Dataset Information

The Frequency of Rapid Pupil Dilations as a Measure of Linguistic Processing Difficulty.

ABSTRACT: While it has long been known that the pupil reacts to cognitive load, pupil size has received little attention in cognitive research because of its long latency and the difficulty of separating effects of cognitive load from the light reflex or effects due to eye movements. A novel measure, the Index of Cognitive Activity (ICA), relates cognitive effort to the frequency of small rapid dilations of the pupil. We report here on a total of seven experiments which test whether the ICA reliably indexes linguistically induced cognitive load: three experiments in reading (a manipulation of grammatical gender match/mismatch, an experiment of semantic fit, and an experiment comparing locally ambiguous subject versus object relative clauses, all in German), three dual-task experiments with simultaneous driving and spoken language comprehension (using the same manipulations as in the single-task reading experiments), and a visual world experiment comparing the processing of causal versus concessive discourse markers. These experiments are the first to investigate the effect and time course of the ICA in language processing. All of our experiments support the idea that the ICA indexes linguistic processing difficulty. The effects of our linguistic manipulations on the ICA are consistent for reading and auditory presentation. Furthermore, our experiments show that the ICA allows for usage within a multi-task paradigm. Its robustness with respect to eye movements means that it is a valid measure of processing difficulty for usage within the visual world paradigm, which will allow researchers to assess both visual attention and processing difficulty at the same time, using an eye-tracker. We argue that the ICA is indicative of activity in the locus caeruleus area of the brain stem, which has recently also been linked to P600 effects observed in psycholinguistic EEG experiments.

SUBMITTER: Demberg V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4723154 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Frequency of Rapid Pupil Dilations as a Measure of Linguistic Processing Difficulty.

Demberg Vera V Sayeed Asad A

PloS one 20160122 1

While it has long been known that the pupil reacts to cognitive load, pupil size has received little attention in cognitive research because of its long latency and the difficulty of separating effects of cognitive load from the light reflex or effects due to eye movements. A novel measure, the Index of Cognitive Activity (ICA), relates cognitive effort to the frequency of small rapid dilations of the pupil. We report here on a total of seven experiments which test whether the ICA reliably index ...[more]

PMID: 26799065

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Project description:PurposeEarly cognitive symptoms such as word-finding difficulty (WFD) in daily conversation are common in Parkinson's disease (PD), but studies have been limited by a lack of feasible, quantitative measures. Linguistic analysis, focused on pauses in speech, may yield markers of impairment of cognition and communication in PD. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship of linguistic markers in semistructured speech to WFD symptoms and cognitive function in PD.MethodSpeech recordings of description of the Cookie Theft picture in 53 patients with PD without dementia and 23 elderly controls were analyzed with Praat software. Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; Nasreddine et al., 2005), category naming fluency, and confrontation naming tests were administered. Questionnaires rating WFD symptoms and cognitive instrumental activities of daily living were completed. We determined the relationships between (a) pause length and location, (b) MoCA score, and (c) WFD symptoms, using Pearson's correlations and multivariate regression models.ResultsCompared with controls, patients with PD had more pauses within utterances as well as fewer words per minute and a lower percentage of well-formed sentences. Pauses within utterances differed significantly between PD-mild cognitive impairment and normal cognition (p < .001). Words per minute and percentage of well-formed sentences were predictive of MoCA in multivariate regression models. Pauses before verbs were associated with patient-reported severity of WFD symptoms (p = .006).ConclusionsLinguistic markers including pauses within utterances distinguish patients with PD with mild cognitive symptoms from elderly controls. These markers are associated with global cognitive function before the onset of dementia. Pauses before verbs and grammatical markers may index early cognitive symptoms such as WFD that may interfere with functional communication.Supplemental materialhttps://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6615401.

Dataset Information

The Frequency of Rapid Pupil Dilations as a Measure of Linguistic Processing Difficulty.

Publications

The Frequency of Rapid Pupil Dilations as a Measure of Linguistic Processing Difficulty.

Similar Datasets

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