Suppression of non-selected solutions as a possible brain mechanism for ambiguity resolution in the word fragment task completion task.

Brain systems dealing with multiple meanings of ambiguous stimuli are relatively well studied, while the processing of non-selected meanings is less investigated in the neurophysiological literature and provokes controversy between existing theories. It is debated whether these meanings are actively suppressed and, if yes, whether suppression characterizes any task that involves alternative solutions or only those tasks that emphasize semantic processing or the existence of alternatives. The current functional MRI event-related study used a modified version of the word fragment completion task to reveal brain mechanisms involved in implicit processing of the non-selected solutions of ambiguous fragments.

Changes in functional connectivity within the fronto-temporal brain network induced by regular and irregular Russian verb production.

Functional connectivity between brain areas involved in the processing of complex language forms remains largely unexplored. Contributing to the debate about neural mechanisms underlying regular and irregular inflectional morphology processing in the mental lexicon, we conducted an fMRI experiment in which participants generated forms from different types of Russian verbs and nouns as well as from nonce stimuli. The data were subjected to a whole brain voxel-wise analysis of context dependent changes in functional connectivity [the so-called psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis].

An ER-fMRI study of Russian inflectional morphology.

The generation of regular and irregular past tense verbs has long been a testing ground for different models of inflection in the mental lexicon. Behavioral studies examined a variety of languages, but neuroimaging studies rely almost exclusively on English and German data. In our fMRI experiment, participants inflected Russian verbs and nouns of different types and corresponding nonce stimuli.

From communication signals to human language and thought: evolution or revolution?

This article addresses a question which has in recent years been widely discussed: that of the specific features of mental functions and language in humans as compared with other higher biological species. The main hypotheses of the origin and evolution of humans and their language are discussed, along with studies identifying genes responsible for higher functions. The cognitive capacities of animals and their communication signals are addressed, as are the basic principles of brain functions.

The mirror brain, concepts, and language: the price of anthropogenesis.

This article presents a review of cognitive evolution and the question of the origin of language and consciousness. Questions of the genetic history of Homo sapiens are considered, along with basic concepts and their relationship to sensory experience. The questions of the location of higher functions and the organization of metarepresentations in health and pathology are discussed.