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International audience; It has been hypothesised that the human neurocognitive architecture may include a perceptual ratio processing system (RPS) that supports symbolic fraction understanding. In the present study, we aimed to provide further evidence for the existence of the RPS by exploring whether individuals with a range of math skills are indeed perceptually sensitive to non-symbolic ratio magnitudes. We also aimed to test to what extent the RPS may underlie symbolic fraction processing in those individuals. In a match-to-sample task, typical adults, elementary school children, and adults with dyscalculia were asked to match a non-symbolic ratio (i.e., target) to one of two non-symbolic ratios (i.e., the match and distractor). We found that all groups of participants were sensitive to the ratio between the match and the distractor, suggesting a common reliance on the RPS. This ratio sensitivity was also observed in another group of typical adults who had to choose which of two symbolic fractions match a non-symbolic ratio, indicating that the RPS may also contribute to symbolic fraction understanding. However, no ratio dependence was observed when participants had to choose which of two symbolic fractions match another symbolic fraction, suggesting that reliance on the RPS in symbolic fraction processing is limited and may not support exact fraction processing.

Dans le cadre de cette étude expérimentale, nous sommes partis du principe que la différence trouvée par Kidd et Castano (2013) entre l’impact de la lecture d’une fiction populaire vs. littéraire sur la mesure d’empathie correspondait à une réalité. De plus, nous nous sommes intéressés aux résultats de Costa et son équipe selon lesquels la présentation d’un problème dans la langue seconde incite les participants à privilégier des réponses rationnelles ou logiques, bien plus que ne le fait la présentation dans la langue maternelle. Nous présentons ici les résultats de deux expériences que nous avons fait passer à des participants italiens et français. Pour tester nos hypothèses nous avons construit deux versions de la nouvelle de Camus, La femme adultère, l’une qui augmentait l’expression de la subjectivité dans le texte (version subjective), l’autre qui la réduisait (version objective). Nous avons soumis ces deux versions du texte de Camus à différents groupes de participants français et italiens et, après la lecture, nous leur avons demandé de passer une série d’items expérimentaux conçus à partir de la littérature critique. La lecture croisée des résultats de nos deux expériences nous amène à contater que, d’une part, la lecture d’un texte de fiction a un impact sur la mesure de l’empathie et que, d’autre part, le facteur langue maternelle vs. langue seconde a également une importance puisque l’impact de la lecture d’une fiction sur l’empathie n’est manifeste que lorsque le texte est lu dans la langue maternelle., Annali - Sezione Romanza, V. 62 N. 1 (2020): ANNALI - Sezione Romanza

The experimental literature on the pragmatic abilities of bilinguals is rather sparse. The only study investigating adult second language (L2) learners (Slabakova, 2010) found an increase of pragmatic responses in that population relative to monolinguals. The results of studies on early bilingual children are unclear, some finding a significant increase in pragmatic responses in early bilingual children (preschoolers) relative to monolinguals (Siegal et al., 2007), while another (Antoniou and Katsos, 2017), testing school children, does not. We tested adult French L2 learners of English and Spanish (in their two languages) as well as French monolingual controls in Experiment 1 and Italian-Slovenian early bilingual children (in both languages) and Slovenian monolingual controls in Experiment 2. Our results were similar to those of Antoniou and Katsos (2017) in early bilingual children, but different from those of Siegal et al. (2007). We found no pragmatic bias in adult L2 leaners relative to adult monolinguals.

Supplemental material, QJE-STD-19-420.R1-Supplementary_Material for The ratio processing system and its role in fraction understanding: Evidence from a match-to-sample task in children and adults with and without dyscalculia by Parnika Bhatia, Maël Delem, Jessica Léone, Esther Boisin, Anne Cheylus, Marie-Line Gardes and Jérôme Prado in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

In this experimental study, we assumed that the difference found by Kidd andCastano (2013) between the impacts in reading popular fiction vs. literature onmeasuring empathy corresponded to one reality. Moreover, we learnt from Costa andhis team that presenting a problem in a second language stimulates participants torational or logical responses much more than the same presentation in the nativelanguage. We present here the results of two experiments that we submitted toboth Italian and French participants. To test our hypotheses we constructed two versionsof Camus’s short story, The Adulterous Woman, the first one increased the expression ofsubjectivity in the text (subjective version), and the second one reduced it (objectiveversion). We presented these two versions of Camus’s text to different groups of Frenchand Italian participants and, after having read it, we asked them a series of experimentalitems designed from the critical literature reviewed. The reading of the two experiments’results show us that, on the one hand, reading a fictional text has an impact on themeasurement of empathy and that, on the other hand, the mother tongue factor vs.second language factor is very important because the impact of reading fiction onempathy is evident only when the text is read in the mother tongue., Dans le cadre de cette étude expérimentale, nous sommes partis du principe que ladifférence trouvée par Kidd et Castano (2013) entre l’impact de la lecture d’une fictionpopulaire vs. littéraire sur la mesure d’empathie correspondait à une réalité. De plus,nous avons acquis les résultats de Costa et son équipe selon lesquels la présentation d’unproblème dans la langue seconde incite les participants à privilégier des réponsesrationnelles ou logiques, bien plus que ne le fait la présentation dans la languematernelle. Nous présentons ici les résultats de deux expériences que nous avons faitpasser à des participants italiens et français. Pour tester nos hypothèses nous avonsconstruit deux versions de la nouvelle de Camus, La femme adultère, l’une qui augmen-tait l’expression de la subjectivité dans le texte (version subjective), l’autre qui la réduisait(version objective). Nous avons soumis ces deux versions du texte de Camus à dedifférentes groupes de participants français et italiens et, après la lecture, nous avonsdemandé de passer une série d’items expérimentaux conçus à partir de la littératurecritique prise en examen. La lecture croisée des résultats de nos deux expériences nousamène à contater que, d’une part, la lecture d’un texte de fiction a un impact surla mesure de l’empathie et que, d’autre part, le facteur langue maternelle vs. langue seconde a éga-lement une importance puisque l’impact de la lecture d’une fiction sur l’empathie n’estmanifeste que lorsque le texte est lu dans la langue maternelle.

International audience; Do mathematical symbols evoke spatial representations? Although behavioral studies have long demonstrated interactions between space and the processing of Arabic digits, how to interpret these results remains controversial. Here, we tested whether activity in regions supporting spatial processing contributes to the processing of symbols conveying fundamental arithmetic concepts-such as operation signs-even in the absence of associated digits. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that merely perceiving a "+" sign triggers activity in brain regions that support the orienting of spatial attention in adults. Activity in these regions was greater for "+" than for "x" signs, indicating that it is modulated by whether an operator reflects an operation that evokes numerical manipulation (rather than rote memorization). Finally, the degree to which subjects activated a spatial region in response to a "+" sign was correlated with the degree to which subjects benefited from being briefly presented with that sign before having to calculate a single-digit addition problem, an effect termed operator-priming. Therefore, not only are some arithmetic operators linked to spatial intuitions, but such intuitions might also have an important role during arithmetic calculation. More generally, our findings support the view that mathematical symbols inherently evoke spatial representations.

International audience; The experimental literature on the pragmatic abilities of bilinguals is rather sparse. The only study investigating adult second language (L2) learners (Slabakova, 2010) found an increase of pragmatic responses in that population relative to monolinguals. The results of studies on early bilingual children are unclear, some finding a significant increase in pragmatic responses in early bilingual children (preschoolers) relative to monolinguals (Siegal et al., 2007), while another (Antoniou and Katsos, 2017), testing school children, does not. We tested adult French L2 learners of English and Spanish (in their two languages) as well as French monolingual controls in Experiment 1 and Italian-Slovenian early bilingual children (in both languages) and Slovenian monolingual controls in Experiment 2. Our results were similar to those of Antoniou and Katsos (2017) in early bilingual children, but different from those of Siegal et al. (2007) . We found no pragmatic bias in adult L2 leaners relative to adult monolinguals.

Using eye-tracking methodology, the current study investigates how people look at faces in the context of a social hierarchy. The first goal of the study was to characterize how participants distribute their attentional resources to a set of faces displayed on a vertical hierarchical scale including three social ranks (high, middle and low). In the first phase of the experiment, participants had to learn a hierarchy based on performance in competitive games. The participants’ rank, the other players’ rank, and the spatial orientation of the scale (highest social rank at the top of the vertical scale vs. highest social rank at the bottom) were manipulated. The results revealed that participants looked more at other players who occupy the highest than the lowest social rank but did not look more at another player who was ranked higher than lower than themselves when that player was in the middle position. Hence, participants were more sensitive to the highest vs. lowest rank contrast than to the higher vs. lower rank contrast. The results also revealed an influence of spatial orientation of the scale: less visual attention was allocated to the highest-ranking players when they appeared at the bottom than at the top of the spatial scale. The second goal of the study was to investigate how participants explored the face of each player. This was addressed in the second phase of the experiment, in which participants were presented with each player’s face individually. The results did not show any effect of players’ rank but revealed that in some circumstances, participants in the higher-ranking position were less likely to allocate visual resources to other players.

Numéro spécial Abstracts of EPNS 2017 - 12th European Paediatric Neurology Society CongressLyon, France20- 24 June 2017 12th European Paediatric Neurology Society Congress, 20 - 24 June 2017; International audience; Objective: The ARX (Aristaless Related homeoboX) gene encodes a transcription factor which mutations have been associated with syndromes ranging from severe neuronal migration defects such as lissencephaly, to mild or moderate forms of X-linked Intellectual Disability (ID) without apparent brain abnormalities. The most frequent ARX mutation (c.429_452dup24), a duplication of 24 base pairs, constitutes a recognizable clinical syndrome with ARX patients exhibiting ID, without primary motor impairment, but with a very specific upper limb distal motor apraxia associated with a pathognomonic hand-grip. Furthermore, patients also exhibit language impairment and an obvious difficulty to execute oro-lingual praxis. The aim of the present study was to better characterize language abnormalities in ARX c.429_452dup24 patients. Methods: We collected data on 16 French ARX patients, and 16 age- and IQ-matched controls (Fragile X (FraX) patients). Given the similarities between ARX mutated patients and FOXP2-mutated patients, we investigated the molecular relationship between Arx and Foxp2. Results: ARX patients have structural language impairments in both receptive and expressive aspects of language compared to FraX patients: phonetic feature recognition, receptive (ECOSSE test for sentence comprehension) and expressive (TCG-R for sentence production) morphosyntactic skills and oro-lingual dyspraxia (movements of the face, tongue, and lips) were significantly more impaired in ARX patients. FraX patients made words more complex and they were less impaired in their ability to articulate words. On the contrary, language pragmatic analysis showed that ARXdup24 patients had significantly better interactional skills than FraX. patients. Interestingly, we found that although Arx has no effect on Foxp2 expression, Arx was found to activate Foxp1 expression, and that the c.429_452dup24 mutation alters the expression of this gene. Foxp1 is known to heterodimerize with Foxp2 and has been involved in language defects. Conclusion: These data uncover a novel role of ARX in language development, probably through the regulation of Foxp1.

International audience; BackgroundIntellectual Disability (ID) is characterized by deficits in intellectual functions such as reasoning, problem-solving, planning, abstract thinking, judgment, and learning. As new avenues are emerging for treatment of genetically determined ID (such as Down’s syndrome or Fragile X syndrome), it is necessary to identify objective reliable and sensitive outcome measures for use in clinical trials.ObjectiveWe developed a novel visual analogical reasoning paradigm, inspired by the Progressive Raven’s Matrices, but appropriate for Intellectually Disabled patients. This new paradigm assesses reasoning and inhibition abilities in ID patients.MethodsWe performed behavioural analyses for this task (with a reaction time and error rate analysis, Study 1) in 96 healthy controls (adults and typically developed children older than 4) and 41 genetically determined ID patients (Fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome and ARX mutated patients). In order to establish and quantify the cognitive strategies used to solve the task, we also performed an eye-tracking analysis (Study 2).ResultsDown syndrome, ARX and Fragile X patients were significantly slower and made significantly more errors than chronological age-matched healthy controls. The effect of inhibition on error rate was greater than the matrix complexity effect in ID patients, opposite to findings in adult healthy controls. Interestingly, ID patients were more impaired by inhibition than mental age-matched healthy controls, but not by the matrix complexity. Eye-tracking analysis made it possible to identify the strategy used by the participants to solve the task. Adult healthy controls used a matrix-based strategy, whereas ID patients used a response-based strategy. Furthermore, etiologic-specific reasoning differences were evidenced between ID patients groups.ConclusionWe suggest that this paradigm, appropriate for ID patients and developmental populations as well as adult healthy controls, provides an objective and quantitative assessment of visual analogical reasoning and cognitive inhibition, enabling testing for the effect of pharmacological or behavioural intervention in these specific populations.

International audience; There is now general agreement about the optionality of scalar implicatures: the pragmatic interpretation will be accessed depending on the context relative to which the utterance is interpreted. The question, then, is what makes a context upper- (vs. lower-) bounding. Neo-Gricean accounts should predict that contexts including factual information will enhance the rate of pragmatic interpretations. Post-Gricean accounts should predict that contexts including psychological attributions will enhance the rate of pragmatic interpretations. We tested two factors using the quantifier scale : (1) the existence of factual information that facilitates the computation of pragmatic interpretations in the context (here, the cardinality of the domain of quantification) and (2) the fact that the context makes the difference between the semantic and the pragmatic interpretations of the target sentence relevant, involving psychological attributions to the speaker (here a question using all). We did three experiments, all of which suggest that while cardinality information may be necessary to the computation of the pragmatic interpretation, it plays a minor role in triggering it; highlighting the contrast between the pragmatic and the semantic interpretations, while it is not necessary to the computation of the pragmatic interpretation, strongly mandates a pragmatic interpretation. These results favor Sperber and Wilson's (1995) post-Gricean account over Chierchia's (2013) neo-Gricean account. Overall, this suggests that highlighting the relevance of the pragmatic vs. semantic interpretations of the target sentence makes a context upper-bounding. Additionally, the results give a small advantage to the post-Gricean account.

International audience; This article analyzes the organization of the mental lexicon based on neurophysiological data. The neuroscience literature has devoted many studies to the semantic processing of words. However, the research remains specific to certain categories, studied separately, and does not address the lexicon as a system. In order to provide further insight into the neuronal organization of the lexicon, we conducted an EEG-based semantic decision experiment using words from eight categories (four living and four nonliving categories) as the material. A data-analysis method (correspondence analysis or CA) commonly used in computational linguistics was applied to the electrophysiological signals. The results revealed a two-factor structure: an ontological organization separating the living from the nonliving, and an organization with a human referential structured by proximity to the person. A comparison of the ERP-CA and the linguistic-CA data revealed organizational analogies. Lastly, a tomography software (Loreta) was used to estimate the cerebral sources associated with the ERP signals.

International audience; BACKGROUND: The c.429_452dup24 of the ARX gene is a rare genetic anomaly, leading to X-Linked Intellectual Disability without brain malformation. While in certain cases c.429_452dup24 has been associated with specific clinical patterns such as Partington syndrome, the consequence of this mutation has been also often classified as "non-specific Intellectual Disability". The present work aims at a more precise description of the clinical features linked to the c.429_452dup24 mutation. METHODS: We clinically reviewed all affected patients identified in France over a five-year period, i.e. 27 patients from 12 different families. Detailed cognitive, behavioural, and motor evaluation, as well as standardized videotaped assessments of oro-lingual and gestural praxis, were performed. In a sub-group of 13 ARX patients, kinematic and MRI studies were further accomplished to better characterize the motor impairment prevalent in the ARX patients group. To ensure that data were specific to the ARX gene mutation and did not result from low-cognitive functioning per se, a group of 27 age- and IQ-matched Down syndrome patients served as control. RESULTS: Neuropsychological and motor assessment indicated that the c.429_452dup24 mutation constitutes a recognizable clinical syndrome: ARX patients exhibiting Intellectual Disability, without primary motor impairment, but with a very specific upper limb distal motor apraxia associated with a pathognomonic hand-grip. Patients affected with the so-called Partington syndrome, which involves major hand dystonia and orolingual apraxia, exhibit the most severe symptoms of the disorder. The particular "reach and grip" impairment which was observed in all ARX patients, but not in Down syndrome patients, was further characterized by the kinematic data: (i) loss of preference for the index finger when gripping an object, (ii) major impairment of fourth finger deftness, and (iii) a lack of pronation movements. This lack of distal movement coordination exhibited by ARX patients is associated with the loss of independent digital dexterity and is similar to the distortion of individual finger movements and posture observed in Limb Kinetic Apraxia. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the ARX c.429_452dup24 mutation may be a developmental model for Limb Kinetic Apraxia.

National audience; Le gène ARX (Aristaless Related homeobox) code pour un facteur de transcription dont les mutations ont été associées à plus de 10 syndromes différents allant de phénotypes caractérisés par des défauts de migration neuronale sévères tels que la lissencéphalie, à des formes plus modérées de Déficience Intellectuelle liée à l’X sans malformation cérébrale apparente, mais souvent associée à une dystonie ou à une épilepsie. Afin de mieux comprendre l’impact de la mutation la plus fréquente identifiée dans ce gène (c.429_452dup24), une duplication de 24 paires de bases qui conduit à une expansion de polyalanines, nous avons réalisé une étude clinique détaillée de tous les patients ARX identifiés en France sur une période de 5 ans (soit 27 patients issus de 12 familles différentes) (Curie et al., 2014). L’évaluation neuropsychologique et motrice a montré que la mutation c.429_452dup24 constitue un syndrome clinique reconnaissable, associant Déficience Intellectuelle, sans déficit moteur primaire mais avec une apraxie motrice distale des membres supérieurs avec une préhension pathognomonique. Les patients présentent également une atteinte du langage et une difficulté marquée à exécuter les praxies oro-linguales. Afin de mieux caractériser les anomalies du langage présentées par les patients présentant la mutation c.429_452dup24 du gène ARX, nous avons évalué 16 patients ARX français et 16 contrôles appariés en Quotient Intellectuel (QI) et en âge (patients X Fragiles). Nous avons montré que les patients ARX ont un trouble structurel du langage, à la fois dans les aspects réceptifs et expressifs du langage comparés aux patients X fragiles : la reconnaissance des traits phonétiques, les capacités morphosyntaxiques réceptives (test ECOSSE pour la compréhension des phrases) et expressives (TCG-R pour la production de phrases), les praxies oro-linguales étaient plus atteintes chez les patients ARX. Les patients X Fragiles énonçaient des mots plus complexes, et étaient moins gênés dans leur capacité à articuler des mots. Au contraire, l’analyse de la pragmatique du langage a montré que les patients ARX avaient de meilleures capacités interactionnelles que les patients X fragiles. Comme l’atteinte du langage observée chez les patients présentant la mutation c.429_452dup24 du gène ARX était proche de celle constatée chez les patients présentant une mutation du gène FOXP2, nous avons recherché une éventuelle relation entre Arx et Foxp2. Nous avons montré qu’ARX n’a pas d’effet sur l’expression de Foxp2, mais en revanche active l’expression de Foxp1, un homologue qui s’hétérodimérise avec Foxp2 et a été également impliqué dans les troubles du langage. De plus, la mutation c.429_452dup24 d’ARX altère l’expression de Foxp1. En conclusion, ces données révèlent un nouveau rôle d’ARX dans le développement du langage, probablement par le biais de la régulation de Foxp1.

Research in cognitive neuroscience has shown that brain structures serving perceptual, emotional, and motor processes are also recruited during the understanding of language when it refers to emotion, perception, and action. However, the exact linguistic and extralinguistic conditions under which such language-induced activity in modality-specific cortex is triggered are not yet well understood. The purpose of this study is to introduce a simple experimental technique that allows for the online measure of language-induced activity in motor structures of the brain. This technique consists in the use of a grip force sensor that captures subtle grip force variations while participants listen to words and sentences. Since grip force reflects activity in motor brain structures, the continuous monitoring of force fluctuations provides a fine-grained estimation of motor activity across time. In other terms, this method allows for both localization of the source of language-induced activity to motor brain structures and high temporal resolution of the recorded data. To facilitate comparison of the data to be collected with this tool, we present two experiments that describe in detail the technical setup, the nature of the recorded data, and the analyses (including justification about the data filtering and artifact rejection) that we applied. We also discuss how the tool could be used in other domains of behavioral research.

International audience; Research in cognitive neuroscience has shown that brain structures serving perceptual, emotional, and motor processes are also recruited during the understanding of language when it refers to emotion, perception, and action. However, the exact linguistic and extralinguistic conditions under which such language-induced activity in modality-specific cortex is triggered are not yet well understood. The purpose of this study is to introduce a simple experimental technique that allows for the online measure of language-induced activity in motor structures of the brain. This technique consists in the use of a grip force sensor that captures subtle grip force variations while participants listen to words and sentences. Since grip force reflects activity in motor brain structures, the continuous monitoring of force fluctuations provides a fine-grained estimation of motor activity across time. In other terms, this method allows for both localization of the source of language-induced activity to motor brain structures and high temporal resolution of the recorded data. To facilitate comparison of the data to be collected with this tool, we present two experiments that describe in detail the technical setup, the nature of the recorded data, and the analyses (including justification about the data filtering and artifact rejection) that we applied. We also discuss how the tool could be used in other domains of behavioral research.

International audience; This paper investigates the interpretation and processing of simple transitive Catalan sentences with multiple negative expressions experimentally. Our results provide empirical confirmation that Negative Concord (NC) is the preferred and faster interpretation for negative sentences that either omit or contain the overt negative marker no 'not'. However, they also reveal that, in contrast to traditional descriptions of Catalan and independently of particular favoring contexts, a non-negligible amount of Double Negation (DN) readings arises, mainly when the negative marker co-occurs with pre-verbal Negative Concord Items (NCIs), and when these NCIs have a complex DP structure. Our results further suggest that two populations could be distinguished: one for whom the negative marker is optional and leaves the favored NC reading essentially unaffected, and another where the co-presence of no significantly increases DN readings. We account for these findings within a micro-parametric approach that features ambiguous NCIs (non-negative vs. negative) and a possible ambiguous negative marker no (negative vs. expletive) variably available for Catalan speakers. The nuanced empirical NC landscape that our experimental work reveals serves to stress the importance of taking DN readings into consideration for a better understanding of the nature of negative constructions in Catalan and cross-linguistically.

L'invention concerne un dispositif (1) d'évaluation des capacités cognitives, comprenant: - un dispositif d'affichage (3) ; - un dispositif de test (2) configuré pour localiser l'emplacement du dispositif d'affichage fixé par un oeil du patient et effectuer automatiquement la séquence suivante: - l'affichage (3) d'un visuel de test ; - déterminer le nombre de transitions du regard entre une matrice et des propositions de réponse ; - répéter la séquence pour plusieurs visuels de test.

ISBN : 978-2-8399-1580-9.; International audience; A longstanding debate asks whether negative polarity (1a.NPI) and negative concord (1b.NC) involve identical or distinct syntactic/semantic operations. Although French (1a&b) and cross-linguistic equivalents share the same first-order-logic interpretation (2a), disagreements remain as to how it obtains for each. Yet only (1b), ambiguously allows a double negative (DN)(2b). Taking the English paraphrase in (2b) to be likewise ambiguous, May (89) proposed that DN encodes a compositional hierarchical scope relation between its negative quantifiers (3a), while NC involves the formation of a resumptive polyadic negative quantifier (3b). Applied to French, this analysis of NC has long ranging consequences. First, NC is clearly distinguished from NPI, as n-words are cast as negative quantifiers. Second, it puts French (1b) and English (2b) under the same theoretical umbrella, questioning the validity of any NC macro-parameter. Third, how (1b) and (2b) should be distinguished arises anew, particularly if French truly favors NC, but English DN. Indeed, although the analysis elegantly allows both readings for (1b)-(2b) without lexical ambiguity, it remains surprisingly vague as to which factors favors NC over DN. Processing costs, intonation, quantifier parallelism, structural complexity, clause boundedness and discourse have all been suggested to influence DN or NC, but in effect, little is known as to how speakers resolve such ambiguities in a single language. The paper explores this question experimentally. Ambiguous sentences like (1b) were paired with two scenes, each representing one reading. Subjects were asked to read them aloud and pick the one that representing its meaning. Sound production and choice time through mouse tracking were recorded. Quantifier parallelism, structural complexity and syntactic position were manipulated to probe their effects on interpretation. The design produces experimental data on the effects of quantificational parallelism, structural complexity, syntactic position, and processing time for NC vs. DN and intonation. On a resumptive quantification analysis of NC, theoretical predictions are as follows: A) parallel simple Pro-Pro structures should produce stronger NC preference than more complex NP-NP ones; non-parallel structures should favor DN. B) DN readings should lead lengthened choice time vs NC C) NC and DN preference should manifest characteristically distinct intonation contours. The paper reports on the first results of this experiment. (1)a. Personne ne fait quoique ce soit. b. Personne ne fait rien. (2)a ¬∃x ∃y do(x,y) ‘No one does anything’. b.¬∃x,¬∃y do(x,y) ‘No one does nothing’. (3)a.(NOx (NOy do(x,y))) b.NO do(x,y)

International audience

International audience; Many neurocognitive studies on the role of motor structures in action-language processing have implicitly adopted a "dictionary-like" framework within which lexical meaning is constructed on the basis of an invariant set of semantic features. The debate has thus been centered on the question of whether motor activation is an integral part of the lexical semantics (embodied theories) or the result of a post-lexical construction of a situation model (disembodied theories). However, research in psycholinguistics show that lexical semantic processing and context-dependent meaning construction are narrowly integrated. An understanding of the role of motor structures in action-language processing might thus be better achieved by focusing on the linguistic contexts under which such structures are recruited. Here, we therefore analyzed online modulations of grip force while subjects listened to target words embedded in different linguistic contexts. When the target word was a hand action verb and when the sentence focused on that action (John signs the contract) an early increase of grip force was observed. No comparable increase was detected when the same word occurred in a context that shifted the focus toward the agent's mental state (John wants to sign the contract). There mere presence of an action word is thus not sufficient to trigger motor activation. Moreover, when the linguistic context set up a strong expectation for a hand action, a grip force increase was observed even when the tested word was a pseudo-verb. The presence of a known action word is thus not required to trigger motor activation. Importantly, however, the same linguistic contexts that sufficed to trigger motor activation with pseudo-verbs failed to trigger motor activation when the target words were verbs with no motor action reference. Context is thus not by itself sufficient to supersede an "incompatible" word meaning. We argue that motor structure activation is part of a dynamic process that integrates the lexical meaning potential of a term and the context in the online construction of a situation model, which is a crucial process for fluent and efficient online language comprehension.

International audience; Successful non-verbal social interaction between human beings requires dynamic and efficient encoding of others' gestures. Our study aimed at identifying neural markers of social interaction and goal variations in a non-verbal task. For this, we recorded simultaneously the electroencephalogram from two participants (dual-EEG), an actor and an observer, and their arm/hand kinematics in a real face-to-face paradigm. The observer watched "biological actions" performed by the human actor and "non-biological actions" performed by a robot. All actions occurred within an interactive or non-interactive context depending on whether the observer had to perform a complementary action or not (e.g., the actor presents a saucer and the observer either places the corresponding cup or does nothing). We analysed the EEG signals of both participants (i.e., beta (~20 Hz) oscillations as an index of cortical motor activity and motor related potentials (MRPs)). We identified markers of social interactions by synchronising EEG to the onset of the actor's movement. Movement kinematics did not differ in the two context conditions and the MRPs of the actor were similar in the two conditions. For the observer, however, an observation-related MRP was measured in all conditions but was more negative in the interactive context over fronto-central electrodes. Moreover, this feature was specific to biological actions. Concurrently, the suppression of beta oscillations was observed in the actor's EEG and the observer's EEG rapidly after the onset of the actor's movement. Critically, this suppression was stronger in the interactive than in the non-interactive context despite the fact that movement kinematics did not differ in the two context conditions. For the observer, this modulation was observed independently of whether the actor was a human or a robot. Our results suggest that acting in a social context induced analogous modulations of motor and sensorimotor regions in observer and actor. Sharing a common goal during an interaction seems thus to evoke a common representation of the global action that includes both actor and observer movements.