Half-time seminar: Christoffer Forbes Schieche, PhD student at the Department of Linguistics, SU

Abstract

Understanding each other in conversation often requires us to go beyond the literal meaning of utterances. In my PhD project, I use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how the neural basis of such pragmatic processes varies across individuals, development, and neurotype. Throughout the project, I consider how this variation relates to brain networks associated with different cognitive functions, including the language, Theory of Mind (ToM), Multiple Demand, and Default Mode networks.

In this seminar, I will present completed and ongoing work, as well as some plans for the remaining part of the project.

• The first study, published in 2025, investigated resting-state functional connectivity in adults with differing pragmatic skill level. Adults with higher pragmatic skill showed stronger connectivity between two parietal regions previously associated with pragmatics. In contrast, Bayesian analyses supported an absence of group differences in connectivity within and between the language and ToM networks, and between these networks and the two parietal regions. We interpret these results as an indication for a partial segregation of pragmatics from language and ToM.
• In the second study, we compared the processing of indirect and direct speech acts across younger and older adolescents and adults with differing pragmatic skill. Adults with higher pragmatic skill showed greater activity for indirect than direct speech acts within the dorsal posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC), whereas adolescents and adults with lower pragmatic skill showed the opposite pattern. Bayesian analysis provided moderate support for the absence of differences between adolescents and adults with lower pragmatic skill in this region. The region overlaps with the Default Mode Network and I will discuss the possible role of such processes within pragmatic comprehension.
  
• An ongoing third study, compares pragmatic processing in adolescents with and without ADHD. Preliminary findings indicate greater activity in the typically developing group in a cluster in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Further analyses will examine this difference and its interpretation.

Finally, I will briefly describe possible next steps for further studies of pragmatic processing and conversational interaction in adults with and without ADHD.

About Christoffer Forbes Schieche