The time course of indexical specificity effects in the perception of spoken words

2003 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 2338-2338
Author(s):  
Conor T. McLennan ◽  
Paul A. Luce
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Spoken Words ◽  
Specificity Effects

The Time-Course of the Cross-Modal Semantic Modulation of Visual Picture Processing by Naturalistic Sounds and Spoken Words

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Chuan Chen ◽  
Charles Spence
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Noise Condition ◽  
Semantic Congruency ◽  
Spoken Words ◽  
Processing Pathways ◽  
Time Courses ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Modal Semantic

The time-course of cross-modal semantic interactions between pictures and either naturalistic sounds or spoken words was compared. Participants performed a speeded picture categorization task while hearing a task-irrelevant auditory stimulus presented at various stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) with respect to the visual picture. Both naturalistic sounds and spoken words gave rise to cross-modal semantic congruency effects (i.e., facilitation by semantically congruent sounds and inhibition by semantically incongruent sounds, as compared to a baseline noise condition) when the onset of the sound led that of the picture by 240 ms or more. Both naturalistic sounds and spoken words also gave rise to inhibition irrespective of their semantic congruency when presented within 106 ms of the onset of the picture. The peak of this cross-modal inhibitory effect occurred earlier for spoken words than for naturalistic sounds. These results therefore demonstrate that the semantic priming of visual picture categorization by auditory stimuli only occurs when the onset of the sound precedes that of the visual stimulus. The different time-courses observed for naturalistic sounds and spoken words likely reflect the different processing pathways to access the relevant semantic representations.

scholarly journals Modulating the Focus of Attention for Spoken Words at Encoding Affects Frontoparietal Activation for Incidental Verbal Memory

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Christensen ◽  
Kyle R. Almryde ◽  
Lesley J. Fidler ◽  
Julie L. Lockwood ◽  
Sharon M. Antonucci ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Dual Process ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Hemispheric Differences ◽  
Relative Level ◽  
Perceptual Memory ◽  
Spoken Words

Attention is crucial for encoding information into memory, and current dual-process models seek to explain the roles of attention in both recollection memory and incidental-perceptual memory processes. The present study combined an incidental memory paradigm with event-related functional MRI to examine the effect of attention at encoding on the subsequent neural activation associated with unintended perceptual memory for spoken words. At encoding, we systematically varied attention levels as listeners heard a list of single English nouns. We then presented these words again in the context of a recognition task and assessed the effect of modulating attention at encoding on the BOLD responses to words that were either attended strongly, weakly, or not heard previously. MRI revealed activity in right-lateralized inferior parietal and prefrontal regions, and positive BOLD signals varied with the relative level of attention present at encoding. Temporal analysis of hemodynamic responses further showed that the time course of BOLD activity was modulated differentially by unintentionally encoded words compared to novel items. Our findings largely support current models of memory consolidation and retrieval, but they also provide fresh evidence for hemispheric differences and functional subdivisions in right frontoparietal attention networks that help shape auditory episodic recall.

scholarly journals Auditory and semantic cues facilitate decoding of visual object category in MEG

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Talia Brandman ◽  
Chiara Avancini ◽  
Olga Leticevscaia ◽  
Marius V. Peelen
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Separate Experiment ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Natural Sounds ◽  
Object Processing ◽  
Object Category ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Spoken Words ◽  
Visual Onset

AbstractSounds (e.g., barking) help us to visually identify objects (e.g., a dog) that are distant or ambiguous. While neuroimaging studies have revealed neuroanatomical sites of audiovisual interactions, little is known about the time-course by which sounds facilitate visual object processing. Here we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to reveal the time-course of the facilitatory influence of natural sounds (e.g., barking) on visual object processing, and compared this to the facilitatory influence of spoken words (e.g., “dog”). Participants viewed images of blurred objects preceded by a task-irrelevant natural sound, a spoken word, or uninformative noise. A classifier was trained to discriminate multivariate sensor patterns evoked by animate and inanimate intact objects with no sounds, presented in a separate experiment, and tested on sensor patterns evoked by the blurred objects in the three auditory conditions. Results revealed that both sounds and words, relative to uninformative noise, significantly facilitated visual object category decoding between 300-500 ms after visual onset. We found no evidence for earlier facilitation by sounds than by words. These findings provide evidence for a semantic route of facilitation by both natural sounds and spoken words, whereby the auditory input first activates semantic object representations, which then modulate the visual processing of objects.

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