Browsing by Author "Schwartz, Myrna F."

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    Localizing Interference during Naming: Convergent Neuroimaging and Neuropsychological Evidence for the Function of Broca's Area
    (National Academy of Science, 2009) Schnur, Tatiana T.; Schwartz, Myrna F.; Kimberg, Daniel Y.; Hirshorn, Elizabeth; Coslett, H. Branch; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.
    In order to produce a word, the intended word must be selected from a competing set of other words. In other domains where competition affects the selection process, the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) responds to competition among incompatible representations. The aim of this study was to test whether the LIFG is necessary for resolution of competition in word production. Using a novel methodological approach applying the same rigorous analytic methods to neuropsychological data as is done with neuroimaging data, we compared brain activation patterns in normal speakers (using fMRI) with the results of lesion-deficit correlations in aphasic speakers who performed the same word production task designed to elicit competition during lexical selection. The degree of activation of the LIFG in normal speakers and damage to the LIFG in aphasic speakers was associated with performance on the production task. These convergent findings provide strong support for the hypothesis that the region of cortex commonly known as Broca's area (i.e., the posterior LIFG) serves to bias competitive interactions during language production.
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    Temporal characteristics of semantic perseverations induced by blocked-cyclic picture naming
    (Elsevier, 2009-03) Hsiao, Esther Y; Schwartz, Myrna F.; Schnur, Tatiana T; Dell, Gary S
    When unimpaired participants name pictures quickly, they produce many perseverations that bear a semantic relation to the target, especially when the pictures are blocked by category. Evidence suggests that the temporal properties of these "semantic perseverations" may differ from typical lexical perseverations in aphasia. To explore this, we studied semantic perseverations generated by participants with aphasia on a naming task with semantic blocking [Schnur, T. T., Schwartz, M. F., Brecher, A., & Hodgson, C. (2006). Semantic interference during blocked-cyclic naming: Evidence from aphasia. Journal of Memory and Language, 54, 199-227]. The properties of these perseverations were investigated by analyzing how often they occurred at each lag (distance from prior occurrence) and how time (response-stimulus interval) influenced the lag function. Chance data sets were created by reshuffling stimulus-response pairs in a manner that preserved unique features of the blocking design. We found that the semantic blocking manipulation did not eliminate the expected bias for short-lag perseverations (recency bias). However, immediate (lag 1) perseverations were not invariably the most frequent, which hints at a source of inconsistency within and across studies. Importantly, there was not a reliable difference between the lag functions for perseverations generated with a 5 s, compared to 1 s, responsestimulus interval. The combination of recency bias and insensitivity to elapsed time indicates that the perseveratory impetus in a named response does not passively decay with time but rather is diminished by interference from related trials. We offer an incremental learning account of these findings.