Brain imaging and electrophysiological markers of anaphoric reference during speech production.

Pronouns create cohesive links in discourse by referring to previously mentioned elements. Here, we focus on pronominalization during speech production in three experiments employing ERP and fMRI methodologies. Participants were asked to produce two short sentences describing a man or woman using an object.

An event-related brain potential analysis of the use of temporal connectives in language production.

This study investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms involved in the linearization of events during language production, focusing on the processing of temporal conjunctions "before" and "after." While natural language typically presents events in chronological order, non-chronological sequences, as required by "before" sentences, impose additional cognitive demands. Using an adapted network task, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in 24 healthy German speaking participants to examine the brain activity associated with these demands.

Transient susceptibility to interference at event boundaries impacts long-term memory of naturalistic episodes.

During ongoing narratives, event boundaries trigger processes relevant for subsequent memory. Previous work has shown that novel, unrelated input presented at an event boundary can retroactively interfere with short-term retention of the preceding event. This interference was attributed to a perturbation of offset-related processes taking place within seconds after encoding and supporting the binding of elements into a coherent event memory.

Impact of theta transcranial alternating current stimulation on language production in adult classic galactosemia patients.

Patients with classic galactosemia (CG), an inborn error of galactose metabolism, suffer from impairments in cognition, including language processing. Potential causes are atypical brain oscillations. Recent electroencephalogram (EEG) showed differences in the P300 event-related-potential (ERP) and alterations in the alpha/theta-range during speech planning.

Altered neural oscillations in classical galactosaemia during sentence production.

Classical galactosaemia (CG) is a hereditary disease in galactose metabolism that despite dietary treatment is characterized by a wide range of cognitive deficits, among which is language production. CG brain functioning has been studied with several neuroimaging techniques, which revealed both structural and functional atypicalities. In the present study, for the first time, we compared the oscillatory dynamics, especially the power spectrum and time-frequency representations (TFR), in the electroencephalography (EEG) of CG patients and healthy controls while they were performing a language production task.

Neural Correlates of Tooth Clenching in Patients with Bruxism and Temporomandibular Disorder-Related Pain.

Aims: To measure brain activity in patients with bruxism and temporomandibular disorder (TMD)-related pain in comparison to controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and to investigate whether modulations in jaw clenching led to different pain reports and/or changes in neural activity in motor and pain processing areas within and between both groups.

Methods: A total of 40 participants (21 patients with bruxism and TMD-related pain and 19 healthy controls) performed a tooth-clenching task while lying inside a 3T MRI scanner. Participants were instructed to mildly or strongly clench their teeth for brief periods of 12 seconds and to subsequently rate their clenching intensity and pain experience after each clenching period.

Sensitivity to syllable stress regularities in externally but not self-triggered speech in Dutch.

Several theories of predictive processing propose reduced sensory and neural responses to anticipated events. Support comes from magnetoencephalography/electroencephalography (M/EEG) studies, showing reduced auditory N1 and P2 responses to self-generated compared to externally generated events, or when the timing and form of stimuli are more predictable. The current study examined the sensitivity of N1 and P2 responses to statistical speech regularities.

Cortical thickness and its relationship to cognitive performance and metabolic control in adults with phenylketonuria.

Despite good control of phenylalanine (Phe) levels during childhood and adolescence, adults with phenylketonuria (PKU) often show abnormalities in the white matter of the brain, which have been associated with poorer cognitive performance. However, whether such a relationship exists with cortical gray matter is still unknown. Therefore, we investigated cortical thickness and surface area in adults with early-treated PKU and their relationship to cognitive functions and metabolic control.

Spatiotemporal patterns of sleep spindle activity in human anterior thalamus and cortex.

Sleep spindles (8 - 16 Hz) are transient electrophysiological events during non-rapid eye movement sleep. While sleep spindles are routinely observed in the cortex using scalp electroencephalography (EEG), recordings of their thalamic counterparts have not been widely studied in humans. Based on a few existing studies, it has been hypothesized that spindles occur as largely local phenomena.

Combining Gamma With Alpha and Beta Power Modulation for Enhanced Cortical Mapping in Patients With Focal Epilepsy.

About one third of patients with epilepsy have seizures refractory to the medical treatment. Electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) is the gold standard for the identification of "eloquent" areas prior to resection of epileptogenic tissue. However, it is time-consuming and may cause undesired side effects.

ERP mismatch response to phonological and temporal regularities in speech.

Predictions of our sensory environment facilitate perception across domains. During speech perception, formal and temporal predictions may be made for phonotactic probability and syllable stress patterns, respectively, contributing to the efficient processing of speech input. The current experiment employed a passive EEG oddball paradigm to probe the neurophysiological processes underlying temporal and formal predictions simultaneously.

Sensorimotor Representation of Speech Perception. Cross-Decoding of Place of Articulation Features during Selective Attention to Syllables in 7T fMRI.

Sensorimotor integration, the translation between acoustic signals and motoric programs, may constitute a crucial mechanism for speech. During speech perception, the acoustic-motoric translations include the recruitment of cortical areas for the representation of speech articulatory features, such as place of articulation. Selective attention can shape the processing and performance of speech perception tasks.

Exploration of the Brain in Rest: Resting-State Functional MRI Abnormalities in Patients with Classic Galactosemia.

Patients with classic galactosemia, a genetic metabolic disorder, encounter cognitive impairments, including motor (speech), language, and memory deficits. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate spontaneous functional connectivity during rest to investigate potential abnormalities in neural networks. We characterized networks using seed-based correlation analysis in 13 adolescent patients and 13 matched controls.

Assessing Microstructural Substrates of White Matter Abnormalities: A Comparative Study Using DTI and NODDI.

Neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) enables more specific characterization of tissue microstructure by estimating neurite density (NDI) and orientation dispersion (ODI), two key contributors to fractional anisotropy (FA). The present work compared NODDI- with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-derived indices for investigating white matter abnormalities in a clinical sample. We assessed the added value of NODDI parameters over FA, by contrasting group differences identified by both models.

Grey matter density decreases as well as increases in patients with classic galactosemia: A voxel-based morphometry study.

Brain impairments have been observed in patients with classic galactosemia, an inherited metabolic disorder resulting in a particular neuro-cognitive profile. Neuroimaging studies showed abnormalities such as diffuse white mater (WM) abnormalities and grey matter (GM) atrophy. Our current study analysed grey matter density using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and compared the brains of eight adolescent patients with classic galactosemia with eight healthy gender- and aged-matched controls.

Cognitive and familial risk evidence converged: A data-driven identification of distinct and homogeneous subtypes within the heterogeneous sample of reading disabled children.

The evident degree of heterogeneity observed in reading disabled children has puzzled reading researchers for decades. Recent advances in the genetic underpinnings of reading disability have indicated that the heritable, familial risk for dyslexia is a major risk factor. The present data-driven, classification attempt aims to revisit the possibility of identifying distinct cognitive deficit profiles in a large sample of second to fourth grade reading disabled children.

The Effect of Distance on Moral Engagement: Event Related Potentials and Alpha Power are Sensitive to Perspective in a Virtual Shooting Task.

In a shooting video game we investigated whether increased distance reduces moral conflict. We measured and analyzed the event related potential (ERP), including the N2 component, which has previously been linked to cognitive conflict from competing decision tendencies. In a modified Go/No-go task designed to trigger moral conflict participants had to shoot suddenly appearing human like avatars in a virtual reality scene.

Decoding Articulatory Features from fMRI Responses in Dorsal Speech Regions.

Unlabelled: The brain's circuitry for perceiving and producing speech may show a notable level of overlap that is crucial for normal development and behavior. The extent to which sensorimotor integration plays a role in speech perception remains highly controversial, however. Methodological constraints related to experimental designs and analysis methods have so far prevented the disentanglement of neural responses to acoustic versus articulatory speech features.

Evidence for normal letter-sound integration, but altered language pathways in a case of recovered Landau-Kleffner Syndrome.

Landau-Kleffner Syndrome (LKS) is a rare form of acquired aphasia in children, characterized by epileptic discharges, which occur mostly during sleep. After normal speech and language development, aphasia develops between the ages of 3-7 years in a period ranging from days to months. The epileptic discharges usually disappear after reaching adulthood, but language outcomes are usually poor if no treatment focused on restoration of (non-) verbal communication is given.

Affected functional networks associated with sentence production in classic galactosemia.

Patients with the inherited metabolic disorder classic galactosemia have language production impairments in several planning stages. Here, we assessed potential deviations in recruitment and connectivity across brain areas responsible for language production that may explain these deficits. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study neural activity and connectivity while participants carried out a language production task.

EEG decoding of spoken words in bilingual listeners: from words to language invariant semantic-conceptual representations.

Spoken word recognition and production require fast transformations between acoustic, phonological, and conceptual neural representations. Bilinguals perform these transformations in native and non-native languages, deriving unified semantic concepts from equivalent, but acoustically different words. Here we exploit this capacity of bilinguals to investigate input invariant semantic representations in the brain.

White matter microstructure pathology in classic galactosemia revealed by neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging.

White matter abnormalities have been observed in patients with classic galactosemia, an inborn error of galactose metabolism. However, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data collected in the past were generally qualitative in nature. Our objective was to investigate white matter microstructure pathology and examine correlations with outcome and behaviour in this disease, by using multi-shell diffusion weighted imaging.

Neuroscientific evidence for defensive avoidance of fear appeals.

Previous studies indicate that people respond defensively to threatening health information, especially when the information challenges self-relevant goals. The authors investigated whether reduced acceptance of self-relevant health risk information is already visible in early attention allocation processes. In two experimental studies, participants were watching high- and low-threat health commercials, and at the same time had to pay attention to specific odd auditory stimuli in a sequence of frequent auditory stimuli (odd ball paradigm).

Brain-based translation: fMRI decoding of spoken words in bilinguals reveals language-independent semantic representations in anterior temporal lobe.

Bilinguals derive the same semantic concepts from equivalent, but acoustically different, words in their first and second languages. The neural mechanisms underlying the representation of language-independent concepts in the brain remain unclear. Here, we measured fMRI in human bilingual listeners and reveal that response patterns to individual spoken nouns in one language (e.

Temporal characteristics of online syntactic sentence planning: an event-related potential study.

During sentence production, linguistic information (semantics, syntax, phonology) of words is retrieved and assembled into a meaningful utterance. There is still debate on how we assemble single words into more complex syntactic structures such as noun phrases or sentences. In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the time course of syntactic planning.