Article comprehension in monolingual Spanish-speaking children with developmental language disorder: A longitudinal eye tracking study.

PURPOSE: Article-noun disagreement in spoken language is a marker of children with developmental language disorder (DLD). However, the evidence is less clear regarding article comprehension. This study investigates article comprehension in monolingual Spanish-speaking children with and without DLD. METHOD: Eye tracking methodology used in a longitudinal experimental design enabled the examination of real time article comprehension. The children at the time 1 were 40 monolingual Spanish-speaking preschoolers (20 with DLD and 20 with typical language development [TLD]). A year later (time 2), 27 of these children (15 with DLD and 12 with TLD) were evaluated. Children listened to simple phrases while inspecting a four object visual context. The article in the phrase agreed in number and gender with only one of the objects. RESULT: At the time 1, children with DLD did not use articles to identify the correct image, while children with TLD anticipated the correct picture. At the time 2, both groups used the articles' morphological markers, but children with DLD showed a slower and weaker preference for the correct referent compared to their age-matched peers. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest a later emergence, but a similar developmental trajectory, of article comprehension in children with DLD compared to their peers with TLD.

Development of Clause Complexity in Children with Specific Language Impairment/Language Development Disorder: A Longitudinal Study.

This paper addresses the grammatical challenges associated with the development of clause complexity, focusing on the performance of a group of monolingual Spanish-speaking schoolchildren with Specific Language Impairment/Developmental Language Disorder (SLI/DLD) in a longitudinal corpus of oral narrative samples. The study examines the presence of interclause relations of subordination and equivalence (hypotaxis and parataxis) in language samples of two groups: an experimental group made up of 24 schoolchildren with SLI/DLD and a control group made up of 24 schoolchildren with typical development (TD). The results show that while both groups use parataxis as the most common relation between clauses in all school grades, there is a significant decrease in paratactic relations and a significant increase in hypotactic relations from first to fourth grade of primary education. Although the development patterns are highly similar, the SLI/DLD group shows greater difficulties in mastering more complex (hypotactic) relations in fourth grade compared to the control group, indicating that it is less sophisticated in the use of these types of complex relations. These findings suggest that focused support on the most complex structures is needed towards the fourth grade of primary education, given the demands of the school academic register from 6 and 7 years of age and the potential problems that the development of clause complexity can cause in school-age children.

Habilidades de comprensión y producción narrativa en niños montevideanos de 5 años. Una comparación por nivel socioeconómico / Narrative abilities in a group of Uruguayan preschoolers from different socioeconomic backgrounds

Resumen Este estudio caracteriza y compara las habilidades narrativas y el vocabulario receptivo de 54 preescolares montevideanos de nivel socioeconómico medio (NSM) y bajo (NSB). Los niños realizaron tareas de vocabulario receptivo, producción narrativa (en dos condiciones: manipulando títeres al contar la historia y sin manipularlos), y comprensión narrativa (recuento oral y preguntas posteriores a la reconstrucción). Las narrativas fueron transcritas, codificadas y analizadas en términos de super y macroestructura siguiendo la gramática de historias de Stein y Glenn (1979) (coherencia) y de microestructura (productividad y complejidad). Los niños de ambos grupos tuvieron un desempeño acorde a su edad en comprensión y producción narrativa, a pesar de que el grupo de NSM tuvo un mejor desempeño en vocabulario receptivo. Hubo diferencias en comprensión (cantidad de episodios recuperados y en la respuesta a preguntas) que favorecieron al NSM, pero no en la cantidad de categorías recuperadas ni en la extensión y complejidad del recuento. Para producción narrativa no hubo diferencias en secuencia narrativa, ni en la cantidad de episodios completos en ninguna de las condiciones, pero sí en cuanto a la complejidad sintáctica en la condición sin títeres. Los resultados muestran una relación compleja entre vocabulario y habilidades narrativas, dado que diferencias importantes en vocabulario no se reflejaron de manera homogénea en el desempeño narrativo. Estos resultados aportan a los debates actuales sobre el papel del vocabulario en el desarrollo de habilidades narrativas, así como a pensar la validez ecológica de las evaluaciones en el desarrollo cognitivo y lingüístico.

Abstract Narrative abilities are an important part of communication, academic success, and healthy relationships. These abilities involve complex language and cognitive skills, such as precise vocabulary, control of the coherence markers, relations of cause-effect, and planning. They are also relevant during the elementary school years and interact with the socio-emotional skills necessary to understand different points of view. Oral narrative production develops dramatically from 3 to 5 years of age and is a key factor in a child's ability to communicate about the world. During this period narratives are a product of increasing linguistic sophistication over the preschool period and there is a complex relationship between early narratives and language proficiency. So far, most research about this topic has been pursued in populations other than Latin American preschoolers. At the same time, a considerably lesser number of studies about narrative abilities development have been carried out comparing typically developing children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. To our knowledge, there are no studies in Uruguay that assess the narrative abilities development in typically developing preschool children who grow up in vulnerable contexts. It is therefore of the utmost relevance to produce empirical evidence for this population. For these reasons, this study aimed at characterizing and comparing narrative abilities and receptive vocabulary in a group of a total of 54 Uruguayan preschoolers from different socioeconomic backgrounds (middle and low socioeconomic status, SES). Children were assessed in receptive vocabulary and narrative abilities across two task conditions: (1) narrative comprehension through a story retelling task which included some final questions about the story; (2) narrative production elicited from a set of thematically related puppets. The examiner gives a child a puppet set and asks him/her to elaborate a narrative using them. After that, puppets are removed and the child is asked to retell the story without puppets. Children's oral productions were video-taped and then transcribed and categorized using the ELAN software (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 2019). The verbal information was categorized according to Stein and Glenn's (1979) story grammar and considering the microstructural aspects (productivity and complexity). Analyses showed that both groups performed according to their stage of development in both narrative task conditions. With regards to the narrative comprehension task, no differences in the number of recovered categories, extension, or narrative complexity were observed. Concerning the narrative production task, there were no differences between the groups in narrative sequences, nor in the number of completed episodes in conditions neither with puppets nor without puppets. Results showed that children who grow up in poverty perform more poorly than their peers from middle-income families in receptive vocabulary, in the number of recovered episodes, ask-answer items of narrative comprehension tasks. Moreover, concerning the microstructural parameters analyses showed that children from middle socioeconomic backgrounds scored better in syntactic complexity in the without puppets condition. No differences between the groups were observed in syntactic complexity in the puppets condition. Taken together these results indicate a complex link between vocabulary and narrative abilities. It is worth noting that important differences in vocabulary did not reflect in the children's narrative performance. These findings are also relevant as a contribution to an ongoing debate about the role of vocabulary in the development of narrative abilities. Furthermore, these results could inform the discussion about the ecological validity of the test of cognitive and linguistic development. Finally, to provide some additional evidence to Uruguayan Spanish language about the relationships between oral language and cognitive development allows to carry out early interventions before formal schooling sets children for success in school and life.

Sentence Comprehension in Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Study of the Application of the Brazilian Version of the Test for the Reception of Grammar (TROG2-Br).

Sentence-comprehension deficits have been described in patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). However, most instruments to address this domain in more detail and in a clinical context have not been adapted and translated into several languages, posing limitations to clinical practice and cross-language research. Objectives: The study aimed to (1) test the applicability of the Brazilian version of the Test for Reception of Grammar (TROG2-Br) to detect morphosyntactic deficits in patients with PPA; (2) investigate the association between performance in the test and sociodemographic and clinical variables (age, years of formal education, and disease duration); (3) characterize the performance of individuals presenting with the three more common variants of PPA (non-fluent, semantic, and logopenic) and mixed PPA (PPA-Mx) and analyze whether TROG-2 may assist in the distinction of these clinical profiles. Methods: A total of 74 cognitively healthy participants and 34 individuals diagnosed with PPA were assessed with TROG2-Br. Overall scores (correct items, passed blocks), types, and categories of errors were analyzed. Results: In controls, block scores were significantly correlated with years of formal education (Spearman's r = 0.33, p = 004) but not with age. In PPA, age, education, and disease duration were not significantly associated with performance in the test. Controls presented a significantly higher performance on TROG2-Br compared to PPA individuals and their errors pattern pointed to mild general cognitive processing difficulties (attention, working memory). PPA error types pointed to processing and morphosyntactic deficits in nonfluent or agrammatic PPA, (PPA-NF/A), logopenic PPA (PPA-L), and PPA-Mx. The semantic PPA (PPA-S) subgroup was qualitatively more similar to controls (processing difficulties and lower percentage of morphosyntactic errors). TROG2-Br presented good internal consistency and concurrent validity. Discussion: Our results corroborate findings with TROG-2 in other populations. The performance of typical older adults with heterogeneous levels of education is discussed along with recommendations for clinical use of the test and future directions of research.

Treatment intensity for developmental language disorder: A systematic review.

PURPOSE: Research on treatment intensity in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) has undergone substantial development over the last decade. The aim of the present review was to analyse available publications as related to methodological quality, degree of scientific evidence, and the areas/aspects of language involved. METHOD: A systematic review of the scientific literature was conducted using the PRISMA guidelines. A total of 9 articles from 34 published investigations in the field were selected for review according to our inclusion criteria. RESULT: The articles addressed the effects of treatment intensity primarily considering expressive morphology and vocabulary. The methodological quality and levels of evidence provided by the studies were high. In general, the effect sizes of dependent variables were considered large. CONCLUSION: The number of articles investigating treatment intensity in DLD is scarce. High variability of stimuli was associated with improvements in morphology, whereas vocabulary did not demonstrate the same association. Further research on treatment intensity is needed to address transference and generalisation of the treated abilities.

El vocabulario productivo y su relación con la gramática en niños hablantes de castellano peruano entre los 16 y los 30 meses / Productive vocabulary and its relationship with grammar in Spanish-speaking children from 16 to 30 months of age

Resumen Se examinaron datos provenientes de la evaluación del lenguaje de 104 niños con edades entre 16 y 30 meses residentes en Lima con una versión preliminar de la adaptación de la Forma II de los reportes parentales MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) al español del Perú. Se analizó el léxico productivo a partir de la lista de palabras del reporte y se realizaron análisis de regresión para evaluar si el nivel de vocabulario contribuía a predecir el desarrollo gramatical de los niños, empleando como variables de control la edad del niño y el nivel de escolarización materna (como indicador del nivel socioeconómico) y como variables dependientes la longitud media de los tres enunciados más largos (LME3) y la complejidad morfosintáctica (CM), obtenidas con el CDI. Los sustantivos fueron la clase de palabras más frecuente y que más aumentó con la edad, como en el italiano (Caselli et al., 1995; D'Odorico y Fasolo, 2007) y el español mexicano (Jackson-Maldonado et al., 1993). Además, el nivel de vocabulario predijo el nivel de desarrollo gramatical, como en el español peninsular (Mariscal y Gallego, 2012) y en el mexicano (Thal, Jackson-Maldonado y Acosta, 2000): una vez controlados los efectos de la edad y la escolarización materna, el vocabulario explicó el 20 % de la variabilidad de la LME3 y el 37 % de la variabilidad de la CM. Este estudio ofrece información sobre el desarrollo temprano del vocabulario y la gramática en el español del Perú, una etapa escasamente estudiada en esta variedad.

Abstract We present results from the analysis of data from 104 children with ages ranging from 16 to 30 months, living in Lima, Peru. The data was collected using a preliminary version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI), Form II, adapted to Peruvian Spanish. The CDIs are parental reports that assess language through the presentation of a series of items to the parents, mainly in the form of a checklist. We aimed to (1) describe the composition of Peruvian children's productive lexicon at this age, (2) identify whether nouns were the most frequent class in their vocabulary, and also the class which increased the most with age, as is the case in Italian (Caselli et al., 1995; D'Odorico y Fasolo, 2007) and Mexican Spanish (Jackson-Maldonado et al., 1993); and (3) assess whether vocabulary size explained the level of grammatical development as in Peninsular and Mexican Spanish (Mariscal & Gallego, 2012; Thal, Jackson-Maldonado & Acosta, 2000). In order to do so, we analyzed the following data: age; maternal education level (as an indicator of socioeconomic status); vocabulary (represented by a list of more than 500 words that parents recognized as produced or not by their children); the mean length of the three longest utterances produced by the child as reported by parents; and sentence complexity, a measure of the level of structures produced by the child based on the parent's report. To achieve the first and second goals, words in the vocabulary list were classified according to grammatical class. Then, the percentage of production of each class of words was calculated, as well as the correlation between this percentage and age. Children's vocabulary was composed mainly of nouns, which represented 57 % of the production, followed by predicates (verbs and adjectives) and function words (pronouns, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions and connectives). Noun was the class of words that increased the most with age, showing the highest correlation with such variable (r = .72). Correlations between other types of words and age varied: it was also high for adjectives; but moderate for some classes and low for others. This showed that each type of word increased at different rates. Regarding the third goal, to assess the relationship between vocabulary size and level of grammatical development, two regression analyses were conducted to predict the variables mean-length-of-the-three-longest-utterances and sentence-complexity. For both analyses, age and maternal education level were entered in the first step, in order to control for their effect; and vocabulary was entered in the second step. Both models accounted for substantial amounts of variance and showed an important effect on vocabulary. The model with the mean-length-of-the-three-longest-utterances as the dependent variable accounted for 56 % of the variance. The first step explained 37 % of the variance (due to the contribution of both age and maternal education level), and the second step explained an additional 20 %. The model with sentence-complexity accounted for a higher percentage of the variance, 75 %. The first step explained 38 % of the variance, exclusively due to age; while the second step explained an additional 37 %. These results suggest a strong relationship between vocabulary and grammar. Further research is needed to confirm these results with direct measures of child production and more representative samples of children acquiring Peruvian Spanish, including speakers of dialects of other parts of the country. However, these results, preliminary as they are, shed light on the composition of vocabulary and its relationship with grammar in a variety of Spanish scarcely studied during early stages of development.

A Computational Theory for the Emergence of Grammatical Categories in Cortical Dynamics.

A general agreement in psycholinguistics claims that syntax and meaning are unified precisely and very quickly during online sentence processing. Although several theories have advanced arguments regarding the neurocomputational bases of this phenomenon, we argue that these theories could potentially benefit by including neurophysiological data concerning cortical dynamics constraints in brain tissue. In addition, some theories promote the integration of complex optimization methods in neural tissue. In this paper we attempt to fill these gaps introducing a computational model inspired in the dynamics of cortical tissue. In our modeling approach, proximal afferent dendrites produce stochastic cellular activations, while distal dendritic branches-on the other hand-contribute independently to somatic depolarization by means of dendritic spikes, and finally, prediction failures produce massive firing events preventing formation of sparse distributed representations. The model presented in this paper combines semantic and coarse-grained syntactic constraints for each word in a sentence context until grammatically related word function discrimination emerges spontaneously by the sole correlation of lexical information from different sources without applying complex optimization methods. By means of support vector machine techniques, we show that the sparse activation features returned by our approach are well suited-bootstrapping from the features returned by Word Embedding mechanisms-to accomplish grammatical function classification of individual words in a sentence. In this way we develop a biologically guided computational explanation for linguistically relevant unification processes in cortex which connects psycholinguistics to neurobiological accounts of language. We also claim that the computational hypotheses established in this research could foster future work on biologically-inspired learning algorithms for natural language processing applications.

Survey data of English teachers' beliefs about second language instruction in Chile.

The data derives from a survey collected from 543 school-level teachers of English in Chile. The survey was originally distributed to 5435 teachers. The survey was developed with an aim of exploring teachers' beliefs about how second language grammar should be taught. The survey consisted of 50 items in total, in four sections: (a) background information (10 items), (b) beliefs regarding L2 learning and teaching (9 items), (c) beliefs regarding grammar instruction (23 items), and (d) classroom realities (8 items). Except for the background information section, the items took the form of a 6-point Likert scale. The entire dataset is included in an Excel file (.xlsx). The entire questionnaire is included as a supplementary file. The data is connected to the theoretical models proposed in [1]. In [1], those models were proposed based on descriptive statistics (e.g., agreement/disagreement rates) and focus-group interview data. Subsequently, in the current paper, the data was submitted to structural equation modelling to explain the theoretical models. Then, the data is visually depicted with figures created via AMOS.

Proposta de uma Gramática Visual para Descrição e Análise Composicional de Vídeos Digitais em Línguas de Sinais / Proposal of Visual Grammar for the Description and Compositional Analysis of Digital Videos in Sign Languages

RESUMO Com o advento da produção e ampla circulação de vídeos por meio da internet, os surdos ganharam um espaço novo e independente para expressão cultural, formando, nos últimos 20 anos, acervos digitais que configuram materialmente uma surdo-memória em línguas de sinais. Assim sendo, este artigo apresenta o mapeamento e a proposta de uma gramática visual para os vídeos didáticos e acadêmicos-culturais em línguas de sinais que circulam hoje em repositórios digitais, em especial o YouTube. O objetivo deste estudo é duplo: conceber uma representação icônica para os artefatos produzidos pela/para a comunidade surda no formato vídeo e apresentar um catálogo inicial de soluções visuais capturadas dessas produções, sistematizando-as para futuros autores e criadores de conteúdos. Metodologicamente, focamos na abordagem composicional utilizada na análise de 24 produções selecionadas e estudadas por nosso grupo de pesquisa ao longo do biênio 2017-2018. Como resultado do estudo, definimos sete elementos basilares constituintes e um conjunto de variações e relações possíveis entre eles, tomando por empréstimo e inspiração categorias inicialmente apresentadas por teóricos da imagem e das artes visuais, em especial Arnheim, Dondis e Leborg.

ABSTRACT With the emergence of production and wide circulation of videos through the internet, deaf persons have gained a new and independent space for cultural expression, forming, in the last 20 years, digital collections that materially constitute a deaf-memory in sign languages. Thus, this paper presents the mapping and proposal of a visual grammar for pedagogic and academic-cultural videos in sign languages that currently circulate in digital repositories, in particular, YouTube. This study has a twofold aim: to propose an iconic representation for video artifacts created by/for the deaf community and to present an initial catalog of visual solutions captured from these products, organizing them for future authors and content creators. In terms of methodology, we focus on the compositional approach used in the analysis of 24 productions selected and examined by our research group in 2017-2018. As an outcome of the study, we have defined seven constituent basic elements and a set of possible variations and relationships between them, borrowing, for inspiration, categories originally presented by image and visual art theorists, including Arnheim, Dondis, and Leborg.

Automatic Detection of Negated Findings in Radiological Reports for Spanish Language: Methodology Based on Lexicon-Grammatical Information Processing.

We present a methodology for the automatic recognition of negated findings in radiological reports considering morphological, syntactic, and semantic information. In order to achieve this goal, a series of rules for processing lexical and syntactic information was elaborated. This required development of an electronic dictionary of medical terminology and informatics grammars. Pertinent information for the assembly of the specialized dictionary was extracted from the ontology SNOMED CT and a medical dictionary (RANM, 2012). Likewise, a general language dictionary was also included. Lexicon-Grammar (LG), proposed by Gross (1975; Cahiers de l'institut de linguistique de Louvain, 24. 23-41 1998), was used to set up the database, which allowed an exhaustive description of the argument structure of predicates projected by lexical units. Computational framework was carried out with NooJ, a free software developed by Silberztein (Silberztein and Noo 2018, 2016), which has various utilities for treating natural language, such as morphological and syntactic grammar, as well as dictionaries. This methodology was compared with a Spanish version of NegEx (Chapman et al. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 34(5):301-310 2001; Stricker 2016). Results show that there are minimal differences in favor of the algorithm developed using NooJ, but the quality and specificity of the data improves if lexical-grammatical information is added.

"Darse un gustito", cocinar y comer en familia. Villa La Tela, Córdoba, Argentina / "Taking a little taste", cooking and eating within the family: Villa La Tela, Cordoba, Argentina / "Experimentar um pouco de sabor", cozinhar e comer em família: Villa La Tela, Córdoba, Argentina

Resumen El objetivo de este trabajo consistió en reconstruir la gramática culinaria de las cocinas familiares de Villa La Tela, Córdoba, Argentina. Se realizó una investigación cualitativa desde una matriz de lectura materialista e interpretativista. Las técnicas utilizadas fueron: recetario viajero, encuentros expresivo-creativos y entrevistas semi-estructuradas. El análisis de las fuentes primarias se realizó mediante la teoría fundamentada. La construcción analítica de la gramática culinaria familiar aquí propuesta presenta cuatro dimensiones relacionales: Carta de menús familiares (Comidas/bebidas frecuentes, Comidas in-imaginables de existencia, Comidas que generan curiosidad de ser probadas, Comidas consideradas no-comidas, Comidas que se extrañan, Sus modificaciones); Cocinero (Transmisión de los haceres/saberes culinarios, Rol asumido al cocinar, Criterios para elegir el menú, Sensibilidades asociadas al cocinar, Normativa impartida); Comensales (Niños como destinatarios, Adultos como destinatarios); La situación de compartir el espacio-tiempo de comer (Con un nos-Otros, Con un-Otro de clase, Significados del compartir la comida). Más allá de habitar un escenario de pobreza estructural, las familias vivencian la gramática culinaria como estandarte de lucha de su historia alimentaria-nutricional, implementarla es "darse un gustito". Además, aparece el cocinar como vía de escape de lo real dando rienda suelta a la mixtura perfecta entre la creatividad y el afecto.

Abstract This paper aimed to reconstruct the culinary grammar of the family's kitchens of Villa La Tela, Cordoba, Argentina. A qualitative study was conducted from a materilistic an interpretative key. The techniques used were: traveling recipe, expressive and creative meetings and semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the primary sources was performed using the grounded theory. The analytic construction of the family culinary grammar proposed here refers to four relational dimensions: Familiar menus card (Frequent Food/Beverage, Unimaginable meals, Food that generate curiosity to try it; Meals that area considered non-food, Missed meals and their changes); Cook (Transmission of doings and culinary knowledge, Cooking role assumed, Criteria for choosing the menu, Sensitivities associated with cooking, Given rules); Commensals (Children as receivers, Adults as receivers); The situation of sharing the eating's space-time (With us-Others, With-Other Classmates, The meanings of sharing food). Beyond inhabiting a stage of structural poverty, the culinary grammar is experienced by the families as a struggle banner for their food and nutrition history, and implementing means "taking a taste". In addition, cooking appears as an escape from the real world unleashing the perfect mix between creativity and affection.

Resumo O objetivo do artigo é reconstruir a gramática culinária das cozinhas familiares de Villa La Tela, em Córdoba, Argentina. Realizou-se investigação qualitativa a partir de uma matriz materialista e interpretativa. As técnicas utilizadas foram: receitas de viagem, encontros expressivo-criativos e entrevistas semiestruturadas. A análise das fontes primárias foi realizada utilizando a teoria fundamentada. A construção analítica da gramática culinária familiar aqui proposta tem quatro dimensões relacionais: Carta de menus familiares (Comidas/bebidas frequentes, Comidas de existência in-imaginável, Comidas que geram curiosidade de ser provadas, Comidas consideradas não comidas, Comidas de que se sente falta, Suas modificações); Cozinheiro (Transmissão dos fazres/saberes culinários, Papel assumido ao cozinhar, Critérios para escolher o menu, Sensibilidades associadas ao cozinhar, Regulamento dado); Comensais (Crianças como destinatários, Adultos como destinatários); A situação de compartilhar o espaço-tempo de comer (Com um nos-Outros, Com um-Outro da turma, Significados de compartilhar a comida). Apesar de viverem em um local com pobreza estrutural, as famílias vivenciam a gramática culinária como estandarte de luta da sua história alimentar-nutricional, e implementá-la é "experimentar um pouco de sabor". Ademais, cozinhar surge como via de escape do real, dando rédea livre à mistura perfeita entre a criatividade e o afeto.

Design of Spiking Central Pattern Generators for Multiple Locomotion Gaits in Hexapod Robots by Christiansen Grammar Evolution.

This paper presents a method to design Spiking Central Pattern Generators (SCPGs) to achieve locomotion at different frequencies on legged robots. It is validated through embedding its designs into a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and implemented on a real hexapod robot. The SCPGs are automatically designed by means of a Christiansen Grammar Evolution (CGE)-based methodology. The CGE performs a solution for the configuration (synaptic weights and connections) for each neuron in the SCPG. This is carried out through the indirect representation of candidate solutions that evolve to replicate a specific spike train according to a locomotion pattern (gait) by measuring the similarity between the spike trains and the SPIKE distance to lead the search to a correct configuration. By using this evolutionary approach, several SCPG design specifications can be explicitly added into the SPIKE distance-based fitness function, such as looking for Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) with minimal connectivity or a Central Pattern Generator (CPG) able to generate different locomotion gaits only by changing the initial input stimuli. The SCPG designs have been successfully implemented on a Spartan 6 FPGA board and a real time validation on a 12 Degrees Of Freedom (DOFs) hexapod robot is presented.

[Some Drops of Logic in the Fog of Depression]. / Algunas gotas de lógica en la niebla de las depresiones.

From two semi-popularised, but scientifically correct, texts, that provide a typical look of academic awareness of depressive phenomena, an attempt will be made to show what spontaneous medical naturalism involves, including the moral aspect of mental symptoms. The concept of moral from its common use that circles around the social and relational rules that make up the fabric of civilisation. This medical naturalism disqualifies, as an epiphenomenon, this fact: the intentional dimension of psychic facts, but also cases where the intention contained in a state of mind counts as intended, i.e. precisely the case where this state has a moral value. This is how depression is presented, as a moral pain. On the one hand, it is shown how a vision rejects and disavows intentionality in depressive states, rooting depression in a neurobiological state, and on the other, another one that tries to recover this intentionality through evolutionary postulates, but without actually achieving it. It is the ignorance of the moral grammar of depressive expressions and emotions, and of acts, as symbolic facts, that lead to naturalist illusions.

Algunas gotas de lógica en la niebla de las depresiones / Some Drops of Logic in the Fog of Depression

A partir de dos textos de semivulgarización, pero científicamente correctos, que rinden una mirada típica de la percepción académica de los fenómenos depresivos, nos esforzaremos en mostrar lo que implica el naturalismo médico espontáneo, que afecta al aspecto moral de los síntomas mentales, tomando el concepto de moral desde su uso común, alrededor de las reglas sociales y relacionales que componen el entramado de la civilización. Esta naturalización médica descalifica como epifenómeno este hecho: la dimensión intencional de los hechos psíquicos y también los casos en que la intención contenida en un estado mental cuenta como intención, es decir, justamente el caso en que este estado tiene valor moral; así es como se presenta la depresión, como un dolor moral. Por un lado, se muestra cómo una visión desconoce y rechaza esta intencionalidad en los estados depresivos, lo que arraiga la depresión en un estado neurobiológico, y por otro, otra que trata de recuperar esta intencionalidad a través de postulados evolucionistas, pero sin llegar a conseguirlo realmente. Es el desconocimiento de la gramática moral de las expresiones y de las emociones depresivas y de los actos como hechos simbólicos, que hacen desembocar en ilusiones naturalistas.

From two semipopularised, but scientifically correct, texts, that provide a typical look of academic awareness of depressive phenomena, an attempt will be made to show what spontaneous medical naturalism involves, including the moral aspect of mental symptoms. The concept of moral from its common use that circles around the social and relationalrules that make up the fabric of civilisation. This medical naturalism disqualifies, as an epiphenomenon, this fact: the intentional dimension of psychic facts, but also cases where the intention contained in a state of mind counts as intended, i.e. precisely the case where this state has a moral value. This is how depression is presented, as a moral pain. On the one hand, it is shown how a vision rejects and disavows intentionality in depressive states, rooting depression in a neurobiological state, and on the other, another one that tries to recover this intentionality through evolutionary postulates, but without actually achieving it. It is the ignorance of the moral grammar of depressive expressions and emotions, and of acts, as symbolic facts, that lead to naturalist illusions.

Transferencia de funciones sintácticas artificiales entre estímulos relacionados por equivalencia: Un estudio de potenciales cerebrales relacionados con eventos / Transfer of artificial syntax functions among equivalence - related stimuli: An event - related brain potentials study

La formación de clases de equivalencia entre estímulos ha sido propuesta en el campo del Análisis Experimental del Comportamiento como un prerrequisito conductual para el lenguaje. Adicionalmente, existe evidencia de que la transferencia de función entre estímulos equivalentes podría explicar la adquisición de estructuras sintácticas simples. No obstante, la simplicidad de las funciones sintácticas estudiadas no capturó la complejidad combinatoria de la gramática natural. Si la transferencia de funciones en clases de equivalencia es un modelo posible del desarrollo de estructuras gramaticales, debería ser verificado en contextos más válidos para el estudio del lenguaje. Los objetivos del trabajo realizado fueron los siguientes: (1) analizar la transferencia de funciones sintácticas en clases de equivalencia en un contexto válido para el estudio de la adquisición de reglas gramaticales, utilizando para ello el paradigma de gramáticas artificiales y (2) analizar los potenciales cerebrales relacionados con el procesamiento de esta transferencia de función, en secuencias gramaticales y no gramaticales. Se encontró evidencia comportamental de transferencia de función en un subgrupo de los sujetos experimentales. El potencial P600, típicamente asociado al costo de integración sintáctica en contextos lingüísticos, fue observado en estos sujetos ante: violaciones gramaticales con estímulos originales de la gramática artificial y secuencias con estímulos relacionados por equivalencia (gramaticales y no gramaticales). Se interpretó que el procesamiento de las secuencias artificiales implicó mecanismos neurobiológicos similares a los asociados a la sintaxis del lenguaje y que el patrón de actividad P600 observado puede ser explicado por el aumento del costo de integración de los estímulos al contexto previo.

Stimulus equivalence class formation has been proposed as a behavioral prerequisite for language within the field of experimental analysis of behavior. Additionally, there is evidence that transfer of function among equivalent stimuli may explain acquisition of simple syntactic structures. However these experiments analyzed sequence functions that did not capture the complexity and versatility of natural grammar. If transfer of function between stimuli that belong to the same equivalence classes is indeed a useful model for the development of grammatical structures, then we should be able to verify it in a more valid context for the study of language. Artificial grammar learning tasks have been applied to the study of several aspects of language acquisition, from word segmentation to phrase structure and syntax rules. Furthermore, it has been shown that patterns of brain activity during processing of artificial grammars resemble those observed in language syntax processing. In particular, structural violations of language sentences and artificial grammar sequences both activate Broca's area. Therefore, artificial grammars provide a valid paradigm to study the learning of syntactic functions. The main objectives of the current work were: (1) to analyze transfer of function within equivalence classes in a valid context for the study of syntax acquisition, applying the artificial grammar paradigm and (2) to analyze brain potentials related to the transfer of function in grammatical and ungrammatical sequences. Fifteen subjects were trained to form two three-stimulus equivalence classes and then performed an artificial grammar learning task. One stimulus from each equivalence class was included as an item in the artificial grammar categories. During a test stage, subjects were asked to classify new artificial grammar sequences as grammatical or ungrammatical, while their EEG activity was registered. Half of these new sequences were built using the original training items and the other half contained equivalence-related stimulus. Subjects were assigned to two groups according to their performance in this test stage. Those participants whose percentage of correct responses was above 50 % were considered to pass, while those below were assigned to the fail group. We found behavioral evidence of transfer of function in the pass subgroup. These participants were able to correctly discriminate grammatical from un grammatical sequences that were built using original or equivalence-related stimulus. Event-Related potential Analysis of the EEG signal indicated a posteriorly distributed positivity with a topography and time-course similar to the P600 potential. Within linguistic contexts, P600 is interpreted as the neural correlate of prediction and integration costs during syntax processing. It has been proposed that sentence comprehension depends on predictive mechanisms that combine lexical, semantic and syntactic information from linguistic input to anticipate future words. Processing of incoming stimuli is facilitated by pre- activation, allowing rapid integration to previous context. However, when the input does not match predictions, this integration becomes slower and more difficult, requiring additional neural resources. The P600 has been considered and index of increased integration costs, generated by unfulfilled predictions of word category and morphology based on previous context. In the present experiment, the P600 was observed after: grammar violations with the original artificial grammar lexicon and artificial sequences containing equivalence-related stimulus (both grammatical and ungrammatical). Results showed that artificial grammar processing involved neurobiological mechanisms that are similar to those associated in natural grammar processing. We interpreted the observed P600 pattern in terms of an increased stimulus integration cost, both in the case of grammatical and ungrammatical equivalence-related stimulus. Even though we consider that transference of function and equivalence class formations are by themselves insufficient to explain the complexity of natural grammar, we propose that this processes might be relevant to its acquisition and evolution, constituting a behavioral prerequisite for language development.

Transferencia de funciones sintácticas artificiales entre estímulos relacionados por equivalencia: Un estudio de potenciales cerebrales relacionados con eventos / Transfer of artificial syntax functions among equivalence - related stimuli: An event - related brain potentials study

La formación de clases de equivalencia entre estímulos ha sido propuesta en el campo del Análisis Experimental del Comportamiento como un prerrequisito conductual para el lenguaje. Adicionalmente, existe evidencia de que la transferencia de función entre estímulos equivalentes podría explicar la adquisición de estructuras sintácticas simples. No obstante, la simplicidad de las funciones sintácticas estudiadas no capturó la complejidad combinatoria de la gramática natural. Si la transferencia de funciones en clases de equivalencia es un modelo posible del desarrollo de estructuras gramaticales, debería ser verificado en contextos más válidos para el estudio del lenguaje. Los objetivos del trabajo realizado fueron los siguientes: (1) analizar la transferencia de funciones sintácticas en clases de equivalencia en un contexto válido para el estudio de la adquisición de reglas gramaticales, utilizando para ello el paradigma de gramáticas artificiales y (2) analizar los potenciales cerebrales relacionados con el procesamiento de esta transferencia de función, en secuencias gramaticales y no gramaticales. Se encontró evidencia comportamental de transferencia de función en un subgrupo de los sujetos experimentales. El potencial P600, típicamente asociado al costo de integración sintáctica en contextos ling³ísticos, fue observado en estos sujetos ante: violaciones gramaticales con estímulos originales de la gramática artificial y secuencias con estímulos relacionados por equivalencia (gramaticales y no gramaticales). Se interpretó que el procesamiento de las secuencias artificiales implicó mecanismos neurobiológicos similares a los asociados a la sintaxis del lenguaje y que el patrón de actividad P600 observado puede ser explicado por el aumento del costo de integración de los estímulos al contexto previo.(AU)

Stimulus equivalence class formation has been proposed as a behavioral prerequisite for language within the field of experimental analysis of behavior. Additionally, there is evidence that transfer of function among equivalent stimuli may explain acquisition of simple syntactic structures. However these experiments analyzed sequence functions that did not capture the complexity and versatility of natural grammar. If transfer of function between stimuli that belong to the same equivalence classes is indeed a useful model for the development of grammatical structures, then we should be able to verify it in a more valid context for the study of language. Artificial grammar learning tasks have been applied to the study of several aspects of language acquisition, from word segmentation to phrase structure and syntax rules. Furthermore, it has been shown that patterns of brain activity during processing of artificial grammars resemble those observed in language syntax processing. In particular, structural violations of language sentences and artificial grammar sequences both activate Brocas area. Therefore, artificial grammars provide a valid paradigm to study the learning of syntactic functions. The main objectives of the current work were: (1) to analyze transfer of function within equivalence classes in a valid context for the study of syntax acquisition, applying the artificial grammar paradigm and (2) to analyze brain potentials related to the transfer of function in grammatical and ungrammatical sequences. Fifteen subjects were trained to form two three-stimulus equivalence classes and then performed an artificial grammar learning task. One stimulus from each equivalence class was included as an item in the artificial grammar categories. During a test stage, subjects were asked to classify new artificial grammar sequences as grammatical or ungrammatical, while their EEG activity was registered. Half of these new sequences were built using the original training items and the other half contained equivalence-related stimulus. Subjects were assigned to two groups according to their performance in this test stage. Those participants whose percentage of correct responses was above 50 % were considered to pass, while those below were assigned to the fail group. We found behavioral evidence of transfer of function in the pass subgroup. These participants were able to correctly discriminate grammatical from un grammatical sequences that were built using original or equivalence-related stimulus. Event-Related potential Analysis of the EEG signal indicated a posteriorly distributed positivity with a topography and time-course similar to the P600 potential. Within linguistic contexts, P600 is interpreted as the neural correlate of prediction and integration costs during syntax processing. It has been proposed that sentence comprehension depends on predictive mechanisms that combine lexical, semantic and syntactic information from linguistic input to anticipate future words. Processing of incoming stimuli is facilitated by pre- activation, allowing rapid integration to previous context. However, when the input does not match predictions, this integration becomes slower and more difficult, requiring additional neural resources. The P600 has been considered and index of increased integration costs, generated by unfulfilled predictions of word category and morphology based on previous context. In the present experiment, the P600 was observed after: grammar violations with the original artificial grammar lexicon and artificial sequences containing equivalence-related stimulus (both grammatical and ungrammatical). Results showed that artificial grammar processing involved neurobiological mechanisms that are similar to those associated in natural grammar processing. We interpreted the observed P600 pattern in terms of an increased stimulus integration cost, both in the case of grammatical and ungrammatical equivalence-related stimulus. Even though we consider that transference of function and equivalence class formations are by themselves insufficient to explain the complexity of natural grammar, we propose that this processes might be relevant to its acquisition and evolution, constituting a behavioral prerequisite for language development.(AU)

Hey!

Zinacantec Family Homesign (Z) is a new sign language emerging spontaneously over the past three decades in a single family in a remote Mayan Indian village. Three deaf siblings, their Tzotzil-speaking age-mates, and now their children, who have had contact with no other deaf people, represent the first generation of Z signers. I postulate an augmented grammaticalization path, beginning with the adoption of a Tzotzil cospeech holophrastic gesture-meaning "come!"-into Z, and then its apparent stylization as an attention-getting sign, followed by grammatical regimentation and pragmatic generalization as an utterance initial change of speaker or turn marker.

Cuantificación oracional en prospectos de enfermedades cardiovasculares crónicas: implicaciones para la literacidad en salud / Sentence quantification in leaflets of chronic cardiovascular diseases: implications for health literacy

Los prospectos médicos, en cuanto a folletos destinados al paciente, presentan lo que debiese ser información necesaria para el tratamiento del paciente. La información entregada, sin embargo, no siempre se presenta de manera clara y adecuada respecto a la literacidad del destinatario. Esa complejidad puede verse en diversos factores como la gramática, que será el centro de esta investigación, aplicada a folletos de enfermedades cardiovasculares crónicas. OBJETIVO: Observar la complejidad gramatical dentro de un apartado de los prospectos medicamentosos para revisar cuantitativamente las estructuras gramaticales, considerando que una mayor complejidad gramatical implica una mayor dificultad de lectura y comprensión. METODOLOGÍA: Para la investigación se extrae un apartado específico de los prospectos, el cual es común a todos los prospectos analizados. Tras la recolección del corpus y el análisis del mismo, se revisan las oraciones para cada muestra y desde la información recolectada se comienza el trabajo cuantitativo, para, finalmente, extraer resultados y conclusiones. RESULTADOS: Se presenta en los prospectos una alta densidad oracional, lo que implica una gran cantidad de información en una cantidad baja de estructuras, lo que tiene implicancias en la legibilidad y comprensión de los medicamentos. CONCLUSIONES: La alta cantidad de oraciones implica una baja legibilidad y una baja comprensión, lo que significa una baja aprehensión de la información por parte de los destinatarios más aún en casos como el deterioro psicoorgánico, lo que repercute en la literacidad en salud de los destinatarios.

Leaflets, as text destined to medical patients, show the information that should be necessary for the right treatment of the patients. The information given, otherwise, is not always displayed clearly and appropriate respecting the literacy of the receiver. That complexity could be seen in diferent factors as grammar, and this point will be the main objective of this investigation, applied to chronic cardiovascular diseases leaflets. OBJECTIVE: Leaflets, as text destined to medical patients, shows the information that should be necessary for the right treatment of the patients. The information given, otherwise, is not always displayed clearly and appropriate respecting the literacy of the receiver. That complexity could be seen in diferent factors as grammar, and this point will be the main objective of this investigation, applied to chronic cardiovascular diseases leaflets. METHODS: To this investigation, a section of the leaflets is extracted, common to every leaflet analyzed. After recollection of the corpus and his analysis, the sentences from every samples are reviewed and from the collected information the quantitative work starts, to, finally, extract the results and conclusions. RESULTS: Sentence high density is presented in the leaflets, which involves a lot of information in a small amount of structures, which have implications for readability and understanding of medicines. CONCLUSIONS: The high number of sentences implies a low readability and low understanding, which means a low seizure of information by recipients, especially in cases like the psycho-organic deterioration, which affects the health literacy of recipients.

Cómo se representa la información fonológica en el cerebro: una explicación en términos de las redes relacionales / Representation of phonological information in the brain: a n explanation in terms of relational networks

Gracias a la afasiología y a la neuroanatomía sabemos que hay dos sistemas fonológicos: la percepción fonológica (en el área de Wernicke) y la producción fonológica (en el área de Broca). Por otro lado, gracias a la lingüística sabemos que el sistema léxico-gramatical conecta los significados con la fonología. A partir de todo esto se espera mostrar que las redes relacionales permiten representar cómo se conectan los dos sistemas fonológicos, el léxico-gramatical y el semántico.

Thanks to aphasiology and neuroanatomy, it is known that there are two phonological systems: phonological perception (in Wernicke´s area) and phonological production (in Broca’s area). On the other hand, thanks to Linguistics, we know that the lexicogrammatical system connects meanings with phonology. On this basis, this report aims at showing the way in which relational networks allow us to represent how the two phonological systems, lexico-grammatical and semantics, are connected.

An ERP study of structural anomalies in native and semantic free artificial grammar: evidence for shared processing mechanisms.

Artificial grammars have been widely applied to the study of sequential learning in language, but few studies have directly compared the neural correlates of artificial and native grammar processing. In this study, we examined Event Related Potentials (ERPs) elicited by structural anomalies in semantic-free artificial grammar sequences and sentences in the subjects' native language (Spanish). Although ERPs differed during early stages, we observed similar posterior negativities (N400) and P600 effects in a late stage. We interpret these results as evidence of at least partially shared neural mechanisms for processing of language and artificial grammars. We suggest that in both the natural and artificial grammars, the N400 and P600 components we observed can be explained as the result of unfulfilled predictions about incoming stimuli.