Domain-general conflict monitoring predicts neural and behavioral indices of linguistic error processing during reading comprehension.

The ability to detect and respond to linguistic errors is critical for successful reading comprehension, but these skills can vary considerably across readers. In the current study, healthy adults (age 18-35) read short discourse scenarios for comprehension while monitoring for the presence of semantic anomalies. Using a factor analytic approach, we examined if performance in nonlinguistic conflict monitoring tasks (Stroop, AX-CPT) would predict individual differences in neural and behavioral measures of linguistic error processing. Consistent with this hypothesis, domain-general conflict monitoring predicted both readers' end-of-trial acceptability judgments and the amplitude of a late neural response (the P600) evoked by linguistic anomalies. The influence on the P600 was nonlinear, suggesting that online neural responses to linguistic errors are influenced by both the effectiveness and efficiency of domain-general conflict monitoring. These relationships were also highly specific and remained after controlling for variability in working memory capacity and verbal knowledge. Finally, we found that domain-general conflict monitoring also predicted individual variability in measures of reading comprehension, and that this relationship was partially mediated by behavioral measures of linguistic error detection. These findings inform our understanding of the role of domain-general executive functions in reading comprehension, with potential implications for the diagnosis and treatment of language impairments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Antioxidant-Rich Dietary Intervention Improves Cardiometabolic Profiles and Arterial Stiffness in Elderly Koreans with Metabolic Syndrome

Purpose@#Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic metabolic diseases. This study investigated the effect of the antioxidant-rich dietary intervention on oxidative stress, metabolic parameters, and arterial stiffness in elderly Koreans with metabolic syndrome (MetS). @*Materials and Methods@#Thirty-one subjects with MetS were enrolled and randomly divided into dietary intervention group and control group. Subjects in the intervention group received three meal boxes prepared with antioxidant-rich ingredients every day for 4 weeks, and subjects in the control group maintained their usual diets. Anthropometric and various biochemical parameters related to oxidative stress, inflammation, and MetS were assessed. Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and fat measurement using computed tomography were also conducted before and after 4 weeks. @*Results@#There were significant differences in waist circumference, visceral to subcutaneous fat ratio, lipid peroxidation, oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, lipid parameters, advanced glycation end products, and baPWV between before and after the study in the experimental group (all p<0.05). Significant inter-group differences were observed between the experimental and control group in terms of the differences in body mass index, waist circumference, oxygen radical absorbance capacity, protein carboxylation, lipid peroxidation, oxLDL, blood pressure, lipid parameters, and baPWV between before and after the study (all p<0.05). @*Conclusion@#Antioxidant-rich dietary intervention for a 4-week period ameliorated the state of oxidative stress and improved the components of MetS including central obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and arterial stiffness in elderly Koreans with MetS.