Jana Klaus

Utrecht University | UU · Department of Experimental Psychology

While the involvement of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in language production is undisputed, the role of specific subregions at different representational levels remains unclear. Some studies suggest a division of anterior and posterior regions for semantic and phonological processing, respectively. Crucially, evidence thus far only comes f...

While much progress has been made in how brain organization supports language function, the language network's ability to adapt to immediate disturbances by means of reorganization remains unclear. The aim of this study was to examine acute reorganizational changes in brain activity related to conceptual and lexical retrieval in unimpaired language...

New insights into the functional neuroanatomic correlates of emotions point toward the involvement of the cerebellum in anger and aggression. To identify cerebellar regions commonly activated in tasks examining the experience of anger and threat as well as exerting an aggressive response, two coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation meta-a...

Variability in findings related to non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) have increasingly been described as a result of differences in neurophysiological state. Additionally, there is some evidence suggesting that individual differences in psychological states may correlate with the magnitude and directionality of effects of NIBS on the neural and...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition frequently associated with structural cerebellar abnormalities. Whether cerebellar grey matter volumes (GMV) are linked to verbal impairments remains controversial. Here, the association between cerebellar GMV and verbal abilities in ASD was examined across the lifespan. Lobular segme...

It has recently been theorized that the frontal asymmetry of approach- and avoidance-related motivation is mirrored in the posterolateral cerebellum. Accordingly, left-to-right dominant cerebellar activity is associated with avoidance-related motivation, whereas right-to-left dominant cerebellar activity is associated with approach-related motivati...

Increasing empirical evidence points towards the involvement of the cerebellum in anger and aggressive behaviour. However, human functional neuroimaging studies so far have emphasized the involvement of subcortical and cortical regions, rather than examining the contributions of the cerebellum. In the present study, 7T fMRI was used to assess cereb...

The cerebellum generates internal prediction models and actively compares anticipated and actual outcomes in order to reach a desired end state. In this process, reward can serve as a reinforcer that shapes internal prediction models, enabling context-appropriate behavior. While the involvement of the cerebellum in reward processing has been establ...

A significant number of veterans experience irritability and aggression symptoms as a result of being exposed to extremely stressful and life-threatening situations. In addition to the well-established involvement of the brain's cortico-subcortical circuit in aggression-related behaviours, a role of the deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) in reactive aggr...

According to the dual-route model of emotion, impulsive (affective) aggression involves fast acting limbic regions, whereas in instrumental (predatory) aggression the neural focus lies on top-down anterior cortical areas. However, increasing neuroscientific evidence now points toward differential involvement of the cerebellum in the aggression circ...

Clinical and neuroscientific studies have established that the cerebellum contributes to language processing. Yet most evidence is correlational and the exact role of the cerebellum remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the right cerebellum in language comprehension and production using non-invasive brain stimulation...

Several lines of evidence point towards the involvement of the cerebellum in reactive aggression. In addition to the posterior cerebellar hemisphere, the vermis has been suggested to play a prominent role in impulse regulation. In the present study, we set out to further examine the relationships between cerebellar grey matter volumes, aggression,...

Transcranial magnetic and direct current stimulation are non-invasive brain stimulation techniques that are used to investigate cerebellar functions in healthy and clinical populations. These approaches allow transient modulation of neural excitability of the human cerebellar cortex to directly examine phenomenological, behavioral, and physiologica...

Clinical and neuroscientific studies in healthy volunteers have established that the cerebellum contributes to language comprehension and production. Yet most evidence is correlational and the exact role of the cerebellum remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the right cerebellum in unimpaired language comprehension...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an increasingly popular tool to investigate the involvement of the cerebellum in a variety of brain functions and pathologies. However, heterogeneity and small effect sizes remain a common issue. One potential cause may be interindividual variability of the electric fields induced by tDCS. Here, we...

The first attempts at using electric stimulation to study human brain functions followed the experiments of Luigi Galvani and Giovanni Aldini on animal electricity during the eighteenth century. Since then, the cerebellum has been among the areas that have been studied by invasive and non-invasive forms of electrical and magnetic stimulation. Durin...

Previous studies in healthy populations have provided equivocal evidence whether the application of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) can improve performance in verbal fluency tasks. In this double-blind, randomised within-participant study, we investigated whether anodal tDCS over the left...

In context-driven word production, picture naming is faster following constrained than neutral sentential contexts (e.g., “The farmer milked the… [picture]” vs. “The child drew a… [picture]”, followed by the picture of a cow), suggesting conceptual-lexical pre-activation of the target response. Power decreases in the alpha-beta oscillatory band (8–...

Resolving cognitive interference is central for successful everyday cognition and behavior. The Stroop task is a classical measure of cognitive interference. In this task, participants have to resolve interference on a trial-by-trial basis and performance is also influenced by the trial history, as reflected in sequence effects. Previous neuroimagi...

In context-driven word production, picture naming is faster following constrained than neutral sentential contexts (e.g., “The farmer milked the… [picture]” vs. “The child drew a… [picture]”, followed by the picture of a cow). In addition, power decreases in the alpha and beta oscillatory bands (8-25 Hz) are consistently found for constrained relat...

The chapter gives an overview of studies investigating the behavioral, neurophysiological, and hemodynamic processes underlying bilingual word production. Assuming selection by competition during lexical access as a working model (e.g., Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 1999; Roelofs, 1992), we will discuss research on the functional and neuroanatomical re...

Language impairment is common after left-hemisphere damage. However, the involvement of perilesional and homologous contralateral regions in compensating for left-sided lesions remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to examine acute organizational changes in brain activity related to conceptual and lexical retrieval in unimpaired lang...

While the involvement of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in language production is undisputed, the role of specific subregions at different representational levels remains unclear. Some studies suggest a division of anterior and posterior regions for semantic and phonological processing, respectively. Crucially, evidence thus far only comes f...

Producing multi-word utterances is a complex, yet relatively effortless process. Research with the picture-word interference paradigm has shown that speakers can plan all elements of such utterances up to the phonological level before initiating speech, yet magnitude and direction of this phonological priming effect (i.e. facilitative vs. inhibitor...

Previous language production studies targeting the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyrus using anodal tDCS have provided mixed results. Part of this heterogeneity may be explained by limited target region focality of conventionally used electrode montages. We examined the focality of conventionally and alternative electrode montages. Electri...

Language impairment is common after left-hemisphere stroke. However, the involvement of perilesional and homologous contralateral regions in compensating for left-sided lesions remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to transiently disrupt the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and examine acute spatial changes in brain activity related...

Previous studies examining context-driven word production have shown that picture naming is faster following constraining than non-constraining sentential contexts (e.g., “The farmer milked the… [picture]” vs. “The child drew a… [picture]”, followed by the picture of a cow). In addition, desynchronization in the alpha and beta oscillatory bands (8-...

Objective Previous language production studies targeting the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyrus using anodal tDCS have provided mixed results. Part of this heterogeneity may be explained by limited target region focality of conventionally used electrode montages. We examined the focality of conventionally and alternative electrode montage...

In addition to the role of left frontotemporal areas in language processing, there is increasing evidence that language comprehension and production require cognitive control and working memory resources involving the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the left DLPFC in both language co...

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has become a common method to study the interrelations between the brain and language functioning. This meta-analysis examined the efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the study of language production in healthy volunteers. Forty-five effect sizes from 30...

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has become a common method to study the interrelations between the brain and language functioning. This meta-analysis examined the efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the study of language production in healthy volunteers. Forty-five effect sizes from 30...

Previous research has shown that when speakers produce words in their second language (L2), they also activate the phonological form of the translation of the word in their first language (L1). Here we investigated whether this holds in the opposite direction, i.e. when participants speak in exclusively in their L1. In a picture-word interference t...

In addition to the role of left frontotemporal areas in language processing, there is increasing evidence that language comprehension and production require control and working memory resources involving the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the left DLPFC in both language comprehensio...

Producing multi-word utterances is a complex, yet relatively effortless process. Research with the picture-word interference paradigm has shown that speakers can plan all elements of such utterances up to the phonological level before initiating speech, yet magnitude and polarity differ between but also within studies. We investigated possible sour...

Previous research has shown that when speakers produce words in their second language (L2), they also activate the phonological form of the translation of the word in their first language (L1). This has been interpreted as an inability to entirely suppress one’s L1 during L2 production. In three experiments, we investigated whether this also holds...

There is compelling evidence that context strongly influences our choice of words (e.g., whether we refer to a particular animal with the basic-level name “bird” or the subordinate-level name “duck”). However, little is known about whether the context already affects the degree to which the alternative words are activated. In this study, we explore...

This study investigated to what extent advance planning during sentence production is affected by a concurrent cognitive load. In two picture-word interference experiments in which participants produced subject-verb-object sentences while ignoring auditory distractor words, we assessed advance planning at a phonological (lexeme) and at an abstract-...