Picture Naming Electrified: Brain Electrophysiological Correlates

描述（由申请人提供）：产生言语涉及在认知层面（因此称为心理语言规划）处理语言信息，同时在言语运动层面保持控制。语言病理学家在诊断和治疗成人口吃时密切关注后者，而很少关注驱动语言产生的认知机制的表现。心理语言规划主要涉及言语过程中词汇知识的认知加工；在某种程度上，可以通过图片命名来进行处理。三种驱动图片命名的心理语言机制是：1)激活传播。在图片命名的过程中，单词被激活并在心理词汇中竞争选择。2)词汇检索。当一个词被选中时，它的语义和语音特征被检索并用于生成语言蓝图或表面结构。3)内部错误监控。语言蓝图在转化为语言运动之前会被监测其准确性。流利而准确的说话既取决于语言运动控制，也取决于这些机制的运作效率。因此，一个至关重要的目标是表征成人口吃（AWS）的心理语言机制。迄今为止进行的行为心理语言学研究在满足这一目标方面的能力有限。在这里，一种创新的认知神经科学方法，涉及事件相关电位（erp），将被利用。erp是脑电生理活动的反射性变化，在头皮上无创记录，可以精确地以毫秒为单位索引特定的心理机制。当人们准备为图片命名并对他们生成的图片名称做出词汇决定时，可以记录erp。在图片命名路径上引发的erp可能包括几个组成部分，其中一些通过振幅和延迟的变化来响应，分别是激活扩散、词汇检索和内部错误监测，这些变化是实时展开的。在三个实验中，将这些ERP成分与无口吃的成年人（AWNS）进行比较，以回答以下问题：1)激活扩散是否在无口吃的成年人中典型地运作，正如在图片-单词启动任务中引发的N400 ERP成分的振幅所证明的那样？2)双选题词汇决策任务中诱发的两个ERP组件——侧化准备势和NoGo N200的时间过程证明，词语检索在AWS中是否沿着一个典型的时间过程运行？3)内部错误监控是否在AWS中典型地运行，正如在强制错误词汇决策任务中引发的错误相关否定的幅度所证明的那样？研究结果将揭示脑侧神经网络的脑电生理活动是否与脑侧神经网络的脑电生理活动在心理语言学机制上有所不同，这些机制介导了图片命名路径上词汇知识的激活、检索和监测。研究结果将对以心理语言学为中心的口吃临床诊断和干预工具的发展产生影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Producing speech involves processing linguistic information at a cognitive level (henceforth, psycholinguistic planning) while, simultaneously, maintaining control at a speech motor level. Speech-language pathologists pay close attention to the latter in the diagnosis and treatment of adulthood stuttering, while little if any attention is paid to the performance of the cognitive machinery driving speech production. Psycholinguistic planning largely involves the cognitive processing of lexical knowledge on the path to speaking; processing that can, to some extent, be elicited via picture naming. Three psycholinguistic mechanisms that drive picture naming are: 1) Activation spreading. Words are activated and compete for selection in the mental lexicon on the path to picture naming. 2) Lexical retrieval. When a word is selected its semantic and phonological features are retrieved and used to generate a linguistic blueprint, or surface structure. 3) Internal error monitoring. The linguistic blueprint is monitored for accuracy before being transformed into speech motor movements. Fluent and accurate speaking depends as much on the efficiency with which these mechanisms operate as it does on speech motor control. Thus, a crucially important aim is to characterize psycholinguistic mechanisms in adults who stutter (AWS). Behavioral psycholinguistic research conducted to date has been limited in its ability to meet this aim. Here, an innovative cognitive neuroscientific approach, involving event-related potentials (ERPs), will be utilized. ERPs are reflexive changes in brain electrophysiological activity, recorded non- invasively at the scalp that can index specific psychological mechanisms with precision on the order of milliseconds. ERPs can be recorded as people prepare to name pictures and make lexical decisions about picture names they generate. ERPs elicited on the path to picture naming may comprise several components, some that respond via changes in amplitude and latency as activation spreading, lexical retrieval and internal error monitoring, respectively, unfold in real time. In three experiments, those ERP components will be compared in AWS versus adults who do not stutter (AWNS) to answer the following questions: 1) Does activation spreading operate typically in AWS, as evidenced in the amplitude of the N400 ERP component elicited during a picture-word priming task? 2) Does word retrieval operate along a typical time-course in AWS, as evidenced in the time-course of two ERP components - Lateralized Readiness Potential and NoGo N200 - elicited during a dual-choice lexical decision task? 3) Does internal error monitoring operate typically in AWS, as evidenced in the amplitude of Error Related Negativity elicited during a forced-error lexical decision task? Results will reveal whether brain electrophysiological activity in AWS may differ from that of AWNS in psycholinguistic mechanisms that mediate the activation, retrieval, and monitoring of lexical knowledge on the path to picture naming. Findings will have implications for the development of psycholinguistically-focused clinical diagnostic and intervention tools for stuttering. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Although efficient psycholinguistic planning is requisite for fluent and accurate speech production, psycholinguistic performance is not a standard consideration in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of adulthood stuttering. Understanding precisely how AWS activate, retrieve, and monitor lexical knowledge on the path to speaking could improve the efficacy of intervention for stuttering, an important goal in fostering the psychosocial and vocational prospects of adults who stutter. Results of this research will have implications for the development of psycholinguistically-focused assessment and treatment tools for stuttering.