Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study.

The use of taboo words represents one of the most common and arguably universal linguistic behaviors, fulfilling a wide range of psychological and social functions. However, in the scientific literature, taboo language is poorly characterized, and how it is realized in different languages and populations remains largely unexplored. Here we provide a database of taboo words, collected from different linguistic communities (Study 1, N = 1046), along with their speaker-centered semantic characterization (Study 2, N = 455 for each of six rating dimensions), covering 13 languages and 17 countries from all five permanently inhabited continents. Our results show that, in all languages, taboo words are mainly characterized by extremely low valence and high arousal, and very low written frequency. However, a significant amount of cross-country variability in words' tabooness and offensiveness proves the importance of community-specific sociocultural knowledge in the study of taboo language.

Is adaptation involved in bilingual language production? A fresh look at the assumptions motivating potential bilingual-monolingual differences in adaptive control.

One of the hottest debates in psychology-whether bilingual-monolingual differences exist in cognitive control-is at a stalemate. Here we propose that the stalemate could be broken by shifting the research focus from whether those differences emerge to why they should. We offer an example of this approach by testing the assumption of current theories of language-control associations that adaptive control is involved in bilingualism, specifically language production. Unbalanced Italian-English bilinguals living in the Milan area completed a Stroop task in their L1 and a picture-naming task in their L2. Both tasks involved a manipulation of the proportion of the type of stimuli that are assumed to require control, i.e., incongruent stimuli in the Stroop task (e.g., the word RED written in blue) and pictures with noncognate names in the picture-naming task (e.g., the picture of a horse, whose Italian name, "cavallo," has a very different pronunciation). Both confirmatory and exploratory analyses showed a clear dissociation between the two tasks, with the Stroop task producing an interactive pattern indicative of adaptive-control involvement and the picture-naming task failing to produce a similar one. These results suggest that adaptive control may not be involved in bilingual language production and, therefore, may not produce bilingual-monolingual differences in cognitive control. It is hoped that this research will inspire a change in the study of language-control associations, pushing future research efforts towards grounding the assumptions for those associations in empirical evidence.

Semantic Stroop interference is modulated by the availability of executive resources: Insights from delta-plot analyses and cognitive load manipulation.

We investigated whether, during visual word recognition, semantic processing is modulated by attentional control mechanisms directed at matching semantic information with task-relevant goals. In previous research, we analyzed the semantic Stroop interference as a function of response latency (delta-plot analyses) and found that this phenomenon mainly occurs in the slowest responses. Here, we investigated whether this pattern is due to reduced ability to proactively maintain the task goal in these slowest trials. In two pairs of experiments, participants completed two semantic Stroop tasks: a classic semantic Stroop task (Experiment 1A and 2A) and a semantic Stroop task combined with an n-back task (Experiment 1B and 2B). The two pairs of experiments only differed in the trial pace, which was slightly faster in Experiments 2A and 2B than in Experiments 1A and 1B. By taxing the executive control system, the n-back task was expected to hinder proactive control. Delta-plot analyses of the semantic Stroop task replicated the enhanced effect in the slowest responses, but only under sufficient time pressure. Combining the semantic Stroop task with the n-back task produced a change in the distributional profile of semantic Stroop interference, which we ascribe to a general difficulty in the use of proactive control. Our findings suggest that semantic Stroop interference is, to some extent, dependent on the available executive resources, while also being sensitive to subtle variations in task conditions.

Fast habituation to semantic interference generated by taboo connotation in reading aloud.

The recognition of taboo words - i.e. socially inappropriate words - has been repeatedly associated to semantic interference phenomena, with detrimental effects on the performance in the ongoing task. In the present study, we investigated taboo interference in the context of reading aloud, a task configuration which prompts the overt violation of conventional sociolinguistic norms by requiring the explicit utterance of taboo items. We assessed whether this form of semantic interference is handled by habituative or cognitive control processes. In addition to the reading aloud task, participants performed a vocal Stroop task featuring different conditions to dissociate semantic, task, and response conflict. Taboo words were read slower than non-taboo words, but this effect was subject to a quick habituation, with a decreasing interference over the course of trials, which allowed participants to selectively attend to goal-relevant information. In the Stroop task, only semantic conflict was significantly reduced by habituation. These findings suggest that semantic properties can be quickly and flexibly weighed on the basis of contextual appropriateness, thus characterising semantic processing as a flexible and goal-directed component of reading aloud.

Form to meaning mapping and the impact of explicit morpheme combination in novel word processing.

In the present study, we leveraged computational methods to explore the extent to which, relative to direct access to semantics from orthographic cues, the additional appreciation of morphological cues is advantageous while inducing the meaning of affixed pseudo-words. We re-analyzed data from a study on a lexical decision task for affixed pseudo-words. We considered a parsimonious model only including semantic variables (namely, semantic neighborhood density, entropy, magnitude, stem proximity) derived through a word-form-to-meaning approach (ngram-based). We then explored the extent to which the addition of equivalent semantic variables derived by combining semantic information from morphemes (combination-based) improved the fit of the statistical model explaining human data. Results suggest that semantic information can be extracted from arbitrary clusters of letters, yet a computational model of semantic access also including a combination-based strategy based on explicit morphological information better captures the cognitive mechanisms underlying human performance. This is particularly evident when participants recognize affixed pseudo-words as meaningful stimuli.

Electrophysiological evidence of discontinuities in the propagation of lexical decision processes across the motor hierarchy.

This research assessed the propagation of decisional effects across multiple electrophysiological indexes related to motor-response implementation within a lexical decision task, a paradigmatic case of a 2-alternative choice task on linguistic stimuli. By co-registering electroencephalographic and electromyographic data, we focused on the lexicality effect (i.e., the difference between responses to words and nonwords), and we tracked its influence across indexes of motor-response planning (indexed by effector-selective lateralization of beta-frequency desynchronizations), programming (indexed by the lateralized readiness potential) and execution (indexed by the chronometric durations of muscular responses). In addition, we explored corticomuscular coherence as the potential physiological underpinning of a continuous mapping of information between stimulus evaluation and response channels. The results revealed lexicality effects only on indexes of motor planning and execution, with no reliable involvement of the other measures. This pattern is discussed with reference to the hypothesis of multiple decisional components exerting different influences across the motor-hierarchy.

Redefining the decisional components of motor responses: Evidence from lexical and object decision tasks.

Models of decision making focusing on two-alternative choices have classically described motor-response execution as a nondecisional stage that serially follows the termination of decision processes. Recent evidence, however, points toward a more continuous transition between decision and motor processes. We investigated this transition in two lexical decisions and one object decision task. By recording the electromyographic (EMG) signal associated with the muscle responsible for the manual responses (i.e., button press), we partitioned single-trial reaction times into premotor (the time elapsing from stimulus onset until the onset of the EMG burst) and motor times (the time elapsing from the onset of the EMG burst and the button press), with the latter measuring response execution. Responses were slower for pseudowords and pseudo-objects compared to words and real objects. Importantly, these effects were reliable even at the level of motor time measures. Differently, despite the reliable effect at the level of reaction times and premotor times, there was no difference in motor times between high- and low-frequency words. Although these results, in line with recent evidence, challenge a purely noncognitive characterization of motor-response execution, they further suggest that motor times may selectively capture specific decisional components, which we identify with late-occurring verification and/or control mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Very early and late form-to-meaning computations during visual word recognition as revealed by electrophysiology.

We used a large-scale data-driven approach to investigate the role of word form in accessing semantics. By using distributional semantic methods and taking advantage of an ERP lexical decision mega-study, we investigated the exact time dynamic of semantic access from printed words as driven by orthography-semantics consistency (OSC) and phonology-semantics consistency (PSC). Generalized Additive Models revealed very early and late OSC-by-PSC interactions, visible at 100 and 400 msec, respectively. This pattern suggests that, during visual word recognition: a) meaning is accessed by means of two distinct and interactive paths - the orthography-to-meaning and the orthography-to-phonology-to-meaning path -, which mutually contribute to recognition since early stages; b) the system may exploit a dual mechanism for semantic access, with early and late effects associated to a fast-coarse and a slow-fine grained semantic analysis, respectively. The results also highlight the high sensitivity of the visual word recognition system to arbitrary form-meaning relations.

Cingulate cortex morphology impacts on neurofunctional activity and behavioral performance in interference tasks.

Inhibitory control is the capacity to withhold or suppress a thought or action intentionally. The anterior Midcingulate Cortex (aMCC) participates in response inhibition, a proxy measure of inhibitory control. Recent research suggests that response inhibition is modulated by individual variability in the aMCC sulcal morphology. However, no study has investigated if this phenomenon is associated with neurofunctional differences during a task. In this study, 42 participants performed an Attention Network Task and a Numerical Stroop task in an MRI scanner. We investigated differences in brain activity and response inhibition efficiency between individuals with symmetric and asymmetric aMCC sulcal patterns. The results showed that aMCC morphological variability is partly associated with inhibitory control, and revealed greater activation in individuals with symmetric patterns during the Stroop task. Our findings provide novel insights into the functional correlates of the relationship between aMCC morphology and executive abilities.

Formant-invariant voice and pitch representations are pre-attentively formed from constantly varying speech and non-speech stimuli.

The present study investigated whether listeners can form abstract voice representations while ignoring constantly changing phonological information and if they can use the resulting information to facilitate voice change detection. Further, the study aimed at understanding whether the use of abstraction is restricted to the speech domain or can be deployed also in non-speech contexts. We ran an electroencephalogram (EEG) experiment including one passive and one active oddball task, each featuring a speech and a rotated speech condition. In the speech condition, participants heard constantly changing vowels uttered by a male speaker (standard stimuli) which were infrequently replaced by vowels uttered by a female speaker with higher pitch (deviant stimuli). In the rotated speech condition, participants heard rotated vowels, in which the natural formant structure of speech was disrupted. In the passive task, the mismatch negativity was elicited after the presentation of the deviant voice in both conditions, indicating that listeners could successfully group together different stimuli into a formant-invariant voice representation. In the active task, participants showed shorter reaction times (RTs), higher accuracy and a larger P3b in the speech condition with respect to the rotated speech condition. Results showed that whereas at a pre-attentive level the cognitive system can track pitch regularities while presumably ignoring constantly changing formant information both in speech and in rotated speech, at an attentive level the use of such information is facilitated for speech. This facilitation was also testified by a stronger synchronisation in the theta band (4-7 Hz), potentially pointing towards differences in encoding/retrieval processes.

Allophonic familiarity differentiates word representations in the brain of native speakers of regional linguistic varieties.

This study aims to shed light on the issue whether familiar allophonic variation is encoded in word representations. Both Italian speakers born in Trentino and speakers born in the Central-Southern regions of Italy took part in the experiment. We tested the MMN elicited by the same word encompassing two different allophones, one of which was more familiar to one group of participants than to the other, depending on their regional variety of Italian. The Trentino group showed an enhanced MMN for the word embedding the familiar variant while Central-Southern speakers showed no difference. The amplitude of the MMN for the unfamiliar word variant in Trentino speakers showed an inverse correlation with the passive exposure to the Trentino dialect. We conclude that words embedding familiar and unfamiliar allophones are differently represented in the brain of native speakers of regional language and the degree of differentiation is modulated by individual experience.

Different types of semantic interference, same lapses of attention: Evidence from Stroop tasks.

This research investigated the possibility that semantic control mechanisms are recruited only when the interfering semantic information does not overlap with task-relevant semantic dimensions. To reach this goal, we investigated two semantic types of Stroop interference-the semantic and the taboo Stroop effects-and used delta-plots to investigate the role of attentional and semantic control in these two interference phenomena. The semantic Stroop effect, where interference stems from the task-relevant color-related information, was absent in faster responses, whereas it steeply increased in the slowest ones. Contrary to our predictions, the same pattern was detected even for the taboo Stroop interference, with no trace of selective suppression of the interfering semantic connotation, despite its dissociation from any task-relevant semantic dimension. Further, there was a significant correlation between the increase of the two effects in the slowest responses, pointing towards a common underlying processing dynamic. We identified such common background with lapses of executive attention in maintaining task goals and schema, which in turn make the participants performance more prone to interference phenomena. Finally, the absence of any interference effects in the fastest responses suggests that an effective filtering of the distracting word stimuli can be implemented in the context of Stroop paradigms.

Investigating sexual dimorphism in human brain structure by combining multiple indexes of brain morphology and source-based morphometry.

Computational morphometry of magnetic resonance images represents a powerful tool for studying macroscopic differences in human brains. In the present study (N participants = 829), we combined different techniques and measures of brain morphology to investigate one of the most compelling topics in neuroscience: sexual dimorphism in human brain structure. When accounting for overall larger male brains, results showed limited sex differences in gray matter volume (GMV) and surface area. On the other hand, we found larger differences in cortical thickness, favoring both males and females, arguably as a result of region-specific differences. We also observed higher values of fractal dimension, a measure of cortical complexity, for males versus females across the four lobes. In addition, we applied source-based morphometry, an alternative method for measuring GMV based on the independent component analysis. Analyses on independent components revealed higher GMV in fronto-parietal regions, thalamus and caudate nucleus for females, and in cerebellar- temporal cortices and putamen for males, a pattern that is largely consistent with previous findings.

Prepotent task-irrelevant semantic information is dampened by domain-specific control mechanisms during visual word recognition.

We investigated whether semantic interference occurring during visual word recognition is resolved using domain-general control mechanisms or using more specific mechanisms related to semantic processing. We asked participants to perform a lexical decision task with taboo stimuli, which induce semantic interference, as well as a semantic Stroop task and a Simon task, intended as benchmarks of linguistic-semantic and non-linguistic interference, respectively. Using a correlational approach, we investigated potential similarities between effects produced in the three tasks, both at the level of overall means and as a function of response speed (delta-plot analysis). Correlations selectively surfaced between the lexical decision and the semantic Stroop task. These findings suggest that, during visual word recognition, semantic interference is controlled by semantic-specific mechanisms, which intervene to face prepotent but task-irrelevant semantic information interfering with the accomplishment of the task's goal.

Synaptic plasticity mechanisms behind TMS efficacy: insights from its application to animal models.

Neural plasticity is defined as a reshape of communication paths among neurons, expressed through changes in the number and weights of synaptic contacts. During this process, which occurs massively during early brain development but continues also in adulthood, specific brain functions are modified by activity-dependent processes, triggered by external as well as internal stimuli. Since transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) produces a non-invasive form of brain cells activation, many different TMS protocols have been developed to treat neurological and psychiatric conditions and proved to be beneficial. Although neural plasticity induction by TMS has been widely assessed on human subjects, we still lack compelling evidence about the actual biological and molecular mechanisms. To support a better comprehension of the involved phenomena, the main focus of this review is to summarize what has been found through the application of TMS to animal models. The hope is that such integrated view will shed light on why and how TMS so effectively works on human subjects, thus supporting a more efficient development of new protocols in the future.

The Impact of Stimuli Length and Analytic Method on Auditory 'Gaydar' Research.

This research investigates voice-based categorization of speakers' sexual orientation, the so-called 'auditory gaydar', while considering stimuli length and the type of measures assessing gaydar judgments. In Study 1 (N = 80), heterosexual individuals listened to gay and heterosexual male speakers in short (single word), medium (single sentence), or long (two sentences) recordings. Next, they guess the speakers' sexual orientation on a Kinsey-like and binary choice. Participants were overall inaccurate in recognizing gay speakers when gaydar judgments were provided on a binary choice. Gay speakers were rated as more gay on a Kinsey-like scale than their heterosexual counterparts, but only when short and medium recordings were listened to. Study 2 (N = 149) examined gaydar accuracy for both male and female speakers by using the same procedure. Gaydar judgments were overall inaccurate for gay and lesbian speakers. For male speakers, a difference between the perceived sexual orientation of gay and heterosexual speakers emerged when stimuli were long. For female speakers, such a difference occurred only in the short and medium recording conditions. Study 3 (N = 137) examined gaydar judgments for male and female speakers when stimuli length was manipulated as the number of words progressively presented in a sentence: short (article), medium (article + first word), long (sentence) stimulus. Overall, gaydar judgments were inaccurate. Gay and lesbian (vs. heterosexual) speakers tended to be rated as more gay on the Kinsey-like scale in the medium stimulus condition. These findings suggest that gaydar judgments can be influenced by the type of measure and stimuli.

The bilingual structural connectome: Dual-language experiential factors modulate distinct cerebral networks.

Bilingualism is a natural laboratory for studying whether the brain's structural connectome is influenced by different aspects of language experience. However, evidence on how distinct components of bilingual experience may contribute to structural brain adaptations is mixed. The lack of consistency, however, may depend, at least in part, on methodological choices in data acquisition and processing. Herein, we adopted the Network Neuroscience framework to investigate how individual differences in second language (L2) exposure, proficiency, and age of acquisition (AoA) - measured as continuous between-subject variables - relate to whole-brain structural organization. We observed that L2 exposure modulated the connectivity of two networks of regions subserving language comprehension and production. L2 proficiency was associated with enhanced connectivity within a rostro-caudal network, which supports language selection and word learning. Moreover, L2 AoA and exposure affected inter-hemispheric communication between control-related regions. These findings expand mechanistic knowledge about particular environmental factors associated with specific variation in brain structure.

Early differentiation of memory retrieval processes for newly learned voices and phonemes as indexed by the MMN.

Linguistic and vocal information are thought to be differentially processed since the early stages of speech perception, but it remains unclear if this differentiation also concerns automatic processes of memory retrieval. The aim of this ERP study was to compare the automatic retrieval processes for newly learned voices vs phonemes. In a longitudinal experiment, two groups of participants were trained in learning either a new phoneme or a new voice. The MMN elicited by the presentation of the two was measured before and after the training. An enhanced MMN was elicited by the presentation of the learned phoneme, reflecting the activation of an automatic memory retrieval process. Instead, a reduced MMN was elicited by the learned voice, indicating that the voice was perceived as a typical member of the learned voice identity. This suggests that the automatic processes that retrieve linguistic and vocal information are differently affected by experience.

Selective suppression of taboo information in visual word recognition: Evidence for cognitive control on semantics.

The present study investigated the role of cognitive control on semantic information during visual word recognition by exploiting taboo stimuli in a lexical-decision task. We relied on delta plots and electromyography (EMG) to assess different hypothetical mechanisms of cognitive control. Previous research suggests that taboo stimuli slow down the performance across a variety of tasks due to their attention-grabbing nature. One possibility is that cognitive control counteracts the detrimental effects of taboo connotation by actively dampening such prepotent yet task-irrelevant information. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found a reversal of taboo interference effect in slowest responses, signaling the deployment of a selective suppression mechanism that needs time to fully accrue. For electromyographic data, we focused on partial errors (trials showing a subthreshold activation of the incorrect response hand) to index response-monitoring processes intervening to prevent and correct errors. We found no modulation of the likelihood of partial errors and, more generally, of response accuracy as a function of taboo connotation. Taken together, the results suggest that cognitive control may intervene to selectively suppress fast-acting and distracting taboo information, indicating a controlled semantic processing that optimizes activation to match task-relevant goals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The unique role of novel linguistic labels on the disengagement of visual attention.

Do novel linguistic labels have privileged access to attentional resources compared to non-linguistic labels? This study explores this possibility through two experiments with a training and an attentional overlap task. Experiment 1 investigates how novel label and object-only stimuli influence resource allocation and disengagement of visual attention. Experiment 2 tests the impact of linguistic information on visual attention by comparing novel tones and labels. Because disengagement of attention is affected both by the salience of the perceptual stimulus and by the degree of familiarity with the stimulus to be disengaged from, we compared pupil size variations and saccade latency under different test conditions: (a) consistent with (i.e., identical to) the training; (b) inconsistent with the training (i.e., with an altered feature), and (c) deprived of one feature only in Experiment 1. Experiment 1 indicated a general consistency advantage (and deprived disadvantage) driven by linguistic label-object pairs compared to object-only stimuli. Experiment 2 revealed that tone-object pairs led to higher pupil dilation and longer saccade latency than linguistic label-object pairs. Our results suggest that novel linguistic labels preferentially impact the early orienting of attention.