Intrusive effects of semantic information on visual selective attention.

Every object is represented by semantic information in extension to its low-level properties. It is well documented that such information biases attention when it is necessary for an ongoing task. However, whether semantic relationships influence attentional selection when they are irrelevant to the ongoing task remains an open question.

Acquiring and Producing Sentences: Whether Learners Use Verb-Specific or Verb-General Information Depends on Cue Validity.

Learning to produce sentences involves learning patterns that enable the generation of new utterances. Language contains both verb-specific and verb-general regularities that are relevant to this capacity. Previous research has focused on whether one source is more important than the other.

Ventral and dorsal streams for choosing word order during sentence production.

Proficient language use requires speakers to vary word order and choose between different ways of expressing the same meaning. Prior statistical associations between individual verbs and different word orders are known to influence speakers' choices, but the underlying neural mechanisms are unknown. Here we show that distinct neural pathways are used for verbs with different statistical associations.

Controlled processing during sequencing.

Longstanding evidence has identified a role for the frontal cortex in sequencing within both linguistic and non-linguistic domains. More recently, neuropsychological studies have suggested a specific role for the left premotor-prefrontal junction (BA 44/6) in selection between competing alternatives during sequencing. In this study, we used neuroimaging with healthy adults to confirm and extend knowledge about the neural correlates of sequencing.

Cognitive control during sentence generation.

Sentence generation involves selecting the right words out of multiple co-activated representations for the right utterance positions. This selection process is hypothesized to involve cognitive control. Previous research has linked cognitive control during language processing to regions within the frontal lobe, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC).