundThere are several clinical and radiological methods available to classify foot posture in research, however there is no clear strategy for selecting the most appropriate measurements. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a foot screening protocol to distinguish between participants with normal‐ and flat‐arched feet who would then subsequently be recruited into a series of laboratory‐based gait studies.MethodsThe foot posture of ninety‐one asymptomatic young adults was assessed using two clinical measurements (normalised navicular height and arch index) and four radiological measurements taken from antero‐posterior and lateral x‐rays (talus‐second metatarsal angle, talo‐navicular coverage angle, calcaneal inclination angle and calcaneal‐first metatarsal angle). Normative foot posture values were taken from the literature and used to recruit participants with normal‐arched feet. Data from these participants were subsequently used to define the boundary between normal‐ and flat‐arched feet. This information was then used to recruit participants with flat‐arched feet. The relationship between the clinical and radiographic measures of foot posture was also explored.ResultsThirty‐two participants were recruited to the normal‐arched study, 31 qualified for the flat‐arched study and 28 participants were classified as having neither normal‐ or flat‐arched feet and were not suitable for either study. The values obtained from the two clinical and four radiological measurements established two clearly defined foot posture groups. Correlations among clinical and radiological measures were significant (p < 0.05) and ranged from r = 0.24 to 0.70. Interestingly, the clinical measures were more strongly associated with the radiographic angles obtained from the lateral view.ConclusionThis foot screening protocol provides a coherent strategy for researchers planning to recruit participants with normal‐ and flat‐arched feet. However, further research is required to determine whether foot posture variations in the sagittal, transverse or both planes provide the best descriptor of the flat foot.