Biomedical subjects

Angela D Friederici

Publications and source records attributed to Angela D Friederici.

113 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

Processing of temporal duration information in working memory after frontodorsal tumour excisions.

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that impairments of temporal duration processing after frontal lobe lesions reflect deficits in executive monitoring functions rather than a domain-specific deficit in the maintenance of duration information in working memory. Patients with frontodorsal lesions, clinical controls with post-central lesions, and healthy controls performed recognition and classification tasks, which should allow for testing maintenance and monitoring functions, respectively. Results showed mild non-selective impairments of the frontal patients on both temporal and spatial recognition tasks, but a marked selective degradation on temporal classification while performance on spatial classification was unimpaired. This suggests that maintenance of duration information in working memory after frontal lesions is basically preserved but that, depending on executive task characteristics, there is a specific deficit in the strategic organization of this type of information.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Differential task effects on semantic and syntactic processes as revealed by ERPs.

Two experiments investigated the time-course of semantic and syntactic processes in auditory language comprehension as well as their possible functional dependencies, using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Participants listened to sentences which were either correct, semantically incorrect, syntactically incorrect, or both semantically and syntactically incorrect. In experiment 1, participants judged the overall correctness of these sentences. The semantic violation elicited an N400 whereas the syntactic phrase structure violation elicited an early anterior negativity followed by a P600. Sentences in which the critical element violated both semantic and syntactic constraints elicited the same pattern of ERPs as the syntactic violation alone, not evoking an N400. In experiment 2, participants judged the same sentences for semantic coherence, required to ignore syntactic violations. Again, an early anterior negativity was elicited for those sentences containing phrase-structure errors. In contrast to experiment 1, however, combined violations elicited both an early negativity and an N400. Together, the results suggest that the N400 associated with semantic aspects of sentence comprehension reflects controlled processes whereas initial parsing processes associated with the early anterior negativity are independent of semantic constraints and task requirements.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Sex differentiates the role of emotional prosody during word processing.

The meaning of a speech stream is communicated by more than the particular words used by the speaker. For example, speech melody, referred to as prosody, also contributes to meaning. In a cross-modal priming study we investigated the influence of emotional prosody on the processing of visually presented positive and negative target words. The results indicate that emotional prosody modulates word processing and that the time-course of this modulation differs for males and females. Women show behavioural and electrophysiological priming effects already with a small interval between the prosodic prime and the visual target word. In men, however, similar effects of emotional prosody on word processing occur only for a longer interval between prime and target. This indicates that women make an earlier use of emotional prosody during word processing as compared to men.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Distinct neurophysiological patterns reflecting aspects of syntactic complexity and syntactic repair.

Aspects of syntactic complexity and syntactic repair were investigated by comparing the event-related (brain) potentials (ERPs) for sentences of different syntactic complexity to those containing a syntactic violation. Previous research had shown that both aspects of syntactic processing are reflected in a late positivity (P600). Results from the present reading experiment demonstrate, however, that although both processing aspects elicit a late positivity, they are different in distribution. The repair-related positivity preceded by a negativity displayed a centroparietal distribution, whereas the complexity-related positivity showed a frontocentral scalp distribution. These data indicate that the P600 is not a unitary phenomenon. Moreover, the distributional differences strongly suggest that different neural structures underlie the two aspects of processing, namely syntactic repair and syntactic integration difficulties, most evident when processing syntactically complex sentences.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Bach speaks: a cortical "language-network" serves the processing of music.

The aim of the present study was the investigation of neural correlates of music processing with fMRI. Chord sequences were presented to the participants, infrequently containing unexpected musical events. These events activated the areas of Broca and Wernicke, the superior temporal sulcus, Heschl's gyrus, both planum polare and planum temporale, as well as the anterior superior insular cortices. Some of these brain structures have previously been shown to be involved in music processing, but the cortical network comprising all these structures has up to now been thought to be domain-specific for language processing. To what extent this network might also be activated by the processing of non-linguistic information has remained unknown. The present fMRI-data reveal that the human brain employs this neuronal network also for the processing of musical information, suggesting that the cortical network known to support language processing is less domain-specific than previously believed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗