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Scientific Reports Oct 2019How did vocal language originate? Before trying to determine how referential vocabulary or syntax may have arisen, it is critical to explain how ancient hominins began...
How did vocal language originate? Before trying to determine how referential vocabulary or syntax may have arisen, it is critical to explain how ancient hominins began to produce vocalization flexibly, without binding to emotions or functions. A crucial factor in the vocal communicative split of hominins from the ape background may thus have been copious, functionally flexible vocalization, starting in infancy and continuing throughout life, long before there were more advanced linguistic features such as referential vocabulary. 2-3 month-old modern human infants produce "protophones", including at least three types of functionally flexible non-cry precursors to speech rarely reported in other ape infants. But how early in life do protophones actually appear? We report that the most common protophone types emerge abundantly as early as vocalization can be observed in infancy, in preterm infants still in neonatal intensive care. Contrary to the expectation that cries are the predominant vocalizations of infancy, our all-day recordings showed that protophones occurred far more frequently than cries in both preterm and full-term infants. Protophones were not limited to interactive circumstances, but also occurred at high rates when infants were alone, indicating an endogenous inclination to vocalize exploratorily, perhaps the most fundamental capacity underlying vocal language.
Topics: Child Development; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Premature; Language; Speech; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 31611607
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-51352-0 -
Behavioural Neurology 2012Changes of cognitive function in PD have been extensively documented and defined as a 'frontal' type executive dysfunction. One of the main components of this executive...
Changes of cognitive function in PD have been extensively documented and defined as a 'frontal' type executive dysfunction. One of the main components of this executive dysfunction is the impairment of verbal fluency. The aim of the present study was to assess semantic and phonemic fluency in a large sample of PD patients and to investigate the effect of clinical and sociodemographic variables on verbal fluency in this patient group. Three hundred patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease who were consecutive referrals to our clinic and 50 age and education matched healthy controls completed the phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks. Both phonemic and semantic verbal fluency were significantly impaired in PD patients relative to matched controls. Stage of illness, presence of depression, education and age influenced verbal fluency measures. Regression analyses established that global measures of cognitive ability (MMSE) and executive function (FAB) and side of onset of motor symptoms predicted 36-37% of variance of phonemic or semantic verbal fluency measures. Thus, future studies aimed at assessing cognitive functioning in PD patients treated by deep brain stimulation (DBS) should adequately take into account several factors (stage of illness, depression, executive functioning) which may potentially influence performance on verbal fluency tasks.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Cognition; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Parkinson Disease; Phonetics; Semantics; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 22530265
DOI: 10.3233/BEN-2011-0354 -
Human Brain Mapping Oct 2006The left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) has consistently been associated with both phonologic and semantic operations in functional neuroimaging studies. Two main... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
The left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) has consistently been associated with both phonologic and semantic operations in functional neuroimaging studies. Two main theories have proposed a different functional organization in the LIFG for these processes. One theory suggests an anatomic parcellation of phonologic and semantic operations within the LIFG. An alternative theory proposes that both processes are encompassed within a supramodal executive function in a single region in the LIFG. To test these theories, we carried out a systematic review of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies employing phonologic and semantic verbal fluency tasks. Seventeen articles meeting our pre-established criteria were found, consisting of 22 relevant experiments with 197 healthy subjects and a total of 41 peak activations in the LIFG. We determined 95% confidence intervals of the mean location (x, y, and z coordinates) of peaks of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses from published phonologic and semantic verbal fluency studies using the nonparametric technique of bootstrap analysis. Significant differences were revealed in dorsal-ventral (z-coordinate) localizations of the peak BOLD response: phonologic verbal fluency peak BOLD response was significantly more dorsal to the peak associated with semantic verbal fluency (confidence interval of difference: 1.9-17.4 mm). No significant differences were evident in antero-posterior (x-coordinate) or medial-lateral (y-coordinate) positions. The results support distinct dorsal-ventral locations for phonologic and semantic processes within the LIFG. Current limitations to meta-analytic integration of published functional neuroimaging studies are discussed.
Topics: Brain Mapping; Frontal Lobe; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 16511886
DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20221 -
Behavioural Brain Research Mar 2014The little voice inside our head, or inner speech, is a common everyday experience. It plays a central role in human consciousness at the interplay of language and... (Review)
Review
The little voice inside our head, or inner speech, is a common everyday experience. It plays a central role in human consciousness at the interplay of language and thought. An impressive host of research works has been carried out on inner speech these last fifty years. Here we first describe the phenomenology of inner speech by examining five issues: common behavioural and cerebral correlates with overt speech, different types of inner speech (wilful verbal thought generation and verbal mind wandering), presence of inner speech in reading and in writing, inner signing and voice-hallucinations in deaf people. Secondly, we review the role of inner speech in cognitive performance (i.e., enhancement vs. perturbation). Finally, we consider agency in inner speech and how our inner voice is known to be self-generated and not produced by someone else.
Topics: Brain; Cognition; Consciousness; Humans; Language; Thinking; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 24412278
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2013.12.034 -
Seizure Sep 1995
Topics: Brain Mapping; Dominance, Cerebral; Electroencephalography; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe; Humans; Monitoring, Physiologic; Speech Acoustics; Temporal Lobe; Verbal Behavior; Video Recording
PubMed: 7582662
DOI: 10.1016/s1059-1311(05)80069-x -
Infant Behavior & Development Nov 2020The present study examines how toddler emotions may influence their own or their parents' participation in parent-toddler verbal conversation. Limited, indirect evidence...
The present study examines how toddler emotions may influence their own or their parents' participation in parent-toddler verbal conversation. Limited, indirect evidence suggests that toddler positive emotions may encourage, whereas negative emotions may disrupt, parent-toddler verbal exchanges, but these hypotheses have not been tested directly. We investigated two aspects of toddler emotions- their emotion expressions and their emotional traits- and examined their relations with parent-toddler verbal conversation engagement. In a sample of families with 18-month-olds (N = 120), we used live, unstructured home observations of toddler emotion expressions and spontaneous parent-toddler verbalizations, and collected parent ratings of toddler temperament. We found that less surgent toddlers who expressed more frequent negative emotion attempted fewer verbalizations. Among all toddlers, those expressing positive emotion received more frequent parent verbal responses, and, unexpectedly, more failed parent attempts to engage their toddler in conversation. Parent-initiated conversation was unrelated to toddler emotion expressions or emotional traits. We discuss how best to integrate the study of early emotional and language development from a transactional perspective.
Topics: Child Development; Child, Preschool; Emotions; Expressed Emotion; Female; Humans; Infant; Language Development; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Parent-Child Relations; Parents; Temperament; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 32763590
DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101474 -
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of... May 2010Data from the Oregon Youth Study, consisting of the verbal behavior of 210 adolescent boys determined to be at risk for delinquency (targets) and 210 of their friends...
Data from the Oregon Youth Study, consisting of the verbal behavior of 210 adolescent boys determined to be at risk for delinquency (targets) and 210 of their friends (peers), were analyzed for their conformance to the complete family of matching theory equations in light of recent findings from the basic science, and using recently developed analytic techniques. Equations of the classic and modern theories of matching were fitted as ensembles to rates and time allocations of the boys' rule-break and normative talk obtained from conversations between pairs of boys. The verbal behavior of each boy in a conversation was presumed to be reinforced by positive social responses from the other boy. Consistent with recent findings from the basic science, the boys' verbal behavior was accurately described by the modern but not the classic theory of matching. These findings also add support to the assertion that basic principles and processes that are known to govern behavior in laboratory experiments also govern human social behavior in undisturbed natural environments.
Topics: Adolescent; Humans; Juvenile Delinquency; Male; Peer Group; Psychological Theory; Risk-Taking; Social Behavior; Social Environment; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 21119854
DOI: 10.1901/jeab.2010.93-415 -
Developmental Neuropsychology 2018Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a hereditary disorder characterized by disrupted phenylalanine metabolism and cognitive impairment. However, the precise nature and...
Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a hereditary disorder characterized by disrupted phenylalanine metabolism and cognitive impairment. However, the precise nature and developmental trajectory of this cognitive impairment remains unclear. The present study used a verbal fluency task to dissociate executive and verbal processes in children with PKU (n = 23; 7-18 years) and controls (n = 44; 7-19 years). Data were collected at three longitudinal timepoints over a three-year period, and the contributions of age, group, and their interaction to fluency performance were evaluated. Results indicated impairments in executive processes in children with PKU, which were exacerbated by declining metabolic control.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Cognitive Dysfunction; Executive Function; Female; Humans; Male; Neuropsychological Tests; Phenylketonurias; Verbal Behavior; Young Adult
PubMed: 29432026
DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2018.1438439 -
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 2012Past research has shown that response interruption and redirection (RIRD) can effectively decrease automatically reinforced motor behavior (Hagopian & Adelinis, 2001)....
Past research has shown that response interruption and redirection (RIRD) can effectively decrease automatically reinforced motor behavior (Hagopian & Adelinis, 2001). Ahearn, Clark, MacDonald, and Chung (2007) found that a procedural adaptation of RIRD reduced vocal stereotypy and increased appropriate vocalizations for some children, although appropriate vocalizations were not targeted directly. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of directly targeting appropriate language (i.e., verbal operant training) on vocal stereotypy and appropriate speech in 3 children with an autism spectrum disorder. The effects of verbal operant (i.e., tact) training were evaluated in a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants. In addition, RIRD was implemented with 2 of the 3 participants to further decrease levels of vocal stereotypy. Verbal operant training alone produced slightly lower levels of stereotypy and increased appropriate vocalizations for all 3 participants; however, RIRD was required to produce acceptably low levels of stereotypy for 2 of the 3 participants.
Topics: Behavior Therapy; Child; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Conditioning, Operant; Female; Humans; Male; Stereotyped Behavior; Stereotypic Movement Disorder; Time Factors; Verbal Behavior; Voice
PubMed: 22403453
DOI: 10.1901/jaba.2012.45-107 -
Journal of Community Psychology Jul 2019Many factors affect the utility and practicality of measures in longitudinal studies characterized by transient participants such as those caught in the cycle of... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
AIMS
Many factors affect the utility and practicality of measures in longitudinal studies characterized by transient participants such as those caught in the cycle of incarceration. The current study evaluated the psychometric equivalency of a visual and a verbal version of a single-item connectedness measure; the aim was to determine whether the different formats can be used interchangeably depending on feasibility.
METHODS
Participants were 133 jail inmates (49% male; 43% Black; M = 35 years, SD = 10 years) interviewed just before release from jail.
RESULTS
Results provide evidence for the concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity of the two ICS versions. Attempts to calibrate the verbal measure to the visual measure were moderately successful.
CONCLUSION
Taken together, results suggest the two formats are comparable, but not interchangeable; they map on to other variables in similar ways but cannot be used in lieu of one another.
Topics: Adult; Community Participation; Female; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Middle Aged; Prisoners; Psychological Distress; Psychometrics; Self Concept; Social Identification; Verbal Behavior; Visual Perception
PubMed: 31066926
DOI: 10.1002/jcop.22196