Tracking meaning evolution in the brain: Processing consequences of conventionalization.

Language users employ creative and innovative means to refer to novel concepts. One example is place-for-event metonymy as in "How many bands played at Woodstock?" where the place name is used to refer to an event. We capitalize on the observation that place-for-event metonymy can on the one hand result in the conventionalization of the event reading (as is the case for "Woodstock") but on the other hand can also be relatively short-lived as a function of the socio-cultural or historical impact of the respective event (e.

Cognitive performance under motor demands - On the influence of task difficulty and postural control.

We often walk around when we have to think about something, but suddenly stop when we are confronted with a demanding cognitive task, such as calculating 1540*24. While previous neurophysiological research investigated cognitive and motor performance separately, findings that combine both are rare. To get a deeper understanding of the influence of motor demands as well as the difficulty of a simultaneously performed cognitive task, we investigated 20 healthy individuals.