A selective and critical review of neuropsychological deficits and the frontal lobes

Presumptions about the functions of the frontal lobes, and the sensitivity and specificity of certain tests to measure frontal lobe functions, are having a substantial influence on both clinical and research conclusions. In this paper the authors examine the details of the studies that have contributed to these presumptions, and find that the evidence to support these conclusions is weak. A detailed evaluation of the evidence relating to the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Thurstone Word Fluency Test is also presented. Finally, the development of the belief that frontal lobe functions can be specifically measured is reviewed. The authors of this paper conclude that the bewildering array of deficits attributed to frontal lesions still seems to prevail.     

The nature and treatment of stuttering as revealed by fMRI A within- and between-group comparison

This article reviews some of our recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of stuttering. Using event-related fMRI experiments, we investigated brain activation during speech production. Results of three studies comparing persons who stutter (PWS) and persons who do not stutter (PWNS) are outlined. Their findings point to a region in the right frontal operculum (RFO) that was consistently implicated in stuttering. During overt reading and before fluency shaping therapy, PWS showed higher and more distributed neuronal activation than PWNS. Immediately after therapy differential activations were even more distributed and left sided. They extended to frontal, temporal, and parietal regions, anterior cingulate, insula, and putamen. These over-activations were slightly reduced and again more right sided two years after therapy. Left frontal deactivations remained stable over two years of observation, and therefore possibly indicate a dysfunction. After therapy, we noted higher activations in persons who stutter moderately than in those who stutter severely. These activations might reflect patterns of compensation. We discuss why these findings suggest that fluency-inducing techniques might synchronize a disturbed signal transmission between auditory, speech motor planning, and motor areas.

Educational objectives: The reader will learn about and be able to: (1) identify regions of brain activations and deactivations specific for PWS; (2) describe brain activation changes induced by fluency shaping therapy; and (3) discuss the correlation between stuttering severity and brain activation.     

Fluency disruption in speech and in wind instrument playing

A case of an adult who stutters and complains of a similar fluency problem when playing the trombone is reported. This is the fourth such report, with previous cases involving trumpet, flute, and horn playing.     

Right-hemispheric cortical contributions to language ability in healthy adults

In this study we investigated the correlation between individual linguistic ability based on performance levels and their engagement of typical and atypical language areas in the brain. Eighteen healthy subjects between 21 and 64 years participated in language ability tests, and subsequent functional MRI scans measuring brain activity in response to a sentence completion and a word fluency task. Performance in both reading and high-level language tests correlated positively with increased right-hemispheric activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (specifically Brodmann area 47), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the medial temporal gyrus (Brodmann area 21). In contrast, we found a negative correlation between performance and left-hemispheric DLPFC activation.Our findings indicate that the right lateral frontal and right temporal regions positively modulate aspects of language ability.     

The European Clinical Specialization on Fluency Disorders (ECSF)

The European Clinical Specialization on Fluency Disorders (ECSF) project consists of one-year post-qualification fluency specialization training and a harmonized graduate fluency program. It was developed by eight European universities/colleges to provide the means whereby graduates would meet comparable standards of competence to practice in the field of fluency disorders. In this paper we describe criteria that guided the consortium in their decision making process to create an optimal learning environment for participants. A review of the first completed course cycle, with 23 international participants, is discussed.Educational objectives: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) articulate the rationale for development of the ECSF-course; (2) summarize the content of both the harmonized undergraduate fluency course and the postgraduate fluency specialization course; (3) summarize the benefits of the suggested model for fluency specialization.     

A processing fluency-account of funniness: Running gags and spoiling punchlines

Earlier theories on humour assume that funniness stems from the incongruity resolution of the surprising punchline and thus an insight into the joke's meaning. Applying recent psychological theorising that insight itself draws on processing fluency being the ease and speed with which mental content is processed, it is predicted that increasing the fluency of processing the punchline of a joke increases funniness. In Experiments 1 and 2, significant nouns from the punchlines or from the beginnings of jokes were presented before a joke was rated in funniness. Pre-exposing punchline words 15 minutes and even only 1 minute before the eventual joke led to increased funniness ratings. In contrast, pre-exposing punchline words directly before a joke led to decreased funniness ratings. Furthermore, pre-exposing the beginning of a joke 1 minute before the joke had no effects on funniness. Experiment 3 ruled out exposure-facilitated punchline anticipation as alternative mechanism, and Experiment 4 replicated this fluency effect with typing font as manipulation. These findings also show that pre-exposing a punchline, which in common knowledge should spoil a joke, can actually increase funniness under certain conditions.     

Créativité verbale et valence émotionnelle : « Je deviens plus créatif quand je vois un mot positif ! »

IntroductionThe modulating effect of emotion on creativity is one of the most current topics in cognitive research. Emotion, and particularly positive emotion, is supposed to be conducive of creativity and to enhance the processes of creative thinking.ObjectiveThis work aimed to study the modulating effect of emotional valence of the task material (words-stimuli) as well as the emotional valence of the task instructions on verbal creativity performance.MethodAn experiment was conducted on a set of 27 stimuli-words and six instructions-phrases selected on the basis of pretest valence ratings. The valence of the stimuli-words (negative, neutral and positive) was crossed with the valence of the instructions-phrases (negative, neutral and positive) in a 3 × 3 factorial design. However, only five experimental conditions were considered relevant and used in the Experiment. Three components of verbal creativity identified in the literature were measured: fluidity, flexibility and originality.ResultsResults showed that positive instructions and words increased verbal creativity, especially the originality of the responses, which is considered as a basic component of creativity. Conversely, negative valence had an inhibitory and obstructive effect on verbal creativity.ConclusionThis study supports previous research showing the existence of a significant influence of emotional valence of words on cognitive functioning, and adds to the very little (or absent) research on the modulating effect of the valence of instructions and on the relationship between verbal creativity and emotional valence, a relationship that can be fostered in education.     

Help Wanted: People With Disabilities and Recruitment Advertising

People with disabilities rely heavily on specialist agencies to find suitable employment. This research examines how agency consultants use recruitment ads in their work with clients. The authors analyzed the ads collected by consultants and learned that the ads were dominated by organization and job attributes. The ads contained less information about preferred applicant characteristics and selection procedures. Consultants used the ads to facilitate immediate matches between clients and employers, but they also used the ads to nudge clients in new career directions. The results reflect challenges consultants experience in balancing the long‐term needs of clients against the short‐term demands of employers.     

Linguistic and emotional-valence characteristics of reading passages for clinical use and research

PurposeFluency assessment in people who stutter (PWS) includes reading aloud passages. There is little information on properties of these passages that may affect reading performance: emotional valance, arousal, word familiarity and frequency and passage-readability. Our first goal was to present an extensive examination of these factors in three commonly used (“traditional”) passages. The second goal was to compare a traditional passage to a new passage, designed to minimize the impact of these properties.MethodsContent words were rated (129 participants) on arousal, valence and familiarity. Other linguistic features were analyzed based on available datasets. This information was used to assess traditional passages, and to construct a new well-balanced passage, made of neutral, low-arousal and highly-familiar words. Readability for all passages was tested using formula-based and CLOZE tests (31 participants). Finally, 26 PWS were evaluated on fluency comparing the commonly used “Rainbow” passage with the novel one.ResultsThe three traditional passages contain a share of emotionally valenced (22-34%), high arousal (15-18%), lower familiarity (6-8%) and polysyllabic (5-9%) content words. Readability was highest for the novel passage (on formula-based scales). Average disfluencies percent for the Rainbow and our novel passage were not significantly different. Yet half of the individuals in this sample showed a large difference between the two passages.ConclusionWe provide detailed information on potential sources of variance using the traditional passages. Knowledge about these characteristics can inform clinical practice (and research). We suggest a combined procedure, using more than one passage to assess stuttering in individual cases.