Listeners use gestures to predict upcoming words

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

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Marlijn ter Bekke

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Credit: Marlijn ter Bekke

In face-to-face conversations, speakers use hand movements to signal meaning. But do listeners actually use these gestures to predict what someone might say next? In a study using virtual avatars, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Radboud University in Nijmegen show that listeners used the avatar’s gestures to predict upcoming speech. Both behavioural and EEG data indicated that hand gestures facilitate language processing, illustrating the multimodal nature of human communication.

People might wiggle their fingers when they talk about typing, depicting a ‘typing’ movement. Seeing meaningful hand movements—also called iconic gestures—helps listeners to process spoken language. “We already know that questions produced with iconic gestures get faster responses in conversation”, says first author Marlijn ter Bekke.

Hand movements might speed up language processing because they help to predict what is coming up. “Gestures typically start before their corresponding speech (such as the word “typing”), so they already show some information about what the speaker might say next”, explains Ter Bekke.

To investigate whether listeners use hand gestures to predict upcoming speech, the researchers decided to run two experiments using visual avatars. “We used virtual avatars because we can control precisely what they say and how they move, which is good for drawing conclusions from experiments. At the same time, they look natural.”

Predicting the target word

In the first experiment, participants listened to questions asked by the avatar, such as “How old were you when you learned to … type?”, with a pause before the target word (“type”). The avatar either made a typing gesture, a meaningless control movement (such as an arm scratch) or no movement. Participants heard the question up to the target word and were asked to guess how it would continue.

As expected, participants predicted the target word (for instance, “type”) more often when they had seen the corresponding gesture.

Brain waves

In the second experiment, a different set of participants simply listened to the questions played in full. Their brain activity was recorded with electroencephalography (EEG).

During the silent pause before the target word, gestures affected brain waves that are typically associated with anticipation. After the target word, gestures affected brain responses that indicate how difficult it is to understand a word (a reduced N400 effect). After seeing gestures, people found it easier to process the meaning of the upcoming word.

“These results show that even when participants are just listening, they use gestures to predict what someone might say next”, concludes Ter Bekke.

Robots and virtual avatars

 “Our study shows that even gestures produced by a virtual avatar facilitate language processing. If we want artificial agents (like robots or virtual avatars) to be readily understood, and in a human-like way, they should not only communicate with speech, but also with meaningful hand gestures.”

 

Publication

Marlijn ter Bekke, Linda Drijvers & Judith Holler (2025). Co-speech hand gestures are used to predict upcoming meaning. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/09567976251331041

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Journal

Psychological Science

DOI

10.1177/09567976251331041 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Listeners use gestures to predict upcoming words

Article Publication Date

22-Apr-2025

 

Researchers find temporary anxiety impacts learning

University of Rochester Medical Center

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A brief episode of anxiety may have a bigger influence on a person’s ability to learn what is safe and what is not. The research recently published in NPJ Science of Learning used a virtual reality game that involved picking flowers with bees in some of the blossoms that would sting the participant—simulated by a mild electrical stimulation on the hand.

Researchers worked with 70 neurotypical participants between the ages of 20 and 30. Claire Marino, a research assistant in the ZVR Lab, and Pavel Rjabtsenkov, a Neuroscience graduate student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, were co-first authors of the study that found that the people who learned to distinguish between the safe and dangerous areas—where the bees were and were not—showed better spatial memory and had lower anxiety, while participants who did not learn the different areas had higher anxiety and heightened fear even in safe areas. Surprisingly, they discovered that temporary feelings of anxiety had the biggest impact on learning and not a person’s general tendency to feel anxious.

“These results help explain why some people struggle with anxiety-related disorders, such as PTSD, where they may have difficulty distinguishing safe situations from dangerous ones,” said the senior author of this study, Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, PhD, associate professor of Neuroscience and Center for Visual Science at the Del Monte Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Rochester. “The findings suggest that excessive anxiety disrupts spatial learning and threat recognition, which could contribute to chronic fear responses. Understanding these mechanisms may help improve treatments for anxiety and stress-related disorders by targeting how people process environmental threats.”

Suarez-Jimenez explains that it is now important to understand if individuals with psychopathologies of anxiety and stress have similar variations in spatial memory. Adding an attention-tracking measure, like eye-tracking, to future studies could help determine whether a focus on potential threats impacts broader environmental awareness.

Additional authors include Caitlin Sharp, Zonia Ali, Evelyn Pineda, Shreya Bavdekar, Tanya Garg, Kendal Jordan, Mary Halvorsen, Carlos Aponte, and Julie Blue of the University of Rochester Medical Center, and Xi Zhu, PhD, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, Wellcome Trust Fellowship, and the European Research Council Grant.

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Journal

npj Science of Learning

DOI

10.1038/s41539-025-00305-6 

Article Title

Using virtual reality to study spatial mapping and threat learning

 

Mayo Clinic uncovers brain cell changes that could explain Tourette syndrome

Mayo Clinic

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ROCHESTER, Minnesota — A new Mayo Clinic study finds that people with Tourette syndrome have about half as many of a specific type of brain cell that helps calm overactive movement signals as people without the condition. This deficit may be a key reason why their motor signals go unchecked, leading to the involuntary tics that define the disorder.

The study, published in Biological Psychiatry, is the first to analyze individual brain cells from people with Tourette disorder. The findings also shed light on how different types of brain cells may interact in ways that contribute to the syndrome's symptoms.

"This research may help lay the foundation for a new generation of treatments," says co-author Alexej Abyzov, Ph.D., a genomic scientist in Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine. "If we can understand how these brain cells are altered and how they interact, we may be able to intervene earlier and more precisely."

Tourette disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition that typically begins in childhood. It causes repeated, involuntary movements and vocalizations such as eye blinking, throat clearing or facial grimacing. While genetic studies have identified some risk genes, the biological mechanisms behind the condition have remained unclear.

To better understand what's happening in the brain with Tourette syndrome, Dr. Abyzov and his team analyzed more than 43,000 individual cells from postmortem brain tissue of people with and without the condition. They focused on the basal ganglia, a region of the brain that helps control movement and behavior. In each cell, they looked at how genes were working. They also analyzed how changes in the brain's gene-control systems might trigger stress and inflammation.

First, they found in people with Tourette syndrome a 50% reduction in interneurons, which are brain cells that help calm excess signals in the brain's movement circuits. They also observed stress responses in two other brain cell types. Medium spiny neurons, which make up most of the cells in basal ganglia and help send movement signals, showed reduced energy production. Microglia, the brain's immune cells, showed inflammation. The two responses were closely linked, suggesting the cells may be interacting in Tourette disorder.

"We're seeing different types of brain cells reacting to stress and possibly communicating with each other in ways that could be driving symptoms," says Yifan Wang, Ph.D., co-author of the study.

The study also provides evidence that the underlying cause of brain cell changes in Tourette disorder may be linked to parts of DNA that control when genes turn on and off.

"Tourette patients seem to have the same functional genes as everyone else but the coordination between them is broken," Dr. Abyzov says.

Next, the researchers plan to study how these brain changes develop over time and look for genetic factors that may help explain the disorder.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the lab of Flora M. Vaccarino, M.D., at Yale University. For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

Susan Murphy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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Journal

Biological Psychiatry

DOI

10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.022 

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Interneuron Loss and Microglia Activation by Transcriptome Analyses in the Basal Ganglia of Tourette Disorder

COI Statement

This work was supported in part by a fellowship grant from the TAA (to LF) and National Institutes of Mental Health (Grant No. R01 MH118453 [to FMV]). The Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center is supported in part by the National Institutes of Health. We acknowledge Livia Tomasini for technical advice on sample processing and the TAA for spearheading, organizing and supporting the postmortem brain collection for patients with Tourette disorder. We thank the personnel at the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center/National Institutes of Health NeuroBioBank for processing brain tissues and Nancy Thompson for help with the clinical phenotyping. FMV, JFL, and AA conceived the study and provided funding. FMV and AA supervised the study. JFL performed retrospective clinical phenotyping. SB, AH, and RR procured and processed postmortem brain tissue. YW, LF, TVF, and FMV designed experiments. LF performed experiments. YW, FW, MS, and TVF did bioinformatic analyses. YW generated display items and wrote the initial draft of the article. All authors provided edits and comments on the article. This study did not generate new unique reagents or DNA constructs. Datasets reported in this study are available through the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive under collection #C3187 (https://nda.nih.gov/edit_collection.html?id=3187), study #3028 (https://nda.nih.gov/study. html?id=3028). For reasons of subjects’ privacy, as specified in our consent form, the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive only allows for controlled access to the data. The authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

 

Museum to showcase Navy military medical innovations

Naval Research Laboratory

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Principal Investigator of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Navy Coronavirus Rapid Response Team (NCR2T) Team, Brett M. Huhman, Ph.D., P.E. from the Advanced Pulsed Systems Section and former NRL Engineering Technician Mike Jabari prepare a Xenon source for evaluation testing. Designed for whole-room disinfection, the team determined how effective the source would be from a light perspective, and Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division followed up with a site visit to perform biological efficacy testing in the Ultraviolet Characterization Lab at NRL-DC Headquarters, May 2020. (U.S. Navy photo)

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Credit: U.S. Navy Photo

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) recently transferred a number of historical artifacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic to the National Museum of Health and Medicine and is scheduled to exhibit military medical innovations to the public, Apr. 26.

The Military Medical Innovation Family Event program takes place in the museum galleries where presenters from a variety of military activities conduct demonstrations and activities highlighting innovative products and research that benefit readiness, health, care, and rehabilitation of the warfighter.

In April 2020, during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, the Naval COVID Rapid Response Team (NCR2T) was established by Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) after the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) became the first ship in the U.S. Fleet to fight through a COVID-19 outbreak. The chief of naval operations then charged NAVSEA with evaluating technologies and developing processes and procedures to provide tools for Fleet commanders, type commanders, and ship commanders to ensure and promote mission readiness amidst the pandemic.

NRL was tasked by NAVSEA with evaluating the efficacy of ultraviolet light sources procured by the NCR2T. The Plasma Physics Division leveraged experience across multiple disciplines to design a standardized measurement test stand, verify calibration of measurement equipment, and perform analysis of the devices. 

NRL researchers evaluated commercial ultraviolet (UV) sources for viral disinfection to combat COVID-19 on land and at sea and established a dedicated UV characterization lab in five days to ensure safe introduction and effective operation of UV sources across the Fleet.

This work was done in close collaboration with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, which performed biological surrogate testing to evaluate the effectiveness of the UV sources for disinfection of COVID-19 on surfaces relevant to Navy applications. The devices range from small, hand-held UV sources to large devices meant to disinfect an entire room. 

The laboratory used an automated 3-axis motorized translation stage to measure the light emitted from ultraviolet light sources to measure both the intensity and quality of the light generated by the devices. Data was collected from this apparatus to create 2D “maps” of the light emitted from the sources to enable comparison of different technologies.

In addition, NRL’s work helped identify situations where use of UV provides sufficient viral disinfection at a particular energy level and the development of standard operating procedures to ensure safe UV operation for the Fleet.

“NRL’s commitment to performing leading-edge fundamental and applied research has enabled the Lab to be instrumental in numerous innovations that have significantly enhanced the capabilities of the U.S. Navy and nation as a whole,” said NRL Plasma Physics Division Superintendent Joe Peñano, Ph.D. “This legacy of innovation underscores NRL’s commitment to swiftly supporting Fleet operations as well as addressing emerging challenges.”

The devices transferred were critical in the development of the Navy’s response to the COVID -19 pandemic. “These devices represent hundreds of hours of research by engineers and physicists in the Plasma Physics Division at NRL to provide evaluation criteria to the Fleet for immediate use,” said Principal Investigator of the NRL NCR2T Team, Brett M. Huhman, Ph.D., P.E. from the Plasma Physics Division. “We were able to respond rapidly to NAVSEA’s call for support, with a laboratory set up and ready to evaluate the devices within a week.”

Military medical innovations are changing the way health care is delivered in the Military Health System. During this family-friendly event, visit with DOD experts as they showcase the latest in virtual reality, medical simulation, and much more. This is a great opportunity to speak with multi-disciplinary NRL subject matter experts to also learn more about other research programs and associated technologies on display:

Buzz Off: Protection From the Small, But Deadly

This station demonstrates recently developed NRL technology that defends from some of the most dangerous animals on the planet—bugs. In this demo, we will go over the historical impact of insects on military and civilians, current strategies to protect against these tiny assailants, and future polymer-based fiber and gel technologies to repel these bugs out of everyday life.

From Sample to Sequence in the Field: A Closer Look at Bacteria and their DNA

Bacteria live in nearly every environment on earth and are important to this planet’s ecosystems. Most serve a useful purpose, but some can cause disease in humans. Using strep throat as a case study, we will demonstrate some of the tools and latest technologies we use to identify and study bacteria, including uncovering the genetic sequence of these tiny organisms with a portable DNA sequencer.

About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL is located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.

For more information, contact NRL Corporate Communications at (202) 480-3746 or nrlpao@us.navy.mil. Please reference package number at top of press release.

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The University of Chicago Data Science Institute and Google partner on cutting-edge AI and security research

University of Chicago

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CHICAGO (April 22, 2025) —The University of Chicago Data Science Institute (DSI) and Google are launching new research collaborations, in partnership with UChicago Computer Science, aimed at addressing critical challenges and opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI) concerning security, privacy, and digital safety. This partnership brings together leading experts from both academia and industry to drive meaningful advancements that will enhance user protection, improve AI-driven technologies, and shape the future of responsible data science.

Advancing AI Innovation and Digital Safety

Through this collaboration, researchers from UChicago and Google will tackle pressing and high-impact research areas such as AI-generated content detection, privacy protection, and security applications of large language models (LLMs). The partnership underscores a shared commitment to developing cutting-edge solutions that promote responsible AI use and bolster security in an increasingly digital world.

"We're excited to join forces with Google to tackle some of the most urgent challenges in AI and data science,” said Mike Franklin, Faculty Co-Director of the Data Science Institute and Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor.  “With our faculty's unmatched expertise and passion, this partnership will push the boundaries of innovation, advancing AI applications in ways that drive real-world impact."

The Data Science Institute and Google aim to make significant strides in digital safety, security, and AI transparency through these new research projects.

"This partnership with the UChicago Data Science team allows us to expand our research on some of today’s most critical topics, paving the way for further innovation and support for our users’” said Royal Hansen, Vice President of Engineering at Google.

Shaping the Future of AI and Security

This partnership represents a critical step toward building responsible AI systems, enhancing online safety, and developing AI tools that better serve and protect users. With the combined expertise of Google’s industry-leading research scientists and UChicago’s pioneering researchers, this collaboration is poised to generate breakthroughs that will shape the future of AI and security research.

Faculty and Research Focus Areas

The collaboration will be led by a distinguished group of UChicago faculty representing Data Science and Computer Science who bring expertise across AI, cybersecurity, and digital safety:

• Marshini Chetty, Associate Professor of Computer Science, will explore digital safety help-seeking behaviors, focusing particularly on how teens perceive and manage their digital privacy and security.
• Nick Feamster, Faculty Director of Tech Policy at the DSI and Neubauer Professor of Computer Science, will work alongside Marshini Chetty and Chenhao Tan, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Data Science, to develop new approaches to content moderation and the detection of AI-generated content. Professor Feamster will also work on a project to investigate the privacy implications of LLM plugins. 
• Grant Ho, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, will collaborate with Google to examine novel applications of LLMs for cybersecurity, including their use in detecting attacks or anomalies in audit logs.
• Blase Ur, Associate Professor of Computer Science, will lead a project on LLM-based AI safety agents to help at-risk users navigate digital safety threats.

The University of Chicago and Google look forward to this partnership and the significant impacts this research will have on the field of AI and security. For more information, visit datascience.uchicago.edu

About the University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a leading academic and research institution that has driven new ways of thinking since its founding in 1890. As an intellectual destination, the University draws scholars and students from around the world to its campuses and centers around the globe. The University provides a distinctive educational experience and research environment, empowering individuals to challenge conventional thinking and pursue field-defining research that produces new understanding and breakthroughs with global impact.

 

 

PREPSOIL Final Event: Facilitating the deployment of the Mission Soil across European regions

The PREPSOIL Final Event on May 26, 2025, in Brussels will bring together key stakeholders to advance soil health policies across Europe

Aarhus University

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Monday May 26, 2025, key stakeholders from across Europe will gather in Brussels at the Committee of the Regions for the PREPSOIL Final Event, marking a major step in advancing soil 
health policies and practices. The event will bring together policy-makers, researchers, and civil society representatives to discuss how the objectives of the Mission Soil and the proposed Soil 
Monitoring Law may be supported and implemented at regional and local scale across EU Member States and the role that regional and local actors can play in promoting sustainable soil 
management.

A Platform for Action and Collaboration
The event will feature expert presentations and interactive panel discussions aimed at equipping regions and local stakeholders with the tools needed to engage in the co-creation for protecting 
and restoring soils.

Four key sessions will explore the implementation of Mission Soil and the proposed Soil Monitoring Law to a national, regional (and sub-regional) scale. This includes the role of Soil Health Living Labs in being co-working spaces for soil health initiatives, and the potential of engaging local communities in soil health awareness and youth engagement.

A Call for Coordinated Action
With soil degradation threatening ecosystems and food security, coordinated action at the regional level is more urgent than ever. The PREPSOIL Final Event will serve as a milestone in 
Europe’s efforts to achieve healthy soils by 2050, offering a platform for knowledge-sharing, strategic planning, and long-term collaboration.

This event is a must-attend for policy-makers, researchers, and practitioners committed to sustainable soil management. Stay tuned for insights and outcomes that will shape the future of Europe’s soil health strategy.