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Questions left unanswered: how the brain responds to missing information.

ABSTRACT: It sometimes happens that when someone asks a question, the addressee does not give an adequate answer, for instance by leaving out part of the required information. The person who posed the question may wonder why the information was omitted, and engage in extensive processing to find out what the partial answer actually means. The present study looks at the neural correlates of the pragmatic processes invoked by partial answers to questions. Two experiments are presented in which participants read mini-dialogues while their Event-Related brain Potentials (ERPs) are being measured. In both experiments, violating the dependency between questions and answers was found to lead to an increase in the amplitude of the P600 component. We interpret these P600-effects as reflecting the increased effort in creating a coherent representation of what is communicated. This effortful processing might include the computation of what the dialogue participant meant to communicate by withholding information. Our study is one of few investigating language processing in conversation, be it that our participants were 'eavesdroppers' instead of real interactants. Our results contribute to the as of yet small range of pragmatic phenomena that modulate the processes underlying the P600 component, and suggest that people immediately attempt to regain cohesion if a question-answer dependency is violated in an ongoing conversation.

SUBMITTER: Hoeks JC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3788781 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Questions left unanswered: how the brain responds to missing information.

Hoeks John C J JC Stowe Laurie A LA Hendriks Petra P Brouwer Harm H

PloS one 20131002 10

It sometimes happens that when someone asks a question, the addressee does not give an adequate answer, for instance by leaving out part of the required information. The person who posed the question may wonder why the information was omitted, and engage in extensive processing to find out what the partial answer actually means. The present study looks at the neural correlates of the pragmatic processes invoked by partial answers to questions. Two experiments are presented in which participants ...[more]

PMID: 24098327

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Project description:Policies and measures to control pandemics are often failing. While biological factors controlling transmission are usually well explored, little is known about the environmental drivers of transmission and infection. For instance, respiratory droplets and aerosol particles are crucial vectors for the airborne transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the causation agent of the coronavirus 2019 pandemic (COVID-19). Once expectorated, respiratory droplets interact with atmospheric particulates that influence the viability and transmission of the novel coronavirus, yet there is little knowledge on this process or its consequences on virus transmission and infection. Here we review the effects of atmospheric particulate properties, vortex zones, and air pollution on virus survivability and transmission. We found that particle size, chemical constituents, electrostatic charges, and the moisture content of airborne particles can have notable effects on virus transmission, with higher survival generally associated with larger particles, yet some viruses are better preserved on small particles. Some chemical constituents and surface-adsorbed chemical species may damage peptide bonds in viral proteins and impair virus stability. Electrostatic charges and water content of atmospheric particulates may affect the adherence of virion particles and possibly their viability. In addition, vortex zones and human thermal plumes are major environmental factors altering the aerodynamics of buoyant particles in air, which can strongly influence the transport of airborne particles and the transmission of associated viruses. Insights into these factors may provide explanations for the widely observed positive correlations between COVID-19 infection and mortality with air pollution, of which particulate matter is a common constituent that may have a central role in the airborne transmission of the novel coronavirus.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10311-022-01557-z.

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Questions left unanswered: how the brain responds to missing information.

Publications

Questions left unanswered: how the brain responds to missing information.

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