What does metaphoric language say about aggression? The relationships between metaphoric language, impulsivity, and aggression.

Aggressive behavior among adolescents has been identified as a serious worldwide problem, especially when combined with trait impulsivity. This study investigates the impact of an overlooked aspect of language, namely, metaphor comprehension, on impulsivity and aggression in adolescents. A total of 204 adolescents completed self-reported questionnaires assessing impulsivity and aggression and underwent tests assessing familiar and less familiar metaphor comprehension. The findings reveal inverse relationships between metaphor comprehension and both impulsivity and aggression. Regarding aggression, notable distinctions were observed in the correlations between familiar and less familiar metaphors with specific aggression types. Additionally, impulsivity was found to mediate the relationship between the comprehension of familiar metaphors and aggression. These results are elucidated in the context of cognitive and executive functions, emphasizing the significance of considering metaphor comprehension as a cognitive process capable of modulating aggressive behavior.

Personality traits and environment: The effects of observing visual art on verbal creativity.

Figurative language is one of the most prevalent expressions of verbal creativity, and use of novel metaphors is the most significant source of verbal innovation. As environmental and personality trait factors can impact creativity, the current study aimed to examine whether exposure to an environment rich in visual stimuli (artwork) and verbal stimuli (novel metaphors) contributes to verbal creativity, taking into account the personality trait of "openness to experience." Study participants (132) were divided into three groups: (1) a group exposed to a creative verbal environment (reading novel metaphors), (2) a group exposed to a visually creative environment (observing abstract and figurative artwork), and (3) a group not exposed to any creative environment. Participants completed personality questionnaire and a metaphor generation questionnaire that asked participants to describe 10 emotions using novel metaphors. Results showed the type of creative environment exposure had a graded effect on creativity (i.e., generation of novel metaphors): the non-exposed control group generated fewer novel than conventional metaphors, the group exposed to novel verbal metaphors produced a similar number of novel and conventional metaphors, and the group exposed to artwork produced more novel than conventional metaphors. This may imply that environments containing visually creative stimuli provide opportunities for silent contemplation which in turn evoke neuropsychological mechanisms related to creative processes. Furthermore, the finding that the trait of "openness to experience" and exposure to a visually creative environment contributed to greater generation of novel metaphors suggests that creativity may be dependent on both individual and environmental factors.

The Relationship between Semantic Joke and Idiom Comprehension in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Semantic jokes involve resolving an incongruity emerging from wordplay or from a violation of world knowledge. The research has shown individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate a lower performance on humor tasks involving social situations; however, less is known about their semantic joke comprehension. This study examines semantic joke comprehension among adolescents with ASD and its possible relationship to vocabulary size, theory of mind (ToM), and idiom comprehension. Thirty-two adolescents with ASD and 32 typically developed (TD) peers participated. Semantic joke comprehension was assessed via a multiple-choice questionnaire and time-limited computer program. Vocabulary, ToM abilities, and idiom comprehension were also tested. The results reveal that adolescents with ASD are as fast in processing semantic jokes as their age- and vocabulary-matched TD peers, but less accurate. Age and idiom comprehension significantly contributed to semantic joke comprehension among both groups. As semantic joke comprehension is based on incongruity resolution, the greater difficulties in comprehension among the adolescents with ASD may have been due to deficits in simultaneously retaining two alternative interpretations and selecting the relevant one (and not due reduced ToM abilities). Similar to the TD group, semantic joke comprehension among the ASD group appeared to be more developed with age.

Social Anxiety and Shame Among Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder Compared to Typical Adults.

Social anxiety (SA) is common among young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While shame feelings predict SA among typical adults, the relationship between shame and SA in ASD remains unclear. The current study compared the relationship between SA and shame in ASD. SA, shame, and autistic self-assessment questionnaires were administered to 33 young adults with ASD (28 M/5F) and 38 typical young adults (32 M/6F, Mage = 24 years, range = 20-28 in both groups). Results showed higher SA levels in ASD than typical adults, but lower levels of shame characteristics in the former than in the latter group. Moreover, a significant moderation model showed that some aspects of shame were related to SA only in the typical group but not in ASD.

Enhancing creativity by altering the frontoparietal control network functioning using transcranial direct current stimulation.

The left angular gyrus (AG), part of the frontotemporal network, is implicated in creative thinking, including verbal creativity tasks such as novel metaphor generation. The current study tested the effects of tDCS over the left AG on two metaphor generation tasks. The study was a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, crossover study of anodal vs. cathodal stimulation by tDCS. Compared to sham, cathodal stimulation resulted in significantly increased novel metaphor generation, while anodal stimulation increased conventional metaphor generation. Higher motivation (behavioral approach system's "fun-seeking") was associated with greater metaphor creativity in the sham condition, and lower fun seeking was associated with producing a greater quantity of conventional metaphors. Following active stimulation, motivation traits no longer contributed to creative metaphor generation. Thus, the beneficial effect of cathodal tDCS over the left AG in generation of novel metaphors is through restraining the control network. The current study gives a glimpse into the neural basis for creative thinking.

Verbal and Figural Creativity in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development.

Previous studies have shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate lower performance on creativity tasks. Yet, recent findings suggest that individuals with ASD are not necessarily impaired in verbal creativity, as measured by the novel metaphor generation task. The current study investigates verbal and figural creativity in 40 children with ASD (aged 11-14 years) and 39 peers with typical development (TD) (aged 11-15 years). We also tested the contribution of executive functions to the creative performance. A sentence completion questionnaire was used to test creative verbal generation, while a task of drawing non-existent objects was used to assess figural abilities. The results indicate that children with ASD generated a greater quantity of creative metaphors and showed greater use of a specific kind of representational change on the figural creativity task: cross-category insertions (e.g., a house with a tail). However, no correlation was found between the metaphor generation task and the use of cross-category insertions for either group. Results also showed that, whereas phonemic fluency contributed to the explained variance in novel metaphor generation in the ASD group, fluid intelligence, although only marginally, contributed to variance in novel metaphor generation in the TD group. These findings suggest that verbal creativity and figural creativity are two separate abilities relying on different cognitive resources. Our results show that those with ASD and TD differ in the cognitive abilities they use to perform the metaphor generation task. The research points to a unique creative cognition profile among children with ASD.

Elucidating the role of selective attention, divergent thinking, language abilities, and executive functions in metaphor generation.

Metaphoric language is one of the most common expressions of creative cognition in everyday life. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying metaphor generation remain largely unexplained. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between various cognitive functions and both novel and conventional metaphor generation. Ninety-five undergraduate students were administered a metaphor generation task that assesses novel and conventional metaphor generation, along with a battery of different cognitive measures: vocabulary; divergent thinking (Tel Aviv Creativity Test), working memory (WM) via digit span tests, executive functions (EFs) using the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) questionnaire, and selective attention (lateralized global-local digit task). Results of a path analysis indicated that - whereas only selective attention contributed to conventional metaphor generation - selective attention, divergent thinking, and EFs contributed to novel metaphor generation beyond vocabulary and WM. Thus, the results indicate that although both novel and conventional metaphor generation are linked to attentional resources and inhibitory control, the greater creativity inherent in novel metaphor generation appears to reflect a more complex set of cognitive processes than conventional metaphor generation.

Lexical decision performance using the divided visual field technique following training in adults with intellectual disabilities with and without Down syndrome.

Studies of brain lateralization in individuals with non-specific intellectual disability and Down syndrome suggest atypical brain lateralization to speech perception. According to the biological dissociation model, the right hemisphere (RH) mediates speech perception and the left hemisphere (LH) mediates motor control in Down syndrome. The current study aimed to test, for the first time, brain lateralization in both non-specific intellectual disability and Down syndrome, compared to individuals with typical development. Furthermore, bilateral word presentation was utilized to assess interhemispheric communication. Twenty adults with non-specific intellectual disability, 14 adults with Down syndrome, and 30 adults with typical development participated in the study. Participants in the non-specific intellectual disability and Down syndrome groups were trained to perform the task prior to the experiment. The results showed that whereas hemispheric lateralization did not differ between individuals with non-specific intellectual disability and typical development, individuals with DS showed reduced brain lateralization in comparison to adults with typical development. All three groups showed no significant difference between words presented to the LH and bilaterally. Our results also show that individuals with intellectual disabilities can benefit from training programmes and that they may perform equally as fast as their typically developing peers.

Different Factors Predict Idiom Comprehension in Children and Adolescents with ASD and Typical Development.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with deficient comprehension of figurative language and, specifically, idioms. Theories ascribe this to deficits in specific abilities (e.g., Theory of Mind [ToM]; executive functions [EF]; general language skills), but no comprehensive theory has resulted. This study investigated the differential contribution of various abilities to idiom comprehension among children and adolescents with ASD compared to matched controls with typical development (TD). The TD group outperformed the ASD group in idiom comprehension. However, whereas EF predicted idiom comprehension in the TD group, vocabulary predicted idiom comprehension in the ASD group. Our findings emphasize the link between general language competence and figurative language comprehension in ASD and point to different processing mechanisms in each group.

New information on the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on n-back task performance.

The n-back task is prototypical tool widely used to evaluate working memory (WM) abilities in healthy and clinical populations. Previous studies finding beneficial effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on n-back task performance were limited by the number of n-back "memory loads" utilized and the assessment of performance only immediately following stimulation. Our aims were to investigate both the immediate and lasting effects of six sessions of bilateral tDCS over the DLPFC on n-back performance. We used a 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-back shaped WM task at three time points: pre-stimulation (T1), immediately following a final (6th) stimulation (T2), and 1 month following the final stimulation (T3). Twenty-five right-handed participants were randomly assigned to active or sham stimulation. Performance was evaluated by percentage hits, false alarms, and reaction times (RTs) for correct responses. Results showed lack of improvement in all outcome measures for both groups at T2. Except for general faster RT in the active group, no lasting effect on percentage hits and false alarms was found for all memory loads among both groups at T3. However, lenient analysis indicated improvement in RT for the 1-back memory load among the active group from T1 to T3. These results question the previously found effectiveness of tDCS over the DLPFC in improving short-term n-back performance and cast doubt on its long-term effectiveness.

Increased reliance on a right hemispheric mechanism during idiom processing in adults with dyslexia.

Previous studies on adults with dyslexia (DYS) have indicated difficulties in the comprehension of figurative language. Using the divided visual field paradigm, the present study investigated the hemispheric processing of idioms among 22 adults with DYS and 21 regular reader (RR) adults. Participants performed a lexical decision task for a target word related to either a literal or a figurative interpretation of an idiom. The results show that whereas the RR group demonstrated a bilateral pattern of hemispheric processing of idiomatic meanings, the DYS group showed a right hemisphere (RH) advantage. Furthermore, both groups demonstrated the typical RH advantage in processing the literal meanings of idioms. Our findings indicate increased recruitment of the RH in dyslexia, probably due to differences in cerebral language areas or weaker LH semantic processing.

Enhancing the comprehension of visual metaphors in individuals with intellectual disability with or without down syndrome.

This study is the first to investigate the effectiveness of deep and shallow intervention programs in the acquisition of visual metaphor comprehension in individuals with non-specific intellectual disability (NSID; aged 15-59, N = 53) or Down syndrome (DS; aged 15-52, N = 50). The deep intervention program was based on dynamic assessment model for enhancing analogical thinking. The shallow intervention program involves memorizing a metaphorical relationship between pairs of pictures. Visual metaphor comprehension was measured by the construction of a metaphorical connection between pairs of pictures. The results indicated that both etiology groups exhibited poor understanding of visual metaphors before the intervention. A significant improvement was observed in both interventions and both etiology groups, with greater improvement among individuals who underwent the deep processing. Moreover, the latter procedure led to greater generalization ability. The results also indicated that vocabulary contributed significantly to understanding unstudied metaphors and that participants with poorer linguistic abilities exhibited greater improvement in their metaphorical thinking. Thus, individuals with ID with or without DS are able to recruit the higher-order cognitive abilities required for visual metaphor comprehension.

Improving Naming Abilities Among Healthy Young-Old Adults Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive tool to facilitate brain plasticity and enhance language abilities. Our study aims to search for a potential beneficial influence of tDCS on a cognitive linguistic task of naming which found to decline during aging. A group of fifteen healthy old adults [Formula: see text] were tested in naming 50 pictures of objects. Each subject participated in two sessions spanning on a one week period. One session included active tDCS stimulation and the other sham-placebo like stimulation. Subjects were blinded to stimulation type. During the active stimulation a bilateral protocol of anodal tDCS to the left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG) combined with cathodal tDCS to the right IFG was delivered. Half of participants received active stimulation at the first session and sham at the second and half received the stimulations at the opposite order. Naming reaction time was measured at baseline, after active tDCS stimulation and after sham. 10 min of bilateral tDCS stimulation which was given after sham (training) was found to reduce naming reaction time among healthy adult subjects. These findings support the cooperative model (Weems and Reggia in Brain Lang 89:554-568, 2004) and point on strong interhemispheric connections during naming processing. It is also demonstrate the advantage of training to intensify the therapeutic effect of tDCS. Our results pinpoint on a potential tool to facilitate naming among aging people.

Comprehension and Hemispheric Processing of Irony in Schizophrenia.

Studies focusing on the comprehension of figurative language among schizophrenia patients (SZ) reveal their difficulties comprehending such language and their tendency to interpret it literally. The present study investigated hemispheric processing and comprehension of irony in 16 SZ patients and 18 typically developing (TD) adults. Two experimental tasks were used: an online divided visual field experiment and an offline irony questionnaire. The results show an atypical reversal of hemispheric processing of irony in SZ patients as compared to TD adults. While the TD group demonstrated a right hemisphere advantage in processing irony, SZ patients demonstrated a left hemisphere advantage. Greater comprehension of irony was associated with decreased negative symptoms. In addition, under conditions that not involving a time restriction, the SZ patients' performance improved. Our findings reinforce those of previous studies suggesting that brain lateralization is atypical in SZ patients.

Attenuated hemispheric asymmetry in metaphor processing among adults with ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the hemispheric processing of metaphors in adults with ADHD compared to controls. METHOD: We investigated the hemispheric processing of metaphors in 24 adult participants diagnosed with ADHD and 24 control participants. The hemispheric processing was examined using a divided visual field paradigm, in which different kinds of metaphors as well as literal word pairs and unrelated word pairs were presented either to the right visual field/left hemisphere (RVF/LH) or to the left visual field/right hemisphere (LVF/RH). RESULTS: Control participants processed metaphors more efficiently when presented in the LVF/RH than when presented in the RVF/LH, whereas participants with ADHD demonstrated attenuated asymmetry of hemispheric processing. Furthermore, asymmetry of hemispheric processing, together with sustained attention, contributed significantly to the prediction of self-report of ADHD symptoms. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the hemispheric processing of adults with ADHD is less lateralized than the hemispheric processing of control participants. Moreover, the diminished lateralization of metaphor processing along with deficient sustained attention may reflect distinct cognitive mechanisms underlying ADHD and as such our results support multiple pathway models of ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record

Comprehension and Generation of Metaphoric Language in Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Dyslexia.

Difficulties with figurative language comprehension were documented in adult dyslexia (DYS). In the present research, we investigated the comprehension and generation of metaphors in 37 children, 35 adolescents, and 34 adults with and without DYS. We also tested the contribution of executive function to metaphor processing. A multiple-choice questionnaire with conventional and novel metaphors was used to assess comprehension; a concept-explanation task was used to test conventional and novel metaphor generation (verbal creativity). The findings indicated differences between the dyslexic children and the control group in conventional metaphor comprehension. However, both groups performed similarly in the novel metaphor comprehension test. Furthermore, although children and adolescents with DYS showed similar performance in metaphor generation as their typically developing peers, adults with DYS generated more metaphors than controls. While scores on tests of verbal knowledge and mental flexibility contributed to the prediction of conventional metaphor comprehension, scores on non-verbal tests and mental flexibility contributed to the prediction of novel metaphor generation. Our findings suggest that individuals with DYS are not impaired in novel metaphor comprehension and metaphor generation and that metaphor comprehension and generation utilize different cognitive resources. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

When pumpkin is closer to onion than to squash: The structure of the second language lexicon.

The current research investigated the organization of the second language mental lexicon. Twenty-seven English-Hebrew bilingual speakers (who spoke Hebrew as their second language) completed a semantic fluency task in each of their languages, and 24 native Hebrew speakers completed the task in Hebrew. Responses were compared within and across groups, using computational tools. The analyses indicated that the lexical network of the second language displayed greater local connectivity and less modular community structure than the network in the native language, both in the entire sample and in a sub-sample of bilinguals whose Hebrew vocabulary was matched to that of the native Hebrew speakers. These findings suggest that the lexical network of the second language is not as well-organized as is the network of the first language, even in highly proficient bilinguals. The structural characteristics of the second language lexicon might be affected by factors related to language learning history, including age of acquisition and language use.

The effects of transcranial direct current stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on cognitive inhibition.

The present study examines the effects of bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (anodal over left and cathodal over right DLPFC). This study describes the long-term effects of tDCS on cognitive inhibition, using the Hayling task. Twenty volunteers participated in the study and were assigned to either an active or a sham group. Participants heard sentences with the final word missing. They were asked then to complete the sentence with a word that either is appropriate in the context of the sentence (initiation condition) or is completely unrelated in this specific context (suppression condition). All participants performed a baseline Hayling task followed by six stimulation sessions. Subsequent to completion of these stimulations, we assessed immediately Hayling performance and re-assessed this performance 1 month. The results indicate a significant decrease in the number of errors in the active group, but only in the suppression condition that continued for 1 month after the sixth stimulation. The current findings suggest that tDCS can improve cognitive inhibition for the long-term in healthy adults and that the DLPFC has a special role in selecting the correct response and suppressing irrelevant semantic information.

Participation in recreation and cognitive activities as a predictor of cognitive performance of adults with/without Down syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: The Cognitive Activity Theory suggests an association between participation in cognitive activities during midlife and cognitive functioning in the short term. We examined the impact of participation in cognitively stimulating activities conveyed during leisure activities on crystallized and fluid tests' performance among adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). METHOD: Adults (n = 32; chronological age = 25-55) with non-specific ID and with Down syndrome rated the frequency of their participation in leisure activities. Pursuits included more cognitively involving (reading, participating in academic courses) and less cognitively involving (cooking, dancing) activities. Three judges ranked activities according to their cognitive load on a 1 (few cognitive components) to 5 (many cognitive components) points scale. The findings indicate two new scales: cognitively stimulating activities and recreational stimulating activities. The crystallized battery included phonemic fluency, synonyms, idioms, and verbal metaphors. The fluid battery included the Homophone Meaning Generation Test, Metaphoric Triad Test, Novel Metaphors Test, and Trail Making Test. RESULTS: Hierarchal regression with chronological and mental age, recreational, and cognitively stimulating activities indicated that participation in recreational activities contributed significantly to the explained variance of word fluency. Participation in cognitive activities contributed significantly to the explained variance of most of the crystallized and fluid tests. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support the Cognitive Activity Theory in populations with ID. The findings also support the Compensation Age Theory: not only endogenous factors (age, etiology, IQ level), but also exogenous factors such as life style determining the cognitive functioning of adults with ID. However, frequency and the cognitive load of the activities influenced their cognitive functioning.

Processing negative valence of word pairs that include a positive word.

Previous research has suggested that cognitive performance is interrupted by negative relative to neutral or positive stimuli. We examined whether negative valence affects performance at the word or phrase level. Participants performed a semantic decision task on word pairs that included either a negative or a positive target word. In Experiment 1, the valence of the target word was congruent with the overall valence conveyed by the word pair (e.g., fat kid). As expected, response times were slower in the negative condition relative to the positive condition. Experiment 2 included target words that were incongruent with the overall valence of the word pair (e.g., fat salary). Response times were longer for word pairs whose overall valence was negative relative to positive, even though these word pairs included a positive word. Our findings support the Cognitive Primacy Hypothesis, according to which emotional valence is extracted after conceptual processing is complete.