Vanja Kovic

Followers

Following

Co-authors

Public Views

Interests

Uploads

Papers by Vanja Kovic

Shared and/or separate representations of animate/inanimate categories: An ERP study

Psihologija, 2009

This paper presents an ERP experiment examining the underlying nature of semantic representation ... more This paper presents an ERP experiment examining the underlying nature of semantic representation of animate and inanimate objects. Time-locking ERP signatures to the onset of visual stimuli we found topological similarities in animate and inanimate object processing. Moreover, when mapping more general to more specific representation (auditory to visual stimuli) we found no difference between animates and in animates in the N400 amplitude either. This study provides further evidence for the theory of unitary semantic organization, but no support for the feature-based prediction of segregated conceptual organization. Surprisingly, it was also found that the P600 component, which has been thus far mostly related to syntactic processing to be a sensitive index of conceptual processing. The most apparent difference regarding P600 component was found between animate and inanimate matches, whereby animate matches elicited more positive ERP signatures in comparison to inanimate matches.

Download

P3 latency as a biomarker for the complexity of migraine with aura: Event-related potential study

Cephalalgia

Background This study aimed to compare the P3 component between patients who have migraines with ... more Background This study aimed to compare the P3 component between patients who have migraines with aura and healthy subjects, and to compare different subtypes of migraine with aura relative to the complexity of migraine aura. Methods Average Migraine Aura Complexity Score was calculated for each MwA patient. Visual oddball paradigm was used to elicit the P3 component. P3 amplitudes and latencies elicited from frequent and rare stimuli, as well as from difference wave, were compared with healthy subjects. Subsequently, subtypes of migraine with aura were compared and Average Migraine Aura Complexity Score was used to explore the connection between features of the P3 and complexity of migraine with aura. Results 37 patients who have migraine with aura (16 with simple aura and 21 with complex aura) patients and 28 healthy subjects were studied. Patients who have migraine with aura had significantly prolonged latencies compared to healthy subjects (411 ± 39 ms vs 372 ± 34 ms, p < 0.00...

Garden of forking paths in ERP research – effects of varying pre-processing and analysis steps in an N400 experiment

This paper tackles the Garden of Forking Paths (Gelman & Loken, 2013), as a challenge for replica... more This paper tackles the Garden of Forking Paths (Gelman & Loken, 2013), as a challenge for replicability and reproducibility of psychology studies. Here, we applied a multiverse analysis to a single dataset - effectively sampling 14 out of 864 possible pre-processing and analysis pipelines which were selected to cover the full range of variability found in the literature using systematic review approach (Author(s)). In this large reproducibility project, an ERP N400 dataset was donated by an independent research team, and the 14 selected pipelines were applied to this dataset to compare study outcomes, descriptive statistics, effect size, data quality, and statistical power. Out of the steps that were varied, high-pass filter cut-off, artifact removal method, baseline duration, reference, measurement latency and locations, and amplitude measure (peak vs. mean) were all shown to affect the study outcome parameters. Low-pass filtering was the only step which did not notably influence a...

Download

Garden of forking paths in ERP research – effects of varying processing and analysis steps in an N400 experiment

A recent systematic review of the N400 literature (Author(s), in prep.) has shown large variabili... more A recent systematic review of the N400 literature (Author(s), in prep.) has shown large variability in the way event-related potential (ERP) data are recorded, processed, and analyzed. The present study will explore how this variability can affect outcomes using a sample experiment. A set of data processing pipelines defined based on findings from the systematic review will be applied to the sample dataset. The explored parameters will include variations in digital filter high-pass and low-pass cut-offs, artifact correction vs. rejection, baseline correction time window, type of amplitude measure, measurement window, reference site(s), and measurement site(s). Conclusions from different analysis procedures performed on the same data set will be compared to see which steps make a difference in study outcomes or lead to statistically different N400 effects, and which steps have less impact on study conclusions. Furthermore, Monte Carlo simulations will be performed to determine how ea...

ARTEM-IS Statement

ARTEM-IS is a template designed to make reporting EEG/ERP methodology easier and more accurate, b... more ARTEM-IS is a template designed to make reporting EEG/ERP methodology easier and more accurate, by providing specific fields for specific details. We believe the community of expert practitioners can create a more powerful, and more effective tool by working together. This archive includes the ARTEM-IS Statement about the value of a community-agreed tool, a draft template for community consultation, and an archive of documents arising from public events. View the Statement online and become a signatory: https://forms.gle/cDdinM2fRj6Pm8Gi9

Leaf Stone Corpus (Singapore 2016) Audio

Participants reading aloud from the experimental storybooks 'A Fine Day for a New Hat (Singap... more

ARTEM-IS: Agreed Reporting Template for EEG Methodology - International Standard

ARTEM-IS Statement Presentations, Workshops and Meetings

Characteristics of N400 component elicited in patients who have migraine with aura

The Journal of Headache and Pain, 2021

Background This study aimed to examine the N400 effect and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicit... more Background This study aimed to examine the N400 effect and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited from congruent and incongruent stimuli in patients who have migraines with aura (MwA). Methods A total of 33 MwA patients and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were studied. They were balanced in age (35.12 ± 8.94 vs 34.70 ± 9.59 years, p = 0.872) and sex (69.7 vs 75.0% females, p = 0.761). ERPs were measured in response to both stimuli, where pictures were preceded with an object name that either matched or mismatched with the object. Averaged amplitudes, peaks, peak latencies, difference waves and topography were compared between MwA and HCs. Results MwA patients had significantly lower averaged amplitudes at the Fz and F4 sites during incongruent stimuli, as well as reduced peaks at the C3 and Pz sites. Topography showed a more widespread N400 effect over scalp relative to HCs. The difference ERP waveforms did not differ in the N400 effect between groups, but the P600 effect was significan...

format_quoteMwA patients showed significantly lower N400 amplitudes during incongruent stimuli at Fz and F4 sites, indicating disrupted semantic processing.format_quote

Download

Razlike u tematskom i taksonomskom procesiranju: ERP studija

U poslednjih desetak godina sve je vise studija koje govore u prilog postojanja dva komplementarn... more U poslednjih desetak godina sve je vise studija koje govore u prilog postojanja dva komplementarna semanticka sistema: tematskog i taksonomskog. Pod taksonomskim sistemom podrazumevamo sistem u kojem se bliskim smatraju koncepti koji dele veliki broj zajednickih karakteristika, te pripadaju istoj kategoriji (npr. krava - konj - ovca). Ovakvi su upravo tradicionalni modeli organizacije semanticke memorije, koji previđaju važnost tematskih odnosa među pojmovima. Tematski povezani objekti (krava - mleko) su oni koji imaju komplementarne karakteristike i njihova povezanost zasnovana je na prostornoj, vremenskoj i/ili uzrocnoj bliskosti. Imajuci u vidu važnost poznavanja odnosa između ova dva sistema, cilj ove studije bio je da ispita da li se konceptualno jasne razlike između tematskog i taksonomskog procesiranja mogu ocitati i na neuralnom planu. Zadatak ispitanika u eksperimentu bio je da kategorisu sukcesivno izložene parove rec-slika kao podudarne (rec i slika oznacavaju isti objeka...

Sound Symbolism for category names and item names with Vincasso stimuli

Good Scientific Practice in MEEG Research: Progress and Perspectives

Good Scientific Practice (GSP) refers to both explicit and implicit rules or guidelines that help... more Good Scientific Practice (GSP) refers to both explicit and implicit rules or guidelines that help scientists to produce work that is of the highest quality at any given time, and to efficiently share that work with the community for further scrutiny or utilization. For experimental research using magneto- and electroencephalography (MEEG), GSP includes specific standards and guidelines for technical competence, which are periodically updated whenever new findings come to light. However, GSP also needs to be periodically revisited in a broader light. At the LiveMEEG 2020 conference, a reflection on GSP was fostered that included explicitly documented guidelines and technical advances, but also emphasised intangible GSP: a general awareness of personal, organisational, and societal realities and how they can influence MEEG research. This article provides an extensive report on most of the LiveMEEG contributions and new literature, with the additional aim to synthesize ongoing cultural...

Download

To Which World Regions Does the Valence-Dominance Model of Social Perception Apply?

Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most p... more Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof and Todorov’s methodology across 11 world regions, 41 countries and 11,570 participants. When we used Oosterhof and Todorov’s original analysis strategy, the valence–dominance model generalized across regions. When we used an alternative methodology to allow for correlated dimensions, we observed much less generalization. Collectively, these results suggest that, while the valence–dominance model generalizes very well across regions when dimensions are forced to be orthogonal, regional differences are revealed when we use different extraction ...

format_quoteChinese participants' face evaluations rely on valence but not on the dominance dimension, indicating cultural differences.format_quote

Download

Investigating Object Orientation Effects Across 14 Languages

Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create men... more Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of real objects. Evidence from sentence-picture verification tasks has shown that people mentally represent various visual properties such as shape, color, and size. However, the evidence for mental simulations of object orientation is limited. We report a study that investigates the match advantage of object orientation across speakers of different languages. This multi-laboratory project aims to achieve two objectives. First, we examine the replicability of the match advantage of object orientation across multiple languages and laboratories. Second, we will use a mental rotation task to measure participants’ mental imagery after the sentence-picture verification task. The relationship between the participants’ performance of the two tasks will provide a cross-linguistic examination of perceptual simulation processes. With the (broad) evaluation of individual mental ...

format_quoteLarge objects take longer to verify than small objects, indicating significant implications for mental rotation theories across languages.format_quote

Download

Comparing the temporal dynamics of thematic and taxonomic processing using event-related potentials

PloS one, 2017

We report the results of a study comparing the temporal dynamics of thematic and taxonomic knowle... more We report the results of a study comparing the temporal dynamics of thematic and taxonomic knowledge activation in a picture-word priming paradigm using event-related potentials. Although we found no behavioral differences between thematic and taxonomic processing, ERP data revealed distinct patterns of N400 and P600 amplitude modulation for thematic and taxonomic priming. Thematically related target stimuli elicited less negativity than taxonomic targets between 280-460 ms after stimulus onset, suggesting easier semantic processing of thematic than taxonomic relationships. Moreover, P600 mean amplitude was significantly increased for taxonomic targets between 520-600 ms, consistent with a greater need for stimulus reevaluation in that condition. These results offer novel evidence in favor of a dissociation between thematic and taxonomic thinking in the early phases of conceptual evaluation.

Download

Towards Continuous and Real-Time Attention Monitoring at Work: Reaction Time versus Brain Response

Ergonomics, Jan 15, 2016

Continuous and objective measurement of the user attention state still represents a major challen... more Continuous and objective measurement of the user attention state still represents a major challenge in the ergonomics research. Recently available wearable electroencephalography (EEG) opens new opportunities for objective and continuous evaluation of operators' attention, which may provide a new paradigm in ergonomics. In this study, wearable EEG was recorded during simulated assembly operation, with the aim to analyse P300 event-related potential (ERP) component, which provides reliable information on attention processing. In parallel, reaction times (RTs) were recorded and the correlation between these two attention-related modalities was investigated. Negative correlation between P300 amplitudes and RTs has been observed on the group level (p<.001). However, on the individual level, the obtained correlations were not consistent. As a result, we propose the P300 amplitude for accurate attention monitoring in ergonomics research. On the other hand, no significant correlatio...

format_quoteThe study linked decreased attention to reduced P300 ERP amplitude, suggesting EEG can effectively monitor cognitive states during repetitive tasks.format_quote

Download

IlicKovicStyles2013 InTheAbsenceOfAnimacy S1

Balloons and bavoons versus spikes and shikes: ERPs reveal shared neural processes for shape–sound-meaning congruence in words, and shape–sound congruence in pseudowords

Brain and Language, 2015

There is something about the sound of a pseudoword like takete that goes better with a spiky, tha... more There is something about the sound of a pseudoword like takete that goes better with a spiky, than a curvy shape (Köhler, 1929(Köhler, :1947). Yet despite decades of research into sound symbolism, the role of this effect on real words in the lexicons of natural languages remains controversial. We report one behavioural and one ERP study investigating whether sound symbolism is active during normal language processing for real words in a speaker's native language, in the same way as for novel word forms. The results indicate that sound-symbolic congruence has a number of influences on natural language processing: Written forms presented in a congruent visual context generate more errors during lexical access, as well as a chain of differences in the ERP. These effects have a very early onset (40-80 ms, 100-160 ms, 280-320 ms) and are later overshadowed by familiar types of semantic processing, indicating that sound symbolism represents an early sensory-co-activation effect.

Download

Is there anything sound-symbolic in words: Behavioural and ERP study of sound symbolism in natural language

PsycEXTRA Dataset

When the Sound-Symbolism Effect Disappears: The Differential Role of Order and Timing in Presenting Visual and Auditory Stimuli

Psychology, 2013

Köhler's observation that most people match pseudoword "maluma" to curvy objects and "takete" to ... more Köhler's observation that most people match pseudoword "maluma" to curvy objects and "takete" to spiky objects represented the well-known example of sound symbolism-the idea that link between sound and meaning of words was not entirely arbitrary. This study was aimed to examine the existence of sound symbolism in natural language and to consider the potential role of some aspects of experimental design and stimuli features which had not been considered in experimental studies so far. Three experiments were done in order to explore the influence of visual information on language processing. Visual lexical decision task with the sharp-sounding and soft-sounding verbal stimuli presented within the spiky and curvy frames was used. Reaction time analysis in these three experiments highlighted additional aspects of visual and language processing which influence the potential interplay of these two processes. As results revealed, when visual information preceded presentation of verbal material for approximately 1000 ms or when visual and verbal material were presented simultaneously, the processing was being delayed and the interactions of these two processes occurred. The pattern of obtained results gave further support to the idea of sound symbolism as pre-semantic phenomenon and the hypothesis that the effect emerged from very early stages of language processing.

Download

Vanja Kovic

Uploads

Papers by Vanja Kovic

Log In