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The role of the striatum in processing language rules: evidence from word perception in Huntington's disease.

On the assumption that linguistic faculties reflect both lexical storage in the temporal cortex and combinatorial rules in the striatal circuits, several authors have shown that striatal-damaged patients are impaired with conjugation rules while retaining lexical knowledge of irregular verbs [Teichmann, M., Dupoux, E., Kouider, S., Brugières, P., Boissé, M. F., Baudic, S., Cesaro, P., Peschanski, M., & Bachoud-Lévi, A. C. (2005). The role of the striatum in rule application. The model of Huntington's disease at early stage. Brain, 128, 1155-1167; Ullman, M. T., Corkin, S., Coppola, M., Hickok, G., Growdon, J. H., Koroshetz, W. J., & Pinker, S. (1997). A neural dissociation within language: Evidence that the mental dictionary is part of declarative memory, and that grammatical rules are processed by the procedural system. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 266-276]. Yet, such impairment was documented only with explicit conjugation tasks in the production domain. Little is known about whether it generalizes to other language modalities such as perception and whether it refers to implicit language processing or rather to intentional rule operations through executive functions. We investigated these issues by assessing perceptive processing of conjugated verb forms in a model of striatal dysfunction, namely, in Huntington's Disease (HD) at early stages. Rule application and lexical processes were evaluated in an explicit task (acceptability judgments on verb and nonword forms) and in an implicit task (lexical decision on frequency-manipulated verb forms). HD patients were also assessed in executive functions, and striatal atrophy was evaluated with magnetic resonance imaging (bicaudate ratio). Results from both tasks showed that HD patients were selectively impaired for rule application but lexical abilities were spared. Bicaudate ratios correlated with rule scores on both tasks, whereas executive parameters only correlated with scores on the explicit task. We argue that the striatum has a core function in linguistic rule application generalizing to perceptive aspects of morphological operations and pertaining to implicit language processes. In addition, we suggest that the striatum may enclose computational circuits that underpin explicit manipulation of regularities.

Adult↗

The electronic patient records solution.

Automation has been the solution for many business problems, yet few home care agencies have extended computerization beyond the traditional billing and financial functions to the clinical nursing process. Excessive nursing time spent in documentation is arguably the single biggest business problem facing the industry. Why haven't computers been accepted by home care clinicians? How could new advances in technology create virtually paperless home care nursing?

Attitude to Computers↗

[Language acquisition and statistical learning].

Statistical learning is a basic mechanism of information processing in the human brain. The purpose lies in the extraction of probabilistic regularities from the multitude of sensory inputs. Principles of statistical learning contribute significantly to language acquisition and presumably also to language recovery following stroke. The empirical database presented in this manuscript demonstrates that the process of word segmentation, acquisition of a lexicon, and acquisition of simple grammatical rules can be entirely explained through statistical learning. Statistical learning is mediated by changes in synaptic weights in neuronal networks. The concept therefore stands at the transition to molecular biology and pharmacology of the neuronal synapse. It still remains to be shown if all aspects of language acquisition can be explained through statistical learning and which regions of the brain are involved in or capable of statistical learning. Principles of effective language training are obvious already. Most important is the massive, repeated interactive exposure. Conscious processing of the stimulus material may not be essential. The crucial principle is a high cooccurrence of language and corresponding sensory processes. This requires a more intense training frequency than traditional aphasia treatment programs provide.

Adult↗

Orthographic and phonemic coding for lexical access: evidence from Hebrew.

In Hebrew script, vowels are represented by small dots appended to the consonants. However, in print the dots are almost always omitted, and because a single consonant string may represent several different words (with different vowels), the reader can assign to it a unique meaning and pronunciation only in relation to the syntactic and semantic contexts. We investigated the role of phonemic mediation for lexical access when printed Hebrew words are presented in isolation. Two experiments manipulated phonemic ambiguity by comparing consonant strings that have only a single meaningful pronunciation with strings that have several meaningful pronunciations. Although naming was slower when several pronunciations were possible, these phonemically ambiguous strings were not recognized more slowly in a lexical-decision task. A third study, in which lexical decisions were made for consonant strings presented with the vowel dots, showed that nonword homographs were rejected more slowly than were nonword homophones. These results suggest that in Hebrew, orthographic codes play a more important role in the process of word recognition than do phonemic codes, especially in comparison with the roles played in other languages.

Female↗

Dissociation of the neural correlates of implicit and explicit memory.

One presentation of a word to a subject is enough to change the way in which the word is processed subsequently, even when there is no conscious (explicit) memory of the original presentation. This phenomenon is known as implicit memory. The neural correlates of implicit memory have been studied previously, but they have never been compared with the correlates of explicit memory while holding task conditions constant or while using a procedure that ensured that the neural correlates were not 'contaminated' by explicit memory. Here we use scalp-recorded event-related brain potentials to identify neural activity associated with implicit and explicit memory during the performance of a recognition memory task. Relative to new words, recently studied words produced activity in three neuroanatomically and functionally dissociable neural populations. One of these populations was activated whether or not the word was consciously recognized, and its activity therefore represents a neural correlate of implicit memory. Thus, when task and memory contamination effects are eliminated, the neural correlates of explicit and implicit memory differ qualitatively.

Adult↗

Ability to stand alone and processing of open-class and closed-class words: isolation versus context.

Four experiments investigating processing of closed-class and open-class words in isolation and in sentence contexts are reported. Taft (1990) reported that closed-class words which could not meaningfully stand alone and open-class words which could not meaningfully stand alone incurred longer lexical decision responses than did control words. Taft also reported that closed-class and open-class words which could stand alone meaningfully were not associated with longer lexical decision responses than were control words. Experiments 1 and 2 replicated Taft's effect of ability to stand alone on lexical decision responses to closed-class and open-class words presented in isolation. In Experiments 3 and 4, the same lexical decision targets were presented as part of semantically neutral context sentences in a moving window paradigm. The stand-alone effect was not present in Experiments 3 and 4. The results suggest Taft's conclusion that meaningfulness of a word influences lexical decision needs revision. An explanation is provided according to which support from message level and syntactic and lexical sources in sentence contexts influence words' perceived "meaningfulness."

Humans↗

Error-proof your discharge planning process now.

The new sentinel event policy from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations could lead to an explosion in the number of new medical malpractice suits leveled against hospitals and clinicians, experts say. One key target of the sentinel event policy is discharge planning. Because of the possibility of such increased scrutiny, it's more important than ever to streamline your discharge planning process and build in safeguards to keep catastrophic events from occurring. To ensure that discharge planning is coordinated effectively, begin the process on admission, and have a clinically trained case manager follow up to see that things are running smoothly, experts say. Such oversight is important because the more times information is transferred, the greater the possibility that errors will creep into the system.

Case Management↗

Understanding the internet, website design and intranet development: a primer for radiologists.

The internet has become an essential part of daily life for almost all radiologists and yet few fully understand how this works or how best to harness the technology within the workplace. This article will explore the basics of computer networking which has allowed the internet to become a valuable resource. In addition, the process of designing and implementing a website or intranet site for the benefit of radiology departmental administration and education will be discussed. The options of how to develop a website, what to include, and how to achieve this using easy to use, freely available and low-cost software will also be explored.

Computer Communication Networks↗

Individual differences in children's performance during an emotional Stroop task: a behavioral and electrophysiological study.

Two studies using the emotional Stroop with 11-year-old children were completed. In Study 1, children were assigned to either the "interference group" or the "facilitation group" based on their performance on the task. The interference group was slower to respond to emotion words (positive and negative) versus control words. The facilitation group was faster to respond to the emotion words. The groups were then compared on a set of cognitive, emotional, and social measures collected at ages 4, 7, and 11. The interference group showed greater signs of emotional and social, but not cognitive, maladjustment across time. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1. In addition, event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected in Study 2. The ERP data replicated earlier traditional Stroop studies. In addition, positive and negative words showed differences in processing across components. In particular, negative words appeared to tax attentional and processing resources more than positive words.

Affect↗

Sensitive periods differentiate processing of open- and closed-class words: an ERP study of bilinguals.

The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that neural processes for language are heterogeneous in their adaptations to maturation and experience. This study examined whether the neural processes for open- and closed-class words are differentially affected by delays in second-language immersion. In English, open-class words primarily convey referential meaning, whereas closed-class words are primarily related to grammatical information in sentence processing. Previous studies indicate that event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by these word classes display nonidentical distributions and latencies, show different developmental time courses, and are differentially affected by early language experience in Deaf individuals. In this study, ERPs were recorded from 10 monolingual English speakers and 53 Chinese-English bilingual speakers who were grouped according to their age of immersion in English: 1-3, 4-6, 7-10, 11-13, and >15 years of age. Closed-class words elicited an N280 that was largest over left anterior electrode sites for all groups. However, the peak latency was later (>35 ms) in bilingual speakers immersed in English after 7 years of age. In contrast, the latencies and distributions of the N350 elicited by open-class words were similar in all groups. In addition, the N400, elicited by semantic anomalies (open-class words that violated semantic expectation), displayed increased peak latencies for only the later-learning bilingual speakers (>11 years). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that language subprocesses are differentially sensitive to the timing of second-language experience.

Adolescent↗

An fMRI study on conceptual, grammatical, and morpho-phonological processing.

The aim of the present study was to determine whether processing of syntactic word information (lemma) is subserved by the same neural substrate as processing of conceptual or word form information (lexeme). We measured BOLD responses in 14 native speakers of German in three different decision tasks, each focussing specifically on one level of lexical processing (conceptual, syntactic, and morpho-phonological). The test parameters were natural gender, grammatical gender, and word form derivation, respectively. Discrimination between words played backwards and complex sounds served as control task. Complex contrasts revealed a functional fractionation of the left inferior frontal gyrus for each level of lexical processing.

Adult↗

Material type and attention control in dichotic listening.

The present study investigated the effects of semantic and emotional content on laterality effects found in focused attention dichotic listening tasks. A total of 80 right-handed participants completed one of four conditions. They were presented either with dichotic pairs of consonant-vowel (CV) syllables (ba, da, ga, ka, pa, or ta) or words (bower, dower, power, or tower), pronounced in either a neutral tone or one of four emotional tones (happy, sad, angry, neutral). In all conditions, participants were instructed to circle the stimulus presented to the attended ear on each trial. The attended ear was randomised between blocks of trials for each participant. A significant condition by ear attended by ear of presentation interaction emerged. The typical right ear advantage (REA) was found in the neutral conditions, regardless of ear attended. In contrast, the emotional conditions revealed an REA when participants focused on the right ear, whereas a left ear advantage was found when they focused on the left ear. These findings suggest that the emotional component resulted in a shift in ear advantage coinciding with instructions possibly because of the influence of this component on attention and task difficulty. The role of semantic processing in words versus syllables is also discussed.

Adolescent↗

Reappraising the cerebellum: what does the hindbrain contribute to the forebrain?

Although the cerebellum has traditionally been regarded as a motor mechanism, recent behavioral evidence indicates that the human cerebellum is involved in a wider range of functions: in learning, in planning, in judging time, in some emotional and cognitive disorders such as autism, and in some normal mental activities such as the cognitive processing of words. This evidence suggests that the traditional view of cerebellar function now needs to be reassessed and enlarged to include nonmotor as well as motor functions in the human brain. Whereas the cerebellar connections to frontal motor areas enable the cerebellum to improve motor skills, cerebellar connections to adjacent association areas of the prefrontal cortex can enable the cerebellum to improve mental skills, and cerebellar connections to Broca's area can enable the cerebellum to improve language skills.

Animals↗

ReDiT: Repeat Discrepancy Tagger--a shotgun assembly finishing aid.

UNLABELLED: Finishing, i.e. gap closure and editing, is the most time-consuming part of genome sequencing. Repeated sequences together with sequencing errors complicate the assembly and often result in misassemblies that are difficult to correct. Repeat Discrepancy Tagger (ReDiT) is a tool designed to aid in the finishing step. This software processes assembly results produced by any fragment assembly program that outputs ace files. The input sequences are analyzed to determine possible differences between repeated sequences. The output is written as tags in an ace file that can be viewed by, e.g. the Consed sequence editor. AVAILABILITY: The ReDiT program is freely available at http://web.cgb.ki.se/redit

Algorithms↗

Stress detection in computer users through non-invasive monitoring of physiological signals.

he emerging discipline of Affective Computing pursues the development of computers that could interact with their users taking their affective states into account. For example, if a computer could detect when its user is experiencing stress, it could change the colors and sounds of its user interface to try to calm him/her down. Similarly, the pace of instruction in a computer-based training system could be adapted according to the stress level sensed in the pupil. The research described in this paper aims at the development of a stress detection approach based on automatic monitoring of physiological signals in the computer user. The paper describes the three main aspects of our work: experiment setup for physiological sensing, signal processing to detect the affective state and affective recognition using a learning system. Four signals: Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), Blood Volume Pulse (BVP), Pupil Diameter (PD) and Skin Temperature (ST) are monitored and analyzed to differentiate affective states in the user, in a non-invasive fashion. Results indicate that the physiological signals monitored do, in fact, have a strong correlation with the changes in emotional state of our experimental subjects when stress stimuli are applied to the interaction environment.

Adult↗

Semantic retrieval of spoken words with an obliterated initial phoneme in a sentence context.

Perception of a phoneme may occur even when the speech sound is missing (e.g., when an extraneous noise replaces the sound). This phenomenon, called phonemic restoration, has been observed to depend on the type of distortion. It requires a replacing sound that provides acoustic input to the auditory system, since the restoration has not been found when a speech sound was replaced by silence. We examined the brain activation underlying speech processing when the word's initial phoneme was completely replaced by a silent gap. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and reaction times (RTs) were measured as indicators of semantic processing of sentence final words. Slower voice onset times during repetition of the manipulated words as compared to normal words indicated increased difficulty in retrieving their meaning. The N400, which is related to the increased demands of the semantic integration of words, was elicited by less expected words as compared to highly expected ones. For manipulated words, the N400 was elicited at the same latency than for normal words, with respect to the onset of the remaining word fragment. The amplitude of the N400 was not increased, nor did it last longer, thereby indicating successful retrieval of the word's meaning based on the semantic context and remaining phonetic information. Thus, semantic retrieval does not seem to require the word's initial phoneme to be present in a sentence context. The results suggest that both context-driven expectancy (top-down) and stimulus-driven processes (bottom-up) are utilized in word processing and contribute to the overall N400 response.

Adult↗

[Effect of system-related work interruptions in computer-assisted text processing: a field study].

To validate laboratory research findings on the stress inducing effects of system response time in human-computer interaction, a field study was performed at the central typing office of a bank. Simultaneous subject-oriented and object-oriented measures (questionnaires) of working properties were taken with a relatively high sampling rate over several days in addition to the ordinary business activities. In summary, the negative effects of system response times could also be observed in the real work setting, but were modified by subjective and situational factors which had not been considered in laboratory research yet. The users also avoided situations of temporal uncertainty by adapting their working style to the system. Therefore it is concluded, that the effects of system response time should be interpreted by the concept of user acceptance and not by temporal uncertainty.

Adult↗

Lexical-semantic processes in children with specific language impairment.

The current study used event-related brain potentials to investigate lexical-semantic processing of words in sentences spoken by children with specific language impairment and children with normal language development. Children heard correct sentences and sentences with a violation of the selectional restriction of the verb. Control children showed an N400 effect followed by a late positivity for the incorrect sentences. In contrast, children with specific language impairment showed no N400 effect but did show a late, broadly distributed positivity. This absence of the N400 effect is due to a relatively large negativity for correct sentences, suggesting weaker lexical-semantic representations of the verbs and their selectional restrictions in children with specific language impairment.

Acoustic Stimulation↗