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Discriminating among different types of verb-complement merge in Brazilian Portuguese: an ERP study of morpho-syntactic sub-processes

Abstract Taking into consideration differences in syntactic configurations underlying the verb-complement merge operation, this experiment investigates three series of sentences containing incongruous and congruous merges. The aim is to relate syntactic specificities to the resulting ERP morphologies. Conditions tested required three types of computations: local merge, local merge depending on inheritance of semantic properties from an antecedent and merge performed at distance (WH-displacement). A total of 240 experimental sentences (80 for each condition) and 240 distractor sentences were generated in Brazilian Portuguese. Using a kinetic presentation protocol, sentences were displayed to each of 25 subjects, while the raw EEG was acquired at 20 derivations. Signal processing techniques were used to estimate the individual ERP for each anatomic region. Series 1 involving strictly local computations resulted in classic parietal N400s, whereas the inheritance stimuli elicited two peaks in the parietal and central region ERPs. Series 3—WH-displacement—presented earlier and more salient cortical responses. The different ERP morphologies resulting from each condition are consistent with a model in which language processing results from task-specific computations involving different neurological subsystems.

Processamento da linguagem no Transtorno do Déficit de Atenção e Hiperatividade (TDAH)

Attention-Deficits/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most frequent psychiatric diagnosis in children with learning disorders. Individuals with ADHD usually present working memory difficulties. We raise the hypothesis that people with ADHD wouldn’t have the same performance in reading tasks, compared to a control group. Five psycholinguistic experiments using on-line methodology were applied. The aim was to distinguish between the processing of reading and metalinguistic processing, in order to identify the nature of the linguistic impairments in ADHD volunteers. Both groups obtained similar accuracy rates, but latencies were significantly higher for the ADHD group than for the controls, demonstrating that ADHD subjects are able to achieve the same results, but that they need more time than the control group. This result suggests that there is a language processing problem intrinsic to ADHD individuals.

Statistical analysis of event-related potential elicited by verb-complement merge in Brazilian Portuguese

An interesting fact about language cognition is that stimulation involving incongruence in the merge operation between verb and complement has often been related to a negative event-related potential (ERP) of augmented amplitude and latency of ca. 400 ms - the N400. Using an automatic ERP latency and amplitude estimator to facilitate the recognition of waves with a low signal-to-noise ratio, the objective of the present study was to study the N400 statistically in 24 volunteers. Stimulation consisted of 80 experimental sentences (40 congruous and 40 incongruous), generated in Brazilian Portuguese, involving two distinct local verb-argument combinations (nominal object and pronominal object series). For each volunteer, the EEG was simultaneously acquired at 20 derivations, topographically localized according to the 10-20 International System. A computerized routine for automatic N400-peak marking (based on the ascendant zero-cross of the first waveform derivative) was applied to the estimated individual ERP waveform for congruous and incongruous sentences in both series for all ERP topographic derivations. Peak-to-peak N400 amplitude was significantly augmented (P < 0.05; one-sided Wilcoxon signed-rank test) due to incongruence in derivations F3, T3, C3, Cz, T5, P3, Pz, and P4 for nominal object series and in P3, Pz and P4 for pronominal object series. The results also indicated high inter-individual variability in ERP waveforms, suggesting that the usual procedure of grand averaging might not be considered a generally adequate approach. Hence, signal processing statistical techniques should be applied in neurolinguistic ERP studies allowing waveform analysis with low signal-to-noise ratio.

Processamento de interrogativas-QU em Português Brasileiro: evidências de eyetracking e EEG

This article deals with the processing of subject and object WH-sentences of Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Specifically, it investigates the subject/object asymmetry in this type of sentence, following previous results using self-paced reading technique (OLIVEIRA; MAIA, 2010; OLIVEIRA, 2013). Eyetracking and electroencephalography (EEG) techniques were used as diagnostic tools for real-time linguistic processing. The goal was to find evidence of the modus operandi of the parser during the processing of subject and object syntactic functions in Brazilian Portuguese WH-sentences and verify if there are discrepancies between the techniques. The results allow discerning the levels of representational, algorithmic and implementation analysis, in the direction of the classical proposal of Marr (1982).

Event-duration semantics in online sentence processing

Several experiments in Psycholinguistics found evidences of Iterative Coercion, an effect related to the reanalysis of punctual events used in durative contexts triggering an iterative meaning. We argue that this effect is not related to aspectual features, and that event-duration semantics is accessed during Sentence Processing. We ran a self-paced reading experiment in Brazilian Portuguese whose sentences contain events with an average duration of a few minutes. These sentences were inserted in durative contexts that became the experiment’s conditions following a Latin Square design: control condition (minutes), subtractive (seconds), iterative (hours) and habitual (days). Higher RTs were measured at the critical segments of all experimental conditions, except for the habitual context. The results corroborated our hypothesis while defying the psychological reality of habitual coercion. To better observe the habitual coercion condition, we now present a reanalysis of Sampaio et al. (2014) data. The present analysis confirms the results of our tests.

In what context does context matter? An ERP study of sentence processing in Brazilian Portuguese

The N400 component is the most famous ERP component in linguistic studies. It has a negative amplitude peak at approximately 400ms after stimulus onset. It has been reported in the last 30 years in connection with the attempt of the verb to integrate its complement. It is also related to lexical access in general and to participants’ response when incoming words do not match predictable candidates in online processing. This study focuses on the sensitivity of the N400 to early information from outside of the verb-complement scope, (contained in an adjunct in the left periphery of the sentence). Using supporting adjunct information as a condition, this study tries to unveil the sensitivity of the N400 to data that is not part of the core structure of the event. Our hypothesis is that the information in the adjunct position is not taken into account in the same time-frame of the event and, indeed, the analyses involving several pre-tests with varying SOAs, showed no difference in the N400 component for sentences with relevant adjunct information when compared to those with irrelevant adjunct information. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Em que contexto o contexto importa? Um estudo de ERP com sentencas em portugues brasileiro Resumo: O componente N400 e o ERP mais famoso em estudos eletrofisiologicos da lilnguagem. O N400 tem amplitude negativa aproximadamente aos 400ms apos estimulacao. Nos ultimos 30 anos, o N400 tem sido relacionado ao esforco de o verbo de integrar o seu complemento. Ele tambem esta relacionado com o acesso lexical e a frustacao da previsibilidade do falante ao antecipar a proxima palavra durante o processamento online. Procuramos explorar a sensibilidade do N400 a informacao precoce fora da arena verbo-complemento (um adjunto na periferia esquerda da sentenca). Utilizando informacao acessoria, como condicao, este estudo tentara desvendar a sensibilidade do N400 para dados que nao sao parte do evento. A hipotese e que as informacoes na posicao de adjunto nao seriam levadas em conta no mesmo espaco de tempo da informacao do evento. De fato, as analises, que envolveram varios pre-testes com diferentes SOAs, nao mostraram diferenca nos parâmetros do N400 para frases com informacoes relevantes no adjunto comparados aqueles com informacao irre- levante. Palavras-chave: N400; ERPs; Contexto; Interface sintaxe-semantica; Dicotomia adjunto-complemento