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Brain Sciences
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Neurofunctional Basis of Language Processing
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Neurofunctional Basis of Language Processing

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neurolinguistics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 August 2024 | Viewed by 5864

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Roozbeh Rezaie

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38013, USA
Interests: magnetoencephalography (MEG); transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS); functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); stereoelectroencephalog-raphy epilepsy; neurodevelopmental disorders

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding the functional architecture of language has been greatly enhanced over the years, based on initial studies in patients exhibiting focal lesions, and subsequent invasive and more recent non-invasive brain-mapping methods.  In addition to elucidating the neuroanatomical substrates underlying theoretical models of linguistic processing, methodological advances have provided important insight into the dynamic organization of language in the brain, as well as mechanisms of reorganization and plasticity for speech in specific neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders.  In this Special Issue of Brain Sciences, the current state of knowledge regarding the neural substrates of linguistic processing is addressed, with emphasis on the application of contemporary systems neuroscience approaches to studying models of language and, furthermore, the utility of these methodologies for assessing alterations of language circuity during disease, as well as functional recovery.

Dr. Roozbeh Rezaie
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • language
  • neurological disorders
  • non-invasive brain mapping
  • neural networks
  • plasticity

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 923 KiB  
Article
Concordance between Wada, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, and Magnetoencephalography for Determining Hemispheric Dominance for Language: A Retrospective Study
by Negar Noorizadeh, Roozbeh Rezaie, Jackie A. Varner, James W. Wheless, Stephen P. Fulton, Basanagoud D. Mudigoudar, Leigh Nevill, Christen M. Holder and Shalini Narayana
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(4), 336; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci14040336 - 29 Mar 2024
Viewed by 540
Abstract
Determination of language hemispheric dominance (HD) in patients undergoing evaluation for epilepsy surgery has traditionally relied on the sodium amobarbital (Wada) test. The emergence of non-invasive methods for determining language laterality has increasingly shown to be a viable alternative. In this study, we [...] Read more.
Determination of language hemispheric dominance (HD) in patients undergoing evaluation for epilepsy surgery has traditionally relied on the sodium amobarbital (Wada) test. The emergence of non-invasive methods for determining language laterality has increasingly shown to be a viable alternative. In this study, we assessed the efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), compared to the Wada test, in determining language HD in a sample of 12 patients. TMS-induced speech errors were classified as speech arrest, semantic, or performance errors, and the HD was based on the total number of errors in each hemisphere with equal weighting of all errors (classic) and with a higher weighting of speech arrests and semantic errors (weighted). Using MEG, HD for language was based on the spatial extent of long-latency activity sources localized to receptive language regions. Based on the classic and weighted language laterality index (LI) in 12 patients, TMS was concordant with the Wada in 58.33% and 66.67% of patients, respectively. In eight patients, MEG language mapping was deemed conclusive, with a concordance rate of 75% with the Wada test. Our results indicate that TMS and MEG have moderate and strong agreement, respectively, with the Wada test, suggesting they could be used as non-invasive substitutes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurofunctional Basis of Language Processing)
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17 pages, 2465 KiB  
Article
Behavioral and Cortical Activation Changes in Children Following Auditory Training for Dichotic Deficits
by Deborah Moncrieff and Vanessa Schmithorst
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(2), 183; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci14020183 - 17 Feb 2024
Viewed by 893
Abstract
We report changes following auditory rehabilitation for interaural asymmetry (ARIA) training in behavioral test performance and cortical activation in children identified with dichotic listening deficits. In a one group pretest–posttest design, measures of dichotic listening, speech perception in noise, and frequency pattern identification [...] Read more.
We report changes following auditory rehabilitation for interaural asymmetry (ARIA) training in behavioral test performance and cortical activation in children identified with dichotic listening deficits. In a one group pretest–posttest design, measures of dichotic listening, speech perception in noise, and frequency pattern identification were assessed before and 3 to 4.5 months after completing an auditory training protocol designed to improve binaural processing of verbal material. Functional MRI scans were also acquired before and after treatment while participants passively listened in silence or to diotic or dichotic digits. Significant improvements occurred after ARIA training for dichotic listening and speech-in-noise tests. Post-ARIA, fMRI activation increased during diotic tasks in anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal regions and during dichotic tasks, decreased in the left precentral gyrus, right-hemisphere pars triangularis, and right dorsolateral and ventral prefrontal cortices, regions known to be engaged in phonologic processing and working memory. The results suggest that children with dichotic deficits may benefit from the ARIA program because of reorganization of cortical capacity required for listening and a reduced need for higher-order, top-down processing skills when listening to dichotic presentations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurofunctional Basis of Language Processing)
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16 pages, 1292 KiB  
Article
Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials
by Lingda Kong, Yong Jiang, Yan Huang and Xiaoming Jiang
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(12), 1724; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci13121724 - 17 Dec 2023
Viewed by 963
Abstract
Counterfactual conditionals posit hypothetical scenarios in which antecedent events contradict reality. This study examined whether and how the processing difficulty of Chinese counterfactual conditionals (yaobushi, equivalent to if it had not been for in English) can be affected by the length [...] Read more.
Counterfactual conditionals posit hypothetical scenarios in which antecedent events contradict reality. This study examined whether and how the processing difficulty of Chinese counterfactual conditionals (yaobushi, equivalent to if it had not been for in English) can be affected by the length of temporal shifts of the events across clauses and the likelihood of the antecedent occurrence. Participants read Chinese counterfactuals that contained either long (e.g., qunian-xianzai [last year-right now]) or short temporal shifts (e.g., zuotian-xianzai [yesterday-right now]) within highly likely (e.g., sign up for school activity) or less likely contexts (e.g., sign up for Arctic scientific research). ERP results revealed a significant N400 interaction between the temporal shift length and antecedent likelihood on the temporal indicators in the consequent and the sentence-ending verbs. Specifically, the less likely events elicited larger negativity than highly likely events with short temporal shifts on the temporal indicator. On the sentence-ending word, the long temporal shift elicited enlarged negativity than the short temporal shift when the antecedent was highly likely. These findings have two key implications regarding the interplay of implied causality and falsity constraints during counterfactual comprehension. First, salient falsity constraints can override effects of causal coherence on processing. Second, greater negativity for unlikely antecedents suggests that counterfactual markers concurrently activate factual and hypothetical representations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurofunctional Basis of Language Processing)
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21 pages, 2092 KiB  
Article
With or without Feedback?—How the Presence of Feedback Affects Processing in Children with Developmental Language Disorder
by Lauren S. Baron, Asiya Gul and Yael Arbel
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(9), 1263; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci13091263 - 30 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1111
Abstract
Language acquisition depends on the ability to process and learn probabilistic information, often through the integration of performance feedback. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have demonstrated weaknesses in both probabilistic learning and feedback processing, but the individual effects of each skill are [...] Read more.
Language acquisition depends on the ability to process and learn probabilistic information, often through the integration of performance feedback. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have demonstrated weaknesses in both probabilistic learning and feedback processing, but the individual effects of each skill are poorly understood in this population. This study examined school-aged children with DLD (n = 29) and age- and gender-matched children with typical development (TD; n = 44) on a visual probabilistic classification learning task presented with and without feedback. In the feedback-based version of the task, children received performance feedback on a trial-by-trial basis during the training phase of the task. In the feedback-free version, children responded after seeing the correct choice marked with a green border and were not presented with feedback. Children with TD achieved higher accuracy than children with DLD following feedback-based training, while the two groups achieved similar levels of accuracy following feedback-free training. Analyses of event-related potentials (ERPs) provided insight into stimulus encoding processes. The feedback-free task was dominated by a frontal slow wave (FSW) and a late parietal component (LPC) which were not different between the two groups. The feedback-based task was dominated by a parietal slow wave (PSW) and an LPC, both of which were found to be larger in the TD than in the DLD group. In combination, results suggest that engagement with feedback boosts learning in children with TD, but not in children with DLD. When the need to process feedback is eliminated, children with DLD demonstrate behavioral and neurophysiological responses similar to their peers with TD. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurofunctional Basis of Language Processing)
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11 pages, 1668 KiB  
Article
Semantic Relation Priming Is Not Constituent-Specific—Evidence from Electrophysiology
by Xiaofei Jia, Changle Zhou and Tao Wang
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(7), 1033; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci13071033 - 06 Jul 2023
Viewed by 724
Abstract
Compound words in psycholinguistics pose a significant challenge for researchers as their meaning involves more than the sum of their parts. The role of semantic relations in this process is crucial, and studies have reported a phenomenon known as relation priming. It suggests [...] Read more.
Compound words in psycholinguistics pose a significant challenge for researchers as their meaning involves more than the sum of their parts. The role of semantic relations in this process is crucial, and studies have reported a phenomenon known as relation priming. It suggests that previously encountered relations enhance the processing of subsequent words with the same relation. Notably, this priming effect is limited to cases where there is morpheme repetition between the priming and target words. In the present study, 33 samples from the target group were selected, and the within-subject design of 3 morphemes (modifier-shared, head-shared, non-repeated) × 2 relations (relation-same, relation-different) was adopted to explore whether the relation priming effect would occur without morpheme repetition and its time course. Significant relation priming effects were found in both behavioral and electrophysiological experimental results. These findings indicating relation priming can occur independently of morpheme repetition, and it has been activated at a very early stage (about 200 ms). As the word processing progresses, this activation gradually strengthens, indicating that the relation role is slowly increasing in the process of compound word recognition. It may first be used as context information to help determine the constituent morphemes’ meaning. After the meaning access of the constituent morphemes, they begin to play a role in the semantic composition process. This study uses electrophysiological technology to precisely describe the representation of relation and its time course for the first time, which gives us a deeper understanding of the relation priming process, and at the same time, sheds light on the meaning construction process of compounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurofunctional Basis of Language Processing)
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Review

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18 pages, 356 KiB  
Review
Non-Invasive Mapping of the Neuronal Networks of Language
by Andrew C. Papanicolaou
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(10), 1457; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci13101457 - 13 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1083
Abstract
This review consists of three main sections. In the first, the Introduction, the main theories of the neuronal mediation of linguistic operations, derived mostly from studies of the effects of focal lesions on linguistic performance, are summarized. These models furnish the conceptual framework [...] Read more.
This review consists of three main sections. In the first, the Introduction, the main theories of the neuronal mediation of linguistic operations, derived mostly from studies of the effects of focal lesions on linguistic performance, are summarized. These models furnish the conceptual framework on which the design of subsequent functional neuroimaging investigations is based. In the second section, the methods of functional neuroimaging, especially those of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and of Magnetoencephalography (MEG), are detailed along with the specific activation tasks employed in presurgical functional mapping. The reliability of these non-invasive methods and their validity, judged against the results of the invasive methods, namely, the “Wada” procedure and Cortical Stimulation Mapping (CSM), is assessed and their use in presurgical mapping is justified. In the third and final section, the applications of fMRI and MEG in basic research are surveyed in the following six sub-sections, each dealing with the assessment of the neuronal networks for (1) the acoustic and phonological, (2) for semantic, (3) for syntactic, (4) for prosodic operations, (5) for sign language and (6) for the operations of reading and the mechanisms of dyslexia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurofunctional Basis of Language Processing)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: The neural basis of reading epilepsy: A multi-modal case study and review
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