scholarly journals Dissociating predictability, plausibility and possibility of sentence continuations in reading: evidence from late-positivity ERPs

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Quante ◽  
Jens Bölte ◽  
Pienie Zwitserlood
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Different Origins ◽  
The Given ◽  
Preceding Discourse

Late positive event-related potential (ERP) components occurring after the N400, traditionally linked to reanalysis due to syntactic incongruence, are increasingly considered to also reflect reanalysis and repair due to semantic difficulty. Semantic problems can have different origins, such as a mismatch of specific predictions based on the context, low plausibility, or even semantic impossibility of a word in the given context. DeLong, Quante & Kutas (2014) provided the first direct evidence for topographically different late positivities for prediction mismatch (left frontal late positivity for plausible but unexpected words) and plausibility violation (posterior-parietal late positivity for implausible, incongruent words). The aim of the current study is twofold: (1) to replicate this dissociation of ERP effects for plausibility violations and prediction mismatch in a different language, and (2) to test an additional contrast within implausible words, comparing impossible and possible sentence continuations. Our results replicate DeLong, Quante & Kutas (2014) with different materials in a different language, showing graded effects for predictability and plausibility at the level of the N400, a dissociation of plausible and implausible, anomalous continuations in posterior late positivities and an effect of prediction mismatch on late positivities at left-frontal sites. In addition, we found some evidence for a dissociation, at these left-frontal sites, between implausible words that were fully incompatible with the preceding discourse and those for which an interpretation is possible.

scholarly journals Predictability, plausibility and possibility

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Quante ◽  
Jens Bölte ◽  
Pienie Zwitserlood
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Different Origins ◽  
The Given ◽  
Preceding Discourse

Late positive event-related potential (ERP) components occurring after the N400,traditionally linked to reanalysis due to syntactic incongruence, are increasinglyconsidered to also reflect reanalysis and repair due to semantic difficulty.Semantic problems can have different origins, such as a mismatch of specificpredictions based on the context, low plausibility, or even semantic impossibilityof a word in the given context. DeLong, Quante & Kutas (2014) provided the firstdirect evidence for topographically different late positivities for prediction mismatch(left frontal late positivity for plausible but unexpected words) and plausibilityviolation (posterior-parietal late positivity for implausible, incongruent words).The aim of the current study is twofold: (1) to replicate this dissociation of ERPeffects for plausibility violations and prediction mismatch in a different language, and(2) to test an additional contrast within implausible words, comparing impossibleand possible sentence continuations. Our results replicate DeLong, Quante & Kutas(2014) with different materials in a different language, showing graded effects forpredictability and plausibility at the level of the N400, a dissociation of plausible andimplausible, anomalous continuations in posterior late positivities and an effect ofprediction mismatch on late positivities at left-frontal sites. In addition, we foundsome evidence for a dissociation, at these left-frontal sites, between implausiblewords that were fully incompatible with the preceding discourse and those for whichan interpretation is possible.

scholarly journals When Heuristics Clash with Parsing Routines: ERP Evidence for Conflict Monitoring in Sentence Perception

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1181-1197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke van Herten ◽  
Dorothee J. Chwilla ◽  
Herman H. J. Kolk
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
Monitoring Process ◽  
Outcome Monitoring

Monitoring refers to a process of quality control designed to optimize behavioral outcome. Monitoring for action errors manifests itself in an error-related negativity in event-related potential (ERP) studies and in an increase in activity of the anterior cingulate in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Here we report evidence for a monitoring process in perception, in particular, language perception, manifesting itself in a late positivity in the ERP. This late positivity, the P600, appears to be triggered by a conflict between two interpretations, one delivered by the standard syntactic algorithm and one by a plausibility heuristic which combines individual word meanings in the most plausible way. To resolve this conflict, we propose that the brain reanalyzes the memory trace of the perceptual input to check for the possibility of a processing error. Thus, as in Experiment 1, when the reader is presented with semantically anomalous sentences such as, “The fox that shot the poacher…,” full syntactic analysis indicates a semantic anomaly, whereas the word-based heuristic leads to a plausible interpretation, that of a poacher shooting a fox. That readers actually pursue such a word-based analysis is indicated by the fact that the usual ERP index of semantic anomaly, the so-called N400 effect, was absent in this case. A P600 effect appeared instead. In Experiment 2, we found that even when the word-based heuristic indicated that only part of the sentence was plausible (e.g., “…that the elephants pruned the trees”), a P600 effect was observed and the N400 effect of semantic anomaly was absent. It thus seems that the plausibility of part of the sentence (e.g., that of pruning trees) was sufficient to create a conflict with the implausible meaning of the sentence as a whole, giving rise to a monitoring response.

scholarly journals FACT VERSUS FICTION: FYODOR TYUTCHEV IN THE NOVEL BY A. GELASSIMOV «WIND-ROSE»

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 172-181
Author(s):  
Irina A. Edoshina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Data Interpretation ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Wind Rose ◽  
Biographical Data ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
The Given ◽  
Actual Life

Issues of writing a famous historical person biography, as well as the problem of biographical data interpretation in a fictional text is actualized in the article. The designated problem defined the aim of the article and also a number of objectives related to reviewing the most significant aspects in present day biography studies, the relevance of creation and reconstruction (Y. M. Lotman) in biography writing, biography interpretation techniques and methods exemplified by the analysis of a personage in the novel by a contemporary scientist and writer A. V. Gelassimov (born in 1965). It is noted that the images of the novel lead characters – G. I. Nevelsky and E. Yelchaninova – are presented with undisguised sympathy and in accordance with their actual biographies, unlike that of F. Tyutchev. Seeking to understand the causes, yet with no loss of observation objectivity in the field of how and on what grounds, in A. V. Gelassimov’s concept, a personage can be created the author of the article addresses his Candidate’s dissertation/PhD dissertation. In this paper (despite its specific orientalist problematic) an auteur methodology reveals itself-gaining new meanings through proliferation of senses, their multiplication. In A. V. Gelassimov’s view, as a result, vice acquires an intriguing shade of a new meaning, fact distortion becoming an independent phenomenon and acquiring a beneficial function of influencing contemporaries’ minds. Further on, the author of the article elicits all the episodes connected with the character called F. I. Tyutchev, analyzes them pointing out all the cases of meanings multiplication and their novel verification aimed at the distortion of the poet actual life events. A. V. Gelassimov’s unflattering speeches about F. Tyutchev are exemplified, which is a direct evidence that the strategy chosen by the author to study ways of constructing the poet’s biography in the given literary text is correct and valid.

scholarly journals EEG and fMRI Evidence for Autobiographical Memory Reactivation in Empathy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Meconi ◽  
Juan Linde-Domingo ◽  
Catarina S. Ferreira ◽  
Sebastian Michelmann ◽  
Bernhard Staresina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Inferior Parietal Lobule ◽  
Autobiographical Memories ◽  
Retrieval Task ◽  
Electrophysiological Activity ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Eeg Pattern

AbstractEmpathy relies on the ability to mirror and to explicitly infer others’ inner states. Theoretical accounts suggest that memories play a role in empathy but direct evidence of a reactivation of autobiographical memories (AM) in empathy is yet to be shown. We addressed this question in two experiments. In experiment 1, electrophysiological activity (EEG) was recorded from 28 participants who performed an empathy task in which targets for empathy were depicted in contexts for which participants either did or did not have an AM, followed by a task that explicitly required memory retrieval of the AM and non-AM contexts. The retrieval task was implemented to extract the neural fingerprints of AM and non-AM contexts, which were then used to probe data from the empathy task. An EEG pattern classifier was trained and tested across tasks and showed evidence for AM reactivation when participants were preparing their judgement in the empathy task. Participants self-reported higher empathy for people depicted in situations they had experienced themselves as compared to situations they had not experienced. A second independent fMRI experiment replicated this behavioural finding and showed the predicted activation in the brain networks underlying both AM retrieval and empathy: precuneus, posterior parietal cortex, superior and inferior parietal lobule and superior frontal gyrus. Together, our study reports behavioural, electrophysiological and fMRI evidence that robustly supports the involvement of AM reactivation in empathy.

scholarly journals Can Masked Emotion-Laden Words Prime Emotion-Label Words? An ERP Test on the Mediated Account

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenggang Wu ◽  
Juan Zhang ◽  
Zhen Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Word Processing ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Congruent Condition ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Target Emotion ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Emotion Label ◽  
Present Event

The present event-related potential (ERP) study explored whether masked emotion-laden words could facilitate the processing of both emotion-label words and emotion-laden words in a valence judgment task. The results revealed that emotion-laden words as primes failed to influence target emotion-label word processing, whereas emotion-laden words facilitated target emotion-laden words in the congruent condition. Specifically, decreased late positivity complex (LPC) was elicited by emotion-laden words primed by emotion-laden words of the same valence than those primed by emotion-laden words of different valence. Nevertheless, no difference was observed for emotion-label words as targets. These findings supported the mediated account that claimed emotion-laden words engendered emotion via the mediation of emotion-label words and hypothesized that emotion-laden words could not prime emotion-label words in the masked priming paradigm. Moreover, this study provided additional evidence showing the distinction between emotion-laden words and emotion-label words.

scholarly journals The Electrophysiology of Electric Organs of Marine Electric Fishes

1961 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 819-843 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. V. L. Bennett ◽  
H. Grundfest
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Resting Potential ◽  
Normal Cells ◽  
Electric Organs ◽  
Theoretical Significance ◽  
Electric Fishes ◽  
Electrical Stimuli ◽  
Different Origins ◽  
Taxonomic Relations

The electroplaques of Astroscopus y-graecum were studied in situ with microelectrode recordings. Despite the distant taxonomic relations and the different origins of the organs, their properties in the teleost and torpedine marine electric fishes are remarkably similar. Only the innervated membrane (the dorsal) is electrogenically reactive in Astroscopus, and it, too, does not respond to electrical stimuli. As in the torpedine fishes, the uninnervated membrane of the electroplaques offers a very low resistance to the discharge of the innervated membrane. Additional direct evidence for electrical inexcitability of the reactive surface was obtained by denervating one of the bilateral organs. The denervated one did not respond to strong electrical stimuli which evoked responses in the opposite, innervated organ. The denervated electroplaques had a normal resting potential and were depolarized by acetylcholine and carbamylcholine similarly to normal cells. Other properties related to electrical inexcitability were also demonstrated. A pharmacological finding of considerable theoretical significance is that desensitization occurred on depolarizing cells with acetylcholine but was absent on depolarizing them with carbamylcholine.

scholarly journals Inhibitory control elicited by physical activity and inactivity stimuli: an EEG study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Cheval ◽  
Daniel Aranha Rego Cabral ◽  
Marcos Daou ◽  
Mariane Bacelar ◽  
Juliana Otoni Parma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Physical Inactivity ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Registration Form ◽  
Physically Active ◽  
Active Behavior ◽  
Component Amplitude

The theory of effort minimization in physical activity (TEMPA) argues that individuals have an automatic attraction toward effort minimization. To engage in a physically active behavior, this automatic attraction needs to be overridden by controlled processes. However, direct evidence showing that inhibitory control is required to avoid effort minimization is lacking. Here, we used go/no-go tasks and electroencephalography (EEG) to assess the neural correlates of inhibitory control associated with visual stimuli depicting physical inactivity, physical activity, or that were neutral in 50 healthy young adults. The N2 event-related potential (ERP) component amplitude was used as a physiological index of inhibitory control. Results showed significant two-way interactions between the type of trials (i.e., go vs. no-go trials) and the type of stimuli on N2, revealing a significantly more pronounced no-go effect (i.e., higher N2 in no-go relative to go trials) for neutral and physical inactivity stimuli compared with physical activity stimuli. Simple tests further revealed that N2 amplitude was more negative in no-go than go trials for neutral stimuli (b=-.91 µV, 95%CI=-1.42 to -.40 µV, p<.001) and for stimuli depicting physical inactivity (b=-.58 µV, 95%CI=-1.08 to -.08 µV, p=.025). By contrast, we found no evidence of significant differences in N2 amplitude between no-go and go trials for stimuli depicting physical activity (b=.20 µV, 95%CI=-1.08 to –.08 µV, p=.445). These findings provide evidence that inhibiting responses to physical inactivity stimuli requires significantly higher inhibitory control than inhibiting responses to physical activity stimuli. The study pre-registration form can be found at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RKYHB.

Direct Control of Visual Perception with Phase-specific Modulation of Posterior Parietal Cortex

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 422-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Jaegle ◽  
Tony Ro
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Neural Circuitry ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Alpha Oscillations ◽  
Dependent Change ◽  
Posterior Parietal

We examined the causal relationship between the phase of alpha oscillations (9–12 Hz) and conscious visual perception using rhythmic TMS (rTMS) while simultaneously recording EEG activity. rTMS of posterior parietal cortex at an alpha frequency (10 Hz), but not occipital or sham rTMS, both entrained the phase of subsequent alpha oscillatory activity and produced a phase-dependent change on subsequent visual perception, with lower discrimination accuracy for targets presented at one phase of the alpha oscillatory waveform than for targets presented at the opposite phase. By extrinsically manipulating the phase of alpha before stimulus presentation, we provide direct evidence that the neural circuitry in the parietal cortex involved with generating alpha oscillations plays a causal role in determining whether or not a visual stimulus is successfully perceived.

The Immuno-Electron Microscopic Localization of the Mo-Fe Protein Component of Nitrogenase in Cells of Azotobacter Vinelandii

1973 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 574-575
Author(s):  
J. T. Stasny ◽  
R. C. Burns ◽  
R. W. F. Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Cellular Localization ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Azotobacter Vinelandii ◽  
Intracellular Localization ◽  
Protein Component ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
Fe Protein ◽  
Intracytoplasmic Membranes

Structure-functlon studies of biological N2-fixation have correlated the presence of the enzyme nitrogenase with increased numbers of intracytoplasmic membranes in Azotobacter. However no direct evidence has been provided for the internal cellular localization of any nitrogenase. Recent advances concerned with the crystallizatiorTand the electron microscopic characterization of the Mo-Fe protein component of Azotobacter nitrogenase, prompted the use of this purified protein to obtain antibodies (Ab) to be conjugated to electron dense markers for the intracellular localization of the protein by electron microscopy. The present study describes the use of ferritin conjugated to goat antitMo-Fe protein immunoglobulin (IgG) and the observations following its topical application to thin sections of N2-grown Azotobacter.

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