The temporal dynamics of bilingual language control.

Bilinguals need to control interference from the nontarget language, to avoid saying words in the wrong language. This study investigates how often bilinguals apply such control in a dual-language mode, when speaking one language after the other when the two languages cannot be used interchangeably: over and over (every time they say a word), or only once (the first time they use a word or language after a language switch). Three groups of Spanish-English bilinguals named pictures first in their dominant, then in their nondominant, and then again in their dominant language; a fourth control group of bilinguals named pictures in their dominant language throughout. The study targeted language control aftereffects on the dominant language after nondominant naming, typically assumed to reflect recovery from previously applied inhibition. If the dominant language is inhibited every time a nondominant word is produced, subsequent dominant-language naming latencies should increase in proportion to the number of pictures previously named in the nondominant language. We found, however, that the number of nondominant picture-naming trials did not affect subsequent naming latencies in the dominant language, despite ample statistical power to detect such effects if they existed. The results suggest that, in a dual-language mode, bilingual (inhibitory) control is applied over a word's translation upon the word's first mention but not over and over with subsequent repetitions. This conclusion holds true equally for inhibitory and non-inhibitory language control mechanisms.

Within-language lexical interference can be resolved in a similar way to between-language interference.

This study asks if monolinguals can resolve lexical interference within a language with mechanisms similar to those used by bilinguals to resolve interference across languages. These mechanisms are known as bilingual language control, are assumed to be at least in part top-down, and are typically studied with cued language mixing, a version of which we use here. Balanced (Experiment 1) and nonbalanced Spanish-English bilinguals (Experiment 2) named pictures in each of their languages. English monolinguals from two different American cities (Experiments 3 and 4) named pictures in English only with either basic-level (e.g., shoe) or subordinate names (e.g., sneaker). All experiments were identically structured and began with blocked naming in each language or name type, followed by trial-level switching between the two languages or name types, followed again by blocked naming. We analyzed switching, mixing and (introduced here) post-mixing costs, dominance effects and repetition benefits. In the bilingual experiments, we found some signs of dominant deprioritization, the behavioral hallmark of bilingual language control: larger costs for dominant- than for nondominant-language names. Crucially, in the monolingual experiments, we also found signs of dominant deprioritization: larger costs for basic-level than for subordinate names. Unexpectedly and only in the monolingual experiments, we also found a complete dominance reversal: Basic-level names (which otherwise behaved as dominant) were produced more slowly overall than subordinate names. Taken together, these results are hard to explain with the bottom-up mechanisms typically assumed for monolingual interference resolution. We thus conclude that top-down mechanisms might (sometimes) be involved in lexical interference resolution not only between languages but also within a language.

The role of working memory for syntactic formulation in language production.

Four picture-description experiments investigated if syntactic formulation in language production can proceed with only minimal working memory involvement. Experiments 1-3 compared the initiation latencies, utterance durations, and errors for syntactically simpler picture descriptions (adjective-noun phrases, e.g., the red book) to those of more complex descriptions (relative clauses, e.g., the book that is red). In Experiment 4, the syntactically more complex descriptions were also lexically more complex (e.g., the book and the car vs. the book). Simpler and more complex descriptions were produced under verbal memory load consisting of 2 or 4 unrelated nouns, or under no load. Across experiments, load actually made production more efficient (as manifested in shorter latencies, shorter durations or both), and sped up the durations of relative clauses more than those of adjective-noun phrases. The only evidence for disproportional disruption of more complex descriptions by load was a greater increase of production errors for these descriptions than for simpler descriptions under load in Experiments 2 and 4. We thus conclude that syntactic formulation in production (for certain constructions or in certain situations) can proceed with minimal working memory involvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Targeting of Influenza Viral Epitopes to Antigen-Presenting Cells by Genetically Engineered Chimeric Molecules in a Humanized NOD SCID Gamma Transfer Model.

Antiviral DNA vaccines are a novel strategy in the vaccine development field, which basically consists of the administration of expression vectors coding viral antigen sequences into the host's cells. Targeting of conserved viral epitopes by antibody fragments specific to activating cell surface co-receptor molecules on antigen-presenting cells could be an alternative approach for inducing protective immunity. It has been shown that FcγRI on human monocytes enhances antigen presentation in vivo. Various DNA constructs, encoding a Single-chain variable antibodies (scFv) from mouse anti-human FcγRI monoclonal antibody, coupled to a sequence encoding a T- and B-cell epitope-containing influenza A virus hemagglutinin inter-subunit peptide were inserted into the eukaryotic expression vector system pTriEx-3 Neo. The constructed chimeric DNA molecules were expressed by transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells and the ability of the engineered proteins to interact with FcγRI-expressing cells was confirmed by flow cytometry. The fusion protein induced a strong signal transduction on human monocytes via FcγRI. The expression vector pTriEx-3 Neo containing the described construct was used as a naked DNA vaccine and introduced directly to experimental humanized NOD SCID gamma mice with or without boosting with the expressed fusion protein. Immunization with the generated DNA chimeric molecules and prime-boost with the expressed recombinant proteins induced significant serum levels of anti-influenza immunoglobulin G antibodies and strong cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity against influenza virus-infected cells in humanized animals.

Do you what I say? People reconstruct the syntax of anomalous utterances.

We frequently experience and successfully process anomalous utterances. Here we examine whether people do this by 'correcting' syntactic anomalies to yield well-formed representations. In two structural priming experiments, participants' syntactic choices in picture description were influenced as strongly by previously comprehended anomalous (missing-verb) prime sentences as by well-formed prime sentences. Our results suggest that comprehenders can reconstruct the constituent structure of anomalous utterances - even when such utterances lack a major structural component such as the verb. These results also imply that structural alignment in dialogue is unaffected if one interlocutor produces anomalous utterances.

Form Overrides Meaning When Bilinguals Monitor for Errors.

Bilinguals rarely produce unintended language switches, which may in part be because switches are detected and corrected by an internal monitor. But are language switches easier or harder to detect than within-language semantic errors? To approximate internal monitoring, bilinguals listened (Experiment 1) or read aloud (Experiment 2) stories, and detected language switches (translation equivalents or semantically unrelated to expected words) and within-language errors (semantically related or unrelated to expected words). Bilinguals detected semantically related within-language errors most slowly and least accurately, language switches more quickly and accurately than within-language errors, and (in Experiment 2), translation equivalents as quickly and accurately as unrelated language switches. These results suggest that internal monitoring of form (which can detect mismatches in language membership) completes earlier than, and is independent of, monitoring of meaning. However, analysis of reading times prior to error detection revealed meaning violations to be more disruptive for processing than language violations.

The relationship between priming and linguistic representations is mediated by processing constraints.

Understanding the nature of linguistic representations undoubtedly will benefit from multiple types of evidence, including structural priming. Here, we argue that successfully gaining linguistic insights from structural priming requires us to better understand (1) the precise mappings between linguistic input and comprehenders' syntactic knowledge; and (2) the role of cognitive faculties such as memory and attention in structural priming.

The effect of anomalous utterances on language production.

Speakers sometimes encounter utterances that have anomalous linguistic features. Are such features registered during comprehension and transferred to speakers' production systems? In two experiments, we explored these questions. In a syntactic-priming paradigm, speakers heard prime sentences with novel or intransitive verbs as part of prepositional-dative or double-object structures (e.g., The chef munded the cup to the burglar or The doctor existed the pirate the balloon). Speakers then described target pictures eliciting the same structures, using the same or different novel or intransitive verbs. Speakers overall described targets with the same structures as the primes (abstract syntactic priming), but more so when the primes and targets had the same novel or intransitive verbs (a lexical boost), an effect that was only observed when the novel words served as the verbs in both the prime and target sentences. Such a lexical boost could only manifest if speakers formed associations between the verbs and structures in the primes during comprehension, and if these associations were then transferred to their production systems. We thus showed that anomalous utterance features are not ignored but persist (at least) in speakers' immediately subsequent production.

Does Bilingual Language Control Decline in Older Age?

We investigated age-related decline of bilingual language control. Thirteen older and 13 younger bilinguals performed a verbal fluency task (completing the same letter and semantic categories in each language and switching languages after every category), and a non-linguistic flanker task. In letter fluency, bilinguals produced fewer correct responses after switching languages, suggesting inhibition of the previously-used language. However, this testing-order effect did not differ between groups and older bilinguals produced few wrong-language intrusions, implying intact ability to apply inhibition in older age. In contrast, age-related deficits in the flanker task were robust, implying dissociations between language control and domain-general executive control. In semantic fluency, there were no testing-order effects but older bilinguals produced more intrusions than younger bilinguals, and more intrusions than in letter fluency. Thus, bilinguals may flexibly modulate the degree of inhibition when they can benefit from semantic priming between languages, but less efficiently so in older age.

Which language declines more? longitudinal versus cross-sectional decline of picture naming in bilinguals with Alzheimer's disease.

In this study, we investigated dual-language decline in non-balanced bilinguals with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) both longitudinally and cross-sectionally. We examined patients' naming accuracy on the Boston Naming Test (BNT: Kaplan et al., 1983) over three testing sessions (longitudinal analysis) and compared their performance to that of matched controls (cross-sectional analysis). We found different longitudinal and cross-sectional patterns of decline: Longitudinally, the non-dominant language seemed to decline more steeply than the dominant language, but, cross-sectionally, differences between patients and controls were larger for the dominant than for the non-dominant language, especially at the initial testing session. This differential pattern of results for cross-sectional versus longitudinal decline was supported by correlations between decline measures and BNT item characteristics. Further studies will be needed to better characterize the nature of linguistic decline in bilinguals with AD; however, these results suggest that representational robustness of individual lexical representations, rather than language membership, might determine the time course of decline for naming in bilinguals with AD.

Built-in adjuvanticity of genetically and protein-engineered chimeric molecules for targeting of influenza A peptide epitopes.

Highly purified, subunit, or synthetic viral antigens are known to be weakly immunogenic and potentate only the antibody, rather than cell-mediated immune responses. An alternative approach for inducing protective immunity with small viral peptides would be the direct targeting of viral epitopes to the immunocompetent cells by DNA vaccines encoding antibody fragments specific to activating cell surface co-receptor molecules. Here, we are exploring as a new genetic vaccine, a DNA chimeric molecule encoding a T and B cell epitope-containing influenza A virus hemagglutinin peptide joined to sequences encoding a single-chain variable fragment antibody fragment specific for the costimulatory B cell complement receptors 1 and 2. This recombinant DNA molecule was inserted into eukaryotic expression vector and used as a naked DNA vaccine in WT and CR1/2 KO mice. The intramuscular administration of the DNA construct resulted in the in vivo expression of an immunogenic chimeric protein, which cross-links cell surface receptors on influenza-specific B cells. The DNA vaccination was followed by prime-boosting with the protein-engineered replica of the DNA construct, thus delivering an activation intracellular signal. Immunization with an expression vector containing the described construct and boosting with the protein chimera induced a strong anti-influenza cytotoxic response, modulation of cytokine profile, and a weak antibody response in Balb/c mice. The same immunization scheme did not result in generation of influenza-specific response in mice lacking the target receptor, underlining the molecular adjuvant effect of receptor targeting.

The cognitive mechanisms underlying perspective taking between conversational partners: evidence from speakers with Alzheimer׳s disease.

Successful communication requires speakers to consider their listeners׳ perspectives. Little is known about how this ability changes in Alzheimer׳s Disease (AD) although such knowledge could reveal the cognitive mechanisms fundamental to perspective-taking ability, and reveal which cognitive deficits are fundamental to communication disorders in AD. Patients with mild to moderate AD and age and education matched controls were tested in a communicative perspective-taking task, and on measures of executive control, general cognitive functioning, and lexical retrieval. Patients׳ ability to perform the perspective-taking task was significantly correlated with performance on measures of general cognitive functioning, visual scanning and construction, response conflict and attention. Measures of lexical retrieval tended not to be correlated with performance on the communication task with one exception: semantic but not letter fluency predicted a derived score of perspective-taking ability. These findings broaden our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying perspective taking, and suggest that impairments in perspective taking in AD occur during utterance planning, and at a relatively early processing stage which involves rapid visual scanning and problem solving, rather than during retrieval of lexical items needed to speak. More broadly, these data reveal executive function and semantic deficits, but not problems with lexical retrieval, as more fundamental to the basis of cognitive changes associated with AD.

The multilingual naming test in Alzheimer's disease: clues to the origin of naming impairments.

The current study explored the picture naming performance of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). First, we evaluated the utility of the multilingual naming test (MINT; Gollan et al., 2011), which was designed to assess naming skills in speakers of multiple languages, for detecting naming impairments in monolingual AD and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). If the MINT were sensitive to linguistic impairment in AD, using it in clinical practice might have advantages over using tests exclusively designed for English monolinguals. We found that the MINT can be used with both monolinguals and bilinguals: A 32-item subset of the MINT is best for distinguishing monolingual patients from controls, while the full MINT is best for assessing degree of bilingualism and language dominance in bilinguals. We then investigated the cognitive mechanisms underlying naming impairment in AD. To this end, we explored which MINT item characteristics best predicted performance differences between monolingual patients and controls. We found that contextual diversity and imageability, but not word frequency (nor words' number of senses), contributed unique variance to explaining naming impairments in AD. These findings suggest a semantic component to the naming impairment in AD (modulated by names' semantic richness and network size).

The comprehension of anomalous sentences: evidence from structural priming.

We report three experiments investigating how people process anomalous sentences, in particular those in which the anomaly is associated with the verb. We contrast two accounts for the processing of such anomalous sentences: a syntactic account, in which the representations constructed for anomalous sentences are similar in nature to the ones constructed for well-formed sentences; and a semantic account, in which the representations constructed for anomalous sentences are erroneous, or altogether missing, and interpretation is achieved on the basis of semantic representations instead. To distinguish between these accounts, we used structural priming. First, we ruled out the possibility that anomaly per se influences the magnitude of the priming effect: Prime sentences with morphologically incorrect verbs produced similarly enhanced priming (lexical boost) to sentences with the same correct verbs (Exp. 1). Second, we found that prime sentences with a novel verb (Exp. 2) or a semantically and syntactically incongruent verb (Exp. 3) produced a priming effect, which was the same as that produced by well-formed sentences. In accord with the syntactic account, we conclude that the syntactic representations of anomalous sentences are similar to those constructed for well-formed sentences. Our results furthermore suggest that lexically-independent syntactic information is robust enough to produce well-formed syntactic representations during processing without requiring aid from lexically-based syntactic information.

High Archaea diversity in Varvara hot spring, Bulgaria.

The phylogeny of the latest recognized domain, Archaea, is still complicated and it is largely based on environmental sequences. A culture independent molecular phylogenetic analysis revealed high Archaea diversity in a terrestrial hot spring, village Varvara, Bulgaria. A total of 35 archaeal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) belonging to three of the classified five Archaea phyla were identified. Most of the sequences were affiliated with the phylum Crenarchaeota (23), grouped in four branches. The rest of the sequences showed highest similarity to the unidentified archaeal clones (9), Euryarchaeota (2), and "Korarchaeota " (1). Eight (23%) of the sequenced 16S rDNAs didn't have known close relatives and represented new and diverse OTUs, four of them forming a new archaeal subgroup without close described sequences or culturable relatives. A sequence affiliated with "Korarchaeota " showed low similarity (90%) to the closest neighbor and both sequences formed unique branch in this phylum. Consequently, the constructed archaeal libraries are characterized by (1) high proportion of OTUs representing uncultivated archaeal phylogroups, (2) the abundance of novel phylotype sequences, (3) the presence of high proportions of Crenarchaeota phylotypes unrelated to cultivated organisms and (4) the presence of a sequence only distantly related to "Korarchaeota " phylum.

When one can write SALTO as noun but not as verb: a grammatical category-specific, modality-specific deficit.

We report the naming performance of a Spanish patient (AQF) suffering from Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). AQF's performance revealed a grammatical category-specific deficit, with poorer performance in verb than in noun naming. Furthermore, this dissociation was only present in written naming. Importantly, the patient's dissociation between nouns and verbs was present also when we studied her performance with homonymous words. We argue that this dissociation is not due to a range of semantic factors but is a true grammatical category-specific deficit located at the lexical level of orthographic processing. Thus, we bring in new evidence in favour of grammatical category representation at a post-semantic level where output modalities are represented separately.

Does bilingualism hamper lexical access in speech production?

In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that bilingualism may cause a linguistic disadvantage in lexical access even for bilinguals' first and dominant language. To this purpose, we conducted a picture naming experiment comparing the performance of monolinguals and highly-proficient, L1-dominant bilinguals. The results revealed that monolinguals name pictures faster than bilinguals, both when bilinguals perform picture naming in their first and dominant language and when they do so in their weaker second language. This is the first time it has been demonstrated that bilinguals show a naming disadvantage in their L1 in comparison to monolingual speakers.

How do highly proficient bilinguals control their lexicalization process? Inhibitory and language-specific selection mechanisms are both functional.

The authors report 4 experiments exploring the language-switching performance of highly proficient bilinguals in a picture-naming task. In Experiment 1, they tested the impact of language similarity and age of 2nd language acquisition on the language-switching performance of highly proficient bilinguals. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 assessed the performance of highly proficient bilinguals in language-switching contexts involving (a) the 2nd language (L2) and the L3 of the bilinguals, (b) the L3 and the L4, and (c) the L1 and a recently learned new language. Highly proficient bilinguals showed symmetrical switching costs regardless of the age at which the L2 was learned and of the similarities of the 2 languages and asymmetrical switching costs when 1 of the languages involved in the switching task was very weak (an L4 or a recently learned language). The theoretical implications of these results for the attentional mechanisms used by highly proficient bilinguals to control their lexicalization process are discussed.