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Contains fulltext : 228239.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), About one third of patients with epilepsy have seizures refractory to the medical treatment. Electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) is the gold standard for the identification of "eloquent" areas prior to resection of epileptogenic tissue. However, it is time-consuming and may cause undesired side effects. Broadband gamma activity (55–200 Hz) recorded with extraoperative electrocorticography (ECoG) during cognitive tasks may be an alternative to ESM but until now has not proven of definitive clinical value. Considering their role in cognition, the alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (15–25 Hz) bands could further improve the identification of eloquent cortex. We compared gamma, alpha and beta activity, and their combinations for the identification of eloquent cortical areas defined by ESM. Ten patients with intractable focal epilepsy (age: 35.9 ± 9.1 years, range: 22-48, 8 females, 9 right handed) participated in a delayed-match-to-sample task, where syllable sounds were compared to visually presented letters. We used a generalized linear model (GLM) approach to find the optimal weighting of each band for predicting ESM-defined categories and estimated the diagnostic ability by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Gamma activity increased more in eloquent than in non-eloquent areas, whereas alpha and beta power decreased more in eloquent areas. Diagnostic ability of each band was close to 0.7 for all bands but depended on multiple factors including the time period of the cognitive task, the location of the electrodes and the patient’s degree of attention to the stimulus. We show that diagnostic ability can be increased by 3-5% by combining gamma and alpha and by 7.5-11% when gamma and beta were combined. We then show how ECoG power modulation from cognitive testing can be used to map the probability of eloquence in individual patients and how this probability map can be used in clinical settings to optimize ESM planning. We conclude that

Contains fulltext : 246494.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Predictions of our sensory environment facilitate perception across domains. During speech perception, formal and temporal predictions may be made for phonotactic probability and syllable stress patterns, respectively, contributing to the efficient processing of speech input. The current experiment employed a passive EEG oddball paradigm to probe the neurophysiological processes underlying temporal and formal predictions simultaneously. The component of interest, the mismatch negativity (MMN), is considered a marker for experience-dependent change detection, where its timing and amplitude are indicative of the perceptual system’s sensitivity to presented stimuli. We hypothesized that more predictable stimuli (i.e. high phonotactic probability and first syllable stress) would facilitate change detection, indexed by shorter peak latencies or greater peak amplitudes of the MMN. This hypothesis was confirmed for phonotactic probability: high phonotactic probability deviants elicited an earlier MMN than low phonotactic probability deviants. We do not observe a significant modulation of the MMN to variations in syllable stress. Our findings confirm that speech perception is shaped by formal and temporal predictability. This paradigm may be useful to investigate the contribution of implicit processing of statistical regularities during (a)typical language development.

© 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: Off-site manufacturing (OSM) application in vertically higher and spatially larger projects within Western Australian (WA) commercial sector has demonstrated the potential of benefitting from such a construction technique, but introducing a new methodology to a traditional sector such as commercial sector is not always straightforward. The acceptance of the new methodology, level of awareness of the stakeholders involved and the readiness of the supply chain to deliver, for instance, may influence the success of its implementation. Given the infancy of such methodology in the WA construction industry, this research project aims to analyse factors influencing the implementation of OSM construction method in WA. Design/methodology/approach: Following a thorough literature review, an existing research agenda in OSM was used to inform the direction of this research, i.e. focusing on external macro aspects of the decision making to implement OSM. Three projects in WA were studied, and the data collection was facilitated through archival study and semi-structured interviews with construction practitioners who were the stakeholders of the three projects. Data analysis was conducted through content analysis to draw the findings and conclusion of this research. Findings: The analysis of the studied cases revealed relevant economic/financial, technological and regulatory factors, as well as social factors influencing the implementation of OSM, particularly in WA commercial projects. These findings were then used to develop an overall understanding of the external macro factors influencing decision making in implementing OSM that forms a formal research agenda aimed at enabling successful implementation of OSM in WA construction industry, particularly in its commercial sector. Originality/value: The research findings presented in this paper identified factors that significantly influence the implementation of such alternative techno

The brain's circuitry for perceiving and producing speech may show a notable level of overlap that is crucial for normal development and behavior. The extent to which sensorimotor integration plays a role in speech perception remains highly controversial, however. Methodological constraints related to experimental designs and analysis methods have so far prevented the disentanglement of neural responses to acoustic versus articulatory speech features. Using a passive listening paradigm and multivariate decoding of single-trial fMRI responses to spoken syllables, we investigated brain-based generalization of articulatory features (place and manner of articulation, and voicing) beyond their acoustic (surface) form in adult human listeners. For example, we trained a classifier to discriminate place of articulation within stop syllables (e.g., /pa/ vs /ta/) and tested whether this training generalizes to fricatives (e.g., /fa/ vs /sa/). This novel approach revealed generalization of place and manner of articulation at multiple cortical levels within the dorsal auditory pathway, including auditory, sensorimotor, motor, and somatosensory regions, suggesting the representation of sensorimotor information. Additionally, generalization of voicing included the right anterior superior temporal sulcus associated with the perception of human voices as well as somatosensory regions bilaterally. Our findings highlight the close connection between brain systems for speech perception and production, and in particular, indicate the availability of articulatory codes during passive speech perception. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Sensorimotor integration is central to verbal communication and provides a link between auditory signals of speech perception and motor programs of speech production. It remains highly controversial, however, to what extent the brain's speech perception system actively uses articulatory (motor), in addition to acoustic/phonetic, representations. In this study, we e