Article
Psychology, Experimental
Peter Langland-Hassan, Frank R. Faries, Maxwell Gatyas, Aimee Dietz, Michael J. Richardson
Summary: Recent research has shown that language serves important cognitive roles beyond communication of thoughts, such as facilitating abstract thinking. Individuals with aphasia demonstrate longer response times in tasks requiring abstract thought, and those with lower language abilities tend to take longer in metacognitive evaluations. These findings support the idea that language plays a crucial role in abstract thought and metacognition.
Article
Neurosciences
Yael Benn, Anna A. Ivanova, Oliver Clark, Zachary Mineroff, Chloe Seikus, Jack Santos Silva, Rosemary Varley, Evelina Fedorenko
Summary: The relationship between language and thought has been debated for a long time. Some argue that language helps categorize objects based on certain features, but our studies show that language impairment does not necessarily affect object categorization. Brain regions responsible for cognitive control might play a bigger role in selective categorization impairment.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Herbert L. Colston
Summary: The essence of metaphor relies on two domains, a source and a target, which is rooted in the fundamental characteristic of higher cognition that allows for conceptualizing multiple domains simultaneously. This cognitive duality underlies various conceptual activities, including comparison, contrast, categorization, and metaphorization. The use of two domains is argued to be the optimal means of meta-cognition, striking a balance between the need for creating and relying upon complex shared meanings and the challenges of enabling such shared meaning across multiple domains.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Ruilin Wu, Esli Struys
Summary: The study examined the role of language dominance in bilinguals' language control and cognitive control tasks, finding that increased dominance in L2 led to larger switch costs in language control. Additionally, recent exposure to the L1 minority language was associated with changes in language switch costs.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Zsuzsanna Kondor
Summary: This article presents the concept of thought-shapers and discusses the impact of different forms of representation on thinking. The researcher suggests that both mental and public representations have the potential to shape thought, albeit in different ways. The article also analyzes the historical development of representational means and skills, as well as the influence of language on thinking.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Ida Rangus, Merve Fritsch, Matthias Endres, Birgit Udke, Christian H. Nolte
Summary: Aphasia occurs in nearly half of patients with focal thalamic lesions, with language deficits particularly pronounced in patients with left anterior Isolated Acute unilateral ischemic Lesions in the Thalamus.
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Georgios Papageorgiou, Dimitrios Kasselimis, Nikolaos Laskaris, Constantin Potagas
Summary: Translational neuroscience is a multidisciplinary field that aims to bridge the gap between basic science and clinical practice. This review discusses key neuroplasticity principles that have been elucidated through animal studies and could potentially be applied in aphasia treatment. The authors highlight the potential of translational research to advance our knowledge of brain-language relationships.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Miriam A. Novack, Dana Chan, Sandra Waxman
Summary: This study shows that infants have a natural inclination to acquire language and can be influenced by both spoken and sign languages from an early age. The study also reveals differences in infants' attention and visual switches between different language modalities, but similar patterns in their spontaneous vocalizations across languages.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Linguistics
Vishnu K. K. Nair, Tegan Rayner, Samantha Siyambalapitiya, Britta Biedermann
Summary: A systematic review of literature on bilingual individuals with aphasia indicates that successful inhibition of a non-target language during language production may involve both domain-general cognitive control and domain-specific language control mechanisms.
JOURNAL OF NEUROLINGUISTICS
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Neguine Rezaii, James Michaelov, Sylvia Josephy-Hernandez, Boyu Ren, Daisy Hochberg, Megan Quimby, Bradford C. Dickerson
Summary: Nonfluent aphasia is characterized by simplified sentence structures and word-level abnormalities. The prevailing belief is that a core deficit in syntax processing causes these abnormalities. However, an alternative view based on information theory suggests that the word-level features of nonfluency are actually a compensatory process called lexical condensation.
ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Zhijie Yan, Shuo Xu, Dongshuai Wei, Xinyuan He, Chong Li, Yongli Zhang, Mengye Chen, Jingna Zhang, Xiaofang Li, Qing Yang, Jie Jia
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the evaluation of cognitive impairment in different types of post-stroke aphasia. The results showed that MoCA, MMSE, and NLCA can be used to assess cognitive impairment in fluent aphasia patients, while NLCA is recommended for non-fluent aphasia patients.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Medicine, General & Internal
Natalia Cichon, Lidia Wlodarczyk, Joanna Saluk-Bijak, Michal Bijak, Justyna Redlicka, Leslaw Gorniak, Elzbieta Miller
Summary: This review focuses on treatment strategies for post-stroke aphasia, including speech language therapies, cognitive neurorehabilitation, and pharmacotherapy. Research suggests that using TMS and tDCS can safely modulate cortical excitability, aiding in speech and language recovery. In addition to pharmacological treatments, specific interventions such as constraint-induced aphasia therapy have been proposed.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Joshua McCall, Candace M. van der Stelt, Andrew DeMarco, Vivian Dickens, Elizabeth Dvorak, Elizabeth Lacey, Sarah Snider, Rhonda Friedman, Peter Turkeltaub
Summary: The study found impairments in phonological control in aphasia patients, with subtle individual impairments, while significant impairments were observed in semantic control. Semantic control impairments in aphasia contribute to deficits in other semantic tasks.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Kristina Ruch, Melissa Dawn Stockbridge, Alexandra Walker, Emilia Vitti, Jennifer Shea, Shannon Sheppard, Alex Pacl, Hana Kim, Andreia Vasconcellos Faria, Argye Elizabeth Hillis
Summary: This study presents a new behavioral assessment that can accurately distinguish logopenic variant from other variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and correlates with specific atrophy in the brain. The results provide an efficient and reliable clinical tool for differentiating between different types of PPA, particularly between logopenic and nonfluent agrammatic variants. The study also supports the theory that logopenic variant PPA is characterized by a defect in phonological short-term memory due to atrophy in a specific area of the brain.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Melissa D. Stockbridge, Donna C. Tippett, Bonnie L. Breining, Emilia Vitti, Argye E. Hillis
Summary: This study retrospectively analyzed 435 evaluations of individuals with primary progressive aphasia, finding that a battery of cognitive and linguistic assessments had varying sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing different variants. Naming assessments were identified as the strongest basis for distinguishing all variants.
Article
Psychology
Melissa Thye, Jerzy P. Szaflarski, Daniel Mirman
Summary: The lesion-symptom mapping study found differences in the brain regions associated with semantic and letter fluency deficits in post-stroke aphasia, with notable overlap between the two. The study also revealed that semantic fluency and letter fluency largely rely on the same neural system.
JOURNAL OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Jessica H. Mirman, Aja L. Murray, Daniel Mirman, Stephanie A. Adams
Summary: Neurobiological and cognitive maturational models are the dominant theoretical account of adolescents' risk-taking behavior, with a specific focus on the development of working memory (WM) and its relationship to reckless driving. A cohort study replicated previous findings of attenuated WM growth trajectories in adolescent drivers who had been in crashes, and used a multiverse representation analysis (MRA) to evaluate the robustness of these associations to methodological choices. The study demonstrated the importance of examining various reasonable methodological choices in analyzing the relationship between WM development trajectories and adolescents' risk-taking behaviors.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Melissa Thye, Jason Geller, Jerzy P. Szaflarski, Daniel Mirman
Summary: This study used intracranial EEG to examine the neural organization of semantic knowledge, showing that the anterior temporal lobe and inferior parietal lobule specialize in different types of semantic relations, in line with the dual-hub account of semantic cognition.
Article
Biology
Aleksandra Cwiek, Susanne Fuchs, Christoph Draxler, Eva Liina Asu, Dan Dediu, Katri Hiovain, Shigeto Kawahara, Sofia Koutalidis, Manfred Krifka, Partel Lippus, Gary Lupyan, Grace E. Oh, Jing Paul, Caterina Petrone, Rachid Ridouane, Sabine Reiter, Nathalie Schumchen, Adam Szalontai, Ozlem Unal-Logacev, Jochen Zeller, Marcus Perlman, Bodo Winter
Summary: The bouba/kiki effect, which associates speech sounds with visual shapes, has implications for the evolution of spoken language. A study found robust evidence for the effect across languages and writing systems, largely independent of orthography.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Patrick J. Errington, Melissa Thye, Daniel Mirman
Summary: The study found that unfamiliar variations of metaphor in poetry are more pleasurable than conventional language, although they are also more difficult to comprehend. Specifically, only metaphor extension conditions induced the anticipated pleasure effects.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Molly Lewis, Matt Cooper Borkenhagen, Ellen Converse, Gary Lupyan, Mark S. Seidenberg
Summary: The study revealed that children's books contain many gendered words judged by adults, and that many books reinforce existing gender stereotypes. Data showed that children are more frequently exposed to stereotypes related to their own gender.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Aja Louise Murray, Amy Nivette, Ingrid Obsuth, Jessica Hafetz Mirman, Daniel Mirman, Denis Ribeaud, Manuel Eisner
Summary: This study found that there are discrepancies between youth and their teachers in terms of youth aggressive and prosocial behavior, and these discrepancies are influenced by gender. Understanding the impact of gender on informant perceptions and discrepancies can improve the accuracy of assessments.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
(2022)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Limor Raviv, Gary Lupyan, Shawn C. Green
Summary: Learning is the process of using past experiences to shape new behaviors and actions. Increasing variability in training can enhance generalization, leading to more widespread and robust performance. This core principle has been recognized and named differently in various domains, providing insights into key patterns, different types of variability, and the effects of introducing variability at different stages of training.
TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
Natalie Gilmore, Daniel Mirman, Swathi Kiran
Summary: The study aimed to assess the effect of an intensive cognitive and communication rehabilitation (ICCR) program on language and other cognitive performance in young adults with acquired brain injury (ABI). The results showed that the ICCR treatment significantly improved overall item accuracy and verbal expression in young adults with chronic ABI. The treatment group also demonstrated significant gains in written expression, memory, and problem solving. In contrast, the control group did not show significant improvement in overall item accuracy.
JOURNAL OF SPEECH LANGUAGE AND HEARING RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Biology
Qiawen Liu, Gary Lupyan
Summary: We demonstrate that people can evaluate similarities across different domains in predictable ways, suggesting the representation of seemingly concrete concepts along abstract dimensions or their easy projection onto these dimensions. This understanding is crucial for conceptual organization and the use of metaphorical language. Experimental results show that people converge in their responses when asked to match a nurse with an animal, with many choosing "cat". Additionally, people's choices and ratings of cross-domain mappings were predicted by similarity along abstract semantic dimensions.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Letter
Psychology, Experimental
Gary Lupyan, Ryutaro Uchiyama, Bill Thompson, Daniel Casasanto
Summary: In addition to observable differences, there are hidden subjective experience differences among people that remain unnoticed. Studying these hidden phenomenal differences has the potential to contribute to cognitive science by explaining behavioral variations, testing cognitive theories, and understanding the relationship between phenomenal experience and observable behavior in different environments.
Article
Neurosciences
Melissa Thye, Paul Hoffman, Daniel Mirman
Summary: The simplicity of understanding narratives hides the complexity of the information being conveyed and the cognitive processes involved. While a broad brain network is engaged in this process, it is still unclear how words with different semantic dimensions affect the semantic, semantic control, or social cognition systems. However, this study found that there are large networks in the brain that are co-activated with the lexical and semantic content within the narrative, suggesting that current models of language processing may underestimate the neural systems involved in narrative comprehension.
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Justin Sulik, Jeroen van Paridon, Gary Lupyan
Summary: Why do some explanations satisfy people more than others, even if they are equally accurate? We conducted a study where laypeople generated and rated open-ended explanations for "Why?" questions. We analyzed the characteristics of these explanations and found that satisfaction is best predicted by functional or mechanistic content. People were better at judging the accuracy of their explanations than their satisfaction for others. Insight problem solving ability was the cognitive trait most strongly associated with generating satisfying explanations.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Eleni Zevgolatakou, Melissa Thye, Daniel Mirman
Summary: Deficits in fluent speech production following left hemisphere stroke have a significant impact on patients' lives and provide insight into the neural organization of language processing. This study found that overall severity is the key contributor to fluent speech deficits, with a dissociable factor corresponding to lexical syntax. Additionally, language network efficiency and average clustering coefficient have a significant impact on deficit scores compared to overall lesion volume.
BRAIN COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Jon-Frederick Landrigan, Fengqing Zhang, Daniel Mirman
Summary: Aphasia is a language impairment usually caused by left hemisphere stroke. A data-driven study found that the primary distinction in aphasia is between phonological and semantic processing, rather than production and comprehension. Lesion-based classification reached 75% accuracy for the new categories, compared to 60% accuracy for traditional fluent/non-fluent aphasia categories.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Andrea Gajardo-Vidal, Maxime Montembeault, Diego L. Lorca-Puls, Abigail E. Licata, Rian Bogley, Sabrina Erlhoff, Buddhika Ratnasiri, Zoe Ezzes, Giovanni Battistella, Elena Tsoy, Christa Watson Pereira, Jessica Deleon, Boon Lead Tee, Maya L. Henry, Zachary A. Miller, Katherine P. Rankin, Maria Luisa Mandelli, Katherine L. Possin, Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini
Summary: This study investigates the potential differences in processing speed and neural correlates among the three variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). The findings reveal that non-verbal cognitive abilities, such as processing speed, are significantly impacted in nfvPPA and lvPPA patients compared to healthy controls and svPPA patients. Neuroimaging results confirm the importance of fronto-parietal regions associated with processing speed and executive control.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Holger Wiese, Tsvetomila Popova, Maya Schipper, Deni Zakriev, Mike Burton, Andrew W. Young
Summary: Previous experiments have shown that brief exposure to unfamiliar individuals leads to the formation of new facial representations, which undergo changes and consolidation within the first day after learning.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Astrid Prochnow, Xianzhen Zhou, Foroogh Ghorbani, Paul Wendiggensen, Veit Roessner, Bernhard Hommel, Christian Beste
Summary: Individuals organize events in their environment by partitioning them into discrete units. This study reveals that the neural activity in the brain plays a critical role in this process, reflecting the key elements of event segmentation.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Zhenzhen Huo, Zhiyi Chen, Rong Zhang, Junye Xu, Tingyong Feng
Summary: Procrastination has adverse effects on personal growth and social development. Reward sensitivity is positively correlated with procrastination. This study used VBM and RSFC analyses to investigate the neural substrates underlying the association between reward sensitivity and procrastination. The results showed that the functional connectivity of the right parahippocampal gyrus-precuneus mediated the relationship between reward sensitivity and procrastination.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Stefano Lasaponara, Gabriele Scozia, Silvana Lozito, Mario Pinto, David Conversi, Marco Costanzi, Tim Vriens, Massimo Silvetti, Fabrizio Doricchi
Summary: Cholinergic (Ach), Noradrenergic (NE), and Dopaminergic (DA) pathways are crucial in regulating spatial attention and determining inter-individual differences in temperamental traits. This study found that temperamental traits predict individual differences in the ability to orient spatial attention based on the probabilistic association between cues and targets. These findings highlight the importance of considering temperamental and personality traits in social and professional environments where attention control is essential.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Darren J. Yeo, Courtney Pollack, Benjamin N. Conrad, Gavin R. Price
Summary: The processing of numerals as visual objects is supported by an Inferior Temporal Numeral Area (ITNA) in the bilateral inferior temporal gyri (ITG). Extant findings suggest some degree of hemispheric asymmetry in how the bilateral ITNAs process numerals. The study found that digit sensitivity did not differ between ITNAs, and digit sensitivity in both left and right ITNAs was associated with calculation skills. The study also revealed a right lateralization in engagement in alphanumeric categorization, and that the right ITNA showed greater discriminability between digits and letters.
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Beste Gulsuna, Abuzer Gungor, Alp O. Borcer, Ugur Ture
Summary: The fiber dissection technique has been used to study the internal structures of the brain, with less focus on white matter. The sagittal stratum, a white matter structure, has not received enough attention and has been a subject of controversy. Recent studies suggest potential functions of the sagittal stratum, emphasizing the importance of understanding this structure accurately.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Nora Geiser, Brigitte Charlotte Kaufmann, Samuel Elia Johannes Knobel, Dario Cazzoli, Tobias Nef, Thomas Nyffeler
Summary: This study compared the effects of auditory and visual motion stimulation on spatial neglect and found that both interventions were equally effective in improving neglect. Multimodal motion stimulation also improved neglect, but did not show greater improvement than unimodal auditory or visual motion stimulation alone.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Anna E. Hughes, Anna Nowakowska, Alasdair D. F. Clarke
Summary: This study examines the relationship between search slopes and search efficiency in visual search tasks, introduces the Target Contrast Signal (TCS) Theory, and extends it to a Bayesian multi-level framework. The findings demonstrate that TCS can predict data well, but distinguishing between contrast combination models proves to be difficult.