Abstract
Introduction: The non invasive method of brain stimulation, called navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, can temporarily inhibit the functionality of cortical areas of the brain. This allows to “map” language: If the participant cannot carry out a specific language task anymore while a cortical spot is stimulated and consequently its function inhibited, one can assume to have found a positive area for language.
While most protocols rely on object naming tasks involving nouns, action naming through verbs is generally neglected. The largest contribution of a verb task can be found in a finite action naming task: it requires retrieval, but also integration of an inflected verb, marked for person, gender, tense, aspect, mood etc.
In this study, we constructed a picture naming task for objects and actions, both triggering inflected targets. We demonstrate its feasibility 1) in different age groups of British English (BE) speakers and 2) under conditions suitable for later application under nTMS.
Methods: 28 BE native speakers from London, UK (f=15; age range=23-65, average age 40.95). 154 pictures (80 objects, 74 actions) had to be named. The picture was shown for 700-1000ms. Participants were instructed to name the pictures with the pattern: “This is a…” for the objects; “Daily, he…” for half of the actions; “Yesterday, he…” for the second half of the actions
Analysis: Only those picture stimuli consistently named by 80% of the participants were included in the final item list.
Results: 68 object pictures and 50 action pictures fulfilled the criteria. There was no difference in the two action naming tasks observed.
Conclusion: We established a reliable stimuli set for two linguistically different tasks in English. The paradigm triggers the finite forms of the verbs for the morphologically poor language of English, but still meets the criteria for later application under nTMS.
While most protocols rely on object naming tasks involving nouns, action naming through verbs is generally neglected. The largest contribution of a verb task can be found in a finite action naming task: it requires retrieval, but also integration of an inflected verb, marked for person, gender, tense, aspect, mood etc.
In this study, we constructed a picture naming task for objects and actions, both triggering inflected targets. We demonstrate its feasibility 1) in different age groups of British English (BE) speakers and 2) under conditions suitable for later application under nTMS.
Methods: 28 BE native speakers from London, UK (f=15; age range=23-65, average age 40.95). 154 pictures (80 objects, 74 actions) had to be named. The picture was shown for 700-1000ms. Participants were instructed to name the pictures with the pattern: “This is a…” for the objects; “Daily, he…” for half of the actions; “Yesterday, he…” for the second half of the actions
Analysis: Only those picture stimuli consistently named by 80% of the participants were included in the final item list.
Results: 68 object pictures and 50 action pictures fulfilled the criteria. There was no difference in the two action naming tasks observed.
Conclusion: We established a reliable stimuli set for two linguistically different tasks in English. The paradigm triggers the finite forms of the verbs for the morphologically poor language of English, but still meets the criteria for later application under nTMS.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Unpublished - 2018 |
| Event | TABU Dag 2018: The 39th International Linguistics Conference - University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands Duration: 14-Jun-2018 → 15-Jun-2018 Conference number: 39 |
Conference
| Conference | TABU Dag 2018 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Netherlands |
| City | Groningen |
| Period | 14/06/2018 → 15/06/2018 |