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Progressive word-finding difficulty is a primary cognitive complaint among healthy older adults and a symptom of pathological aging. Classic measures of visual confrontation naming, however, show c...

The aim of this study was to establish the reproducibility of tongue strength measurements in healthy women and men during maximum anterior isometric pressure (MAIP) and regular effort saliva swallows (RESS). In this cross-sectional study, 30 healthy young adults were required to push with the tip of the tongue on a piezo-resistive sensor glued to the hard palate, immediately above the central incisor line. Tongue pressures exerted on the sensor during MAIP and spontaneous RESS were recorded. Participants underwent a retest procedure within the same session to verify the reproducibility of measurements, as determined by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM), and minimum detectable change (MDC). Complete data were obtained from 30 subjects (15 women, 15 men; mean age 31.4 ± 7.8 years; mean weight 61.3 ± 9.4 kg). Compared to women, men showed a trend for generating larger MAIP (p = 0.06; d = 0.71) and RESS (p = 0.07; d = 0.69). After normalizing to body weight, height, and body mass index (BMI), such trends disappeared. At retest, MAIP and RESS proved stable and highly reliable (all ICCs ≥ 0.93) in men and women but associated to moderate variability as for SEM and MDC, with MAIP estimates associated to smaller SEM and MDC (SEM ranging 7.4-14.2%; MDC 18.6-20.9%) than RESS (SEM ranging 20.4-38.5%; MDC 52.5-55.6%). Piezo-resistive pressure sensors allow clinicians and researchers to perform reproducible measurements of tongue muscle performance. However, if therapeutic interventions are administered, measurement variability in tongue performance should be considered when appraising their clinical efficacy, especially for those populations who display impaired performance and may not be capable to generate high and stable forces. No gender-based differences emerged in the motor tasks tested.

This article investigates Chinese social eating livestreams (chibo) in the context of China’s 2020 campaign against food waste. It argues that the subgenre ‘big stomach kings’, a target of the campaign, evinces the moral implications of Chinese affluence, of which food waste is exemplary. The emerging affluence in China has normalized conspicuous, wasteful consumption and given rise to a local form of flaunting wealth called ‘xuanfu’. Chinese social media are inundated with xuanfu images, a symptom of the necessary psychosocial adaptation to affluence. Isolating the ‘big stomach kings’ livestreams from the social context of xuanfu, the anti-waste campaign glosses over the underlying social issue of the vast wealth gap between the affluent and the poor. To expose the ethical controversy of these livestreams, the article also analyzes their gender politics by parsing the mystifying image of female ‘big stomach kings’, whose slim bodies are in stark contrast to their enormous appetites.

The article analyses the questions directed by the listeners of Radio Wrocław to the persons running the programme Na końcu języka — On the tip of the tongue (until 2016 entitled Język polski — Polish language). The author, who answers the questions that trouble the listeners, collected them and analysed them. The aim of this paper is to present the questions asked by the listeners of Radio Wrocław, grouping them according to the language subsystems and trying to address the question of motivation of the individuals asking them. The material is consisted of questions asked over the last few years, out of which the most interesting or characteristic ones were selected. The results of the analysis show that the main difficulty for those asking the questions is morphology and semantics, but rarely syntax. The author presents the probable causes of linguistic problems of the listeners in the conclusions.

The article studies the functioning of the verbal hesitation marker ni / nei ‘whatchamacallit’ in Bashkir spontaneous speech. Goals. The research aims to analyze and identify the main functions of the investigated hesitation marker in the process of organizing spontaneous discourse. Materials and Methods. The study explores dialectal materials included in the text database of the dialectological cluster within the Digital Corpus (lit. ‘Machine Fund’) of the Bashkir Language (https://mfbl2.ru). The total of the studied materials is 209 dialectal texts. The database contains 718 tokens of the investigated hesitation marker. The selection of examples for analysis was carried out through the method of continuous sampling. The employed research methods are those of discourse and contextual analysis, as well as the statistical method. Results. Asemantization of the basic meaning of the interrogative pronoun in spontaneous speech results in the emergence of a pragmatic meaning, and the lexeme begins to function as a filler for hesitational pauses. The multifunctionality of this hesitation marker is confirmed by numerous examples of its use. In spontaneous speech, the verbal hesitation marker performs the hesitative (fills in pauses in speech production), discursive (as a means to organize speech) and search (temporary substitutions in search for a speech unit corresponding to the original intention) functions. The uniqueness of this hesitation marker is that in spontaneous speech it can replace any notional word that one has ‘on the tip of the tongue’ and, thus, help avoid the occurrence of long pauses or interruptions in utterances. The analysis of materials reveals the main methods of correcting problem areas in speech production. Being a characteristic attribute of spontaneous speech, the lexemes can also be stylistically used in fiction works as instruments to reveal the author’s intention — depicting a psychological portrait of the character through the latter’s speech features.

Objective: Aim of the study was to study in parallel changes in electrogustometric thresholds (EGM), in morphology and density of the fungiform papillae (fPap) and in vessels’ shape and density at the tip of the human tongue of patients receiving Captopril. Material and Methods: In 18 female subjects receiving Captopril (50mg, once per day) as Monotherapy against Hypertension EGM thresholds at the chorda tympani, at the soft palate were recorded bilaterally. Morphology and density of the fungiform papillae (fPap) and blood vessels’ density and morphology at the tip of the tongue were examined using contact endoscopy (CE). As control-group 18 healthy non-smokers female subjects of the same age group were also examined. Results: The evaluation of subjects treated with Captopril showed a higher EGM-thresholds as the subjects of the control-group. The difference between the density of patients’ fPap and that of the control-group was statistically significant. It is obvious that Captopril affects the shape and the vascularization of fPap. Captopril can affect seriously taste acuity. Conclusion: The present study provides data concerning the simultaneous changes in both EGM-Thresholds and shape and vascularization of fPap. The use of captopril seems to have a negative effect on them. Keywords: Captopril, contact endoscopy, electrogustometry, fungiform papillae, vascularization

Tip of the tongue (ToT) is experienced by BIPA students when speaking Indonesian due to delayed lexical access. This study aims to describe two focuses, namely: (1) the characteristics of the target vocabulary and the ToT vocabulary and (2) the mental processes when the ToT occurs. The theory used in this research is lexical retrieval in morphosemantics. This research method is descriptive qualitative. Data collection was carried out by observation and interview techniques during the learning process of BIPA Muhammadiyah Malang University. The results showed that ToT occurred in nouns (42%), verbs (24%), adjectives (21%), conjunctions (8%), and numeralia (5%). Tip of the tongue is accompanied by a lot of silence as a fallacy effect that appears in the speech. Gestur becomes a description of the meaning features of the target vocabulary. The mental process of ToT occurs in several events, namely (1) the speaker has a picture of the object in his mind, (2) the activation of the semantic set when the active vocabulary has a relation with the meaning of the target vocabulary, (3) activation of the meaning field when the speaker describes it, (4) activation of the phonological set when the similar sound vocabulary appears in the mind, and (5) the appearance of the first language and / or intermediate language.

Des avantages et désavantages cognitifs existeraient chez l’enfant bilingue par rapport à son homologue unilingue, dû à l’activation constante des deux langues chez le bilingue et à son traitement langagier plus complexe. Cette surcharge de traitement affecterait d’ailleurs l’accès lexical des bilingues, qui auraient davantage de « mots sur le bout de la langue ». Puisque le discours pourrait être une mesure d’évaluation moins biaisée que les tests de vocabulaire normés et qui permettrait de saisir les compétences fondamentales lexicales des enfants, le Test of Word Finding in Discourse (TWFD ; German, 1991) a été utilisé afin d’évaluer l’incidence des manifestations des difficultés d’accès lexical (DAL ; répétition, révision, mot vide, commentaire métalinguistique ou métacognitif, substitution, pause ou interjection) dans trois situations discursives (2 narratives, 1 explicative) de 30 enfants québécois entre 7;1 et 10;8 ans (15 unilingues francophones et 15 bilingues simultanés français–anglais, dominants en français. L’alternance codique (code-switching), pertinente par la présence de la population bilingue, a aussi été étudiée. Aucune différence n’a été obtenue entre les enfants unilingues et bilingues pour l’incidence des manifestations des DAL. Davantage de mots vides et de révisions ont par ailleurs été obtenus dans le discours explicatif alors que le taux de pauses était plus élevé dans le discours narratif et ce, pour tous les enfants. L’évaluation de la productivité de langage a montré une différence entre les enfants bilingues et unilingues, où ces derniers ont obtenus des moyennes supérieures pour le nombre d’énoncés total, le nombre de mots total et le nombre de mots différents. Aussi, la longueur moyenne de l’énoncé était en moyenne plus longue, pour tous les enfants, dans le discours explicatif que dans la narration. Enfin, les manifestations du MBL en discours seraient une mesure sensible d’évaluation des enfants typiques bilingues, puisque leurs résultats de production ne diffèrent pas de ceux des unilingues typiques, ce qui pourrait éviter de les surdiagnostiquer avec un trouble de langage., Cognitive advantages and disadvantages seem to exist in the bilingual child compared to his unilingual counterpart, due to the constant activation of the two languages in the bilingual and to his subsequent more complex language processing. This processing overload seems to affect the lexical access of bilinguals, who would have more words on the “tip of their tongue". Since discourse could be a less biased assessment measure than standardized vocabulary tests and would capture children's basic lexical skills, the Test of Word Finding in Discourse (TWFD ; German, 1991) was used to assess the presence of word-finding difficulties (WFD ; repetition, revision, empty word, metalinguistic or metacognitive comment, substitution, pause or interjection) in three discourse situations (2 narrative, 1 expository) of 30 Quebec children between 7;1 and 10;8 years old (15 unilingual francophones and 15 French-English bilinguals (French dominant)). Code-switching, relevant to the presence of the bilingual population, was also studied. No difference was found between monolingual and bilingual children in the WFD measure for the incidence of WFD. More empty words and revisions were obtained in the expository speech for all children, while the rate of pauses was higher in the narrative speech. The assessment of language productivity showed a difference between bilingual and monolingual children, where the latter obtained higher averages for the total number of utterances, the total number of words and the number of different words. Also, the mean length of utterances was longer in the expository discourse than in the narrative, regardless of languages spoken by the children. Finally, WFD manifestations in discourse could be a sensitive measure of assessment for typical bilingual children, since their production scores did not differ from those of typical monolinguals. This could prevent overidentification of language disorders in this population.

Subjects with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) have altered sensitivity and pain thresholds for thermal stimuli compared to a control group. Fourteen women and 6 men (average age = 62.60 years, median = 63.50) with BMS and a control group were tested using the method of thermal quantitative sensory testing (tQST) (tip, right, and left lateral border of the tongue, left thumb) to determine their heat/cold detection threshold (WDT/CDT) and heat/cold pain threshold (HPT/CPT). Only the CPT values at the tip and both lateral border of the tongue show a statistically significant difference: tip of the tongue: sick = 12.0 ± 5.5 °C, median 14.2°C; healthy = 4.5 ± 2.9 °C; median = 6.4 °C; p = 0.000; right lateral border: sick = 8.55 ± 3.34 °C; healthy = 4.46 ± 1.90 °C; median 5.8 °C; p < 0.001; left lateral border: sick = 10.18 ± 3.94 °C¸ healthy = 4.15 ± 2.18 °C; median = 6.0 °C; p < 0.001. BMS may be a combination of a dysfunction of free nociceptive nerve endings in the peripheral nervous system and impaired pain processing in the central nervous system. This preliminary study provides hints to other causes of BMS. This offers the possibility of further therapeutic options.

Personal names are particularly susceptible to retrieval failures. Studies describing people's spontaneous strategies for resolving such failures have indicated that people frequently search for semantic or contextual information about the target person. However, previous experimental studies have shown that, while providing phonological information may help resolve a name-recall failure, by contrast, providing semantic information is usually not helpful. In the first study, in order to reduce a bias present in previous studies of spontaneous strategies, explicit instructions were given to participants, specifying that the focus of the study was on a voluntary search for information. Participants reported strategically searching for semantic/contextual strategies when they tried to resolve a name-retrieval failure more often than they reported searching for phonological/orthographic information. In addition, phonological/orthographic strategies were perceived as more difficult than semantic/contextual strategies. In a second experiment, we investigated whether retrieving phonological information by oneself is objectively difficult in a face-naming task: in the event of retrieval failure, participants were instructed to search for phonological information in some trials and for semantic information in other trials. Participants recalled semantic information in 94% of the trials when instructed to search for semantic information. By contrast, when instructed to search for phonological information, participants remained unable to recall any correct piece of phonological information in about 55% of the trials. This result shows that the retrieval of phonological information is objectively difficult. This difficulty could explain why people do not privilege searching for phonology to resolve name-retrieval failures.

Objective Tongue lesions constitute a considerable proportion of the oral lesions. Previous studies on tongue lesions were based on clinical studies. There has been a scarcity of the studies which are based on histopathological examination. This study aimed to determine the prevalence, demographic, and pathologic features of tongue lesions from Thailand. Materials and Methods Biopsy records of the participating institutions were reviewed for lesions on the tongue diagnosed during 1998 to 2017. Demographic data were collected from the biopsy records. Locations were arbitrarily classified as dorsal, lateral, and ventral surfaces, tip of the tongue, and the combination of sites. Lesions of the tongue were classified as reactive/inflammatory, developmental, immune-mediated, cystic, benign, premalignant, malignant, infectious, and miscellaneous categories. Statistical Analysis Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using SPSS version 20.0. Results Of the 44,188 accessioned cases, 2,153 cases (4.87%) were diagnosed from the tongue. The age of the patients ranged from 3 to 93 years with the mean ± standard deviation = 45.26 ± 20.48 years. The female-to-male ratio was 1.49:1. The majority of the tongue lesions were encountered at the lateral border of the tongue (47.66%). Most of the tongue lesions in the present study (53.74%) fell into the reactive/inflammatory category. Irritation fibroma was the most prevalent lesion (18.99%) followed by squamous cell carcinoma (16.91%), and mucus extravasation phenomenon (14.26%), respectively. Conclusions This study offers new perspective into the study of tongue lesions apart from the clinically based studies. It also demonstrates the difference between the pediatric and the elderly patients. This study provides invaluable database for clinicians when formulating the clinical diagnosis of tongue lesions.

Background Reconstruction in tongue cancer to restore the shape and function of the tongue without airway obstruction in the narrow oral cavity is challenging for reconstructive surgeons. Herein, the authors retrospectively analyzed flaps to reveal the factors that affect the functional outcome of tongue reconstruction. Methods Herein, we retrospectively reviewed 30 patients (men, 16; women, 14; mean age, 50.3 years) who underwent the hemi-tongue reconstruction followed by speech therapy between 2009 and 2017. Data about postoperative chemotherapy and radiotherapy were collected. The dimensions (width and length) of the flaps were measured. Speech outcomes were assessed under the conditions of varying distances of the tongue tip from lower incisors when it was protruded, retracted, and elevated. Lateralization was evaluated based on the count of teeth reached by the tip of the tongue from the midline. Results Preoperative chemotherapy and radiotherapy significantly influenced tongue retraction, tongue articulation, and intelligibility (p = 0.006, 0.002, 0.048, respectively). Postoperative chemotherapy did not statistically significantly influence any outcome measure. Contralateralization of the tongue was significantly decreased in the postoperative radiotherapy group (p = 0.029). The length of the flap showed highly negative correlation with articulation and intelligibility (p = 0.009, p< 0.001, respectively). The width of the flap was not correlated with the outcomes. Conclusion We proved that unlike chemotherapy, postoperative radiotherapy influences the functional outcome of tongue reconstruction. The dimensions, particularly the length of the flap, were also important for restoring the reconstructed tongue function.

We investigated whether the previously established effect of mood on episodic memory generalizes to semantic memory and whether mood affects metacognitive judgments associated with the retrieval of semantic information. Sixty-eight participants were induced into a happy or sad mood by viewing and describing IAPS images. Following mood induction, participants saw a total of 200 general knowledge trivia items (50 open-ended and 50 multiple-choice after each of two mood inductions) and were asked to provide a metacognitive judgment about their knowledge for each item before providing a response. A sample trivia item is: Author - - To kill a mockingbird. Results indicate that mood affects the retrieval of semantic information, but only when the participant believes they possess the requested semantic information; furthermore, this effect depends upon the presence of retrieval cues. In addition, we found that mood does not affect the likelihood of different metacognitive judgments associated with the retrieval of semantic information, but that, in some cases, having retrieval cues increases accuracy of these metacognitive judgments. Our results suggest that semantic retrieval processes are minimally susceptible to the influence of affective state but does not preclude the possibility that affective state may influence encoding of semantic information.

Spatial patterns presented on the tongue using electro-tactile sensory substitution devices (SSDs) have been suggested to be recognized better by tracing the pattern with the tip of the tongue. We examined if the functional benefit of tracing is overcoming the poor sensitivity or low spatial resolution at the back of the tongue or alternatively compensating for limited information processing capacity by fixating on a segment of the spatial pattern at a time. Using a commercially available SSD, the BrainPort, we compared letter recognition performance in three presentation modes; tracing, static, and drawing. Stimulation intensity was either constant or increased from the tip to the back of the tongue to partially compensate for the decreasing sensitivity. Recognition was significantly better for tracing, compared to static and drawing conditions. Confusion analyses showed that letters were confused based on their characteristics presented near the tip in static and drawing conditions. The results suggest that recognition performance is limited by the poor spatial resolution at the back of the tongue, and tracing seems to be an effective strategy to overcome this. Compensating for limited information processing capacity or poor sensitivity by drawing or increasing intensity at the back, respectively, does not improve the performance.

The tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state-the feeling of being near accessing an as yet inaccessible word from memory-is associated with cognitive bias. For example, prior work has shown that TOTs are associated with a bias toward inferring positive qualities of the unretrieved information. People are biased during TOTs to indicate that the unretrieved target has a greater likelihood of being positively valenced and to have been associated with a higher value number earlier in the experiment. Additionally, when the TOT is for a pictured person's name, that person is judged to be more likely to be ethical. The present study demonstrates that the TOT positivity bias extends to unrelated concurrent decisions and behavior. In Experiment 1, participants reported a greater inclination to take an unrelated gamble during TOTs than non-TOTs. Experiment 2 demonstrated the concurrent nature of this spillover effect. The TOT bias toward a greater inclination to gamble significantly diminished with a 10-second delay between the time of reporting the TOT state and the time to report the inclination. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that the increased inclination to want to take a gamble during TOTs translated to actual gambling behavior. Participants chose to gamble for points more often during TOTs than non-TOTs.

Ankyloglossia or tongue-tie is the result of a tight and short lingual frenulum which causes difficulty in breast feeding, eating and speech articulation due to limited tongue movement. In this condition, the tip of the tongue cannot be protruded beyond the lower incisor teeth because of a short lingual frenum. In this article, we have reported a 26 year old female patient with tongue-tie who complained of difficult in speech. She underwent frenectomy procedure under local anaesthesis without any complications. This was followed by speech therapy sessions.

Virtual environments are increasingly being used to support team training. However, despite their growing ubiquity, less is known on how task difficulty in such environments mitigates verbal communication patterns. We report on a study investigating this research question, finding that although manipulations of task difficulty did appear to impact broad team level communication measures (e.g. how much they talked), it largely had minimal impact on team communication dynamics (e.g. the flow of communication between various roles in the teams). The implications of this study for the design of future team training environments along with the possibility of artificial agents to support team training as a novel use case are then discussed in turn.

This study presents the results of the training that is part of the doctoral thesis entitled: “Efecto de un entrenamiento lingüístico-cognitivo con lengua extranjera en la frecuencia del fenómeno de la punta de la lengua, las puntuaciones de la memoria de trabajo y en el tiempo requerido para una tarea de velocidad de procesamiento en personas adultas de 40 a 60 años” (Effect of a foreign language cognitive-linguistic training on the frequency of the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, working memory scores and the time required for a processing speed task in adults aged 40 to 60 years) under the direction of Mercedes Suárez de la Torre, and the co-direction of Francia Restrepo de Mejía, research professors at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales, and endorsed by the Bioethics Committee of the same university. In addition, David Facal-Mayo, from the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Spain, was a permanent advisor Adult development throughout a lifetime implies a series of changes in systems, including cognitive and linguistic functioning. The aim of this article is to study the effect of foreign language training on linguistic processing, particularly the frequency of the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon and on other cognitive processes such as processing speed and working memory in adults aged 40 to 60 years. Sixty-six healthy Colombian teachers were enrolled in this study. They were then randomly divided into an experimental group (33 healthy adults who underwent a four-week training period) and a passive control group (33 healthy adults who did not undergo any training). All participants performed induction tasks for the TOT phenomenon, working memory and processing speed before and after the four weeks. Results showed more of an effect in the semantic access, phonological access and processing speed measures with a better performance in the experimental group than in the control group. In Colombia, this type of training is still new and little is known to date about programs to prevent cognitive impairments. The need to conduct more studies confirming or refuting these findings is discussed, thus raising awareness about the extent of this type of training to increase the linguistic and cognitive performance of adults SI

Objective: To evaluate the effect of using the tongue-out position on the quality of the anatomical appearance of the pharynx on computed tomography (CT) images.Methods: The data from enhanced CT thin-section images of the head and neck in 119 cases scanned were retrospectively analyzed. The cases were divided into two groups based on the position of the tip of the tongue on the images: the tongue-out group (63 cases) and non-tongue-out group (56 cases). Two observers separately evaluated the anatomy of the soft palate, uvula, palatine tonsils, epiglottis, epiglottic fossa, pyriform fossa, arytenoid folds, and tongue on all images. The Kappa test was applied to assess the consistency of scores between the two observers. In the case of data that satisfied the normal distribution, the significance of the difference in the average scores between the two groups was tested using an independent samples t-test with a value of p > 0.05. In the case of data that did not satisfy the normal distribution, the Mann–Whitney U test was adopted to test the significance of the difference in the average scores between the two groups using a value of p < 0.05. The number of cases with swallowing artifacts on the CT images in both groups was statistically analyzed and the chi-square test was used to determine whether the difference in the incidence of artifacts between the two groups was significant.Results: The Kappa test showed good consistency between the two observers scoring of the soft palate, uvula, epiglottis, epiglottic fossa, pyriform fossa, aryepiglottic folds, and tongue. The image scores of the soft palate, uvula, epiglottis, epiglottic fossa, and tongue in the tongue-out group vs. the non-tongue-out group did not satisfy the normal distribution. The Mann–Whitney U test showed that the differences in the image scores between the two groups were statistically significant in all cases (p < 0.05). The incidence of swallowing artifacts in the tongue-out group and the non-tongue-out group was 15 and 32%, respectively. The result of the chi-square test showed that the difference in the incidence of swallowing artifacts between the two groups was statistically significant (p = 0.037).Conclusion: The tongue-out position facilitated an improvement in the CT appearance of pharyngeal anatomy and was associated with a reduction in the incidence of swallowing artifacts.

Hamangioma is a benign, local malformation of blood vessels and grow along with the same rate as the adjacent tissues, they do not invade underlying structures but may involute over a period of time resulting in fine telangiectasia or scarring. Haemangioma can occur anywhere in the body and also in the oral cavity. In tongue they may get ruptured and result in spontaneous bleeding [1].

Our ability to effectively retrieve complex semantic knowledge meaningfully impacts our daily lives, yet the neural processes that underly successful access and transient failures in access remain only partially understood. In this fMRI study, we contrast activation during successful semantic access, unsuccessful semantic access because of transient access failures (i.e., “tip-of-the-tongue,” “feeling-of-knowing”), and trials where the semantic knowledge was not possessed. Twenty-four human participants (14 female) were presented 240 trivia-based questions relating to person, place, object, or scholastic knowledge domains. Analyses of the recall event indicated a relatively greater role of a dorsomedial section of the prefrontal cortex in unsuccessful semantic access and relatively greater recruitment of the pars orbitalis of the inferior frontal gyrus in successful access. Successful access was also associated with increased activation in knowledge domain-selective areas. Generally, knowledge domain-selective areas showed increased responses for both preferred and nonpreferred stimulus classes. The exception was place-selective regions (parahippocampal gyrus, transverse occipital sulcus, retrosplenial complex), which were recruited during unsuccessful access attempts for all stimulus domains. Collectively, these results suggest that prefrontal semantic control systems and classical spatial knowledge-selective regions work together to locate relevant information and that access to complex knowledge results in a broad activation of semantic representation extending to regions selective for other knowledge domains. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The ability to access the deep factual knowledge we possess has a meaningful influence on our scholastic, professional, and social lives. In this fMRI study, we investigate the neural processes associated with successful access to this knowledge as well as transient failures in semantic access (tip-of-the-tongue/feeling-of-knowing). Participants attempted to answer trivia-style general knowledge questions drawn from four different knowledge domains. Results suggest that prefrontal semantic control systems and classical spatial knowledge-selective regions work to locate relevant information and that access to complex knowledge results in a broad activation of semantic representation extending to regions selective for other knowledge domains.

Though tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states are traditionally viewed as instances of retrieval failure, some suggest that they are a unique form of retrieval success. The state indicates the presence of something relevant in memory as opposed to nothing. TOTs potentially present an opportunity to indicate that more knowledge is present than is currently accessible, which might have relevance for how tests are designed. The present study investigated this. During TOT states, participants were more likely to risk requesting a later multiple-choice set of potential answers when a point loss penalty for wrong answers would occur; they were also more likely to actually choose the correct multiple-choice answer. A test designed for differential point gain or loss through strategic use of TOT states during word generation failure resulted in a point gain advantage compared to standard multiple-choice type testing. This pattern presents a proof of concept relevant to designing adaptive tests.

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states are typically defined as feelings of imminent recall for known, but temporarily inaccessible target words. However, TOTs are not merely instances of retrieval failures. Clues that increase the subjective likelihood of retrieval success, such as cue familiarity and target-related information, also have been shown to elicit feelings of imminent recall, supporting a metacognitive, inferential etiology of the TOT phenomenon. A survey conducted on our university campus provided anecdotal evidence that TOTs are occasionally shared among people in small groups. Although shared TOTs may suggest the influence of social contagion, we hypothesized that metacognitive appraisal of group recall efficiency could be involved. There should be more instances of remembering in several heads than in one. From this, we conjectured that people remembering together entertain the inference that successful retrieval is more likely in group recall than in a single-person recall situation. Such a metacognitive appraisal may drive a stronger feeling of closeness with the target word and of recall imminence, precipitating one (or more people) into a TOT state. We used general knowledge questions to elicit TOTs. We found that participants reported more TOTs when remembering in small groups than participants remembering alone. Critically, the experimental manipulation selectively increased TOTs without affecting correct recall, suggesting that additional TOTs observed in small groups were triggered independently from the retrieval process. Near one third (31%) of the TOTs in small groups were reported by two or more participants for the same items. However, removing common TOTs from the analyses did not change the basic pattern of results, suggesting that social contagion was not the main factor involved in the observed effect. We argue that beyond social contagion, group recall magnifies the inference that target words will be successfully retrieved, prompting the metacognitive monitoring system to launch more near-retrieval success “warning” (TOT) signals than in a single-person recall situation.

Our contemporary world is filled with noise and stimulation. Easy access to video and audio entertainment has led to an enormous outpouring of human creativity, but in that lies a discomfiting sens...

Schwannoma is relatively uncommon, slow-growing benign tumors. It is a benign nerve sheath tumor composed of Schwann cells, which normally produce the insulating myelin sheath covering peripheral nerves. Schwannoma of the head and neck account for 25–40% of all cases. However, intra-oral schwannoma account for only 1% of all head and neck tumors. Here we report a rare tumour of lingual Schwannoma in a 28 year old male patient which presented as a slow growing asymptomatic mass at the tip of the tongue. The mass was excised and the histopathology study of the lesion showed Schwannoma of tongue. Keywords: Schwannoma, Benign, Tongue.

RESUMO O objetivo principal deste estudo é caracterizar a produção de palavras com as sílabas-alvo do tipo CCV e CV em crianças com desenvolvimento fonológico típico e atípico. As hipóteses foram: H1 - a produção de palavras-alvo com sílaba CV e CCV das crianças típicas apresentariam diferentes medidas ultrassonográficas e acústica; H2 - as medidas ultrassonográficas e acústica poderiam diferenciar a condição clínica das crianças; H3 - as crianças com produção atípica poderiam apresentar diferenças nas medidas ultrassonográficas e acústica entre os alvos CCV (sendo o tepe na posição de C2) e CV (CCV julgadas auditivamente como CV). Dez crianças gravaram palavras com as sílabas-alvo CCV e CV. Em seguida, foram feitas análise de oitiva, análise acústica e ultrassonográficas (razões entre ponta e lâmina da língua (PL/LL), ponta e dorso da língua (PL/DL), e a lâmina e dorso da língua (LL/DL)), sendo analisadas pela ANOVA de medidas repetidas. A H1 foi corroborada pelas razões entre PL/LL, PL/DL e LL/DL, indicando que as crianças típicas produzem maior elevação de ponta e lâmina de língua na sílaba-alvo CCV se comparado à sílaba-alvo CV. As H2 e H3 foram parcialmente confirmadas pelas razões entre PL/DL e LL/DL e entre PL/DL e LL/DL, respectivamente. Os resultados sugerem que as crianças com desenvolvimento típico parecem estar em direção da produção-alvo, já que, em CCV, ocorre maior elevação da PL e de duração se comparado à sílaba CV. Para as crianças atípicas, as razões entre a PL/DL mostram que têm elevação de ponta de língua em 18,23% nas sílabas-alvo CCV, enquanto na sílaba-alvo CV é de 13,58%, sugerindo a presença de elevação da PL para produzir o tepe com magnitude reduzida e a não sobreposição dos gestos do alvo CCV, bem como gestos indiferenciados. ABSTRACT The main purpose of this study is to characterize the production of words with the target-syllables CCV and CV types in children with typical and atypical phonological development. The hypotheses were: H1 - the production of target words with CV and CCV syllable of the typical children would present different ultrasound and acoustic measurements; H2 - ultrasound and acoustic measurements could differentiate the clinical condition of the children; H3 - children with atypical production could present differences in ultrasound and acoustic measurements between the CCV targets (being the rhotic in the position of C2) and CV (CCV aurally judged as CV). Ten children recorded words with the target-syllables CCV and CV. Subsequently, perceptive, acoustic, and ultrasound analysis were performed (ratios between tip and blade of the tongue (TT/BT), tip and dorsum of the tongue (TT/DT) and blade and dorsum of the tongue), being analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA. The H1 was corroborated by the ratios between TT/BT, TT/DT and BT/DT, indicating that typical children produce higher elevation of tip and blade of tongue on the CCV target-syllable when compared to the CV target-syllable. The H2 and H3 were partially confirmed by the ratio between TT/DT and BT/DT and between TT/DT and BT/DT, respectively. The results suggest that children with typical development seem to be in the direction of the target production, since, in CCV patterns, a higher elevation of TT and duration occurs when compared to the CV syllable. For atypical children, the ratios between TT/DT show that they have a tip of tongue elevation of 18.23% in the CCV target syllables, while in the CV target syllable it is 13.58%, suggesting the presence of TT elevation to produce the tap sound with reduced magnitude and non-overlapping gestures of the CCV target, as well as undifferentiated gestures.

While current information retrieval systems are effective for known-item retrieval where the searcher provides a precise name or identifier for the item being sought, systems tend to be much less effective for cases where the searcher is unable to express a precise name or identifier. We refer to this as tip of the tongue (TOT) known-item retrieval, named after the cognitive state of not being able to retrieve an item from memory. Using movie search as a case study, we explore the characteristics of questions posed by searchers in TOT states in a community question answering website. We analyze how searchers express their information needs during TOT states in the movie domain. Specifically, what information do searchers remember about the item being sought and how do they convey this information? Our results suggest that searchers use a combination of information about: (1) the content of the item sought, (2) the context in which they previously engaged with the item, and (3) previous attempts to find the item using other resources (e.g., search engines). Additionally, searchers convey information by sometimes expressing uncertainty (i.e., hedging), opinions, emotions, and by performing relative (vs. absolute) comparisons with attributes of the item. As a result of our analysis, we believe that searchers in TOT states may require specialized query understanding methods or document representations. Finally, our preliminary retrieval experiments show the impact of each information type presented in information requests on retrieval performance.

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People frequently gesture when a word is on the tip of their tongue (TOT), yet research is mixed as to whether and why gesture aids lexical retrieval. We tested three accounts: the lexical retrieval hypothesis, which predicts that semantically related gestures facilitate successful lexical retrieval; the cognitive load account, which predicts that matching gestures facilitate lexical retrieval only when retrieval is hard, as in the case of a TOT; and the motor movement account, which predicts that any motor movements should support lexical retrieval. In Experiment 1 (a between-subjects study; N = 90), gesture inhibition, but not neck inhibition, affected TOT resolution but not overall lexical retrieval; participants in the gesture-inhibited condition resolved fewer TOTs than participants who were allowed to gesture. When participants could gesture, they produced more representational gestures during resolved than unresolved TOTs, a pattern not observed for meaningless motor movements (e.g., beats). However, the effect of gesture inhibition on TOT resolution was not uniform; some participants resolved many TOTs, while others struggled. In Experiment 2 (a within-subjects study; N = 34), the effect of gesture inhibition was traced to individual differences in verbal, not spatial short-term memory (STM) span; those with weaker verbal STM resolved fewer TOTs when unable to gesture. This relationship between verbal STM and TOT resolution was not observed when participants were allowed to gesture. Taken together, these results fit the cognitive load account; when lexical retrieval is hard, gesture effectively reduces the cognitive load of TOT resolution for those who find the task especially taxing.

A 6-day-old male newborn was referred due to congenital lesions on the tongue, being otherwise healthy. Clinical examination showed two symmetrical white bands about 1 cm in width and 2 cm in length on the lingual ventral surface, near the frenum, arranged to form an inverted V with the apex towards the tip of the tongue. The lesions were made up of multiple, firm, round, domed …

Tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs) are feelings of impending word retrieval success during a current failure to retrieve a target word. Though much is known and understood about TOT states from decades of research, research on potential psychophysiological correlates of the TOT state is still in its infancy, and existing studies point toward the involvement of neural processes that are associated with enhanced attention, motivation, and information-seeking. In the present study, we demonstrate that, during instances of target retrieval failure, TOT states are associated with greater pupillary dilation (i.e., autonomic arousal) in 91% of our sample. This is the first study to demonstrate a pupillometric correlate of the TOT experience, and this finding provides an important step toward understanding emotional attributes associated with TOT states. Mean pupil dilation also increased such that instances of target identification failure that were unaccompanied by TOT states instances in which TOTs occurred instances of target identification success. It is possible that TOTs reflect an intermediary state between complete target retrieval failure and full target retrieval.

Recent scholarship shows increasing interest in gender, ethnic or national representation within regional and international organizations. In contrast, language as a criterion of representation has rarely been scrutinized. We argue that this constitutes an important oversight for two reasons: (1) language is an important identity marker; and (2) language regimes in international public administrations can uniquely address representativeness relative to both member states and groups of citizens. Our article explores language representation in the Economic Community of West African States, and pursues a twofold objective: first, it extends the applicability of representative bureaucracy theory to the issue of language; and, second, it broadens the scope of representative bureaucracy studies by providing the first study on a prominent West African regional organization. As such, we develop avenues for future research on other regional and international organizations. Points for practitioners The article is of particular relevance for managers in multilingual international and regional organizations. Organizations tend to overlook the role and impact of languages on their functioning, often considering them as a technicality. Taking the example of the Economic Community of West African States, the article argues that linguistic regimes are important for the performance and the legitimacy of the organization in terms of acceptance by both citizens and its member states.