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Impairments in speech and executive functions are both observed in Parkinson's disease (PD) and might be influenced by subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS). We investigated the effects of STN-DBS on speech and executive functions and their mutual interference in PD.14 PD patients eligible for bilateral STN-DBS (PD-DBS), and 16 PD patients with best medical treatment (PD-BMT) were included. Global cognition, executive functions (inhibition and verbal fluency), speech tasks with acoustic measures, and a dual-task (DT) combining a speech task with a Go or Go/NoGo task were performed at baseline and 12 months follow-up. A normative group of matched healthy participants was included at baseline for the evaluation of speech and DT performance.In both patient groups, global cognition mildly decreased after 12 months (p .001). PD-DBS showed decreased inhibition (p = .016) whereas PD-BMT deteriorated in vowel articulation (p = .011). Using the DT paradigm, PD-DBS showed a slowing of speech rate after 12 months (p = .009) in contrast to PD-BMT (p = .203).STN-DBS does not seem to impair speech and global cognition but might affect certain executive functions (notably inhibition). Speech-cognition interference is relatively preserved in PD patients, even though PD-DBS present larger DT cost on speech rate at 12 months post-DBS compared to PD-BMT. An evaluation with a longer follow-up using a larger sample is needed to confirm long-term effects.

Purpose: While the involvement of attention in utterance planning is well established at the conceptual and lexical levels, the attentional demands of postlexical processes are still debated. This study investigates the involvement of attentional resources on motor speech encoding during utterance production in the context of Parkinson's disease (PD), a population allowing to assess if the attentional demands observed in a dual-task paradigm (the dual-task costs [DTCs]) are explained by postlexical difficulties and not solely by executive impairment. Method: Speech production was analyzed in a dual-task paradigm with 30 participants presenting with motor speech disorders due to hypokinetic dysarthria in the context of PD. The dual-task comprised an automatic speech task in which participants recited the days of the week and two nonverbal tasks evaluating processing speed and inhibition. The severity of dysarthria and performance in several executive tests (inhibition, verbal fluency, and cognitive shifting) were used as potential predictors of the DTCs. Results: Individuals with PD exhibited a DTC on the nonverbal tasks and on the speech task when the secondary task was inhibition (the most difficult one). Additionally, the severity of dysarthria and a poorer performance in cognitive shifting predicted a more severe DTC on speech rate. Finally, modulation of the magnitude of the DTCs was observed, depending on the difficulty of the nonverbal secondary task. Conclusion: The results suggest that, in PD, postlexical processes require attentional resources and cognitive shifting is related to dual-task performance in speech. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21265893

Changes in word production occur across the lifespan, with adolescence representing a knot point between children’s and adults’ performance and underlying brain processes. Previous studies on referential word production using picture naming tasks have shown a completely adult-like pattern in 17-year-old adolescents and an intermediate pattern between children and adults in adolescents aged 14–16 years old, suggesting a possible involvement of visuo-conceptual processes in the transition from childhood to adulthood. Given the visual nature of the picture naming task, it is unclear whether changes in visuo-conceptual processes are specifically related to the referential word production or if overall changes in conceptual to lexical processes drive maturation. To answer this question, we turned to an inferential word production task, i.e., naming from auditory definitions, involving different conceptual to lexical processes relative to referential naming. Behavior and electroencephalographic Event-Related Potentials (ERP) in a (visual) referential word production task and an (auditory) inferential word production task were recorded and compared in three groups of adolescents (respectively, aged 10 to 13, 14 to 16, and 17 to 18). Only the youngest group displayed longer production latencies and lower accuracy than the two older groups of adolescents who performed similarly on both tasks. Crucially, ERP waveform analysis and topographic pattern analysis revealed significant intergroup differences on both tasks. Changes across ages are not merely linked to the visual-conceptual processes of a picture naming task but are rather related to lexical-semantic processes involved in word production.

Purpose: The clinical diagnosis of motor speech disorders (MSDs) is mainly based on perceptual approaches. However, studies on perceptual classification of MSDs often indicate low classification accuracy. The aim of this study was to determine in a forced-choice dichotomous decision-making task (a) how accuracy of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in perceptually classifying apraxia of speech (AoS) and dysarthria is impacted by speech task, severity of MSD, and listener's expertise and (b) which perceptual features they use to classify. Method: Speech samples from 29 neurotypical speakers, 14 with hypokinetic dysarthria associated with Parkinson's disease (HD), 10 with poststroke AoS, and six with mixed dysarthria associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (MD-FlSp [combining flaccid and spastic dysarthria]), were classified by 20 expert SLPs and 20 student SLPs. Speech samples were elicited in spontaneous speech, text reading, oral diadochokinetic (DDK) tasks, and a sample concatenating text reading and DDK. For each recorded speech sample, SLPs answered three dichotomic questions following a diagnostic approach, (a) neurotypical versus pathological speaker, (b) AoS versus dysarthria, and (c) MD-FlSp versus HD, and a multiple-choice question on the features their decision was based on. Results: Overall classification accuracy was 72% with good interrater reliability, varying with SLP expertise, speech task, and MSD severity. Correct classification of speech samples was higher for speakers with dysarthria than for AoS and higher for HD than for MD-FlSp. Samples elicited with continuous speech reached the best classification rates. An average number of three perceptual features were used for correct classifications, and their type and combination differed between the three MSDs. Conclusions: The auditory-perceptual classification of MSDs in a diagnostic approach reaches substantial performance only in expert SLPs with continuous speech samples, albeit with lower accuracy for AoS. Specific training associated with objective classification tools seems necessary to improve recognition of neurotypical speech and distinction between AoS and dysarthria.

Vocoid epenthesis within consonant clusters has been claimed to contribute to the diagnosis of apraxia of speech. In clinical practice, the clinicians often doubt about the correct production of clusters as the C-C transition may be minimally disrupted.To demonstrate the value of acoustic analysis in clinical practice as a reliable complement to perceptive judgment.We compared the acoustic signature and the perceptive detection of vocoid epentheses in unvoiced consonant clusters within pseudo-words produced by 40 participants presenting different subtypes of motor speech disorders (including apraxia of speech (AoS) and dysarthria) and matched neurotypical controls.The results indicate that vocoid epenthesis was acoustically visible in 3 out of 10 participants with AoS, and in one out of 30 participants with dysarthria. One-quarter of these vocoid epentheses was not detected via auditory perception by expert listeners (speech and language therapists) who also made false detections.The current results indicate that vocoid epenthesis is not systematic at least in mild AoS. Moreover, an important proportion is misdetected by ear, even by expert clinicians, meaning that visualisation of the acoustic signal can be of precious help.

Background and Purpose: The factors associated with recovery of language domains after stroke remain uncertain. We described recovery of overall-language-ability, auditory comprehension, naming, and functional-communication across participants’ age, sex, and aphasia chronicity in a large, multilingual, international aphasia dataset. Methods: Individual participant data meta-analysis of systematically sourced aphasia datasets described overall-language ability using the Western Aphasia Battery Aphasia-Quotient; auditory comprehension by Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT) Token Test; naming by Boston Naming Test and functional-communication by AAT Spontaneous-Speech Communication subscale. Multivariable analyses regressed absolute score-changes from baseline across language domains onto covariates identified a priori in randomized controlled trials and all study types. Change-from-baseline scores were presented as estimates of means and 95% CIs. Heterogeneity was described using relative variance. Risk of bias was considered at dataset and meta-analysis level. Results: Assessments at baseline (median=43.6 weeks poststroke; interquartile range [4–165.1]) and first-follow-up (median=10 weeks from baseline; interquartile range [3–26]) were available for n=943 on overall-language ability, n=1056 on auditory comprehension, n=791 on naming and n=974 on functional-communication. Younger age ( Conclusions: Earlier intervention for poststroke aphasia was crucial to maximize language recovery across a range of language domains, although recovery continued to be observed to a lesser extent beyond 6 months poststroke.

The use of electroencephalography (EEG) to study overt speech production has increased substantially in the past 15 years and the alignment of evoked potential (ERPs) on the response onset has become an extremely useful method to target “latest” stages of speech production. Yet, response-locked ERPs raise a methodological issue: on which event should the point of alignment be placed? Response-locked ERPs are usually aligned to the vocal (acoustic) onset, although it is well known that articulatory movements may start up to a hundred milliseconds prior to the acoustic onset and that this “articulatory onset to acoustic onset interval” (AAI) depends on the phoneme properties. Given the previously reported difficulties to measure the AAI, the purpose of this study was to determine if the AAI could be reliably detected with EEG-microstates. High-density EEG was recorded during delayed speech production of monosyllabic pseudowords with four different onset consonants. Whereas the acoustic response onsets varied depending on the onset consonant, the response-locked spatiotemporal EEG analysis revealed a clear asynchrony of the same sequence of microstates across onset consonants. A specific microstate, the latest observed in the ERPs locked to the vocal onset, presented longer duration for phonemes with longer acoustic response onsets. Converging evidences seemed to confirm that this microstate may be related to the articulatory onset of motor execution: its scalp topography corresponded to those previously associated with muscle activity and source localization highlighted the involvement of motor areas. Finally, the analyses on the duration of such microstate in single trials further fit with the AAI intervals for specific phonemes reported in previous studies. These results thus suggest that a particular ERP-microstate is a reliable index of articulation onset and of the AAI. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10548-020-00803-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Changes in word production occur across the lifespan. Previous studies have shown electrophysiological, temporal, and functional differences between children and adults accompanying behavioral changes in picture-naming tasks (Laganaro, Tzieropoulos, Fraunfelder, & Zesiger, 2015). Thus, a shift toward adult-like processes in referential word production occurs somewhere between the ages of 13 and 20. Our aim was to investigate when and how children develop adult-like behavior and brain activation in word production. Toward this aim, performance and event-related potentials (ERP) in a referential word production task were recorded and compared for two groups of adolescents (aged 14 to 16 and 17 to 18), children (aged 10 to 13), and young adults (aged 20 to 30). Both groups of adolescents displayed adult-like production latencies, which were longer only for children, while accuracy was lower in the younger adolescents and in children, compared to adults. ERP waveform analysis and topographic pattern analysis revealed significant intergroup differences in key time-windows on stimulus-locked ERPs, both early (150–220 ms)—associated with pre-linguistic processes—and late (280–330 ms)—associated with lexical processes. The results indicate that brain activation underlying referential word production is completely adult-like in 17-year-old adolescents, whereas an intermediate pattern is still observed in adolescents aged 14 to 16 years old, although their production speed, but not their accuracy, is already adult-like.

Stroke 53(3), 956-967 (2022). doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.035216, Published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, Pa.

The lexical or sub-lexical loci of facilitation of word production by phonological cueing/priming are debated. We investigate whether phonological cues facilitate word production at the level of lexical selection by manipulating the size of the cohort of word onsets matching the cue. In the framework of lexical facilitation, a phonological cue corresponding to a small number of words should be more effective than a cue corresponding to a larger cohort. However, a lexical locus can clearly be inferred only if the facilitation effect in picture naming is modulated by a specific grammatical lexical cohort and not by the overall word onset cohort. Twenty-seven healthy participants performed an object/noun (Exp1) and an action/verb (Exp2) naming task with cues corresponding to large/small noun/verb onset cohorts. Results revealed that facilitation was modulated by the lexical onset cohort size of the cue in the target grammatical category. These results favour the lexical hypothesis and further suggest a categorical organization of the lexicon.

Phonetic encoding refers to the mapping of an abstract linguistic code of the utterance into motor programmes which guide speech articulation. The encoding of speech gestures involves complex cogni...

Although speakers can go on producing utterances while doing concurrent tasks, language planning is affected in conditions of divided attention. It is however unclear whether a concurrent task impacts only lexical selection, or if post-lexical processing is also impacted. To elucidate this question, we reasoned that if an encoding process is under attentional control, this should be even more the case when the planning process is disrupted due to brain damage: increased error rates in left-hemisphere damaged participants under dual-task conditions should therefore shed light on which encoding processes need attentional resources. Twelve participants producing either predominantly lexical or phonological errors following left-hemisphere stroke and eleven matched healthy controls underwent a dual-task picture naming paradigm with a concurrent auditory verbal and non-verbal task. The results indicate an impact of active dual-tasks on word production in both controls and aphasic participants, but a magnified effect on errors in aphasic participants with an overall increase of phonological errors under dual-task conditions. These results suggest that post-lexical encoding processes are under attentional demand.

In stroke-induced aphasia, left hemispheric lesions generally disturb the word production network. The left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left middle temporal gyrus (LMTG) are involved in word production, but their respective contribution remains ambiguous. Previous investigations have largely focused on semantic interference to gather information about word production. Here we assessed the sensitivity of twenty-five aphasic speakers with either LIFG or LMTG lesions and matched controls to both semantic facilitation and interference in word production using the picture-word (PWP) and the blocked-cyclic naming (BCNP) paradigms. In the PWP (Exp. 1), semantic facilitation was exaggerated in participants with LIFG damage as compared to age-matched controls. In the BCNP (Exp. 2), repetition priming on production speed was larger in participants with LMTG damage than in controls, without any decrease of semantic errors. In the light of the results in the PWP, the LIFG appears to be a necessary structure to shape semantic facilitation. It might play an important role in properly adjusting the lexical selection threshold within the word production network. The results in the BCNP suggest that the LMTG conveys semantic-to-lexical connections likely involved in repetition priming and in mapping concepts to their correct lexical label. As consequences, participants with LIFG lesions possibly rely more on strategic vs automatic processes to efficiently select lexical entries in semantically competitive contexts, whereas participants with LMTG might exploit residual semantic-to-lexical activation.

International audience; Many studies have described the electrophysiological specificities of print processing in dyslexic readers, mostly using lexical decision tasks. The aim of the present study was twofold: a) to assess for the first time the electrophysiological correlates of print processing in dyslexic adults in the under-investigated context of reading aloud tasks, acknowledged to be especially relevant to investigate phonological processes relatively to lexical decision; and b) to assess whether the electrophysiological specificities described in dyslexic readers in lexical decision correspond to a different neuronal network engaged in print processing. 21 dyslexic university students and matched controls performed a lexical decision task and a reading aloud task on words and pseudowords under EEG recording. In lexical decision, the pattern of results indicates the engagement of similar brain processes between the groups, but with a sub-efficient visual word form processing in dyslexia. In reading aloud, between group differences revealed completely different distributions of the electric field at scalp between the two groups after the N2 time window, suggesting alternative processing strategies in dyslexic readers. Those specificities seem to be related to their core phonological deficits. Crucially, the present results suggest that the nature of electrophysiological divergences in print processing in dyslexic readers vary according to the task: while lexical decision task appears to be well suited to assess divergences in lexical access, reading aloud tasks should also be used in ERP investigation as it allows a better insight into phonological processes and thus be better suited in the framework of the phonological deficit theory of dyslexia.

To respond to the need of objective screening tools for motor speech disorders (MSD), we present the screening version of a speech assessment protocol (MonPaGe-2.0.s), which is based on semi-automated acoustic and perceptual measures on several speech dimensions in French. We validate the screening tool by testing its sensitivity and specificity and comparing its outcome with external standard assessment tools. The data from 80 patients diagnosed with different types of mild to moderate MSD and 62 healthy test controls were assessed against the normative data obtained on 404 neurotypical speakers, with Deviance Scores computed on seven speech dimensions (voice, speech rate, articulation, prosody, pneumophonatory control, diadochokinetic rate, intelligibility) based on acoustic and perceptual measures. A cut-off of the MonPaGe total deviance score (TotDevS) >2 allowed MSD to be diagnosed with specificity of 95% and an overall sensitivity of 83.8% on all patients pulled, reaching 91% when very mildly impaired patients were excluded. A strong correlation was found between the MonPaGe TotDevS and an external composite perceptual score of MSD provided by six experts. The MonPaGe screening protocol has proven its sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing presence and severity of MSD. Further implementations are needed to complement the characterization of impaired dimensions in order to distinguish subtypes of MSD.

There is a general agreement that speaking requires attention at least for conceptual and lexical processes of utterance production. However, conflicting results have been obtained with dual-task paradigms using either repetition tasks or more generally tasks involving limited loading of lexical selection. This study aimed to investigate whether post-lexical processes recruit attentional resources. We used a new dual-task paradigm in a set of experiments where a continuous verbal production task involved either high or low demand on lexical selection processes. Experiment 1 evaluates lexical and post-lexical processes with a semantic verbal fluency task, whereas Experiments 2 and 3 focus on post-lexical processes with a non-propositional speech task. In each experiment, two types of non-verbal secondary tasks were used: processing speed (simple manual reaction times) or inhibition (Go/No-go). In Experiment 1, a dual-task cost was observed on the semantic verbal fluency task and each non-verbal task. In Experiment 2, a dual-task cost appeared on the non-verbal tasks but not on the speech task. The same paradigm was used with older adults (Experiment 3), as increased effort in post-lexical processes has been associated with ageing. For older adults, a dual-task cost was also observed on the non-propositional verbal task when speech was produced with the inhibition non-verbal task. The results suggest an attentional cost on post-lexical processes and strategic effects in the resolution of the dual-task.

The lexical–semantic organization of the mental lexicon is bound to change across the lifespan. Nevertheless, the effects of lexical–semantic factors on word processing are usually based on studies enrolling young adult cohorts. The current study aims to investigate to what extent age‐specific semantic organization predicts performance in referential word production over the lifespan, from school‐age children to older adults. In Study 1, we conducted a free semantic association task with participants from six age‐groups (ranging from 10 to 80 years old) to compute measures that capture age‐specific properties of the mental lexicon across the lifespan. These measures relate to lifespan changes in the Available Richness of the mental lexicon and in the lexical–semantic Network Prototypicality of concrete words. In Study 2, we used the collected data to predict performance in a picture‐naming task on a new group of participants within the same age‐groups as for Study 1. The results show that age‐specific semantic Available Richness and Network Prototypicality affect word production speed while the semantic variables collected only in young adults do not. A richer and more prototypical semantic network across subjects from a given age‐group is associated with faster word production speed. The current results indicate that age‐specific semantic organization is crucial to predict lexical–semantic behaviors across the lifespan. Similarly, these results also provide cues to the understanding of the lexical–semantic properties of the mental lexicon and to lexical selection in referential tasks.

Automatic techniques in the context of motor speech disorders (MSDs) are typically two-class techniques aiming to discriminate between dysarthria and neurotypical speech or between dysarthria and apraxia of speech (AoS). Further, although such techniques are proposed to support the perceptual assessment of clinicians, the automatic and perceptual classification accuracy has never been compared. In this paper, we investigate a three-class automatic technique and a set of handcrafted features for the discrimination of dysarthria, AoS and neurotypical speech. Instead of following the commonly used One-versus-One or One-versus-Rest approaches for multi-class classification, a hierarchical approach is proposed. Further, a perceptual study is conducted where speech and language pathologists are asked to listen to recordings of dysarthria, AoS, and neurotypical speech and decide which class the recordings belong to. The proposed automatic technique is evaluated on the same recordings and the automatic and perceptual classification performance are compared. The presented results show that the hierarchical classification approach yields a higher classification accuracy than baseline One-versus-One and One-versus-Rest approaches. Further, the presented results show that the automatic approach yields a higher classification accuracy than the perceptual assessment of speech and language pathologists, demonstrating the potential advantages of integrating automatic tools in clinical practice., Comment: ICASSP 2021

In everyday conversations, we take advantage of lexical-semantic contexts to facilitate speech production, but at the same time, we also have to reduce interference and inhibit semantic competitors. The blocked cyclic naming paradigm (BCNP) has been used to investigate such context effects. Typical results on production latencies showed semantic facilitation (or no effect) during the first presentation cycle, and interference emerging in subsequent cycles. Even if semantic contexts might be just as facilitative as interfering, previous BCNP studies focused on interference, which was interpreted as reflecting lemma selection and self-monitoring processes. Facilitation in the first cycle was rarely considered/analysed, although it potentially informs on word production to the same extent as interference. Here we contrasted the event-related potential (ERP) signatures of both semantic facilitation and interference in a BCNP. ERPs differed between homogeneous and heterogeneous blocks from about 365 msec post picture onset in the first cycle (facilitation) and in an earlier time-window (270 msec post picture onset) in the third cycle (interference). Three different analyses of the ERPs converge towards distinct processes underlying semantic facilitation and interference (post-lexical vs lexical respectively). The loci of semantic facilitation and interference are interpreted in the context of different theoretical frameworks of language production: the post-lexical locus of semantic facilitation involves interactive phonological-semantic processes and/or self-monitoring, whereas the lexical locus of semantic interference is in line with selection through increased lexical competition.

Background: While the facilitation of word production by phonological cueing is used in clinical practice to evaluate the integrity of the lexical representations in anomia, the mechanisms by which...

International audience; Numerous studies report that poor readers display low performance in naming tasks. However, very few studies have investigated the development of naming skills along with the development of reading fluency and its variability in typically developing children. In this study, we used electro-encephalographic (EEG) recordings acquired during letter and picture naming tasks to investigate how naming skills develop and, possibly, interact with age and reading level variations. Ninety-three children aged 7–12 years named letters and pictures under an EEG recording, and their reading performance was assessed. ERP results on amplitudes show that age and reading level have similar effects on the entire letter naming time-course. By contrast, age and reading level have different effects on the picture naming time-course, with a specific effect of reading level on the N1 time-interval, associated with visuo-conceptual processing and an effect of both age and reading on later time-windows. On the microstate analysis, age remains the only predictor of the variance in global electric field at scalp for both letter and picture naming indicating that reading skill is not related to a modulation of the mental processes underlying naming.

Background: Phonological cuing in spoken picture naming is widely used to improve word production accuracy in aphasic participants and to investigate word planning processes in psycholinguistic experiments with healthy participants. However, different paradigms and different modalities have been used across studies and populations, with some contradictory results.Aims: Here, we investigate whether and how the modality in which a phonological cue is delivered impacts on word production in picture naming tasks using the exact same paradigm with healthy and with aphasic participants.Methods & Procedure: In experiment 1, behavioural and electroencephalographic event-related potential (ERP) responses to auditory, visual and audiovisual cues in a picture naming task were investigated in healthy participants. In experiment 2, the impact of the same cue modalities was studied on errors and latencies in 15 aphasic participants.Outcomes & Results: The modality in which the cue is delivered influenced phonol...

Picture naming tasks are largely used to elicit the production of specific words and sentences in psycholinguistic and neuroimaging research. However, the generation of lexical concepts from a visual input is clearly not the exclusive way speech production is triggered. In inferential speech encoding, the concept is not provided from a visual input, but is elaborated though semantic and/or episodic associations. It is therefore likely that the cognitive operations leading to lexical selection and word encoding are different in inferential and referential expressive language. In particular, in picture naming lexical selection might ensue from a simple association between a perceptual visual representation and a word with minimal semantic processes, whereas richer semantic associations are involved in lexical retrieval in inferential situations. Here we address this hypothesis by analyzing ERP correlates during word production in a referential and an inferential task. The participants produced the same words elicited from pictures or from short written definitions. The two tasks displayed similar electrophysiological patterns only in the time-period preceding the verbal response. In the stimulus-locked ERPs waveform amplitudes and periods of stable global electrophysiological patterns differed across tasks after the P100 component and until 400-500 ms, suggesting the involvement of different, task-specific neural networks. Based on the analysis of the time-windows affected by specific semantic and lexical variables in each task, we conclude that lexical selection is underpinned by a different set of conceptual and brain processes, with semantic processes clearly preceding word retrieval in naming from definition whereas the semantic information is enriched in parallel with word retrieval in picture naming.

Background Awake surgeries for cerebral lesion resection have several limitations including patient fear, discomfort, or pain. This study aimed to determine whether components of language function could be measured under general anesthesia. In this study, the occurrence of mismatch negativity (MMN) was searched in evoked potentials for phonological sounds. Materials and methods Five normal hearing, French native speaker, awake volunteers participated in evaluating the phonological task (4 females and 1 male). Eleven normal-hearing, French native speaker patients (6 left and 5 right hemisphere lesions) participated at the time of their tumor neurosurgery (3 females and 8 males). Repetitions of the standard syllable /pa/ with the insertion of 1 deviant /po/ were presented through earphones. The difference between averaged epochs of standards and deviants syllables determined the MMN. During surgery, total intravenous anesthesia was performed with propofol and synthetic opioid sufentanil. The bispectral index was targeted (40 to 60). Results The MMN was found in all awake volunteers and validated by an N250 component. In the patient group, the electroencephalogram analysis was not possible in 4 of 11 patients because of anesthesia being too deep, burst suppression, or a high level of noise (>40 μV). Significant N250 response was obtained in 5 of 7 (71.4%) patients under general anesthesia. The 2 other patients also showed MMN which did not reach significance. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that phonological processing can be measured during brain surgery under general anesthesia, suggesting that some language processing persists under the condition of unconsciousness. These results encourage further study of language processing under general anesthesia with the goal of making intraoperative neuromonitoring.

As the speech apparatus is also involved in producing non-speech movements, understanding whether speech and non-speech planning are controlled by the same brain mechanisms is central to the comprehension of motor speech planning. A crucial issue is whether a specialized motor planning/control system is dedicated to speech or if the motor planning/control system is shared across oromotor behaviors. We investigated the EEG/ERP spatio-temporal dynamics of the motor planning processes preceding articulation by comparing the production of non-speech gestures matched to monosyllabic words and non-words. To isolate motor from pre-motor planning, we used a delayed production task combined with an articulatory suppression task. Results suggest that the planning processes preceding articulation for non-speech, words and non-words recruit the same neural networks but with different involvement for non-speech and speech. The results support the idea of shared motor planning/control systems for speech and non-speech but with different dynamics for each oromotor behavior.

Several parameters influence the interference effect elicited in a Stroop task, especially contextual information. Contextual effects in the Stroop paradigms are known as the Gratton or Sequential congruency effect (SCE). This research aims at isolating two processes contributing to the SCE in a Stroop paradigm, namely attentional reorientation from the color to the word and vice-versa, as well as inhibition (engagement/disengagement from one trial to the next one). To this end, in Study 1 subprocesses of the SCE were isolated. Specifically, attentional reorientation and inhibition were segregated by submitting young adults to a discrete verbal Stroop task including neutral trials. In Study 2, the same procedure was applied to 124 participants aged from 10 to 80 years old to analyze how interference, SCE, and the aforementioned decomposition of attention and inhibition change across the lifespan. In both studies, the Gratton effect was only partially replicated, while both attentional reorientation and inhibition effects were observed, supporting the idea that these two processes contribute to SCE on top of conflict monitoring and of other processes highlighted in different theories (contingency learning, feature integration, and repetition expectancy). Finally, the classical age-related evolution was replicated in Study 2 on raw interference scores, but no age effect was observed when processing speed was taken into account, nor on the isolated attentional reorientation and inhibition processes, which is in line with the hypothesis of stability of the inhibition processes over age.