Lecturers and Talks

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Day 1: May 21, Monday

Nikolay Novitskiy, Ph. D.

Center for Language and Brain, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

The fundamentals of neural oscillations and EEG. Biological cell is essentially an electrochemical machine. Transmembrane electric potential is present in all living cells. Nervous system has emerged in evolution for coordination of the multicellular organism behavior. Nervous activity is an interplay of transmembrane potential, ion currents and neurotransmitter binding. Neurons are unique among cells in their ability to transmit electric potential across long distances. Brain was originally a middleman between receptor and muscle. Brain neurons in ensembles activate and inhibit each other in cycles that produce oscillations. The electromagnetic fields of neuron ensembles can be recorded from outside the skull as EEG or MEG. E/MEG data can be analyzed in time domain as waveforms or in frequency domain as the activity in different frequency bands.Fourier transform is the best friend of neurophysiologist. Filtering and averaging help to beat noise. The phase of oscillations reveals the synchrony of different brain areas. The sources of temporal and spectral activity can be found within the brain with high-density recordings and modern source localization techniques (with some limitations). Brain-computer interfaces uses EEG and machine learning to tap the power of thought. Device miniaturization and the growth of computational power bring new life to EEG and promise new discoveries.   

Event-related potentials in language research. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are changes in electroencephalogram (EEG) that are caused by the external or internal event. ERPs and their magnetic counterpart EMFs provide the best temporal resolution of all existing whole-brain investigation techniques. ERPs are usually divided into components with characteristic polarity, latency and scalp distribution. ERP components can be characterized as language-specific (N400, P600) and domain-general components (P1, N170, N270, P300, MMN, FFR). The latter can be still instrumental in a number of linguistic tasks. N400 is the most studied language-related component. It was first recorded as a response to semantic violation in a sentence and later was described in a variety of semantic tasks. P600 is sensitive to syntactic violation in sentences. N170 is a visual perceptual component that is sensitive to the linguistic nature of the written stimuli. N270 represents an intermediate stage between perception and recognition. P300 is related to attention and reflects stimulus evaluation and response selection for linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli alike. The mismatch negativity (MMN) manifests pre-attentive sensory memory update and is sensitive the contrast between native and non-native phonemes.The earliest brain counterpart of word comprehension was found at the latency of P1 (30 ms).Frequency-following response (FFR) is a brainstem mirror of the acoustic pitch that is used in the tonal language research. Linguistic stimuli represent a particular challenge to ERP research due to their variability and perceptual complexity. One should carefully design linguistic ERP experiments to avoid contamination from lower-level processing.ERPs can be recorded in parallel with behavioral and other measures.One of the most promising EPR applications is the maturation of linguistic competence.

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Matteo Feurra

National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

Modulation of physiological and behavioral indexes by  cortical transcranial oscillatory potentials.Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) is an emerging technique which allows to modulate endogenous oscillatory activity of a target cortical brain region located under the stimulating electrode in a frequency-specific fashion. Although the exact action mechanisms are still under debate, tACS has been shown to induce the so-called “entrainment-like” phenomenon likewise to increase the oscillatory power of a selected brain region and/or network of regions thereby to enhance both physiological and behavioral indexes. tACS effects are state-dependent and it is an optimal tool to investigate perceptual, motor and cognitive processes with potential outcome in clinical applications.

Day 2: May 22, Tuesday

Tommaso Fedele, Ph. D.

University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Intracranial neurophysiology: from recording setup to data processing. Overview of the technology implemented in intracranial recording, biophysical framework of signal detection, data analysis of EEG signal, single neuron activity, connectivity measures and phase-amplitude coupling.

Single neuron activity in the mesial temporal lobe. Mesial temporal lobe structures are a key node of a large manifold of brain functions. Here we present single unit activity and local field potential in hippocampus and amygdala during working memory and fear processing.

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Vitória Piai, Ph. D.

Donders Centre for Cognition and Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Oscillations in language. Neural oscillations are ubiquitous in the electroencephalogram and are thought to reflect functional connections between and within neural networks. Oscillations have been shown to be relevant for a variety of sensory, motor, and cognitive tasks. For language, in particular, different frequency bands have been postulated to support distinct language functions. These two lectures on "Oscillations and Language" will cover the existing literature on the role of oscillations (in particular the delta, theta, alpha, and beta rhythms) in language comprehension and production. Moreover, I will argue that oscillations may constitute the best measure to understand language in relation to other domains such as memory, motor, and cognitive control. For example, I will discuss alpha-beta oscillations in the lateral cortex with respect to memory and motor aspects of word production. Additionally, I will show how hippocampal theta oscillations, which are tightly related to episodic memory, track the amount of semantic associations in sentence contexts. I will also show how resolving competition between words in language production is associated with theta oscillations in the medial frontal cortex, a signature of executive function. Finally, I will discuss what these neuronal signatures can reveal about language lateralisation and neuroplasticity in patient populations.

Day 3: May 22, Wednesday

Olga Sysoeva, Ph. D.

Center for Neurocognitive Research (MEG Center), Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia

What do we gain from MEG?Magnetoencephalography(MEG) is a non-invasive functional neuroimaging technique for mapping human brain activity. MEG registers tiny fluctuations of magnetic field produced by the local pull of neurons with milliseconds temporal resolution and allows to differentiate signals separated in space only by few millimeters. Thus, MEG is able to catch the ultra high speed and complex topography of neurophysiological processes, underlying human perception, action and cognition. In my lecture I will compare MEG with other neuroimaging techniques, introduce the modern state-of the art methods of MEG analysis, and provide an example of successful applications of MEG in the study of human perception and cognition, as well as in clinical practice.

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Tatiana Stroganova, Ph. D.

Center for Neurocognitive Research (MEG Center), Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia

Language and Motor Systems in the Brain. In this talk, I will discuss the neuroscientific evidence accumulated during the last two decades on perception-action cycle in speech perception. Both behavioral and neuroimaging data suggest that the motor and language systems, rather than having separate and independent functions, are tightly and recurrently interrelated to serve the purpose of constructing distributed supramodal speech representations in the brain. I will specifically focus on a key role of motor system in the re-enactment of sensory-motor representations during conceptual processing of actions invoked by linguistic stimuli.

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Anna Chrabaszcz, Ph. D.

Center for Language and Brain, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Extracting neural representations of speech sounds from high-gamma oscillations. A unique and defining feature of human behavior is our ability to perceive and produce speech. While these processes have been vastly explored within psychological, linguistic, and cognitive traditions, we are only beginning to understand the mechanisms by which the human brain translates neuronal activity to percepts and articulatory commands. By examining high gamma oscillations in the evoked local field potentials (LFPs), scientists have been able to describe the functional topography of the brain, wherein phonetic features of speech sounds are mapped onto selectively-tuned cortical regions. The goal of my talk is to review some of the major electrocorticography studies on functional organization of the brain for speech perception and speech production and to highlight scientific advances in translating findings from these studies to research on brain-computer interface (BCI).

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Roelien Bastiaanse, Ph. D.

Center for Language and Brain, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands

How can EEG help us to identify the nature of underlying deficits in aphasia? Brain damage may affect language and speech. Phonemic errors (errors concerning the sounds in the words) may arise at different levels of speech production: during the retrieval of the word's phoneme structure, during the planning of articulation and during executing articulations. For a clinician it is hard to distinguish these errors, partially because they often co-occur, but for treatment it is important to know causes the errors. This presentation will show the first steps of the help that EEG registration during speech production may offer to help identifying the level of impairment.