Le Petit Prince Hong Kong (LPPHK): Naturalistic fMRI and EEG data from older Cantonese speakers.

Currently, the field of neurobiology of language is based on data from only a few Indo-European languages. The majority of this data comes from younger adults neglecting other age groups. Here we present a multimodal database which consists of task-based and resting state fMRI, structural MRI, and EEG data while participants over 65 years old listened to sections of the story The Little Prince in Cantonese.

Localizing Syntactic Composition with Left-Corner Recurrent Neural Network Grammars.

In computational neurolinguistics, it has been demonstrated that hierarchical models such as recurrent neural network grammars (RNNGs), which jointly generate word sequences and their syntactic structures via the syntactic composition, better explained human brain activity than sequential models such as long short-term memory networks (LSTMs). However, the vanilla RNNG has employed the top-down parsing strategy, which has been pointed out in the psycholinguistics literature as suboptimal especially for head-final/left-branching languages, and alternatively the left-corner parsing strategy has been proposed as the psychologically plausible parsing strategy. In this article, building on this line of inquiry, we investigate not only whether hierarchical models like RNNGs better explain human brain activity than sequential models like LSTMs, but also which parsing strategy is more neurobiologically plausible, by developing a novel fMRI corpus where participants read newspaper articles in a head-final/left-branching language, namely Japanese, through the naturalistic fMRI experiment.

Expectations modulate retrieval interference during ellipsis resolution.

Memory operations during language comprehension are subject to interference: retrieval is harder when items are linguistically similar to each other. We test how such interference effects might be modulated by linguistic expectations. Theories differ in how these factors might interact; we consider three possibilities: (i) predictability determines the need for retrieval, (ii) predictability affects cue-preference during retrieval, or (iii) word predictability moderates the effect of noise in memory during retrieval.

Modeling Structure-Building in the Brain With CCG Parsing and Large Language Models.

To model behavioral and neural correlates of language comprehension in naturalistic environments, researchers have turned to broad-coverage tools from natural-language processing and machine learning. Where syntactic structure is explicitly modeled, prior work has relied predominantly on context-free grammars (CFGs), yet such formalisms are not sufficiently expressive for human languages. Combinatory categorial grammars (CCGs) are sufficiently expressive directly compositional models of grammar with flexible constituency that affords incremental interpretation.

Le Petit Prince multilingual naturalistic fMRI corpus.

Neuroimaging using more ecologically valid stimuli such as audiobooks has advanced our understanding of natural language comprehension in the brain. However, prior naturalistic stimuli have typically been restricted to a single language, which limited generalizability beyond small typological domains. Here we present the Le Petit Prince fMRI Corpus (LPPC-fMRI), a multilingual resource for research in the cognitive neuroscience of speech and language during naturalistic listening (OpenNeuro: ds003643).

EEG Correlates of Long-Distance Dependency Formation in Mandarin -Questions.

Event-related potential components are sensitive to the processes underlying how questions are understood. We use so-called "covert" -questions in Mandarin to probe how such components generalize across different kinds of constructions. This study shows that covert Mandarin -questions do not elicit anterior negativities associated with memory maintenance, even when such a dependency is unambiguously cued.

Predictive Processing during a Naturalistic Statistical Learning Task in ASD.

Children's sensitivity to regularities within the linguistic stream, such as the likelihood that syllables co-occur, is foundational to speech segmentation and language acquisition. Yet, little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying speech segmentation in typical development and in neurodevelopmental disorders that impact language acquisition such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we investigate the neural signals of statistical learning in 15 human participants (children ages 8-12) with a clinical diagnosis of ASD and 14 age-matched and gender-matched typically developing peers.

Localizing syntactic predictions using recurrent neural network grammars.

Brain activity in numerous perisylvian brain regions is modulated by the expectedness of linguistic stimuli. We leverage recent advances in computational parsing models to test what representations guide the processes reflected by this activity. Recurrent Neural Network Grammars (RNNGs) are generative models of (tree, string) pairs that use neural networks to drive derivational choices.

Phase synchronization varies systematically with linguistic structure composition.

Computation in neuronal assemblies is putatively reflected in the excitatory and inhibitory cycles of activation distributed throughout the brain. In speech and language processing, coordination of these cycles resulting in phase synchronization has been argued to reflect the integration of information on different timescales (e.g.

Hierarchical structure guides rapid linguistic predictions during naturalistic listening.

The grammar, or syntax, of human language is typically understood in terms of abstract hierarchical structures. However, theories of language processing that emphasize sequential information, not hierarchy, successfully model diverse phenomena. Recent work probing brain signals has shown mixed evidence for hierarchical information in some tasks.

MEG Evidence for Incremental Sentence Composition in the Anterior Temporal Lobe.

Research investigating the brain basis of language comprehension has associated the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) with sentence-level combinatorics. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we test the parsing strategy implemented in this brain region. The number of incremental parse steps from a predictive left-corner parsing strategy that is supported by psycholinguistic research is compared with those from a less-predictive strategy.

Magnetoencephalography shows atypical sensitivity to linguistic sound sequences in autism spectrum disorder.

Neuroscientific evidence points toward atypical auditory processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and yet, the consequences of this for receptive language remain unclear. Using magnetoencephalography and a passive listening task, we test for cascading effects on speech sound processing. Children with ASD and age-matched control participants (8-12 years old) listened to nonce linguistic stimuli that either did or did not conform to the phonological rules that govern consonant sequences in English (e.

Abstract linguistic structure correlates with temporal activity during naturalistic comprehension.

Neurolinguistic accounts of sentence comprehension identify a network of relevant brain regions, but do not detail the information flowing through them. We investigate syntactic information. Does brain activity implicate a computation over hierarchical grammars or does it simply reflect linear order, as in a Markov chain? To address this question, we quantify the cognitive states implied by alternative parsing models.

Multimodal imaging of temporal processing in typical and atypical language development.

New approaches to understanding language and reading acquisition propose that the human brain's ability to synchronize its neural firing rate to syllable-length linguistic units may be important to children's ability to acquire human language. Yet, little evidence from brain imaging studies has been available to support this proposal. Here, we summarize three recent brain imaging (functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and magnetoencephalography (MEG)) studies from our laboratories with young English-speaking children (aged 6-12 years).

Spectro-temporal correlates of lexical access during auditory lexical decision.

Lexical access during speech comprehension comprises numerous computations, including activation, competition, and selection. The spatio-temporal profile of these processes involves neural activity in peri-auditory cortices at least as early as 200 ms after stimulation. Their oscillatory dynamics are less well understood, although reports link alpha band de-synchronization with lexical processing.

The time-course and spatial distribution of brain activity associated with sentence processing.

Sentence comprehension involves a host of highly interrelated processes, including syntactic parsing, semantic composition, and pragmatic inferencing. In neuroimaging, a primary paradigm for examining the brain bases of sentence processing has been to compare brain activity elicited by sentences versus unstructured lists of words. These studies commonly find an effect of increased activity for sentences in the anterior temporal lobes (aTL).

Syntactic structure building in the anterior temporal lobe during natural story listening.

The neural basis of syntax is a matter of substantial debate. In particular, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), or Broca's area, has been prominently linked to syntactic processing, but the anterior temporal lobe has been reported to be activated instead of IFG when manipulating the presence of syntactic structure. These findings are difficult to reconcile because they rely on different laboratory tasks which tap into distinct computations, and may only indirectly relate to natural sentence processing.

Processing events: behavioral and neuromagnetic correlates of Aspectual Coercion.

Much recent psycho- and neuro-linguistic work has aimed to elucidate the mechanisms by which sentence meanings are composed by investigating the processing of semantic mismatch. One controversial case for theories of semantic composition is expressions such as the clown jumped for ten minutes, in which the aspectual properties of a punctual verb clash with those of a durative modifier. Such sentences have been proposed to involve a coercion operation which shifts the punctual meaning of the verb to an iterative one.

Cardiac peroxiredoxins undergo complex modifications during cardiac oxidant stress.

Peroxiredoxins (Prdxs), a family of antioxidant and redox-signaling proteins, are plentiful within the heart; however, their cardiac functions are poorly understood. These studies were designed to characterize the complex changes in Prdxs induced by oxidant stress in rat myocardium. Hydrogen peroxide, a Prdx substrate, was used as the model oxidant pertinent to redox signaling during health and to injury at higher concentrations.

Cysteine redox sensor in PKGIa enables oxidant-induced activation.

Changes in the concentration of oxidants in cells can regulate biochemical signaling mechanisms that control cell function. We have found that guanosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cGMP)-dependent protein kinase (PKG) functions directly as a redox sensor. The Ialpha isoform, PKGIalpha, formed an interprotein disulfide linking its two subunits in cells exposed to exogenous hydrogen peroxide.

FCCP is cardioprotective at concentrations that cause mitochondrial oxidation without detectable depolarisation.

Objective: The role of mitochondria and in particular of mitochondrial uncoupling in the mechanism of cardioprotection is not defined. In the accompanying paper we have shown that pretreatment of isolated rat hearts with a low concentration (100 nM) of FCCP, prior to global ischaemia, is cardioprotective, while 300 nM FCCP exacerbates injury. Here we define the mitochondrial responses to increasing concentrations of FCCP and also to explore the equivalence of the cardioprotective doses of diazoxide.