Current theories of visual change detection emphasize the importance of conscious attention to detect unexpected changes in the visual environment. However, an increasing body of studies shows that the human brain is capable of detecting even small visual changes, especially if such changes violate non-conscious probabilistic expectations based on repeating experiences. In other words, our brain automatically represents statistical regularities of our visual environmental. Since the discovery of the auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potential (ERP) component, the majority of research in the field has focused on auditory deviance detection. Such automatic change detection mechanisms operate in the visual modality too, as indicated by the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) brain potential to rare changes. VMMN is typically elicited by stimuli with infrequent (deviant) features embedded in a stream of frequent (standard) stimuli, outside the focus of attention. In this research topic we aim to present vMMN as a prediction error signal. Predictive coding theories account for phenomena such as mismatch negativity and repetition suppression, and place them in a broader context of a general theory of cortical responses. A wide range of vMMN studies has been presented in this Research Topic. Twelve articles address roughly four general sub-themes including attention, language, face processing, and psychiatric disorders. Additionally, four articles focused on particular subjects such as the oblique effect, object formation, and development and time-frequency analysis of vMMN. Furthermore, a review paper presented vMMN in a hierarchical predictive coding framework. Each paper in this Research Topic is a valuable contribution to the field of automatic visual change detection and deepens our understanding of the short term plasticity underlying predictive processes of visual perceptual learning.

The mismatch negativity (MMN) is the electrophysiological change-detection response of the brain. MMN is stimulated when there is any discernible change to a repetitive sequence of sound, occurring even in the absence of attention. MMN is an automatic response and causes an involuntary attentional shift, representing a function which is of vital significance. A parallel response can also be detected in the other sensory modalities- visual, somatosensory, and olfactory. MMN occurs in different species, and across the different developmental stages, from infancy to old age. Importantly, the MMN response is affected in different cognitive brain disorders, providing an index to the severity of the disorder and consequently, a guide to the effectiveness of different treatments. MMN has become extremely popular around the world for investigating a wide range of clinical populations. It is a versatile tool for studying perception, memory, and learning functions in both the healthy and dysfunctional brain. Furthermore, being elicited irrespective of attention, it is ideal for investigating inattentive participants, such as sleeping infants or patients in a coma, whose cognitive processes are otherwise hard to access. Written by pioneers and leading authorities in the subject, this book provides an introduction to MMN and its contribution within different clinical fields: developmental disorders, neurological disorders, psychiatric disorders, and aging.

Recent neuroscience research makes it clear that human biology is cultural biology - we develop and live our lives in socially constructed worlds that vary widely in their structure values, and institutions. This integrative volume brings together interdisciplinary perspectives from the human, social, and biological sciences to explore culture, mind, and brain interactions and their impact on personal and societal issues. Contributors provide a fresh look at emerging concepts, models, and applications of the co-constitution of culture, mind, and brain. Chapters survey the latest theoretical and methodological insights alongside the challenges in this area, and describe how these new ideas are being applied in the sciences, humanities, arts, mental health, and everyday life. Readers will gain new appreciation of the ways in which our unique biology and cultural diversity shape behavior and experience, and our ongoing adaptation to a constantly changing world.

One of the most fundamental capacities of language is the ability to express what speakers see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. Sensory Linguistics is the interdisciplinary study of how language relates to the senses. This book deals with such foundational questions as: Which semiotic strategies do speakers use to express sensory perceptions? Which perceptions are easier to encode and which are “ineffable”? And what are appropriate methods for studying the sensory aspects of linguistics? After a broad overview of the field, a detailed quantitative corpus-based study of English sensory adjectives and their metaphorical uses is presented. This analysis calls age-old ideas into question, such as the idea that the use of perceptual metaphors is governed by a cognitively motivated “hierarchy of the senses”. Besides making theoretical contributions to cognitive linguistics, this research monograph showcases new empirical methods for studying lexical semantics using contemporary statistical methods.

This comprehensive book explains the importance of imaging techniques in exploring and understanding the role of brain abnormalities in schizophrenia. The findings obtained using individual imaging modalities and their biological interpretation are reviewed in detail, and updates are provided on methodology, testable hypotheses, limitations, and new directions for research. The coverage also includes important recent applications of neuroimaging to schizophrenia, for example in relation to non-pharmacological interventions, brain development, genetics, and prediction of treatment response and outcome. Written by world renowned experts in the field, the book will be invaluable to all who wish to learn about the newest and most important developments in neuroimaging research in schizophrenia, how these developments relate to the last 30 years of research, and how they can be leveraged to bring us closer to a cure for this devastating disorder. Neuroimaging in Schizophrenia will assist clinicians in navigating what is an extremely complex field and will be a source of insight and stimulation for researchers.

Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary field, and hence relationships are at its heart. First and foremost is the relationship between its two parent disciplines, psychology and linguistics, a relationship which has changed and advanced over the half century of the field's independent existence. At the beginning of the 21st Century, psycholinguistics forms part of the rapidly developing enterprise known as cognitive neuroscience, in which the relationship between biology and behavior plays a central role. Psycholinguistics is about language in communication, so that the relationship between language production and comprehension has always been important, and as psycholinguistics is an experimental discipline, it is likewise essential to find the right relationship between model and experiment. This book focuses in turn on each of these four cornerstone relationships: Psychology and Linguistics, Biology and Behavior, Production and Comprehension, and Model and Experiment. The authors are from different disciplinary backgrounds, but share a commitment to clarify the ways that their research illuminates the essential nature of the psycholinguistic enterprise.