Prosodic boundaries, comma rules, and brain responses: the closure positive shift in ERPs as a universal marker for prosodic phrasing in listeners and readers

Just as the false comma in this sentence, shows punctuation can influence sentence processing considerably. Pauses and other prosodic cues in spoken language serve the same function of structuring the sentence in smaller phrases. However, surprisingly little effort has been spent on the question as to whether both phenomena rest on the same mechanism and whether they are equally efficient in guiding parsing decisions. In a recent study, we showed that auditory speech boundaries evoke a specific positive shift in the listeners' event-related brain potentials (ERPs) that indicates the sentence segmentation and resulting changes in the understanding of the utterance (Steinhauer et al., 1999a). Here, we present three ERP reading experiments demonstrating that the human brain processes commas in a similar manner and that comma perception depends crucially on the reader's individual punctuation habits. Main results of the study are: (1) Commas can determine initial parsing as efficiently as speech boundaries because they trigger the same prosodic phrasing covertly, although phonological representations seem to be activated to a lesser extent. (2) Independent of the input modality, this phrasing is reflected online by the same ERP component, namely the Closure Positive Shift (CPS). (3) Both behavioral and ERP data suggest that comma processing varies with the readers' idiosyncratic punctuation habits. (4) A combined auditory and visual ERP experiment shows that the CPS is also elicited both by delexicalized prosody and while subjects replicate prosodic boundaries during silent reading. (5) A comma-induced reversed garden path turned out to be much more difficult than the classical garden path. Implications for psycholinguistic models and future ERP research are discussed.     

语言和音乐中短语边界的认知加工

综述了近年来语言和音乐中有关短语边界加工的一些研究成果。首先,语言中使用事件相关电位技术（ERP）进行的众多研究表明,口语中的语调短语边界和阅读中的逗号都能诱发中止正漂移（CPS）这种反映语调短语中止的ERP成分。然后介绍了近期关于音乐短语结构的一系列ERP和事件相关磁场（ERF）研究,结果发现在各种实验条件下音乐CPS都能够稳定产生。最后,对今后汉语韵律层级结构边界的认知加工研究做出展望     

Violence Exposure and the Development of School-Related Functioning: Mental Health, Neurocognition, and Learning

The relation between history of violence exposure and the development of academic and mental health problems is explored. Violence exposed children have an increased risk of developing school-related problems including: mental health problems, learning disabilities, language impairments, and other neurocognitive problems. These problems interact to create a complex web of deficits and disabilities where intervention access points are difficult to assess. Often mental health problems and academic problems develop in parallel. Timing of violence exposure and the developmental stage of the child during exposure complicate our understanding of the underlying mechanism. A model is presented that explores pathways linking violence exposure to aspects of school-related functioning, both academically and behaviorally. Early life stress, in the form of violence exposure, is related to neurocognitive deficits, including executive functioning and problems in self-regulation. Deficits in self-regulation at the level of behavior, and cognitive control and executive functioning, at the level of brain processing, are related to both academic and mental health problems, suggesting a possible psychological mechanism. Biological mechanisms are also included in the model to illustrate the contribution of the stress response, neuroendocrine system response, and neuroanatomical structural and functional impairments associated with violence exposure.     

Application of Child Protective Services in Korea

Abstract

Because childrearing is a very culturally oriented practice, cultural sensitivity in Child Protective Services (CPS) is a very important factor for effective services. Korea has recently begun social intervention in cases of child abuse, but faces many difficulties resulting from cultural dilemmas. In particular, Korean society has the value of corporal punishment and negative attitudes toward social intervention into family issues. These cultural characteristics result in strong resistance to intervention by CPS. In the future, the success of child abuse intervention in Korean society will depend on how these cultural dilemmas are resolved. The development of a CPS model based on Korean culture can be an alternative to reduce conflicts in the application of CPS.     

Time-driven effects on parsing during reading

The phonological trace of perceived words starts fading away in short-term memory after a few seconds. Spoken utterances are usually 2-3 s long, possibly to allow the listener to parse the words into coherent prosodic phrases while they still have a clear representation. Results from this brain potential study suggest that even during silent reading, words are organized into 2-3 s long ‘implicit’ prosodic phrases. Participants read the same sentences word by word at different presentation rates. Clause-final words occurring at multiples of 2-3 s from sentence onset yielded increased positivity, irrespective of presentation rate. The effect was interpreted as a closure positive shift (CPS), reflecting insertion of implicit prosodic phrase boundaries every 2-3 s. Additionally, in participants with low working memory span, clauses over 3 s long produced a negativity, possibly indicating increased working memory load.     

来自基层医生的呼吁：重视社区医疗—《行医日记》选载

《行医日记》用行医实践说明了社区医疗的作用、地位、服务方式、服务内容以及社区医疗的诸多困难,社区医疗应该有其特定的社会地位和学术地位,以下几篇内容是根据日常所做、所想、所感而作的总结。对基层医疗的社区服务性质应该有个全新的认识。     

口吃者加工汉语歧义短语的神经过程

韵律边界是口语韵律特征的有机组成部分, 在语言理解中发挥着重要作用。口吃作为一种言语节律性障碍, 主要表现为音节经常性的重复、拖长或停顿等。本研究采用ERP, 考察口吃者完成词汇判断和结构判断两种任务时, 加工歧义短语(动宾/偏正歧义结构)内部韵律边界的认知过程。结果发现口吃者和言语流畅者在加工汉语歧义短语过程中, 所诱发的反映韵律切分的脑电成分CPS (closure positive shift)不存在显著差异。在0~300 ms, 不论中线还是两侧, 口吃者和言语流畅者加工两类短语时, 动宾短语韵律边界诱发正效应的头皮分布范围小于偏正短语。在300~600 ms, 中线上, 口吃和言语流畅者在完成两种任务时, 两类短语的韵律边界均稳定诱发了正效应; 在两侧, 结构判断任务中两类短语的韵律边界都诱发了正效应, 但词汇判断任务中只有偏正短语稳定诱发该效应。综上, 口吃者和言语流畅者一样对口语韵律边界敏感, 并且他们加工歧义短语内部韵律边界时, 诱发的脑电效应受到实验任务和短语结构类型的影响。