@article{Gastaldon2023,

title = {Inefficient speech-motor control affects predictive speech comprehension: atypical electrophysiological correlates in stuttering},

author = {S. Gastaldon and P. Busan and G. Arcara and F. Peressotti},

doi = {10.1093/cercor/bhad004},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-01-21},

urldate = {2023-01-21},

journal = {Cerebral Cortex},

abstract = {Listeners predict upcoming information during language comprehension. However, how this ability is implemented is still largely unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis proposing that language production mechanisms have a role in prediction. We studied 2 electroencephalographic correlates of predictability during speech comprehension—pre-target alpha–beta (8–30 Hz) power decrease and the post-target N400 event-related potential effect—in a population with impaired speech-motor control, i.e. adults who stutter (AWS), compared to typically fluent adults (TFA). Participants listened to sentences that could either constrain towards a target word or not, modulating its predictability. As a complementary task, participants also performed context-driven word production. Compared to TFA, AWS not only displayed atypical neural responses in production, but, critically, they showed a different pattern also in comprehension. Specifically, while TFA showed the expected pre-target power decrease, AWS showed a power increase in frontal regions, associated with speech-motor control. In addition, the post-target N400 effect was reduced for AWS with respect to TFA. Finally, we found that production and comprehension power changes were positively correlated in TFA, but not in AWS. Overall, the results support the idea that processes and neural structures prominently devoted to speech planning also support prediction during speech comprehension.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Gastaldon2020,

title = {Commonalities in alpha and beta neural desynchronizations during prediction in language comprehension and production},

author = {Simone Gastaldon and Giorgio Arcara and Eduardo Navarrete and Francesca Peressotti},

url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945220303701

http://colab.psy.unipd.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Gastaldon_et_al_2020_Cortex.pdf},

doi = {10.1016/j.cortex.2020.09.026},

issn = {00109452},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-10-13},

journal = {Cortex},

volume = {131},

pages = {328-345},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {We recorded EEG from participants performing both a comprehension and a production task in two separate blocks. Participants listened to high and low constraint incomplete sentences and were asked either to name a picture to complete it (production) or to simply listen to the final word (comprehension). We found that in a silent gap before the final stimulus, predictable stimuli elicited alpha and beta desynchronization in both tasks, signaling the pre-activation of linguistic information. Source estimation highlighted the involvement of left-lateralized language areas and temporo-parietal areas in the right hemisphere. Furthermore, correlations between the desynchronizations in comprehension and production showed spatiotemporal commonalities in language- relevant areas of the left hemisphere. As proposed by prediction-by-production models, our results suggest that comprehenders engage the production system while predicting upcoming words.



Keywords: language prediction, language production, alpha–beta oscillations, internal model},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Gastaldon2023,

title = {Inefficient speech-motor control affects predictive speech comprehension: atypical electrophysiological correlates in stuttering},

author = {S. Gastaldon and P. Busan and G. Arcara and F. Peressotti},

doi = {10.1093/cercor/bhad004},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-01-21},

urldate = {2023-01-21},

journal = {Cerebral Cortex},

abstract = {Listeners predict upcoming information during language comprehension. However, how this ability is implemented is still largely unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis proposing that language production mechanisms have a role in prediction. We studied 2 electroencephalographic correlates of predictability during speech comprehension—pre-target alpha–beta (8–30 Hz) power decrease and the post-target N400 event-related potential effect—in a population with impaired speech-motor control, i.e. adults who stutter (AWS), compared to typically fluent adults (TFA). Participants listened to sentences that could either constrain towards a target word or not, modulating its predictability. As a complementary task, participants also performed context-driven word production. Compared to TFA, AWS not only displayed atypical neural responses in production, but, critically, they showed a different pattern also in comprehension. Specifically, while TFA showed the expected pre-target power decrease, AWS showed a power increase in frontal regions, associated with speech-motor control. In addition, the post-target N400 effect was reduced for AWS with respect to TFA. Finally, we found that production and comprehension power changes were positively correlated in TFA, but not in AWS. Overall, the results support the idea that processes and neural structures prominently devoted to speech planning also support prediction during speech comprehension.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Lago2023,

title = {Trial-by-trial fluctuations of prestimulus alpha power predict post-stimulus amplitude of language ERPs},

author = {S. Lago and R. Pezzetta and S. Gastaldon and F. Peressotti and G. Arcara},

doi = {10.31234/OSF.IO/F96A4},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-01-10},

journal = {PsyArXiv},

abstract = {Anticipatory mechanisms are known to play a key role in language, but they have been mostly investigated with violation paradigms, which only consider what happens after predictions have been (dis)confirmed. Relatively few studies focused on the prestimulus interval and found that stronger expectations are associated with lower prestimulus alpha power. However, alpha power also fluctuates spontaneously, in absence of experimental manipulations; and in the attention and perception domains, spontaneously low prestimulus power is associated with better behavioral performance and with ERPs with shorter latencies and higher amplitudes Importantly, little is known about the role of alpha fluctuations in other domains, as it is in language. To this aim, we investigated whether spontaneous fluctuations in prestimulus alpha power modulate language-related ERPs in a semantic congruence task. EEG data were analyzed using Generalized Additive Mixed Models to model non-linear interactions between prestimulus alpha power and EEG amplitude, at the single-trial level. We found that the N400 and the late posterior positivity/P600 were larger in the case of lower prestimulus alpha power. Still, while the N400 was observable regardless of the level of prestimulus power, a late posterior positivity/P600 effect was only observable for low prestimulus alpha power. We discuss these findings in light of the different, albeit connected, functional interpretations of prestimulus alpha and the ERPs according to both a non-predictive interpretation focused on attentional mechanisms and under a predictive processing framework.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Gastaldon2021,

title = {When inefficient speech-motor control affects speech comprehension: atypical electrophysiological correlates of language prediction in stuttering},

author = {Simone Gastaldon and Pierpaolo Busan and Giorgio Arcara and Francesca Peressotti},

url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.28.466231v1.full.pdf},

doi = {10.1101/2021.10.28.466231},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-10-28},

urldate = {2021-10-28},

journal = {bioRxiv},

pages = {2021.10.28.466231},

abstract = {It is well attested that people predict forthcoming information during language comprehension. The literature presents different proposals on how this ability could be implemented. Here, we tested the hypothesis according to which language production mechanisms have a role in such predictive processing. To this aim, we studied two electroencephalographic correlates of predictability during speech comprehension ‒ pre-target alpha‒beta (8-30 Hz) power decrease and the post-target N400 event-related potential (ERP) effect, ‒ in a population with impaired speech-motor control, i.e., adults who stutter (AWS), compared to typically fluent adults (TFA). Participants listened to sentences that could either constrain towards a target word or not, allowing or not to make predictions. We analyzed time-frequency modulations in a silent interval preceding the target and ERPs at the presentation of the target. Results showed that, compared to TFA, AWS display: i) a widespread and bilateral reduced power decrease in posterior temporal and parietal regions, and a power increase in anterior regions, especially in the left hemisphere (high vs. low constraining) and ii) a reduced N400 effect (non-predictable vs. predictable). The results suggest a reduced efficiency in generating predictions in AWS with respect to TFA. Additionally, the magnitude of the N400 effect in AWS is correlated with alpha power change in the right pre-motor and supplementary motor cortex, a key node in the dysfunctional network in stuttering. Overall, the results support the idea that processes and neural structures prominently devoted to speech planning and execution support prediction during language comprehension.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Gastaldon2020,

title = {Commonalities in alpha and beta neural desynchronizations during prediction in language comprehension and production},

author = {Simone Gastaldon and Giorgio Arcara and Eduardo Navarrete and Francesca Peressotti},

url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945220303701

http://colab.psy.unipd.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Gastaldon_et_al_2020_Cortex.pdf},

doi = {10.1016/j.cortex.2020.09.026},

issn = {00109452},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-10-13},

journal = {Cortex},

volume = {131},

pages = {328-345},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {We recorded EEG from participants performing both a comprehension and a production task in two separate blocks. Participants listened to high and low constraint incomplete sentences and were asked either to name a picture to complete it (production) or to simply listen to the final word (comprehension). We found that in a silent gap before the final stimulus, predictable stimuli elicited alpha and beta desynchronization in both tasks, signaling the pre-activation of linguistic information. Source estimation highlighted the involvement of left-lateralized language areas and temporo-parietal areas in the right hemisphere. Furthermore, correlations between the desynchronizations in comprehension and production showed spatiotemporal commonalities in language- relevant areas of the left hemisphere. As proposed by prediction-by-production models, our results suggest that comprehenders engage the production system while predicting upcoming words.



Keywords: language prediction, language production, alpha–beta oscillations, internal model},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Arcara2018,

title = {One can be some but some cannot be one: ERP correlates of numerosity incongruence are different for singular and plural},

author = {Giorgio Arcara and Francesca Franzon and Simone Gastaldon and Silvia Brotto and Carlo Semenza and Francesca Peressotti and Chiara Zanini},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2018.10.022},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-07-00},

journal = {Cortex},

volume = {116},

pages = {104-121},

abstract = {Humans can communicate information on numerosity by means of number words (e.g. one hundred, a couple), but also through Number morphology (e.g. through the singular vs. the plural forms of a noun). Agreement violations involving Number morphology (e.g. *one apples) are well known to elicit specific ERP components such as the Left Anterior Negativity (LAN); yet, the relationship between a morphological Number value (e.g. singular vs. plural) and its referential numerosity has been scantly considered in the literature. Moreover, even if agreement violations have been proved very useful, they do not typically characterise the everyday language usage, thus narrowing the scope of the results. In this study we investigated Number morphology from a different perspective, by focusing on the ERP correlates of congruence and incongruence between a depicted numerosity and noun phrases. To this aim we designed a picture–phrase matching paradigm in Italian. In each trial, a picture depicting one or four objects was followed by a grammatically well-formed phrase made up of a quantifier and a content noun inflected either in the singular or in the plural. When analysing ERP time-locked to the content noun, plural phrases after pictures presenting one object elicited a larger negativity, similar to a LAN effect. No significant congruence effect was found in the case of the phrases whose morphological Number value conveyed a numerosity of one. Our results suggest that 1) incongruence elicits a negativity (LAN-like) independently from the grammaticality of the utterances and irrespective the P600 component; 2) the reference to a numerosity can be partially encoded in an incremental way when processing Number morphology; and, most importantly, 3) the processing of the morphological Number value of plural is different from that of singular as the former shows a narrower interpretability than the latter.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{theofanopoulou2017self,

title = {Self-domestication in Homo sapiens: Insights from comparative genomics},

author = { Constantina Theofanopoulou and Simone Gastaldon and Thomas O’Rourke and Bridget D Samuels and Pedro Tiago Martins and Francesco Delogu and Saleh Alamri and Cedric Boeckx},

url = {http://colab.psy.unipd.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Theofanopoulou-et-al.-2017.-Self-domestication-in-Homo-sapiens.-Insights-from-comparative-genomics.pdf},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185306},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-10-18},

journal = {PLoS One},

volume = {12},

number = {10},

pages = {e0185306},

publisher = {Public Library of Science},

abstract = {This study identifies and analyzes statistically significant overlaps between selective sweep screens in anatomically modern humans and several domesticated species. The results obtained suggest that (paleo-)genomic data can be exploited to complement the fossil record and support the idea of self-domestication in Homo sapiens, a process that likely intensified as our species populated its niche. Our analysis lends support to attempts to capture the “domestication syndrome” in terms of alterations to certain signaling pathways and cell lineages, such as the neural crest.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{gastaldon2016referential,

title = {Referential numerosity and morphosyntactic number agreement: A psycholinguistic study on Italian Qualche/Alcuni},

author = { Simone Gastaldon and Chiara Zanini and Giorgio Arcara and Francesca Peressotti and Francesca Franzon},

url = {http://colab.psy.unipd.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/09.-Gastaldon-1.pdf},

doi = {http://hdl.handle.net/11707/5674},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-01-01},

journal = {Research in Generative Grammar},

volume = {38},

pages = {105--113},

abstract = {The present study aims at shedding new light on the relationship between morphological Number and the numerosity of the referent(s). Previous studies exploiting agreement violations suggested a possible involvement of numerosity processing in the encoding of morphological Number (Carreiras et al., 2010). By employing the two Italian quantifiers qualche and alcuni, and exploiting their diverging requirements for Number agreement, we developed a picture–phrase matching paradigm. This minimal pair enabled us to test the hypothesis that when the morphological information of Number is incongruent with the numerosity encoded on the whole expression, more processing time is needed. The results are consistent with previous studies, and add evidence to a relationship between certain aspects of language and numerical cognition. Notably, contrary to previous literature, our results were obtained by exploiting well-formed expressions only.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}