Duration and variability of speech segments in fluent speech of children with and without stuttering

The purpose of this study was to compare the duration and variability of speech segments of children who stutter with those of children who do not stutter and to identify changes in duration and variability of speech segments due to the effect of utterance length. Eighteen children participated (ranging from 6.3 to 7.9 years of age). The experimental task required the children to repeat a single word in isolation and the same word embedded in a sentence. Durations of speech segments and Coefficients of variation (Cv) were defined to assess temporal parameters of speech. Significant differences were found in the variability of speech segments on the sentence level, but not in duration. The findings supported the assumption that linguistic factors pose direct demands on the speech motor system and that the extra duration of speech segments observed in the speech of stuttering adults may be a kind of compensation strategy.     

低氧预适应的脑机制

A concept ot tissue adaptation to hypoxia( i.e. hypoxic preconditioning) was developed and its corresponding animal models were reproduced in 1966s. The methods of model reproduction in rat, rabbit, and mouse in particular and the main results are brifly introduced in this review. The tolerance to hypoxia o{ preconditioned animals is significantly increased. Regular changes in animals‘ behavior, neurophysiology, respiratory and circulatory physiology, neuromorphology in vivo and {unction of brain and spinal cord in vitro are briefly demonstrated. The protective effects in vivo and in vitro of homogenate extract taken from the brain o{ preconditioned animals, neurochemcals and molecular neurobiolcgical alterations are briefly presented. The essence and significance of tissue adaption to hypoxia/hypoxic preconditioning are discussed in the review in terms of evolution and practical implication.     

Brain mechanisms in normal and dyslexic readers

Developmental dyslexics, individuals with an unexplained difficulty reading, have been shown to have deficits in phonological processing -- the awareness of the sound structure of words -- and, in some cases, a more fundamental deficit in rapid auditory processing. In addition, dyslexics show a disruption in white matter connectivity between posterior and frontal regions. These results give continued support for a neurobiological etiology of developmental dyslexia. However, more research will be required to determine the possible causal relationships between these neurobiological disruptions and dyslexia.     

Effects of ambiguity on stuttering: Towards a theory of speech production at the semantic level

Pathologische Stotterer und normale Versuchspersonen erhielten verzögerte auditive Rückmeldung (VAR), während sie Sätze vervollständigten. Wir fanden:

1. Die Vpn. nahmen nur eine der Bedeutungen der zweideutigen Fragmente wahr, obgleich die Zweideutigkeit ihre Sprache beeinflußte (s. unten).
2. Normale Vpn. brauchten länger für die Vervollständigung von zweideutigen Sätzen als von eindeutigen mit ähnlicher semantischer und syntaktischer Komplexität.
3. Dieses Mehr an Zeit wurde hauptsächlich zur Findung der Satzvervollständigung benötigt und nicht für die Aussprache des vollendeten Satzes. Dies ist ein Hinweis, daß Zweideutigkeit mit dem Verständnis von Sätzen interferiert.
4. Ein Ermüdungseffekt für eindeutige Sätze wurde gefunden: Am Ende des Experiments wurde mehr Zeit zur Vervollständigung eindeutiger Sätze verwendet als am Anfang. Für zweideutige Sätze wurde kein Ermüdungseffekt festgestellt.
5. VAR verursachte mehr Stottern beim Lesen der zweideutigen als beim Lesen des eindeutigen Fragments.
6. Es trat mehr Stottern beim Vervollständigen der zweideutigen Fragmente auf als beim Lesen des Fragments, das die Zweideutigkeit enthielt. Dagegen wurde beim Vervollständigen der eindeutigen Teile nicht mehr gestottert als beim Lesen.
7. Die Versuche wurden ohne VAR mit pathologischen Stotterern als Vpn. wiederholt. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, daß alle wichtigen Resultate, die oben zusammengefaßt sind, auch für pathologisches Stottern gelten.
8. Traditionelle Modelle über die Beziehung zwischen Konflikt und Stottern können diese Ergebnisse nicht ohne erhebliche Veränderungen erklären. Unsere Ergebnisse unterstützen eher das folgende Modell: Die wahrgenommene Bedeutung eines zweideutigen Fragments wird in ein motorisches Programm für Vervollständigung des Satzes integriert. Ein ähnliches Programm für die andere Bedeutung wird partiell und gleichzeitig aktiviert. Die Wechselwirkung zwischen den beiden Programmen reduziert die Kontrolle über die Sprache und erhöht die Stotterwahrscheinlichkeit bei pathologischen Stotterern und bei normalen Vpn. unter VAR. Es wurde gezeigt, daß die Komponenten dieses Modells ähnlich sind wie die Annahmen, die zur Erklärung des Einflusses der Synonymität auf die Sprachproduktion benötigt werden.
9. Ein Modell für die Erklärung abwegiger oder irrelevanter Vervollständigungen basiert auf dem Prinzip der Disinhibition (von Holst).
10. Als mögliche Erklärung für die nicht-grammatikalischen Vervollständigungen der zweideutigen Sätze wurde die Verschmelzung beider Aspekte der schwach wechselwirkenden motorischen Programme diskutiert.

     

Brain mechanisms underlying flavour and appetite

Complementary neurophysiological recordings in macaques and functional neuroimaging in humans show that the primary taste cortex in the rostral insula and adjoining frontal operculum provides separate and combined representations of the taste, temperature and texture (including viscosity and fat texture) of food in the mouth independently of hunger and thus of reward value and pleasantness. One synapse on, in the orbitofrontal cortex, these sensory inputs are for some neurons combined by learning with olfactory and visual inputs. Different neurons respond to different combinations, providing a rich representation of the sensory properties of food. In the orbitofrontal cortex, feeding to satiety with one food decreases the responses of these neurons to that food, but not to other foods, showing that sensory-specific satiety is computed in the primate (including human) orbitofrontal cortex. Consistently, activation of parts of the human orbitofrontal cortex correlates with subjective ratings of the pleasantness of the taste and smell of food. Cognitive factors, such as a word label presented with an odour, influence the pleasantness of the odour and the activation produced by the odour in the orbitofrontal cortex. These findings provide a basis for understanding how what is in the mouth is represented by independent information channels in the brain; how the information from these channels is combined; and how and where the reward and subjective affective value of food is represented and is influenced by satiety signals. Activation of these representations in the orbitofrontal cortex may provide the goal for eating, and understanding them helps to provide a basis for understanding appetite and its disorders.     

Brain mechanisms linking language and action

For a long time the cortical systems for language and actions were believed to be independent modules. However, as these systems are reciprocally connected with each other, information about language and actions might interact in distributed neuronal assemblies. A critical case is that of action words that are semantically related to different parts of the body (for example, 'lick', 'pick' and 'kick'): does the comprehension of these words specifically, rapidly and automatically activate the motor system in a somatotopic manner, and does their comprehension rely on activity in the action system?     

The formation of interhemispheric asymmetry in human ontogeny during the perception of emotions in normal speech and in stuttering]

Age peculiarities of functional brain asymmetry in perception of emotional information of speech have been revealed. It was shown that the age of 4-7 years is most important for formation of this asymmetry in emotional perception. It is in this age that functional reorganization of perception in stuttering children is observed. These data indicate that correction of emotional activity in stutterers should be made at early periods of their life.     

Twitter evolution: converging mechanisms in birdsong and human speech

Vocal imitation in human infants and in some orders of birds relies on auditory-guided motor learning during a sensitive period of development. It proceeds from 'babbling' (in humans) and 'subsong' (in birds) through distinct phases towards the full-fledged communication system. Language development and birdsong learning have parallels at the behavioural, neural and genetic levels. Different orders of birds have evolved networks of brain regions for song learning and production that have a surprisingly similar gross anatomy, with analogies to human cortical regions and basal ganglia. Comparisons between different songbird species and humans point towards both general and species-specific principles of vocal learning and have identified common neural and molecular substrates, including the forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) gene.     

Brain mechanisms of imagination in solving creative verbal tasks

The brain’s mechanisms of imagination were studied using electroencephalography (EEG) spectral analysis in student actors and student non-actors under three experimental conditions: when they generated coherent stories on the basis of art reproductions (STORY task); listed the details of art reproductions presented (DETAIL task); and performed simple arithmetic calculations while observing a neutral background (COUNT task). Statistical analysis showed that, in α₁ (7.5–10 Hz) and α₂ (10–12.5 Hz) frequency bands, in both groups, execution of the STORY task, in contrast to the DETAIL task, was accompanied by significantly higher spectral power (synchronization) in most of the cortical areas studied; while, the contrasts STORY-COUNT and DETAILS-COUNT, were associated with a decrease in the EEG’s power (desynchronization) in all of the areas studied. Topographic mapping of the EEG’s power showed that, in both groups, maximal differences between the STORY and DETAILS tasks were related to the central parietal area. Maximal differences between the STORY and COUNT tasks, as well as those between the DETAILS and COUNT tasks, were related mainly to the occipital areas. Based on these findings, we consider parietal areas to be stable elements of integrated brain mechanisms underlying verbal creativity in actors and nonactors. Comparing our data with previous studies, we suggest that the parietal areas are involved in the selective inhibition of visual information processing during the involvement of brain structures in the processes of imagination.     

Brain mechanisms of the semantic analysis of words-homonyms

The brain mechanisms of semantic comprehension of a word were comparatively studied in three experimental conditions: simple perception of the nuclear value of a word-homonym determined by the preceding context, perception of its circumferential value, and during active semantic analysis of these values. It was shown that the amplitude of the evoked potential component P200 was correlated with complexity of the semantic analysis. A decrease in this amplitude under conditions of complication of semantic problem was associated with an increase in the activities of the caudate nucleus and hippocampus and a parallel slight decrease in the activity of cortical areas.     

Brain mechanisms associated with top-down processes in perception.

Perception arises through an interaction between sensory input and prior knowledge. We propose that at least two brain areas are required for such an interaction: the ''site'' where analysis of afferent signals occurs and the ''source'' which applies the relevant prior knowledge. In the human brain, functional imaging studies have demonstrated that selective attention modifies activity in early visual processing areas specific to the attended feature. Early processing areas are also modified when prior knowledge permits a percept to emerge from an otherwise meaningless stimulus. Sources of this modification have been identified in parietal cortex and in prefrontal cortex. Modification of early processing areas also occurs on the basis of prior knowledge about the predicted sensory effects of the subject''s own actions. Activity associated with mental imagery resembles that associated with response preparation (for motor imagery) and selective attention (for sensory imagery) suggesting that mental imagery reflects the effects of prior knowledge on sensory processing areas in the absence of sensory input. Damage to sensory processing areas can lead to a form of sensory hallucination which seems to arise from the interaction of prior knowledge with random sensory activity. In contrast, hallucinations associated with schizophrenia may arise from a failure of prior knowledge about motor intentions to modify activity in relevant sensory areas. When functioning normally, this mechanism permits us to distinguish our own actions from those of independent agents in the outside world. Failure to make this distinction correctly may account for the strong association between hallucinations and paranoid delusions in schizophrenia; the patient not only hears voices, but attributes (usually hostile) intentions to these voices.     

Brain mechanisms of pain affect and pain modulation

Recent animal studies reveal ascending nociceptive and descending modulatory pathways that may contribute to the affective-motivational aspects of pain and play a critical role in the modulation of pain. In humans, a reliable pattern of cerebral activity occurs during the subjective experience of pain. Activity within the anterior cingulate cortex and possibly in other classical limbic structures, appears to be closely related to the subjective experience of pain unpleasantness and may reflect the regulation of endogenous mechanisms of pain modulation.     

Brain mechanisms of emotion and emotional learning.

The amygdala appears to play an essential role in many aspects of emotional information processing and behavior. Studies over the past year have begun to clarify the anatomical organization of the amygdala and the contribution of its individual subregions to emotional functions, especially emotional learning and memory. Researchers can now point to plausible circuits involved in the transmission of sensory inputs into the amygdala, between amygdaloid subregions, and to efferent targets in cortical and subcortical regions, for specific emotional learning and memory processes.     

Motor mechanisms in speech ontogeny: phylogenetic, neurobiological and linguistic implications

The rhythmic mandible-generated close-open alternations of the mouth, responsible for the series of consonant-vowel alternations characteristic of babbling and of languages, is receiving increased attention as a possible manifestation of an ontogenetic and phylogenetic 'frame' underlying the serial organization of speech. The supplementary motor area appears important for production of this consonant-vowel frame in adults.     

Different neurophysiological mechanisms underlying word and rule extraction from speech

The initial process of identifying words from spoken language and the detection of more subtle regularities underlying their structure are mandatory processes for language acquisition. Little is known about the cognitive mechanisms that allow us to extract these two types of information and their specific time-course of acquisition following initial contact with a new language. We report time-related electrophysiological changes that occurred while participants learned an artificial language. These changes strongly correlated with the discovery of the structural rules embedded in the words. These changes were clearly different from those related to word learning and occurred during the first minutes of exposition. There is a functional distinction in the nature of the electrophysiological signals during acquisition: an increase in negativity (N400) in the central electrodes is related to word-learning and development of a frontal positivity (P2) is related to rule-learning. In addition, the results of an online implicit and a post-learning test indicate that, once the rules of the language have been acquired, new words following the rule are processed as words of the language. By contrast, new words violating the rule induce syntax-related electrophysiological responses when inserted online in the stream (an early frontal negativity followed by a late posterior positivity) and clear lexical effects when presented in isolation (N400 modulation). The present study provides direct evidence suggesting that the mechanisms to extract words and structural dependencies from continuous speech are functionally segregated. When these mechanisms are engaged, the electrophysiological marker associated with rule-learning appears very quickly, during the earliest phases of exposition to a new language.