What Complexity Differences Reveal About Domains in Language*

An important distinction between phonology and syntax has been overlooked. All phonological patterns belong to the regular region of the Chomsky Hierarchy, but not all syntactic patterns do. We argue that the hypothesis that humans employ distinct learning mechanisms for phonology and syntax currently offers the best explanation for this difference.     

Boosting syntax training with temporally regular musical primes in children with cochlear implants

ObjectivesPrevious research has suggested the use of rhythmic structures (implemented in musical material) to improve linguistic structure processing (i.e., syntax processing), in particular for populations showing deficits in syntax and temporal processing (e.g., children with developmental language disorders). The present study proposes a long-term training program to improve syntax processing in children with cochlear implants, a population showing syntax processing deficits in perception and production.MethodsThe training program consisted of morphosyntactic training exercises (based on speech processing) that were primed by musical regular primes (8 sessions) or neutral baseline primes (environmental sounds) (8 sessions). A crossover design was used to train 10 deaf children with cochlear implants. Performance in grammatical processing, non-word repetition, attention and memory was assessed before and after training.ResultsTraining increased performance for syntax comprehension after both prime types but for grammaticality judgements and non-word repetition only when musical primes were used during training. For the far-transfer tests, some effects were also observed for attention tasks, especially if fast and precise sequential analysis (sequencing) was required, but not for memory tasks.ConclusionsThe findings extend the previously observed beneficial short-term effects of regular musical primes in the laboratory to long-term training effects. Results suggest that the musical primes improved the processing of the syntactic training material, thus enhancing the training effects on grammatical processing as well as phonological processing and sequencing of speech signals. The findings can be interpreted within the dynamic attending theory (postulating the modulation of attention over time) and associated oscillatory brain activity. Furthermore, the findings encourage the use of rhythmic structures (even in non-verbal materials) in language training programs and outline perspectives for rehabilitation.     

原发性高血压合并冠心病患者血清Apelin水平及其意义

目的观察原发性高血压（EH）合并冠心病（CHD）患者血清Apelin水平,并探讨其在冠心病中的意义。方法选择2013年6月至2013年12月原发性高血压患者96例作为观察对象,根据有无合并冠心病分为原发性高血压并冠心病组（EH并CHD组）53例、原发性高血压组（EH组）43例。检测两组血清Apelin水平、生物化学指标,计算体质指数,EH并CHD组行冠状动脉造影,计算Syntax评分,并进行统计学分析。结果（1）EH并CHD组血清Apelin水平明显低于EH组（1.83±0.71μg/L比2.28±0.82μg/L,P<0.05）。（2）随着Syntax评分增高,Apelin水平越低。（3）经Pearson相关分析,EH并CHD组血清Apelin与体质指数、收缩压、舒张压、空腹血糖呈负相关。（4）Logistic回归分析显示：血清Apelin降低是高血压患者发生冠心病的一个独立危险因素（OR＝0.475,95%CI：0.163～0.838,P<0.05）。结论与原发性高血压患者相比,原发性高血压合并冠心病患者血清Apelin水平进一步降低,提示血清Apelin水平测定可预测原发性高血压患者合并冠心病的风险。     

Processing consequences of superfluous and missing prosodic breaks in auditory sentence comprehension

This ERP study investigates whether a superfluous prosodic break (i.e., a prosodic break that does not coincide with a syntactic break) has more severe processing consequences during auditory sentence comprehension than a missing prosodic break (i.e., the absence of a prosodic break at the position of a syntactic break). Participants listened to temporarily ambiguous sentences involving a prosody–syntax match or mismatch. The disambiguation of these sentences was always lexical in nature in the present experiment. This contrasts with a related study by Pauker, Itzhak, Baum, and Steinhauer (2011), where the disambiguation was of a lexical type for missing PBs and of a prosodic type for superfluous PBs. Our results converge with those of Pauker et al. (2011): superfluous prosodic breaks lead to more severe processing problems than missing prosodic breaks. Importantly, the present results extend those of Pauker et al. (2011) showing that this holds when the disambiguation is always lexical in nature. Furthermore, our results show that the way listeners use prosody can change over the course of the experiment which bears consequences for future studies.     

耳折程度与冠心病患者左主干或三支血管病变相关性分析

目的：分析冠心病患者耳折程度与冠脉造影左主干/三支血管病变（LM/3VD）的相关性。方法选取医院2013年1月-2014年12月收治的冠心病患者820例。根据造影结果分为 LM/3VD 组（198例）和 non-LM/3VD 组（622例）。根据耳折程度进行评分,同时,对冠状动脉病变行 SYNTAX 评分。分析耳折严重程度与冠心病患者LM/3VD 的相关性。结果严重耳折预测冠心病患者 LM/3VD 的灵敏度76.76％,特异度84.56％,阳性预测值为61.29％,阴性预测值为91.96％,漏诊率23.23％,误诊率15.43％。结论严重耳折程度与冠心病患者 LM/3VD 密切相关,对冠心病患者的早期干预和治疗有一定的参考价值。     

残余Syntax评分对左主干病变经皮冠脉介入 治疗患者预后的影响

目的：探讨残余SYNTAX评分（residual SYNTAX score,rSS）对左主干病变（Left main,LM）接受PCI的患者远期预后的影响。方法：回顾性分析我院接受LM病变PCI治疗的患者,收集其临床资料、实验室检查、冠脉造影及介入操作资料,并计算其基线SYNTAX评分（baseline SYNTAX score,bSS）和rSS,根据rSS分值进行分为rSS＜8、rSS≥8两组,所有患者接受3年随访。结果：高rSS组患者左主干+三支病变比例更高,LM钙化比例更高,LVEF更低、肌酐清除率更低、操作并发症发生率及IABP支持比例更高,预后方面,高rSS与更高的心源性死亡（1.13% vs. 0.51%,p=0.0458）、支架内血栓（2.36% vs. 1.35%,p=0.0440）、所有血运重建（12.43% vs. 8.09%,p=0.0002）、全因死亡+所有心肌梗死+所有的血运重建复合终点（19.11% vs.13.29%,p<0.0001）、心源性死亡+靶血管相关心肌梗死+靶血管血运重建的复合终点（4.28% vs. 2.78%,p=0.0286）发生率相关。回归分析表明,rSS≥8分、年龄、左室射血分数是全因死亡+所有心肌梗死+所有的血运重建复合终点发生的独立危险因素。结论：在接受LM介入治疗的患者人群,较高的残余SYNTAX评分是3年复合终点发生的独立危险因素。     

A revival of Homo loquens as a builder of labeled structures: Neurocognitive considerations

The core capacity of human language is described as the faculty to combine words into hierarchical structures. This review aims to isolate the fundamental computation behind the language faculty together with its neural implementation. First, we present our central hypothesis by confronting recent linguistic theory with evolutionary arguments: linguistic humaniqueness is reflected in the labeling of word combinations forming asymmetric hierarchical structures. Second, we review the neurolinguistic literature, especially focusing on dual-stream connectivity models. We put forward that the dorsal pathway, especially the arcuate fascicle, is responsible for the rule-based combinatorial system, implementing labeling and giving rise to hierarchical structures. Conversely, the ventral stream is rather responsible for semantic associative operations. We further present evolutionary neuroanatomical evidence grounding our hypothesis. We conclude by suggesting further avenues of research as well as open questions to be addressed. With the aim to expand our knowledge on the neurobiology of language, we hope to provide a testable hypothesis for the origin of language syntax bringing together evidence from different fields.     

The role of noun syntax in spoken word production: Evidence from aphasia

We describe MH who presents with agrammatic aphasia and anomia, and who produces semantic errors in the absence of a central semantic impairment. This pattern of performance implies damage to syntactic processes operating between semantics and phonological output. Damage here may lead to lexical selection errors and a deficit in combining words to form phrases.We investigated MH's knowledge and processing of noun syntax in mass and count nouns. She produced more count nouns than mass nouns. She showed impaired knowledge of noun syntax in judgement tasks and production tasks, with mass noun syntax being more impaired than count.We interpret these results in terms of a two-stage model of lexical retrieval. We propose that syntactic information represented at the lemma level is activated even in bare noun production, and can be differentially impaired across noun categories. That same damage can lead to semantic errors in production. For MH limited syntactic options are available to support production, and these favour count noun production. The data provide a new account of output semantic errors.     

Contribution of language studies to the understanding of cognitive impairment and its progression over time in Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is a frequent neurodegenerative disease that is mostly known for its motor symptoms. However, cognitive impairment is now recognised as an important part of the disease. Studies of cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease reveal considerable heterogeneity in terms of which cognitive domains are impaired, and of how cognitive impairment progresses over time. In parallel, a growing body of research reports language difficulties in Parkinson’s disease, more specifically in the domains of sentence processing and lexical-semantic processing. In this review, the performance of patients with Parkinson’s disease in these domains of language will be reviewed with a focus on the links that they have with the rest of cognition and on how they could contribute to the earlier and more precise characterization and prediction of cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease. More specifically, the potential for modulation of complexity and sensitivity of language tasks to mild deficits and difficulties that are predictive of further decline will be emphasized. Other motivations for studying language difficulties in this disease will also be discussed.