Biomedical subjects

Hans-Jochen Heinze

Publications and source records attributed to Hans-Jochen Heinze.

57 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

Word order in sentence processing: an experimental study of verb placement in German.

We examine the question of whether the human comprehension device exhibits word-order preferences during on-line sentence comprehension. The focus is on the positioning of finite verbs and auxiliaries relative to subjects and objects in German. Results from three experiments (using self-paced reading and event-related brain potentials) show that native speakers of German prefer to process finite verbs in second position (i.e., immediately after the subject and before the object). We will account for this order preference in terms of the relative processing costs associated with SVfO and SOVf. Our finding that word-order preferences play an important role in the on-line comprehension of German sentences is compatible with results from previous studies on English and other languages.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Localizing visual discrimination processes in time and space.

Previous studies of visual processing in humans using event-related potentials (ERPs) have demonstrated that task-related modulations of an early component called the "N1" wave (140-200 ms) reflect the operation of a voluntary discrimination process. Specifically, this component is larger in tasks requiring target discrimination than in tasks requiring simple detection. The present study was designed to localize this discriminative process in both time and space by means of combined magnetoencephalographic (MEG) and ERP recordings. Discriminative processing led to differential ERP and MEG activity beginning within 150 ms of stimulus onset. Source localization of the combined ERP/MEG data was performed using anatomical constraints from structural magnetic resonance images. These analyses revealed highly reliable and focused activity in regions of inferior occipital-temporal cortex. These findings indicate that the earliest measurable correlates of discriminative operations in the visual system appear as neural activity in circumscribed regions of the ventral processing stream.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Functional magnetic resonance imaging for the evaluation of the motor system: primary and secondary brain areas in different motor tasks.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to characterize the primary and secondary motor system in subjects performing different motor tasks. Nine right-handed subjects performed simple motor tasks using hand, foot, knee, tongue, lips, eyes and the diaphragm-pelvis. All tasks revealed significant activation in primary and secondary motor areas. In the average across subjects, only the activity in the precentral gyrus was statistically distinctive for each motor task and followed the distribution of the motor homunculus. We consider these results as a possible basis of presurgical planning, extending the currently used procedures over a broader spectrum of motor tasks and brain structures leading to a more precise evaluation of functional areas for intracerebral interventions.

Adult↗