Speech stimuli give rise to neural activity in the listener that can be observed as waveforms using magnetoencephalography. Although waveforms vary greatly from trial to trial due to activity unrelated to the stimulus, it has been demonstrated that spoken sentences can be discriminated based on theta-band (3-7 Hz) phase patterns in single-trial response waveforms. Furthermore, manipulations of ...

The present set of 7 experiments systematically examined the effectiveness of adding causal explanations to simple refutations in reducing or eliminating the impact of outdated information on subsequent comprehension. The addition of a single causal-explanation sentence to a refutation was sufficient to eliminate any measurable disruption in comprehension caused by the outdated information (Exp...

Language can impact emotion, even when it makes no reference to emotion states. For example, reading sentences with positive meanings ("The water park is refreshing on the hot summer day") induces patterns of facial feedback congruent with the sentence emotionality (smiling), whereas sentences with negative meanings induce a frown. Moreover, blocking facial afference with botox selectively slow...