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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Examining Gesture Production in the Presence of Communication Challenges
Published on: January 26, 2024
Gestures modulate speech processing early in utterances
1Center for Research in Language, UC San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA. ywu@cogsci.ucsd.edu
Abstract:
Electroencephalogram was recorded as healthy adults viewed short videos of spontaneous discourse in which a speaker used depictive gestures to complement information expressed through speech. Event-related potentials were computed time-locked to content words in the speech stream and to subsequent related and unrelated picture probes. Gestures modulated event-related potentials to content words co-timed with the first gesture in a discourse segment, relative to the same words presented with static freeze frames of the speaker. Effects were observed 200-550 ms after speech onset, a time interval associated with semantic processing. Gestures also increased sensitivity to picture probe relatedness. Effects of gestures on picture probe and spoken word analysis were inversely correlated, suggesting that gestures differentially impact verbal and image-based processes.
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