0000000000962584
AUTHOR
Hongjun Chen
Spatiotemporal dynamics of activation in motor and language areas suggest a compensatory role of the motor cortex in second language processing
The involvement of the motor cortex in language understanding has been intensively discussed in the framework of embodied cognition. Although some studies have provided evidence for the involvement of the motor cortex in different receptive language tasks, the role that it plays in language perception and understanding is still unclear. In the present study, we explored the degree of involvement of language and motor areas in a visually presented sentence comprehension task, modulated by language proficiency (L1: native language, L2: second language) and linguistic abstractness (literal, metaphorical, and abstract). Magnetoencephalography data were recorded from 26 late Chinese learners of …
Effect of parametric variation of center frequency and bandwidth of morlet wavelet transform on time-frequency analysis of event-related potentials
Time-frequency (TF) analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs) using Complex Morlet Wavelet Transform has been widely applied in cognitive neuroscience research. It has been widely suggested that the center frequency (fc) and bandwidth (σ) should be considered in defining the mother wavelet. However, the issue how parametric variation of fc and σ of Morlet wavelet transform exerts influence on ERPs time-frequency results has not been extensively discussed in previous research. The current study, through adopting the method of Complex Morlet Continuous Wavelet Transform (CMCWT), aims to investigate whether time-frequency results vary with different parametric settings of fc and σ. Besides, …
A Facilitatory Effect of Perceptual Incongruity on Target-Source Matching in Pictorial Metaphors of Chinese Advertising: EEG Evidence
Using evoked response potentials, we investigated the implicit detection of incongruity during target-source matching in pictorial metaphors of Chinese advertising. Participants saw an image of a product (the target in a visual metaphorical relationship), and then made a same-different judgment in response to a second image (the source in a visual metaphorical relationship) which was (in)congruous to the first image in terms of shape and/or function. We collected behavioral (button-press reaction time and accuracy), and neural (N270, delta and theta band activity) measures. The time-frequency analysis showed faster processing of incongruous visual information. Moreover, shape and conceptual…
The role of motor system in action-related language comprehension in L1 and L2: An fMRI study
The framework of embodied cognition has challenged the modular view of a language-cognition divide by suggesting that meaning-retrieval critically involves the sensory-motor system. Despite extensive research into the neural mechanisms underlying language-motor coupling, it remains unclear how the motor system might be differentially engaged by different levels of linguistic abstraction and language proficiency. To address this issue, we used fMRI to quantify neural activations in brain regions underlying motor and language processing in Chinese-English speakers’ processing of literal, metaphorical, and abstract language in their L1 and L2. Results overall revealed a response in motor ROIs …
Examining stability of independent component analysis based on coefficient and component matrices for voxel-based morphometry of structural magnetic resonance imaging
Independent component analysis (ICA) on group-level voxel-based morphometry (VBM) produces the coefficient matrix and the component matrix. The former contains variability among multiple subjects for further statistical analysis, and the latter reveals spatial maps common for all subjects. ICA algorithms converge to local optimization points in practice and the mostly applied stability investigation approach examines the stability of the extracted components. We found that the practically stable components do not guarantee to produce the practically stable coefficients of ICA decomposition for the further statistical analysis. Consequently, we proposed a novel approach including two steps: …
Decoding brain activities of literary metaphor comprehension: An event-related potential and EEG spectral analysis
Novel metaphors in literary texts (hereinafter referred to as literary metaphors) seem to be more creative and open-ended in meaning than metaphors in non-literary texts (non-literary metaphors). However, some disagreement still exists on how literary metaphors differ from non-literary metaphors. Therefore, this study explored the neural mechanisms of literary metaphors extracted from modern Chinese poetry by using the methods of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) and Event-Related Spectral Perturbations (ERSPs), as compared with non-literary conventional metaphors and literal expressions outside literary texts. Forty-eight subjects were recruited to make the semantic relatedness judgment afte…