Creating a non-word list to match 226 of the Snodgrass standardised picture set

Creating non-word lists is a necessary but time consuming exercise often needed when conducting behavioural language tasks involving lexical decision-making or non-word reading. The following article describes the process whereby we created a list of 226 non-words matching 226 of the Snodgrass picture set (Snodgrass & Vanderwart, 1980).The non-words were matched for number of syllables, stress pattern, number of phonemes, bigram count and presence and location of the target sound when relevant.

Judgments of duration, figure-ground contrast, and size for words and nonwords

Does the word-superiority effect on letter discrimination result in a word-superiority effect on duration judgments? We examined this question in five experiments. In the first four experiments, we have demonstrated that (1) words shown for 32-80 msec were judged as presented longer than non-words shown for the same duration; (2) this word-superiority effect persists if the stimuli are shown for an objective duration of up to 250 msec; and (3) these effects can be extended to judgments of figure-ground contrast and letter size. These findings extend existing data on effects of processing fluency on perceptual judgments. In Experiment 5, we found that duration judgments were higher for words than for pronounceable nonwords, and duration judgments were higher for pronounceable non-words than for nonpronounceable nonwords. We discuss the implications of this finding for the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis.

The mismatch negativity (MMN) response to complex tones and spoken words in individuals with aphasia

Background: The mismatch negativity (MMN) is a fronto-centrally distributed event-related potential (ERP) that is elicited by any discriminable auditory change. It is an ideal neurophysiological tool for measuring the auditory processing skills of individuals with aphasia because it can be elicited even in the absence of attention. Previous MMN studies have shown that acoustic processing of tone or pitch deviance is relatively preserved in aphasia, whereas the basic acoustic processing of speech stimuli can be impaired (e.g., auditory discrimination). However, no MMN study has yet investigated the higher levels of auditory processing, such as language-specific phonological and/or lexical processing, in individuals with aphasia. Aims: The aim of the current study was to investigate the MMN response of normal and language-disordered subjects to tone stimuli and speech stimuli that incorporate the basic auditory processing (acoustic, acoustic-phonetic) levels of non-speech and speech sound processing, and also the language-specific phonological and lexical levels of spoken word processing. Furthermore, this study aimed to correlate the aphasic MMN data with language performance on a variety of tasks specifically targeted at the different levels of spoken word processing. Methods M Procedures: Six adults with aphasia (71.7 years +/- 3.0) and six healthy age-, gender-, and education-matched controls (72.2 years +/- 5.4) participated in the study. All subjects were right-handed and native speakers of English. Each subject was presented with complex harmonic tone stimuli, differing in pitch or duration, and consonant-vowel (CV) speech stimuli (non-word /de:/versus real world/deI/). The probability of the deviant for each tone or speech contrast was 10%. The subjects were also presented with the same stimuli in behavioural discrimination tasks, and were administered a language assessment battery to measure their auditory comprehension skills. Outcomes O Results: The aphasic subjects demonstrated attenuated MMN responses to complex tone duration deviance and to speech stimuli (words and non-words), and their responses to the frequency, duration, and real word deviant stimuli were found to strongly correlate with performance on the auditory comprehension section of the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB). Furthermore, deficits in attentional lexical decision skills demonstrated by the aphasic subjects correlated with a word-related enhancement demonstrated during the automatic MMN paradigm, providing evidence to support the word advantage effect, thought to reflect the activation of language-specific memory traces in the brain for words. Conclusions: These results indicate that the MMN may be used as a technique for investigating general and more specific auditory comprehension skills of individuals with aphasia, using speech and/or non-speech stimuli, independent of the individual's attention. The combined use of the objective MMN technique and current clinical language assessments may result in improved rehabilitative management of aphasic individuals.

Teste de não-palavras para afásicos: uma contribuição para a prática fonoaudiológica

A afasia pode ser definida como uma alteração no conteúdo, na forma e no uso da linguagem e de seus processos cognitivos subjacentes, tais como percepção e memória adquirida por lesão neurológica. Essa alteração é caracterizada por redução e disfunção, que se manifestam tanto no aspecto expressivo quanto no receptivo da linguagem oral e escrita, embora em diferentes graus em cada uma dessas modalidades (CHAPEY 1996). A alça fonológica constitui um dos três componentes do modelo de memória de trabalho proposto por Baddeley e Hitch (1974) e sua função é armazenar temporariamente as informações verbais e retê-las por um breve período tanto para a compreensão verbal como para a repetição acústica. De acordo com Gathercole e Baddeley (1993), a tarefa de repetição de não-palavras é capaz de solicitar mais a memória fonológica, uma vez que o fato do input ser desconhecido, e não exposto às influências lexicais ou ao uso de estratégias mnemônicas, possibilita avaliar as reais condições do sistema de memória. Considerando-se que afásicos têm dificuldades para memorizar palavras, frases ou instruções e que inexistem estudos nacionais que verificassem o desempenho de afásicos em um teste de não-palavras, a presente dissertação tem como objetivo verificar a integridade da alça fonológica de seis afásicos por meio da aplicação de um teste de não-palavras elaborado para tal objetivo. Como resultado, observou-se através das análises, desempenhos variados, porém com piora significativa no desempenho influenciado pelo aumento da extensão da palavra, corroborando assim, com estudos já realizados com outras categorias de distúrbios linguísticos

Laminar Cortical Dynamics of Cognitive and Motor Working Memory, Sequence Learning and Performance: Toward a Unified Theory of How the Cerebral Cortex Works

How do the layered circuits of prefrontal and motor cortex carry out working memory storage, sequence learning, and voluntary sequential item selection and performance? A neural model called LIST PARSE is presented to explain and quantitatively simulate cognitive data about both immediate serial recall and free recall, including bowing of the serial position performance curves, error-type distributions, temporal limitations upon recall, and list length effects. The model also qualitatively explains cognitive effects related to attentional modulation, temporal grouping, variable presentation rates, phonemic similarity, presentation of non-words, word frequency/item familiarity and list strength, distracters and modality effects. In addition, the model quantitatively simulates neurophysiological data from the macaque prefrontal cortex obtained during sequential sensory-motor imitation and planned performance. The article further develops a theory concerning how the cerebral cortex works by showing how variations of the laminar circuits that have previously clarified how the visual cortex sees can also support cognitive processing of sequentially organized behaviors.

Lateralisation of language function in young adults born very preterm

Objective: To explore, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the functional organisation of phonological processing in young adults born very preterm.

Subjects: Six right handed male subjects with radiological evidence of thinning of the corpus callosum were selected from a cohort of very preterm subjects. Six normal right handed male volunteers acted as controls.

Method: Blood oxygenation level dependent contrast echoplanar images were acquired over five minutes at 1.5 T while subjects performed the tasks. During the ON condition, subjects were visually presented with pairs of non-words and asked to press a key when a pair of words rhymed (phonological processing). This task alternated with the OFF condition, which required subjects to make letter case judgments of visually presented pairs of consonant letter strings (orthographic processing). Generic brain activation maps were constructed from individual images by sinusoidal regression and non-parametric testing. Between group differences in the mean power of experimental response were identified on a voxel wise basis by analysis of variance.

Results: Compared with controls, the subjects with thinning of the corpus callosum showed significantly reduced power of response in the left hemisphere, including the peristriate cortex and the cerebellum, as well as in the right parietal association area. Significantly increased power of response was observed in the right precentral gyrus and the right supplementary motor area.

Conclusions: The data show evidence of increased frontal and decreased occipital activation in male subjects with neurodevelopmental thinning of the corpus callosum, which may be due to the operation of developmental compensatory mechanisms.

Investigation des circuits neuronaux de la lecture à l’aide de la spectroscopie près du spectre de l’infrarouge

Pour la plupart des gens, la lecture est une activité automatique, inhérente à leur vie quotidienne et ne demandant que peu d’effort. Chez les individus souffrant d’épilepsie réflexe à la lecture, le simple fait de lire déclenche des crises épileptiques et les personnes doivent alors renoncer à la lecture. Les facteurs responsables du déclenchement de l’activité épileptique dans l’épilepsie réflexe à la lecture demeurent encore mal définis. Certains auteurs suggèrent que le nombre ainsi que la localisation des pointes épileptiques seraient en lien avec la voie de lecture impliquée. Des études en imagerie cérébrale, menées auprès de populations sans trouble neurologique, ont dévoilé que la lecture active un réseau étendu incluant les cortex frontaux, temporo-pariétaux et occipito-temporaux bilatéralement avec des différences dans les patrons d’activation pour les voies de lecture lexicale et phonologique. La majorité des études ont eu recours à des tâches de lecture silencieuse qui ne permettent pas d'évaluer la performance des participants. Dans la première étude de cette thèse, qui porte sur une étude de cas d'un patient avec épilepsie réflexe à la lecture, nous avons déterminé les tâches langagières et les caractéristiques des stimuli qui influencent l'activité épileptique. Les résultats ont confirmé que la lecture était la principale tâche responsable du déclenchement de l’activité épileptique chez ce patient. En particulier, la fréquence des pointes épileptiques était significativement plus élevée lorsque le patient avait recours au processus de conversion grapho-phonémique. Les enregistrements électroencéphalographiques (EEG) ont révélé que les pointes épileptiques étaient localisées dans le gyrus précentral gauche, indépendamment de la voie de lecture. La seconde étude avait comme objectif de valider un protocole de lecture à voix haute ayant recours à la spectroscopie près du spectre de l’infrarouge (SPIR) pour investiguer les circuits neuronaux qui sous-tendent la lecture chez les normo-lecteurs. Douze participants neurologiquement sains ont lu à voix haute des mots irréguliers et des non-mots lors d’enregistrements en SPIR. Les résultats ont montré que la lecture des deux types de stimuli impliquait des régions cérébrales bilatérales communes incluant le gyrus frontal inférieur, le gyrus prémoteur et moteur, le cortex somatosensoriel associatif, le gyrus temporal moyen et supérieur, le gyrus supramarginal, le gyrus angulaire et le cortex visuel. Les concentrations totales d’hémoglobine (HbT) dans les gyri frontaux inférieurs bilatéraux étaient plus élevées dans la lecture des non-mots que dans celle des mots irréguliers. Ce résultat suggère que le gyrus frontal inférieur joue un rôle dans la conversion grapho-phonémique, qui caractérise la voie de lecture phonologique. Cette étude a confirmé le potentiel de la SPIR pour l’investigation des corrélats neuronaux des deux voies de lecture. Une des retombées importantes de cette thèse consiste en l’utilisation du protocole de lecture en SPIR pour investiguer les troubles de la lecture. Ces investigations pourraient aider à mieux établir les liens entre le fonctionnement cérébral et la lecture dans les dyslexies développementales et acquises.

A demonstration of attentional bias, using a novel dual task paradigm, towards clinically salient material in recovering alcohol abuse patients?

Background. This study examined whether alcohol abuse patients are characterized either by enhanced schematic processing of alcohol related cues or by an attentional bias towards the processing of alcohol cues. Method. Abstinent alcohol abusers (N = 25) and non-clinical control participants (N = 24) performed a dual task paradigm in which they had to make an odd/even decision to a centrally presented number while performing a peripherally presented lexical decision task. Stimuli on the lexical decision task comprised alcohol words, neutral words and non-words. In addition, participants completed an incidental recall task for the words presented in the lexical decision task. Results. It was found that, in the presence of alcohol related words, the performance of patients on the odd/even decision task was poorer than in the presence of other stimului. In addition, patients displayed slower lexical decision times for alcohol related words. Both groups displayed better recall for alcohol words than for other stimuli. Conclusions. These results are interpreted as supporting neither model of drug cravings. Rather, it is proposed that, in the presence of alcohol stimuli, alcohol abuse patients display a breakdown in the ability to focus attention.

Word position and stress effects in consonant cluster perception and production

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the saliency effect for word beginnings reported in children with Dyslexia (Marshall & van der Lely, 2009) can be found also in TD children. Thirty-four TD Italian children aged 8-10 completed two specifically designed tasks: a production task and a perception task. Both tasks used nonwords containing clusters consisting of plosive plus liquid (eg. pl). Clusters could be either in a stressed or in an unstressed syllable, and could be either in initial position (first syllable) or in medial position (second syllable). In the production task children were asked to repeat the non-words. In the perception task, the children were asked to discriminate between two nonwords differing in one phoneme belonging to a cluster by reporting whether two repetitions were the same or different. Results from the production task showed that children are more accurate in repeating stressed than unstressed syllables, but there was no difference with respect to position of the cluster. Results from the perception task showed that children performed more accurately when discriminating word initial contrasts than when discriminating word medial contrasts, especially if the cluster was unstressed. Implications of this finding for clinical assessments are discussed.

Memo test: standardisation of computerised assessment of auditory verbal short-term memory

Short-term memory (STM) impairments are prevalent in adults with acquired brain injuries. While there are several published tests to assess these impairments, the majority require speech production, e.g. digit span (Wechsler, 1987). This feature may make them unsuitable for people with aphasia and motor speech disorders because of word finding difficulties and speech demands respectively. If patients perceive the speech demands of the test to be high, the may not engage with testing. Furthermore, existing STM tests are mainly ‘pen-and-paper’ tests, which can jeopardise accuracy. To address these shortcomings, we designed and standardised a novel computerised test that does not require speech output and because of the computerised delivery it would enable clinicians identify STM impairments with greater precision than current tests. The matching listening span tasks, similar to the non-normed PALPA 13 (Kay, Lesser & Coltheart, 1992) is used to test short-term memory for serial order of spoken items. Sequences of digits are presented in pairs. The person hears the first sequence, followed by the second sequence and s/he decides whether the two sequences are the same or different. In the computerised test, the sequences are presented in live voice recordings on a portable computer through a software application (Molero Martin, Laird, Hwang & Salis 2013). We collected normative data from healthy older adults (N=22-24) using digits, real words (one- and two-syllables) and non-words (one- and two- syllables). Their performance was scored following two systems. The Highest Span system was the highest span length (e.g. 2-8) at which a participant correctly responded to over 7 out of 10 trials at the highest sequence length. Test re-test reliability was also tested in a subgroup of participants. The test will be available as free of charge for clinicians and researchers to use.

What affects recognition most – wrong wordstress or wrong word accent?

In an attempt to find out which of the two Swedish prosodic contrasts of 1) wordstress pattern and 2) tonal word accent category has the greatest communicative weight, a lexical decision experiment was conducted: in one part word stress pattern was changed from trochaic to iambic, and in the other part trochaic accentII words were changed to accent I.Native Swedish listeners were asked to decide whether the distorted words werereal words or ‘non-words’. A clear tendency is that listeners preferred to give more‘non-word’ responses when the stress pattern was shifted, compared to when wordaccent category was shifted. This could have implications for priority of phonological features when teaching Swedish as a second language.

Análise psicolinguística e cognitivo-linguística das provas de habilidades metalinguísticas e leitura realizadas em escolares de 2ª a 5ª série

OBJETIVOS: analisar o desempenho de escolares de 2ª a 5ª série do ensino fundamental em provas de habilidades metalinguísticas e leitura segundo critérios psicolinguísticos e cognitivo-linguísticos e verificar similaridade e diferenças entre as análises. MÉTODOS: participaram 120 escolares de 2ª a 5ª série do ensino municipal, de ambos os gêneros, na faixa etária de sete a 12 anos de idade, divididos em 4 grupos de 30 escolares de cada série. Os escolares foram submetidos à aplicação de provas de habilidades metalinguísticas e de leitura. RESULTADOS: houve diferença estatisticamente significante entre os grupos nas habilidades metalinguísticas, nas regras de decodificação de palavras reais e pseudopalavras para todas as variáveis na leitura de palavras reais, com exceção do erro tipo Recusas, com médias superiores para Tentativas de Som Mal Sucedidas e Falha na Aplicação de Regras Ortográficas, indicando que esses tipos de erros foram os de maior ocorrência. Na leitura de pseudopalavras houve diferença estatisticamente significante em Tentativas de Som Mal Sucedidas, indicando que os escolares apresentaram desempenho inferior na decodificação de palavras que exigiram a utilização de informação fonológica. CONCLUSÃO: a adoção de critérios psicolinguísticos ou cognitivo-linguísticos na avaliação da leitura de palavras e pseudopalavras juntamente com a avaliação das habilidades metalinguísticas fornecem subsídios para a compreensão de como o escolar vem processando os complexos princípios do sistema de escrita do português do Brasil, além de dar o suporte necessário à compreensão das dificuldades específicas apresentadas pelos escolares, orientando o profissional fonoaudiólogo em relação aos objetivos precisos no seu atendimento.

Desempenho de escolares com transtorno de déficit de atenção e hiperatividade em tarefas metalinguisticas e de leitura

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Desempenho de escolares de 1ª a 4ª séries do ensino fundamental em Provas de Habilidades Metalingüísticas e de Leitura (PROHMELE)

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

Desempenho de escolares com dislexia e transtorno do déficit de atenção e hiperatividade nos processos de leitura

This study aimed to characterize and to compare the performance of students with an interdisciplinary diagnosis of dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in students with good academic performance on the reading processes. Sixty students from both genders, from 2nd to 4th grades of municipal public schools in Marília - SP participated in this study, they were distributed as follows: GI, 20 students with interdisciplinary diagnosis of dyslexia; GII, 20 students with ADHD and GIII, 20 students with good academic performance, paired according to gender, age and grade level with GI and GII. The students were submitted to the application of the assessment of reading processes (PROLEC) composed by four processes: letters identification, lexical, syntactical and semantic. The results highlighted that the students of GIII showed superior performance comparing with GI and GII. There was difference between GI and GII only in low frequency word reading and non words reading of the lexical process. The inferior performance from GI and GII in the PROLEC tests can be justified by the difficulty on the coding and decoding abilities. In ADHD students this difficulty was due to impaired interaction between the visual, linguistic, attention and auditory processing and in the dyslexic students was due to failure at the phonological mediation process, which depends on the knowledge of rules of grapheme - phoneme conversion to the acquisition of word reading. These changes affect the reading achievement and the comprehension of the read text.