A review of Stephen E. Palmer’s and Arthur P. Shimamura’s (eds.) Aesthetic Science (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, xii + 408 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-973214-2).
Purpose: The aim of the study was to use systematic review and meta-analysis to quantitatively assess the currently available acoustic evidence for prosodic production impairments as a result of ...right-hemisphere damage (RHD), as well as to develop methodological recommendations for future studies. Method: We systematically reviewed papers reporting acoustic features of prosodic production in RHD in order to identify shortcomings in the literature and make recommendations for future studies. We estimated the meta-analytic effect size of the acoustic features. We extracted standardized mean differences from 16 papers and estimated aggregated effect sizes using hierarchical Bayesian regression models. Results: RHD did present reduced fundamental frequency variation, but the trait was shared with left-hemisphere damage. RHD also presented evidence for increased pause duration. No meta-analytic evidence for an effect of prosody type (emotional vs. linguistic) was found. Conclusions: Taken together, the currently available acoustic data show only a weak specific effect of RHD on prosody production. However, the results are not definitive, as more reliable analyses are hindered by small sample sizes, lack of detail on lesion location, and divergent measuring techniques. We propose recommendations to overcome these issues: Cumulative science practices (e.g., open data and code sharing), more nuanced speech signal processing techniques, and the integration of acoustic measures and perceptual judgments are recommended to more effectively investigate prosody in RHD.
•Longitudinal corpus of naturalistic parent-child interactions.•32 children with ASD and 35 language-matched controls.•Language development in TD and ASD alike is shaped by child-based and ...environmental factors.•Parents adjust linguistic production to the child’s level of production.
Language development in typically developing children (TD) has traditionally been investigated in relation to environmental factors, while language in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has primarily been related to child-based factors. We employ a longitudinal corpus of 32 preschoolers with ASD and 35 linguistically matched TD peers recorded over 6 visits (ranging between 2 and 5 years of age) to investigate the relative importance of child-based and environmental factors in language development for both populations. We also investigate the reciprocal interaction between children’s response to parents’ input, and parents’ response to children’s production. We report six major findings. (1) Children’s production of word types, tokens, and MLU increased across visits, and were predicted by their Expressive Language (EL) (positively) and diagnosis (negatively) from Visit 1. (2) Parents’ production also increased across visits, and was predicted by their child’s nonverbal cognition (positively) and diagnosis (negatively) from Visit 1. (3) At all visits and across groups, children and parents matched each other in lexical and syntactic production; (4) Parents who produced longer MLUs during a given visit had children who produced more word types and tokens, and had longer MLUs, at the subsequent visit. (5) When both child EL at Visit 1 and parent MLU were included in the model, both contributed significantly to future child language; however, EL accounted for a greater proportion of the variance. (6) Finally, children’s speech significantly predicted parent speech at the next visit. Taken together, these results draw more attention to the importance of child-based factors in the early language development of TD children, and to the importance of parental language factors in the early language development of children with ASD.
Language development is a highly interactive activity. However, most research on linguistic environment has focused on the quantity and complexity of linguistic input to children, with current models ...showing that complexity facilitates language in both typically developing (TD) and autistic children.
After reviewing existing work on caregiver engagement of children's utterances, we aim to operationalize such engagement with automated measures of linguistic alignment, thereby providing scalable tools to assess caregivers' active reuse of their children's language. By assessing the presence of alignment, its sensitivity to the child's individual differences and how well it predicts language development beyond current models across the two groups, we showcase the usefulness of the approach and provide initial empirical foundations for further conceptual and empirical investigations.
We measure lexical, syntactic and semantic types of caregiver alignment in a longitudinal corpus involving 32 adult-autistic child and 35 adult-TD child dyads, with children between 2 and 5 years of age. We assess the extent to which caregivers repeat their children's words, syntax, and semantics, and whether these repetitions predict language development beyond more standard predictors.
Caregivers tend to re-use their child's language in a way that is related to the child's individual, primarily linguistic, differences. Caregivers' alignment provides unique information improving our ability to predict future language development in both typical and autistic children.
We provide evidence that language development also relies on interactive conversational processes, previously understudied. We share carefully detailed methods, and open-source scripts so as to systematically extend our approach to new contexts and languages.
Purpose: Linguistic prosody is affected in Parkinson's disease (PD), which implicates the basal ganglia's role in the production of prosody. However, there is no recent systematic synthesis of the ...available acoustic evidence of prosodic impairment in PD. This study aimed to identify the acoustic features of linguistic prosody that are consistently affected in PD. Method: The authors systematically reviewed articles that reported acoustic features of prosodic production in PD. Articles focused on fundamental frequency ( F 0) and its variability, intensity and its variability, speech and articulation rate, and pause duration and ratio. From a total of 648 records identified, 36 met criteria for inclusion and exclusion. For each acoustic measurement and task, data from people with PD (PwPD) were compared with those from controls to extract effect sizes. Pooled effect sizes were estimated using robust Bayesian hierarchical regression models. Results: PD was associated with decreased F 0 variability and increased pause duration. There was limited evidence of reduced intensity variability and speech rate in PwPD. No evidence was found to suggest that PD affects articulation rate or pause ratio. Conclusions: The primary acoustic parameters of prosody affected by PD are F 0 variability and pause duration. The identification of these acoustic parameters has important clinical implications for the selection of PD management strategies. The association of F 0 variability and pause duration with PD suggests that the neural circuits controlling these parameters are at least partly shared and might include the basal ganglia. While the current study focused on the phonetic realization of prosodic cues, future studies should examine whether and how PD affects prosody at higher levels of processing. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25892923
Linguistic repetitions in children are conceptualized as negative in children with autism – echolalia, without communicative purpose – and positive in typically developing (TD) children – linguistic ...alignment involved in shared engagement, common ground and language acquisition. To investigate this apparent contradiction we analyzed spontaneous speech in 67 parent–child dyads from a longitudinal corpus (30 minutes of play activities at 6 visits over 2 years). We included 32 children with autism and 35 linguistically matched TD children (mean age at recruitment 32.76 and 20.27 months). We found a small number of exact repetitions in both groups (roughly 1% of utterances across visits), which increased over time in children with autism and decreased in the TD group. Partial repetitions were much more frequent: children reused caregivers' words at high rates regardless of diagnostic group (24% of utterances at first visit), and this increased in frequency (but not level) over time, faster for TD children (at final visit: 33% for autism, 40% for TD). The same happened for partial repetition of syntax and semantic alignment. However, chance alignment (as measured by surrogate pairs) also increased and findings for developmental changes were reliable only for syntactic and semantic alignment. Children with richer linguistic abilities also displayed a higher tendency to partially re–use their caregivers' language (alignment rates and semantic alignment). This highlights that all children commonly re–used the words, syntax, and topics of their caregivers, albeit with some quantitative differences, and that most repetition was at least potentially productive, with repeated language being re–contextualized and integrated with non–repeated language. The salience of echolalia in ASD might be partially explained by slight differences in frequency, amplified by lower semantic alignment, persistence over time, and expectations of echolalia. More in–depth qualitative and quantitative analyses of how repetitions are used and received in context are needed.
The emerging research area of neuroaesthetics has provoked a good deal of discussion. Although it seems reasonable to describe the experience of aesthetic enjoyment as a mental event, and it also ...seems reasonable to claim that mental states must be related to brain states, the search for specific brain states that correlate with aesthetic enjoyment is tricky, despite the many recent advances in brain-imaging technology. Correlating the aesthetic experience with specific brain states involves defining the aesthetic experience. By applying a model from the world of empirical consciousness research to three neuroaesthetic experiments, I show that each of these studies approaches the object of study, the aesthetic experience, from a different perspective. By employing a framework to make explicit the sometimes implicit assumptions involved in neuroaesthetic research, I hope to open a new avenue for the continuation of an already fascinating discussion. Abstrakt Das neu aufkommende Forschungsgebiet der Neuroästhetik hat zahlreiche Diskussionen ausgelöst. Wenngleich es einleuchtet, dass man die Erfahrung ästhetischen Genusses als mentalen Vorgang beschreiben kann, und die Forderung, dass mentale Zustände zu neuronalen Zuständen im Gehirn in Beziehung gesetzt werden müssen, ebenso selbstverständlich erscheint, ist die Suche nach mit ästhetischem Genuss verbundenen neuronalen Zuständen trotz der zuletzt großen Fortschritte auf dem Gebiet des sog. Brain-Imaging schwierig. Das In-Beziehung-Setzen von ästhetischer Erfahrung mit bestimmten neuronalen Zuständen verlangt auch eine Definition dessen, was ästhetische Erfahrung ist. Indem ich ein Modell aus dem Bereich der empirischen Bewusstseinsforschung auf drei neuroästhetische Experimente anwende, zeige ich, dass sich jede dieser Studien ihrem Objekt, d.i. der ästhetischen Erfahrung, von einem anderen Standpunkt aus nähert. Indem ich einen begrifflichen Rahmen nutze, der geeignet ist, die oft impliziten Annahmen neuroästhetischer Forschung explizit zu machen, hoffe ich, einen neuen Weg zu weisen, wie eine faszinierende, laufende Diskussion fortgesetzt werden kann.
Abstract Background Recent research has shown a significant impact of social cognitive domains on real world functioning and prognosis in schizophrenia. However, the correlations between specific ...aspects of social cognition, neurocognition, IQ and clinical symptoms remain unclear in first-episode schizophrenia. Researchers have speculated about social cognitive subgroups since patients with schizophrenia appear to be a very heterogeneous group. Methods Patients with a recent diagnosis of first-episode schizophrenia were tested regarding theory of mind, social perception, neurocognition, IQ, and clinical symptoms. Results Data from 36 first-episode schizophrenia patients and 36 one to one matched healthy controls were analysed. Principal component analysis in the patient group was used to examine the variance contributed by different aspects of social cognition, neurocognition, and clinical symptoms. Conclusions Complex aspects of social cognition explained 24% of the variance in the patient group. The other principal components consisted mainly of aspects of simple perception of theory of mind. Neurocognition and clinical symptoms only explained a minor proportion of the variance in the patient group. The results imply that social cognitive deficits in first-episode schizophrenia come in two distinct versions where one is a complex, cognitive demanding form linked with IQ. The other version is related to simpler forms of social cognition and independent of IQ. These two forms are comparable to the implicit and explicit mentalising discussed in the developmental literature. The two forms of social cognitive deficits are likely to require quite different social cognitive interventions.
Background: The nature and causes of pragmatic impairments following right hemisphere damage (RHD) continue to pose a challenge to researchers and clinicians. It is widely accepted that impairment in ...pragmatic and para-linguistic aspects of language can result from unilateral damage to the right hemisphere (RH), but it still uncertain exactly what the RH's special contributions to these areas of language and communication is. Advancing our understanding of the RH's role in pragmatics and communication will require a theoretical framework for pragmatics that is suited to the clinical environment.
Aims: I first sketch several theoretical approaches to pragmatics, and suggest that Perkins' (
2007
) emergentist approach to pragmatics is the best suited to describing and explaining communication difficulties in a clinical setting. I then consider some of the implications of adopting the emergentist approach for research on pragmatic impairment in RHD by describing three relatively unexplored areas of research in the domain of RHD and pragmatics: application of conversation analysis techniques, investigation of the contribution of perceptual impairments to pragmatic impairment, and the comparison of pragmatic impairment across clinical groups.
Main Contribution: I propose that the emergentist approach to pragmatics provides a useful framework for investigating issues of pragmatic impairment in RHD and other clinical groups, and show how adopting this approach naturally leads to research in three relatively unexplored areas.
Conclusions: I argue that pursuing these lines of investigation will help move forward research in RHD, pragmatic impairment, and the general role of the right hemisphere in pragmatics.
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