Results indicating that high stem tones realizing word accents activate a certain class of suffixes in online processing of Central Swedish are presented. This supports the view that high Swedish word accent tones are induced onto word stems by particular suffixes rather than being associated with words in the mental lexicon. Using event-related potentials, effects of mismatch between word accents and inflectional suffixes were compared with mismatches between stem and suffix in terms of declension class. Declensionally incorrect suffixes yielded an increase in the N400, indicating problems in lexical retrieval, as well as a P600 effect, showing reanalysis. Both declensionally correct and incorrect high tone-inducing (Accent 2) suffixes combined with a mismatching low tone (Accent 1) on the stems produced P600 effects, but did not increase the N400. Suffixes usually co-occurring with Accent 1 did not yield any effects in words realized with the nonmatching Accent 2, suggesting that Accent 1 is a default accent, lacking association with any particular suffix. High tones on Accent 2 words also produced an early anterior positivity, interpreted as a P200 effect reflecting preattentive processing of the tone.

Idiom processing studies have paid considerable attention to the relationship between idiomatic expressions as a whole and their constituent words. Although most research focused on the semantic properties of the constituent words, their orthographic form could also play a role in processing. To test this, we assessed both form and meaning activation of individual words during the processing of opaque idioms. In two primed word naming experiments, Dutch native speakers silently read sentences word by word and then named the last word of the sentence. This target word was embedded in either an idiomatic or a literal context and was expected and correct in this context (COR), semantically related (REL) to the expected word, or unrelated (UNREL) to the expected word. The correct target word in the idiomatic context was always part of an opaque idiom. Faster naming latencies for the idiom-final noun than for the unrelated target in the idiomatic context indicated that the idiom was activated as a whole during processing. In addition, semantic facilitation was observed in the literal context (COR < REL < UNREL), but not in the idiomatic context (COR < REL = UNREL). This is evidence that the idiom-final noun was not activated at the meaning level of representation. However, an inhibitory effect of orthographic word frequency of the idiom-final noun indicated that the idiom-final noun was activated at the form level. These results provide evidence in favour of a hybrid model of idiom processing in which the individual words and the idiom as a whole interact on form and meaning levels of representation.

Reading is one of the best well-practiced visual tasks for modern people. We investigated how the visual cortex analyzes spatial configuration in written words by studying the inversion effect in Chinese character processing. We measured the psychometric functions and brain activations for upright real-characters and non-characters and their inverted (upside down) versions. In the psychophysical experiment, the real-characters showed an inversion effect at both 1 degrees and 4 degrees eccentricities, while the non-characters showed no inversion effect for all eccentricities tested. In the functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) experiment, the left fusiform gyrus and a small area in the bilateral lateral occipital regions showed a significant differential activation between upright and inverted real-characters. The bilateral fusiform gyri also show differential activation between upright real- and non-characters. The dorsal lateral occipital regions showed character-selective activation when compared with scrambled lines. The result suggested that the occipitoparietal regions may analyze the local features of an object regardless of its familiarity. Therefore, the lateral occipital regions may play an intermediate role in integrating the local information in an object. Finally, the fusiform gyrus plays a critical role in analyzing global configurations of a visual word form. This is consistent with the notion that the human visual cortex analyzes an object in a hierarchical way.

The current study investigated the cerebral basis of word perceptual repetition priming with fMRI during a letter detection task that manipulated the familiarity of perceptual word form and the number of repetitions. Some neuroimaging studies have reported increases, instead of decreases, in brain activations (called "repetition enhancement") associated with repetition priming of unfamiliar stimuli which have been interpreted as the creation of new perceptual representations for unfamiliar items. According to this interpretation, several repetitions of unfamiliar items would then be necessary for the repetition priming to occur, a hypothesis not explicitly tested in prior studies. In the present study, using a letter detection task on briefly flashed words, we explored the effect of familiarity on brain response for word visual perceptual priming using both words with usual (i.e., familiar) and unusual (i.e., unfamiliar) font, presented up to four times for stimuli with unusual font. This allows potential changes in the brain responses for unfamiliar items to be assessed over several repetitions, i.e., repetition enhancement to suppression. Our results reveal significant increases of activity in the bilateral occipital areas related to repetition of words in both familiar and unfamiliar conditions. Our findings support the sharpening hypothesis, showing a lack of cerebral economy with repetition when the task requires the processing of all word features, whatever the familiarity of the material, and emphasize the influence of the nature of stimuli processing on its neuronal manifestation.

The visual word form system (VWFS), located in the occipito-temporal cortex, is involved in orthographic processing of visually presented words (Cohen et al., 2002). Recent fMRI studies in children and adults have demonstrated a gradient of increasing word-selectivity along the posterior-to-anterior axis of this system (Vinckier et al., 2007), yet whether this pattern is modified by the increased reading experience afforded by age is still in question. In this study, we employed fMRI and an implicit word-processing task, and then used a region of interest analysis approach along the occipito-temporal cortex to test the prediction that the selectivity for words along the extent of the VWFS differs between older experienced and younger novice readers. Our results showed differences between children and adults during word processing in the anterior left occipito-temporal cortex, providing evidence of developmental refinement for word recognition along the VWFS.

We examined the spatiotemporal dynamics of word processing by recording the electrocorticogram (ECoG) from the lateral frontotemporal cortex of neurosurgical patients chronically implanted with subdural electrode grids. Subjects engaged in a target detection task where proper names served as infrequent targets embedded in a stream of task-irrelevant verbs and nonwords. Verbs described actions related to the hand (e.g, throw) or mouth (e.g., blow), while unintelligible nonwords were sounds which matched the verbs in duration, intensity, temporal modulation, and power spectrum. Complex oscillatory dynamics were observed in the delta, theta, alpha, beta, low, and high gamma (HG) bands in response to presentation of all stimulus types. HG activity (80-200 Hz) in the ECoG tracked the spatiotemporal dynamics of word processing and identified a network of cortical structures involved in early word processing. HG was used to determine the relative onset, peak, and offset times of local cortical activation during word processing. Listening to verbs compared to nonwords sequentially activates first the posterior superior temporal gyrus (post-STG), then the middle superior temporal gyrus (mid-STG), followed by the superior temporal sulcus (STS). We also observed strong phase-locking between pairs of electrodes in the theta band, with weaker phase-locking occurring in the delta, alpha, and beta frequency ranges. These results provide details on the first few hundred milliseconds of the spatiotemporal evolution of cortical activity during word processing and provide evidence consistent with the hypothesis that an oscillatory hierarchy coordinates the flow of information between distinct cortical regions during goal-directed behavior.

We explored with Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) technique whether the ability to select words among competitive alternatives during word production is related to the integrity of the left uncinate fasciculus (UF) in Parkinson's disease (PD). Nineteen PD patients (10 right-sided and 9 left-sided) and 17 matched healthy controls (HC) took part in the study. Participants were asked to derive nouns from verbs (reading from to read) or to generate verbs from nouns (to build from building). Noun and verb production, in this task, differ in the number of lexical entries among which the response is selected, as the noun must be selected from a larger number of alternatives compared to the verb, and thus is more demanding of processing resources. DTI evaluation was obtained for each subject. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) maps were derived from DTI and median FA and MD values were computed within the left and right UF. Then, FA and MD of the left and right UF were correlated with noun and verb production. Both the left and right UF-FA correlated with the global (noun + verb) production and noun production in the whole PD group. In right-sided PD, correlations were found with the contralateral UF-FA; in left-sided PD the correlations emerged with both the left and right UF-FA. The most difficult task, noun production, significantly correlated with the right UF-FA in left-sided PD. The left UF is involved in word selection processes, and the right UF intervenes when the selection is particularly demanding of attentional resources.

Infants experience language in rich multisensory environments. For example, they may first be exposed to the word applesauce while touching, tasting, smelling, and seeing applesauce. In three experiments using different methods we asked whether the number of distinct senses linked with the semantic features of objects would impact word recognition and learning. Specifically, in Experiment 1 we asked whether words linked with more multisensory experiences were learned earlier than words linked fewer multisensory experiences. In Experiment 2, we asked whether 2-year-olds' known words linked with more multisensory experiences were better recognized than those linked with fewer. Finally, in Experiment 3, we taught 2-year-olds labels for novel objects that were linked with either just visual or visual and tactile experiences and asked whether this impacted their ability to learn the new label-to-object mappings. Results converge to support an account in which richer multisensory experiences better support word learning. We discuss two pathways through which rich multisensory experiences might support word learning.

The purpose of this study was to examine the neurocognitive network for processing visual word forms in native Chinese speakers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In order to compare the processing of phonological and semantic representations, we developed parallel rhyming and meaning association judgment tasks that required explicit access and manipulation of these representations. Subjects showed activation in left inferior/middle frontal gyri, bilateral medial frontal gyri, bilateral middle occipital/fusiform gyri, and bilateral cerebella for both the rhyming and meaning tasks. A direct comparison of the tasks revealed that the rhyming task showed more activation in the posterior dorsal region of the inferior/middle frontal gyrus (BA 9/44) and in the inferior parietal lobule (BA 40). The meaning task showed more activation in the anterior ventral region of the inferior/middle frontal gyrus (BA 47) and in the superior/middle temporal gyrus (BA 22,21). These findings are consistent with previous studies in English that suggest specialization of inferior frontal regions for the access and manipulation of phonological vs. semantic representations, but also suggest that this specialization extends to the middle frontal gyrus for Chinese. These findings are also consistent with the suggestion that the left middle temporal gyrus is involved in representing semantic information and the left inferior parietal lobule is involved in mapping between orthographic and phonological representations.

Previous studies have shown that word processing involves a predominantly left-sided occipitotemporal network. Words are a form of symbolic representation, in that they are arbitrary perceptual stimuli that represent other objects, actions or concepts. Lesions of parts of the visual word processing network can cause alexia, which can be associated with difficulty processing other types of symbols such as musical notation or road signs.

Language comprehension relies on a multitude of domain-general and domain-specific cognitive operations. This study asks whether the domain-specific grammatical computations are obligatorily invoked whenever we process linguistic inputs. Using fMRI and three complementary measures of neural activity, we tested how domain-general and domain-specific demands of single word comprehension engage cortical language networks, and whether the left frontotemporal network (commonly taken to support domain-specific grammatical computations) automatically processes grammatical information present in inflectionally complex words. In a natural listening task, participants were presented with words that manipulated domain-general and domain-specific processing demands in a 2 × 2 manner. The results showed that only domain-general demands of mapping words onto their representations consistently engaged the language processing system during single word comprehension, triggering increased activity and connectivity in bilateral frontotemporal regions, as well as bilateral encoding across multivoxel activity patterns. In contrast, inflectional complexity failed to activate left frontotemporal regions in this task, implying that domain-specific grammatical processing in the left hemisphere is not automatically triggered when the processing context does not specifically require such analysis. This suggests that cortical computations invoked by language processing critically depend on the current communicative goals and demands, underlining the importance of domain-general processes in language comprehension, and arguing against the strong domain-specific view of the LH network function.

Four experiments investigate the effects of covert morphological complexity during visual word recognition. Zero-derivations occur in English in which a change of word class occurs without any change in surface form (e.g., a boat-to boat; to soak-a soak). Boat is object-derived and is a basic noun (N), whereas soak is action-derived and is a basic verb (V). As the suffix {-ing} is only attached to verbs, deriving boating from its base, requires two steps, boat(N) > boat(V) > boating(V), while soaking can be derived in one step from soak(V). Experiments 1 to 3 used masked priming at different prime durations to test matched sets of one- and two-step verbs for morphological (soaking-SOAK) and semantic priming (jolting-SOAK). Experiment 4 employed a delayed-priming paradigm in which the full verb forms (soaking and boating) were primed by noun and verb phrases (a soak/to soak, a boat/to boat). In both paradigms, different morphological priming patterns were observed for one-step and two-step verbs, demonstrating that morphological processing cannot be reduced to surface form-based segmentation.

This study aims to provide convergent understanding of the neural basis of auditory word processing efficiency using a multimodal imaging. We investigated the structural and functional correlates of word processing efficiency in healthy individuals. We acquired two structural imaging (T1-weighted imaging and diffusion tensor imaging) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during auditory word processing (phonological and semantic tasks). Our results showed that better phonological performance was predicted by the greater thalamus activity. In contrary, better semantic performance was associated with the less activation in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), supporting the neural efficiency hypothesis that better task performance requires less brain activation. Furthermore, our network analysis revealed the semantic network including the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and pMTG was correlated with the semantic efficiency. Especially, this network acted as a neural efficient manner during auditory word processing. Structurally, DLPFC and cingulum contributed to the word processing efficiency. Also, the parietal cortex showed a significate association with the word processing efficiency. Our results demonstrated that two features of word processing efficiency, phonology and semantics, can be supported in different brain regions and, importantly, the way serving it in each region was different according to the feature of word processing. Our findings suggest that word processing efficiency can be achieved by in collaboration of multiple brain regions involved in language and general cognitive function structurally and functionally.

Only a subset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients progress to develop a form of dementia. A prominent feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive decline in language. We investigated if subtle anomalies in EEG activity of MCI patients during a word comprehension task could provide insight into the likelihood of conversion to AD. We studied 25 amnestic MCI patients, a subset of whom developed AD within 3-years, and 11 elderly controls. In the task, auditory category descriptions (e.g., 'a type of wood') were followed by a single visual target word either semantically congruent (i.e., oak) or incongruent with the preceding category. We found that the MCI convertors group (i.e. patients that would go on to convert to AD in 3-years) had a diminished early posterior-parietal theta (3-5 Hz) activity induced by first presentation of the target word (i.e., access to lexico-syntactic properties of the word), compared to MCI non-convertors and controls. Moreover, MCI convertors exhibited oscillatory signatures for processing the semantically congruent words that were different from non-convertors and controls. MCI convertors thus showed basic anomalies for lexical and meaning processing. In addition, both MCI groups showed anomalous oscillatory signatures for the verbal learning/memory of repeated words: later alpha suppression (9-11 Hz), which followed first presentation of the target word, was attenuated for the second and third repetition in controls, but not in either MCI group. Our findings suggest that a subtle breakdown in the brain network subserving language comprehension can be foretelling of conversion to AD.

Understanding spoken words involves a rapid mapping from speech to conceptual representations. One distributed feature-based conceptual account assumes that the statistical characteristics of concepts' features--the number of concepts they occur in (distinctiveness/sharedness) and likelihood of co-occurrence (correlational strength)--determine conceptual activation. To test these claims, we investigated the role of distinctiveness/sharedness and correlational strength in speech-to-meaning mapping, using a lexical decision task and computational simulations. Responses were faster for concepts with higher sharedness, suggesting that shared features are facilitatory in tasks like lexical decision that require access to them. Correlational strength facilitated responses for slower participants, suggesting a time-sensitive co-occurrence-driven settling mechanism. The computational simulation showed similar effects, with early effects of shared features and later effects of correlational strength. These results support a general-to-specific account of conceptual processing, whereby early activation of shared features is followed by the gradual emergence of a specific target representation.

Although the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in left temporal cortex is considered the pre-eminent region in visual word processing, other regions are also implicated. We examined the entire text-selective circuit, using functional MRI. Ten regions of interest (ROIs) per hemisphere were defined, which, based on clustering, grouped into early vision, high-level vision, and language clusters. We analyzed the responses of the ROIs and clusters to words, inverted words, and consonant strings using univariate, multivariate, and functional connectivity measures. Bilateral modulation by stimulus condition was evident, with a stronger effect in left hemisphere regions. Last, using graph theory, we observed that the VWFA was equivalently connected with early visual and language clusters in both hemispheres, reflecting its role as a mediator in the circuit. Although the individual ROIs and clusters bilaterally were flexibly altered by the nature of the input, stability held at the level of global circuit connectivity, reflecting the complex hierarchical distributed system serving visual text perception.

The ability to map number words to their corresponding quantity representations is a gatekeeper for children's future math success (Spaepen et al., 2018). Without number word knowledge at school entry, children are at greater risk for developing math learning difficulties (Chu et al., 2019). In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural basis for processing the meaning of spoken number words and its developmental trajectory in 4- to 10-year-old children, and in adults. In a number word-quantity mapping paradigm, participants listened to number words while simultaneously viewing quantities that were congruent or incongruent to the number word they heard. Whole brain analyses revealed that adults showed a neural congruity effect with greater neural activation for incongruent relative to congruent trials in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and left intraparietal sulcus (LIPS). In contrast, children did not show a significant neural congruity effect. However, a region of interest analysis in the child sample demonstrated age-related increases in the neural congruity effect, specifically in the LIPS. The positive correlation between neural congruity in LIPS and age was stronger in children who were already attending school, suggesting that developmental changes in LIPS function are experience-dependent.

This study examined how semantic transparency modulated the processing of spoken Chinese compound words with event-related potential (ERP) recording. A reverse-block passive oddball paradigm was adopted to elicit mismatch negativity (MMN), which responds to holistic and combinatorial processing in opposite directions. Specifically, linguistic inputs that are processed as holistic lexical representations will elicit stronger MMNs (lexical enhancement) than those that do not have such representations. In contrast, when they are processed by combining the constituents, smaller MMNs will be elicited (combinatorial reduction) as compared to non-combinable inputs. We compared the strengths of MMNs among transparent words, opaque words, and pseudocompounds (that did not have lexical representations and were non-combinable). It was shown that transparent words triggered smaller MMNs than pseudocompounds, which supported combinatorial processing. Opaque words did not differ from pseudocompounds, which was interpreted as parallel employment of the holistic and combinatorial processing routes. Overall, the results are consistent with the idea that native Chinese speakers routinely attempt to process Chinese compound words by retrieving and combining morphemes. However, because the meanings of opaque words are irrelevant to their constituent morphemes, Chinese speakers must construct and retrieve their holistic representations to ensure accurate processing.

Reading research is exhibiting growing interest in employing variants of the flanker paradigm to address several questions about reading. The paradigm is particularly suited for investigating parallel word processing, parafoveal-on-foveal influences, and visuospatial attention in a simple but constrained setting. However, this methodological deviation from natural reading warrants careful assessment of the extent to which cognitive processes underlying reading operate similarly in these respective settings. The present study investigated whether readers' distribution of attention in the flanker paradigm resembles that observed during sentence reading; that is, with a rightward bias. Participants made lexical decisions about foveal target words while we manipulated parafoveal flanking words. In line with prior research, we established a parafoveal-on-foveal repetition effect, and this effect was increased for rightward flankers compared with leftward flankers. In a second experiment, we found that, compared with a no-flanker condition, rightward repetition flankers facilitated target processing, while leftward flankers interfered. Additionally, the repetition effect was larger for rightward than for leftward flankers. From these findings, we infer that attention in the flanker paradigm is indeed biased toward the right, and that the flanker paradigm thus provides an effective analogy to natural reading for investigating the role of visuospatial attention. The enhanced parafoveal-on-foveal effects within the attended region further underline the key role of attention in the spatial integration of orthographic information. Lastly, we conclude that future research employing the flanker paradigm should take the asymmetrical aspect of the attentional deployment into account.

In this paper we examine a central issue in cognitive neuroscience: are there separate conceptual representations associated with different input modalities (e.g., Paivio, 1971, 1986; Warrington & Shallice, 1984) or do inputs from different modalities converge on to the same set of representations (e.g., Caramazza, Hillis, Rapp, & Romani, 1990; Lambon Ralph, Graham, Patterson, & Hodges, 1999; Rapp, Hillis, & Caramazza, 1993)? We present an analysis of four PET studies (three semantic categorisation tasks and one lexical decision task), two of which employ words as stimuli and two of which employ pictures. Using conjunction analyses, we found robust semantic activation, common to both input modalities in anterior and medial aspects of the left fusiform gyrus, left parahippocampal and perirhinal cortices, and left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47). There were modality-specific activations in both temporal poles (words) and occipitotemporal cortices (pictures). We propose that the temporal poles are involved in processing both words and pictures, but their engagement might be primarily determined by the level of specificity at which an object is processed. Activation in posterior temporal regions associated with picture processing most likely reflects intermediate, pre-semantic stages of visual processing. Our data are most consistent with a hierarchically structured, unitary system of semantic representations for both verbal and visual modalities, subserved by anterior regions of the inferior temporal cortex.