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Consciousness and Cognition Jan 2020Anomalous self-experiences have been described as a prerequisite for anomalous perceptual experiences. Later, these anomalous perceptual experiences may then be...
Anomalous self-experiences have been described as a prerequisite for anomalous perceptual experiences. Later, these anomalous perceptual experiences may then be metacognitively appraised as distressing, maintaining these experiences and later leading to anomalous (delusional) beliefs. This model of anomalous events may potentially be driven by perceptual biases and metacognitive deficits. This cross-sectional study explored the association between perceptual biases, metacognition and anomalous self- and perceptual experiences and delusional beliefs in First Episode Psychosis (FEP) and a matched healthy control sample. Fifty-eight individuals with FEP and seventy-two healthy controls were included in the main analysis. Increased auditory perceptual biases were significantly associated with increased state and trait anomalous self-experiences, in particular alienation from surroundings and emotional numbing. No significant associations were found between metacognitive efficiency and anomalous experiences. These findings may be consistent with the minimal self-disturbance model of schizophrenia spectrum vulnerability, particularly with the hyperreflexivity concept.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Auditory Perception; Cross-Sectional Studies; Dissociative Disorders; Female; Humans; Male; Metacognition; Perceptual Disorders; Psychotic Disorders; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 31683221
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2019.102847 -
Annals of Clinical and Translational... Aug 2021The aims of this study were to (i) explore psychotic experiences across the entire amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD) spectrum from a...
OBJECTIVE
The aims of this study were to (i) explore psychotic experiences across the entire amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD) spectrum from a clinical and genetic perspective, (ii) determine the rate of abnormal perceptual experiences across the five sensory modalities and (iii) explore the neurobiological factors that lead to psychosis vulnerability in ALS-FTD.
METHODS
In a prospective case-controlled study design, 100 participants were enrolled including ALS (n = 37, 24% satisfied criteria for ALS-Plus), ALS-FTD (n = 11), bvFTD (n = 27) and healthy controls (n = 25). Psychotic experiences, perceptual abnormalities and psychosocial factors were determined by means of the clinical interview and carer and patient reports. Voxel-based morphometry analyses determined atrophy patterns in patients experiencing psychosis-like experiences and other perceptual abnormalities.
RESULTS
The rates of psychotic experiences and abnormalities of perception in each sensory modality were high across the entire ALS-FTD continuum. The rate was highest in those with C9orf72 expansions. Rates were also high in patients with pure ALS including psychosis measured by carer-based reports (18%) and self-report measures of psychotic-like experiences (21%). In an ENTER regression model, social anxiety and ACE-III scores were the best predictors of psychosis proneness, accounting for 44% of the score variance. Psychosis-like experiences and perceptual abnormalities were associated with a predominantly frontal and temporal pattern of atrophy that extended to the cerebellum and centred on the anterior thalamus.
INTERPRETATION
The model for psychosis proneness in ALS-FTD likely includes complex interactions between cognitive, social and neurobiological factors that determine vulnerability to psychosis and that may have relevance for individualised patient management.
Topics: Aged; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; C9orf72 Protein; Case-Control Studies; Female; Frontotemporal Dementia; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Perceptual Disorders; Prospective Studies; Psychotic Disorders
PubMed: 34156763
DOI: 10.1002/acn3.51363 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Mar 2023With effort, most literate persons can conjure more or less vague visual mental images of the written form of words they are hearing, an ability afforded by the links...
With effort, most literate persons can conjure more or less vague visual mental images of the written form of words they are hearing, an ability afforded by the links between sounds, meaning, and letters. However, as first reported by Francis Galton, persons with ticker-tape synesthesia (TTS) automatically perceive in their mind's eye accurate and vivid images of the written form of all utterances which they are hearing. We propose that TTS results from an atypical setup of the brain reading system, with an increased top-down influence of phonology on orthography. As a first descriptive step towards a deeper understanding of TTS, we identified 26 persons with TTS. Participants had to answer to a questionnaire aiming to describe the phenomenology of TTS along multiple dimensions, including visual and temporal features, triggering stimuli, voluntary control, interference with language processing, etc. We also assessed the synesthetic percepts elicited experimentally by auditory stimuli such as non-speech sounds, pseudowords, and words with various types of correspondence between sounds and letters. We discuss the potential cerebral substrates of those features, argue that TTS may provide a unique window in the mechanisms of written language processing and acquisition, and propose an agenda for future research.
Topics: Humans; Synesthesia; Speech; Brain; Language; Dyslexia; Color Perception; Perceptual Disorders
PubMed: 36609103
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.11.005 -
Journal of Neuropsychology Jun 2022In this issue of the Journal of Neuropsychology, Abe and Ishiai (2022) report an experiment designed to probe the subjective experience of line bisection in neglect. A...
In this issue of the Journal of Neuropsychology, Abe and Ishiai (2022) report an experiment designed to probe the subjective experience of line bisection in neglect. A re-analysis of their data can also offer insights into how best to characterise neglect performance for this and other tasks. We show that sensitive measures of neglect can be obtained by quantifying the difference in the influence (or 'weighting') that each endpoint has on the response. The right endpoint is dramatically more influential than the left in people with neglect performing line bisection and endpoint reproduction tasks. This supports the view that neglect may limit the ability to simultaneously represent two locations, so that the response is determined primarily with respect to the right endpoint. We also discuss Abe and Ishiai's conclusion that bisection responses in neglect are accompanied by the subjective experience of a complete line extending equally to either side of the chosen midpoint.
Topics: Functional Laterality; Humans; Perceptual Disorders; Space Perception
PubMed: 35507737
DOI: 10.1111/jnp.12278 -
Journal of the International... Nov 2022The aim of this systematic review was to identify the presence and nature of relationships between specific forms of aprosodia (i.e., expressive and receptive emotional... (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVES
The aim of this systematic review was to identify the presence and nature of relationships between specific forms of aprosodia (i.e., expressive and receptive emotional and linguistic prosodic deficits) and other cognitive-communication deficits and disorders in individuals with right hemisphere damage (RHD) due to stroke.
METHODS
One hundred and ninety articles from 1970 to February 2020 investigating receptive and expressive prosody in patients with relatively focal right hemisphere brain damage were identified via database searches.
RESULTS
Fourteen articles were identified that met inclusion criteria, passed quality reviews, and included sufficient information about prosody and potential co-occurring deficits. Twelve articles investigated receptive emotional aprosodia, and two articles investigated receptive linguistic aprosodia. Across the included studies, receptive emotional prosody was not systematically associated with hemispatial neglect, but did co-occur with deficits in emotional facial recognition, interpersonal interactions, or emotional semantics. Receptive linguistic processing was reported to co-occur with amusia and hemispatial neglect. No studies were found that investigated the co-occurrence of expressive emotional or linguistic prosodic deficits with other cognitive-communication impairments.
CONCLUSIONS
This systematic review revealed significant gaps in the research literature regarding the co-occurrence of common right hemisphere disorders with prosodic deficits. More rigorous empirical inquiry is required to identify specific patient profiles based on clusters of deficits associated with right hemisphere stroke. Future research may determine whether the co-occurrences identified are due to shared cognitive-linguistic processes, and may inform the development of evidence-based assessment and treatment recommendations for individuals with cognitive-communication deficits subsequent to RHD.
Topics: Humans; Speech Disorders; Emotions; Linguistics; Stroke; Perceptual Disorders
PubMed: 34989666
DOI: 10.1017/S1355617721001302 -
Cognitive Science Apr 2022Grapheme-color synesthesia is a heterogeneous neurological phenomenon whereby the experience of a grapheme automatically and involuntarily elicits an experience of...
Grapheme-color synesthesia is a heterogeneous neurological phenomenon whereby the experience of a grapheme automatically and involuntarily elicits an experience of color. While the majority of synesthesia research has focused on inducer-specific influences of synesthetic associations, more recent efforts have examined potential broader differences. Based on spontaneous reports from synesthetes detailing problems with face recognition, in conjunction with the geographical proximity of neurological regions relevant to both synesthesia and face processing, we sought to examine whether synesthetes demonstrated atypical face-processing abilities. A total of 16 grapheme-color synesthetes and 16 age-and-gender matched controls (±3 years) completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT; Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006) of face memory, the Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Task (VHPT-F; Richler, Floyd, & Gauthier, 2014) of holistic face processing, as well as a standardized self-report questionnaire the Faces and Emotions Questionnaire (Freeman, Palermo, & Brock, 2015). The results revealed significantly poorer performance in synesthete's ability to recognize faces in the CFMT that was driven by a reduction in upright advantage. Results also revealed a significant reduction in overall accuracy on the VHPT-F for synesthetes, who despite this displayed a comparable holistic processing advantage compared to matched controls. Finally, synesthetes also rated themselves as significantly worse at face recognition. We suggest that this pattern may reflect differences in the development of individualized perceptual strategies.
Topics: Color Perception; Facial Recognition; Humans; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Perceptual Disorders; Photic Stimulation; Synesthesia
PubMed: 35411960
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13130 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Dec 2021Synesthesia occurs more commonly in individuals fulfilling criteria for an autism spectrum diagnosis than in the general population. It is associated with autistic...
Synesthesia occurs more commonly in individuals fulfilling criteria for an autism spectrum diagnosis than in the general population. It is associated with autistic traits and autism-related perceptual processing characteristics, including a more detail-focused attentional style and altered sensory sensitivity. In addition, these characteristics correlate with the degree of grapheme-color synesthesia (consistency of grapheme-color associations) in non-synesthetes. We investigated a predominantly non-synesthetic twin sample, including individuals fulfilling criteria for an autism spectrum diagnosis or other neurodevelopmental disorders (n = 65, 14-34 years, 60% female). We modelled linear relationships between the degree of grapheme-color synesthesia and autistic traits, sensory sensitivity, and visual perception, both within-twin pairs (22 pairs) where all factors shared by twins are implicitly controlled (including 50-100% genetics), and across the entire cohort. We found that the degree of grapheme-color synesthesia was associated with autistic traits within the domain of Attention to Details and with sensory hyper-, but not hypo-sensitivity. These associations were stronger within-twin pairs than across the sample. Further, twins with a higher degree of grapheme-color synesthesia were better than their co-twins at identifying fragmented images (Fragmented Pictures Test). This is the first twin study on the association between synesthesia and autism-related perceptual features and traits. The results suggest that investigating these associations within-twin pairs, implicitly adjusting for potential confounding factors shared by twins, is more sensitive than doing so in non-related individuals. Consistent with previous findings, the results suggest an association between the degree of grapheme-color synesthesia and autism-related perceptual features, while utilizing a different measure for sensory sensitivity. The novel finding of enhanced fragmented picture integration in twins with a higher degree of grapheme-color synesthesia challenges the view of a generally more detail-focused attentional style in synesthesia and might be related to enhanced memory or mental imagery in more synesthetic individuals.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Autistic Disorder; Color Perception; Female; Humans; Male; Perceptual Disorders; Synesthesia; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 34763130
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.09.016 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... May 2020Purpose The ability to recognize individuals from their vocalizations is an important trait of human beings. In the current study, we aimed to examine how congenital...
Purpose The ability to recognize individuals from their vocalizations is an important trait of human beings. In the current study, we aimed to examine how congenital amusia, an inborn pitch-processing disorder, affects discrimination and identification of talkers' voices. Method Twenty Mandarin-speaking amusics and 20 controls were tested on talker discrimination and identification in four types of contexts that varied in the degree of language familiarity: Mandarin real words, Mandarin pseudowords, Arabic words, and reversed Mandarin speech. Results The language familiarity effect was more evident in the talker identification task than the discrimination task for both participant groups, and talker identification accuracy decreased as native phonological representations were removed from the stimuli. Importantly, amusics demonstrated degraded performance in both native speech conditions that contained phonological/linguistic information to facilitate talker identification and nonnative conditions where talker voice processing primarily relied on phonetics cues, including pitch. Moreover, the performance in talker processing can be predicted by the participants' musical ability and phonological memory capacity. Conclusions The results provided a first set of behavioral evidence that individuals with amusia are impaired in the ability of human voice identification. Meanwhile, it is found that amusia is not only a pitch disorder but is likely to affect the phonological processing of speech, in terms of using phonological information in native speech to analyze a talker's identity. The above findings expanded the understanding of the nature and scope of congenital amusia. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12170379.
Topics: Auditory Perceptual Disorders; Humans; Language; Phonetics; Recognition, Psychology; Speech Perception
PubMed: 32343927
DOI: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-19-00209 -
Science China. Life Sciences Jun 2021Most infants who are later diagnosed with autism show delayed speech and language and/or atypical language profile. There is a large body of research on abnormal speech... (Review)
Review
Most infants who are later diagnosed with autism show delayed speech and language and/or atypical language profile. There is a large body of research on abnormal speech and language in children with autism. However, auditory development has been relatively under-investigated in autism research, despite its inextricable relationship with language development and despite researchers' ability to detect abnormalities in brain development and behavior in early infancy. In this review, we synthesize research on auditory processing in the prenatal period through infancy and childhood in typically developing children, children at high risk for autism, and children diagnosed with autism. We conclude that there are clear neurobiological and behavioral links between abnormal auditory development and the deficits in social communication seen in autism. We then offer perspectives on the need for a systematic characterization of early auditory development in autism, and identified questions to be addressed in future research on the development of autism.
Topics: Animals; Auditory Perceptual Disorders; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Child; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Humans; Infant; Language Development; Speech Disorders
PubMed: 33492640
DOI: 10.1007/s11427-020-1863-6 -
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and... Jan 2020This paper evaluated the performance of an envelope enhancement (EE) algorithm subjectively by children with auditory processing disorder (APD), and objectively through...
This paper evaluated the performance of an envelope enhancement (EE) algorithm subjectively by children with auditory processing disorder (APD), and objectively through computational models. Speech intelligibility data was collected from children with APD, for unprocessed and envelope-enhanced speech in the presence of stationary and non-stationary background noise at different signal to noise ratios (SNRs), both with and without noise reduction (NR) algorithms as a front-end to the EE algorithm. Furthermore, intrusive and non-intrusive objective speech intelligibility metrics were derived to predict the perceptual impact of this EE algorithm. Subjective data for stationary noise conditions revealed that the combination of NR and EE algorithms significantly improved the speech intelligibility scores at poor SNRs. In contrast, the same combination was ineffective in improving speech intelligibility in non-stationary noise conditions. Taken together, subjective results suggest that exaggerating the envelope cues improves speech identification scores for children with APD. However, the benefit obtained varies depending upon the type and level of the background noise. Both intrusive and non-intrusive objective speech intelligibility estimators exhibited good correlation with the subjective data, with the intrusive metric demonstrating better generalization capabilities. Implications of these results for hearing aid applications for children with APD is discussed.
Topics: Adolescent; Algorithms; Auditory Perceptual Disorders; Child; Computer Simulation; Cues; Equipment Design; Female; Hearing Aids; Humans; Male; Noise; Signal-To-Noise Ratio; Speech Intelligibility; Speech Perception
PubMed: 31804940
DOI: 10.1109/TNSRE.2019.2957230