Characteristics of N400 component elicited in patients who have migraine with aura

Abstract Background This study aimed to examine the N400 effect and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited from congruent and incongruent stimuli in patients who have migraines with aura (MwA). Methods A total of 33 MwA patients and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were studied. They were balanced in age (35.12 ± 8.94 vs 34.70 ± 9.59 years, p = 0.872) and sex (69.7 vs 75.0% females, p = 0.761). ERPs were measured in response to both stimuli, where pictures were preceded with an object name that either matched or mismatched with the object. Averaged amplitudes, peaks, peak latencies, difference waves and topography were compared between MwA and HCs. Results MwA patients had significantly lower averaged amplitudes at the Fz and F4 sites during incongruent stimuli, as well as reduced peaks at the C3 and Pz sites. Topography showed a more widespread N400 effect over scalp relative to HCs. The difference ERP waveforms did not differ in the N400 effect between groups, but the P600 effect was significantly stronger in the HCs group relative to the MwA group at the Pz (6.52 ± 2.57 vs. 3.50 ± 3.15, p = 0.001) and P4 (5.86 ± 2.79 vs. 3.95 ± 3.64, p = 0.040) sites. Conclusions Picture-word matching tasks could serve as a potential new method for the investigation of semantic processing in MwA patients.

Download Full-text

Changes in face and face pareidolia processing in patients with migraine: an ERP study

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00549.2019 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 123 (3) ◽

pp. 876-884 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Gülsüm Akdeniz ◽

Sadiye Gumusyayla ◽

Gonul Vural ◽

Hesna Bektas ◽

Orhan Deniz

Keyword(s):

Migraine With Aura ◽

Migraine Without Aura ◽

Cortical Excitability ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Positive Potential ◽

Cortical Hyperexcitability ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Related Potentials

Migraine is a multifactorial brain disorder characterized by recurrent disabling headache attacks. One of the possible mechanisms in the pathogenesis of migraine may be a decrease in inhibitory cortical stimuli in the primary visual cortex attributable to cortical hyperexcitability. The aim of this study was to investigate the neural correlates underlying face and face pareidolia processing in terms of the event-related potential (ERP) components, N170, vertex positive potential (VPP), and N250, in patients with migraine. In total, 40 patients with migraine without aura, 23 patients with migraine and aura, and 30 healthy controls were enrolled. We recorded ERPs during the presentation of face and face pareidolia images. N170, VPP, and N250 mean amplitudes and latencies were examined. N170 was significantly greater in patients with migraine with aura than in healthy controls. VPP amplitude was significantly greater in patients with migraine without aura than in healthy controls. The face stimuli evoked significantly earlier VPP responses to faces (168.7 ms, SE = 1.46) than pareidolias (173.4 ms, SE = 1.41) in patients with migraine with aura. We did not find a significant difference between N250 amplitude for face and face pareidolia processing. A significant difference was observed between the groups for pareidolia in terms of N170 [F(2,86) = 14,75, P < 0.001] and VPP [F(2,86) = 16.43, P < 0.001] amplitudes. Early ERPs are a valuable tool to study the neural processing of face processing in patients with migraine to demonstrate visual cortical hyperexcitability. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Event-related potentials (ERPs) are important for understanding face and face pareidolia processing in patients with migraine. N170, vertex positive potential (VPP), and N250 ERPs were investigated. N170 was revealed as a potential component of cortical excitability for face and face pareidolia processing in patients with migraine.

Download Full-text

No fruits without color: Cross-modal priming and EEG reveal different roles for different features across semantic categories

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0234219 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. e0234219

Author(s):

Georgette Argiris ◽

Raffaella I. Rumiati ◽

Davide Crepaldi

Keyword(s):

Semantic Processing ◽

Fruits And Vegetables ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Semantic Category ◽

N400 Effect ◽

Semantic Categories ◽

Natural Entities ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Orientation Feature

Category-specific impairments witnessed in patients with semantic deficits have broadly dissociated into natural and artificial kinds. However, how the category of food (more specifically, fruits and vegetables) fits into this distinction has been difficult to interpret, given a pattern of deficit that has inconsistently mapped onto either kind, despite its intuitive membership to the natural domain. The present study explores the effects of a manipulation of a visual sensory (i.e., color) or functional (i.e., orientation) feature on the consequential semantic processing of fruits and vegetables (and tools, by comparison), first at the behavioral and then at the neural level. The categorization of natural (i.e., fruits/vegetables) and artificial (i.e., utensils) entities was investigated via cross–modal priming. Reaction time analysis indicated a reduction in priming for color-modified natural entities and orientation-modified artificial entities. Standard event-related potentials (ERP) analysis was performed, in addition to linear classification. For natural entities, a N400 effect at central channel sites was observed for the color-modified condition compared relative to normal and orientation conditions, with this difference confirmed by classification analysis. Conversely, there was no significant difference between conditions for the artificial category in either analysis. These findings provide strong evidence that color is an integral property to the categorization of fruits/vegetables, thus substantiating the claim that feature-based processing guides as a function of semantic category.

Download Full-text

Semantic feedback processing mechanism of the enactment effect: Evidence from event-related potentials

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/17470218211047944 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174702182110479

Author(s):

Lijuan Wang ◽

Zhanyu Yu ◽

Zhi Ren ◽

Jialin Ma

Keyword(s):

Semantic Processing ◽

Blow Up ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Semantic Integration ◽

Feedback Processing ◽

Enactment Effect ◽

Related Potentials ◽

N400 Component ◽

Processing Mechanism

The enactment effect refers to a phenomenon in which the memory performance for action phrases is enhanced by performing the described action (e.g., sharpen a pencil) compared with simply reading the action phrase. This produced effect can result in improved motor processing. This study investigated the contribution of semantic integration to the enactment effect by contrasting well-integrated phrases, such as “blow up the balloon,” with poorly integrated phrases, such as “sew the toothpick,” and analysing the N400 component of event-related potentials (ERPs). The subjects encoded action phrases with different degrees of semantic integration by either pretending to perform or reading action phrases. They then completed a phrase recognition test, while electroencephalographic signals were simultaneously recorded. The behavioural results showed that semantic integration improved memory performance under the motor encoding condition but not under the verbal encoding condition. The ERP results revealed that, regardless of whether it was an old (memorised) or new (distractor) phrase, a larger N400 component was elicited under the motor encoding condition than under the verbal encoding condition. In the motor encoding condition, poorly integrated phrases elicited a larger N400 component than well-integrated phrases; in the verbal encoding condition, this effect was not observed. The N400 effect associated with semantic processing was enhanced by semantic integration under the motor encoding condition rather than the verbal encoding condition. These results supported a deep semantic processing mechanism under the motor encoding condition, and a semantic feedback processing mechanism for the enactment effect was partially supported.

Download Full-text

Concurrent use of animacy and event-knowledge during comprehension: Evidence from event-related potentials

10.31234/osf.io/2qbmp ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Mariana Vega-Mendoza ◽

Martin John Pickering ◽

Mante S. Nieuwland

Keyword(s):

Real World ◽

Semantic Processing ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Time Window ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Semantic Relatedness ◽

Judgment Task ◽

N400 Effect ◽

Event Knowledge ◽

Related Potentials

In two ERP experiments, we investigated whether readers prioritize animacy over real-world event-knowledge during sentence comprehension. We used the paradigm of Paczynski and Kuperberg (2012), who argued that animacy is prioritized based on the observations that the ‘related anomaly effect’ (reduced N400s for context-related anomalous words compared to unrelated words) does not occur for animacy violations, and that animacy violations but not relatedness violations elicit P600 effects. Participants read passive sentences with plausible agents (e.g., The prescription for the mental disorder was written by the psychiatrist) or implausible agents that varied in animacy and semantic relatedness (schizophrenic/guard/pill/fence). In Experiment 1 (with a plausibility judgment task), plausible sentences elicited smaller N400s relative to all types of implausible sentences. Moreover, animate words elicited smaller N400s than inanimate words, and related words elicited smaller N400s than unrelated words. Crucially, at the P600 time-window, we observed more positive ERPs for animate than inanimate words and for related than unrelated words at anterior regions. In Experiment 2 (with no judgment task), we observed an N400 effect with animacy violations, but no other effects. Taken together, the results of our experiments fail to support a prioritized role of animacy information over real-world event-knowledge, but they support an interactive, constraint-based view on incremental semantic processing.

Download Full-text

Electrophysiological Correlates of Character Transposition in the Left and Right Visual Fields

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684849 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Er-Hu Zhang ◽

Xue-Xian Lai ◽

Defeng Li ◽

Victoria Lai Cheng Lei ◽

Yiqiang Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Field ◽

Semantic Processing ◽

Visual Fields ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Visual Presentation ◽

Right Visual Field ◽

N400 Effect ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Whole Word

This study examined the brain activity elicited by the hemispheric asymmetries and morpheme transposition of two-character Chinese words (canonical and transposed word) and pseudowords using event-related potentials (ERPs) with a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. Electrophysiological results showed facilitation effects for canonical words with centrally presented visual field (CVF) and right visual field (RVF) presentations but not with left visual field (LVF) presentations, as reflected by less negative N400 amplitudes. Moreover, more positive late positive component (LPC) amplitudes were observed for both canonical words and transposed words irrespective of the visual fields. More importantly, transposed words elicited a more negative N400 amplitude and a less positive LPC amplitude compared with the amplitudes elicited by canonical words for CVF and RVF presentations. For LVF presentations, transposed words elicited a less negative N250 amplitude compared with canonical words, and there was no significant difference between canonical words and transposed words in the N400 effect. Taken together, we concluded that character transposition facilitated the mapping of whole-word orthographic representation to semantic information in the LVF, as reflected by the N250 component, and such morpheme transposition influenced whole-word semantic processing in CVF and RVF presentations, as reflected by N400 and LPC components.

Download Full-text

No fruits without color: Cross-modal priming and EEG reveal different roles for different features across semantic categories

10.1101/2020.05.22.110338 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Georgette Argiris ◽

Raffaella I. Rumiati ◽

Davide Crepaldi

Keyword(s):

Semantic Processing ◽

Fruits And Vegetables ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Semantic Category ◽

N400 Effect ◽

Semantic Categories ◽

Natural Entities ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Orientation Feature

AbstractCategory-specific impairments witnessed in patients with semantic deficits have broadly dissociated into natural and artificial kinds. However, how the category of food (more specifically, fruits and vegetables) fits into this distinction has been difficult to interpret, given a pattern of deficit that has inconsistently mapped onto either kind, despite its intuitive membership to the natural domain. The present study explores the effects of a manipulation of a visual sensory (i.e., color) or functional (i.e., orientation) feature on the consequential semantic processing of fruits and vegetables (and tools, by comparison), first at the behavioral and then at the neural level. The categorization of natural (i.e., fruits/vegetables) and artificial (i.e., utensils) entities was investigated via cross–modal priming. Reaction time analysis indicated a reduction in priming for color-modified natural entities and orientation-modified artificial entities. Standard event-related potentials (ERP) analysis was performed, in addition to linear classification. For natural entities, a N400 effect at central channel sites was observed for the color-modified condition compared relative to normal and orientation conditions, with this difference confirmed by classification analysis. Conversely, there was no significant difference between conditions for the artificial category in either analysis. These findings provide strong evidence that color is an integral property to the categorization of fruits/vegetables, thus substantiating the claim that feature-based processing guides as a function of semantic category.

Download Full-text

Modulation of Event-Related Potentials by Semantic Priming: Effects of Color-Cued Selective Attention

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.1996.8.2.155 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 155-173 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Marion L. Kellenbach ◽

Patricia T. Michie

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Semantic Priming ◽

Semantic Processing ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Decision Task ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Attentional Processing ◽

Latency Range ◽

Related Potentials ◽

N400 Component

The processing nature of N400, an event-related brain potential (ERP) component associated with semantic processing, was investigated in a paradigm combining a semantic priming lexical decision task and color-cued selective attention. Semantic priming effects on ERPs and reaction time (RT) were examined when targets and preceding semantically related primes were either both attended or both unattended, and when only either the prime or target was the focus of attention. Priming effects were determined by comparing semantically primed target ERPs (and RTs when appropriate) to their prime (in those conditions where the prime and target had the same attentional status) and/or to an unprimed control target matched to the attentional status of the primed target. Control stimuli were examined for ERP effects of color-cued selective attention unconfounded by priming factors. Experiment 1 required overt responses to words and nonwords in a binary choice task, while Experiment 2 required response only to nonwords. RTs in Experiment 1 indicated facilitatory priming effects to all semantically primed attended targets. In Experiments 1 and 2 ERPs to primes and controls were consistently more negative than the primed target trace in the N400 latency range in conditions with attended primes, suggesting priming effects on N400 are contingent on attentional processing of the prime. Removal of the attention manipulation (Experiment 3) resulted in an N400 component with a well-defined peak not evident in the first two experiments, indicating modulation of N400 by overlapping effects of attention.

Download Full-text

Speech and Span: Working Memory Capacity Impacts the Use of Animacy but Not of World Knowledge during Spoken Sentence Comprehension

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21400 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (12) ◽

pp. 2886-2898 ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

Hiroko Nakano ◽

Clifford Saron ◽

Tamara Y. Swaab

Keyword(s):

Semantic Processing ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

World Knowledge ◽

Thematic Roles ◽

N400 Effect ◽

Thematic Relations ◽

Related Potentials ◽

On Line

We present results from a study demonstrating that high- and low-span listeners show qualitatively different brain responses when comprehending simple active sentences. Participants listened to naturally produced sentences in three conditions in which the plausibility of thematic relations was manipulated, for instance: The dog(1)/The poet(2)/The box(3) is biting the mailman. Event-related potentials were recorded to the first noun, the verb, and the second noun in all three conditions. In (2), the thematic relations between the words in the sentence are less expected given our world knowledge, and this resulted in an N400 effect of semantic processing difficulty to the second noun for both high- and low-span subjects. In (3), the inanimate first noun cannot be the agent of the verb. Only high-span subjects showed an effect of animacy on the sentence-initial nouns, evident from a larger anterior negative shift to inanimate than animate nouns. Furthermore, to the thematically violated verbs (3), low-span subjects showed an N400, whereas high-span subjects generated a P600. We suggest that this P600 effect to the thematically violated verb may be related to processing costs resulting from a conflict between the provisional thematic roles assigned as a function of the inanimate sentence-initial noun, and the actual (animate) agent required by the verb. We further argue that low-span subjects lag behind those with high span in their use of animacy, but not real-world knowledge in the on-line computation of thematic roles in spoken language comprehension.

Download Full-text

The Neurobiology of Reading Differs for Deaf and Hearing Adults

The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Learning and Cognition ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190054045.013.25 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 346-359

Author(s):

Karen Emmorey

Keyword(s):

Semantic Processing ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Coarse Grained ◽

Reading Success ◽

Deaf Readers ◽

Electrophysiological Studies ◽

Deaf Adults ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Reading System ◽

New Evidence

Recent neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies reveal how the reading system successfully adapts when phonological codes are relatively coarse-grained due to reduced auditory input during development. New evidence suggests that the optimal end-state for the reading system may differ for deaf versus hearing adults and indicates that certain neural patterns that are maladaptive for hearing readers may be beneficial for deaf readers. This chapter focuses on deaf adults who are signers and have achieved reading success. Although the left-hemisphere-dominant reading circuit is largely similar in both deaf and hearing individuals, skilled deaf readers exhibit a more bilateral neural response to written words and sentences than their hearing peers, as measured by event-related potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Skilled deaf readers may also rely more on neural regions involved in semantic processing than hearing readers do. Overall, emerging evidence indicates that the neural markers for reading skill may differ for deaf and hearing adults.

Download Full-text