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

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.

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

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 2886-2898 ◽  
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.

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

PLoS ONE ◽  
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.

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

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Petrusic ◽  
Vojislav Jovanovic ◽  
Vanja Kovic ◽  
Andrej Savic
Keyword(s):  
Migraine With Aura ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
New Method ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
N400 Component ◽  
The Difference

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.

scholarly journals Electrophysiological signatures of English onomatopoeia

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
GABRIELLA VIGLIOCCO ◽  
YE ZHANG ◽  
NICOLA DEL MASCHIO ◽  
ROSANNA TODD ◽  
JYRKI TUOMAINEN
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Time Windows ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Semantic Activation ◽  
Level Ii ◽  
Lexical Effects ◽  
Related Potentials

abstractOnomatopoeia is widespread across the world’s languages. They represent a relatively simple iconic mapping: the phonological/phonetic properties of the word evokes acoustic related features of referents. Here, we explore the EEG correlates of processing onomatopoeia in English. Participants were presented with a written cue-word (e.g., leash) and then with a spoken target-word. The target-word was either an onomatopoeia (e.g., bark), a sound-related but arbitrary word (e.g., melody), or another arbitrary word (e.g., bike). Participants judged whether the cue- and the target-word were similar in meaning. We analysed Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) in different time-windows: (i) early (100–200 and 200–250 ms) to assess differences in processing at the form-level; (ii) the N400 time-window (300–500 ms) in order to establish if there are differences in semantic processing across our word-types; and (iii) late (600–900 ms) to assess post-lexical effects. We found that onomatopoeia differed from the other words in the N400 time-window: when cue and target were unrelated, onomatopoeic words led to greater negativity which can be accounted for in terms of enhanced semantic activation of onomatopoeia which leads to greater salience of the mismatch. We discuss results in the context of a growing body of literature investigating iconicity in language processing and development.

scholarly journals Neural signatures of predictive language processing in parkinson’s disease with and without mild cognitive impairment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia León-Cabrera ◽  
Javier Pagonabarraga ◽  
Joaquín Morís ◽  
Saúl Martínez-Horta ◽  
Juan Marín-Lahoz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Final Word ◽  
Related Potentials

ABSTRACTCognitive deficits are common in Parkinson’s disease (PD), with some PD patients meeting criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). An unaddressed question is whether linguistic prediction is preserved in PD. This ability is nowadays deemed crucial in achieving fast and efficient comprehension, and it may be negatively impacted by cognitive deterioration. To fill this gap of knowledge, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to evaluate mechanisms of linguistic prediction in a sample of PD patients (on dopamine compensation) with and without MCI. To this end, participants read sentence contexts that were predictive or not about a sentence-final word. The final word appeared after 1 second, matching or mismatching the prediction. The introduction of the interval allowed to capture neural responses both before and after sentence-final words, reflecting semantic anticipation and processing. PD patients with normal cognition (N = 58) showed ERP responses comparable to those of matched controls. Specifically, in predictive contexts, a slow negative potential developed prior to sentence-final words, reflecting semantic anticipation. Later, expected words elicited reduced N400 responses (compared to unexpected words), indicating facilitated semantic processing. Besides, PD patients with MCI (N = 20) showed a prolongation of the N400 congruency effect (compared to matched PD patients without MCI), indicating that further cognitive decline impacts semantic processing. Finally, lower verbal fluency scores correlated with prolonged N400 congruency effects and with reduced pre-word differences in all PD patients (N = 78). This relevantly points to a role of deficits in temporal-dependent mechanisms in PD, besides prototypical frontal dysfunction, in altered semantic anticipation and semantic processing during sentence comprehension.

scholarly journals Priming of object categorization within and across levels of specificity

Psihologija ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasna Martinovic ◽  
Thomas Gruber ◽  
Matthias Müller
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Object Identification ◽  
Early Event ◽  
Repetition Effects ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Related Potentials

Identification of objects can occur at different levels of specificity. Depending on task and context, an object can be classified at the superordinate level (as an animal), at the basic level (a bird) or at the subordinate level (a sparrow). What are the interactions between these representational levels and do they rely on the same sequential processes that lead to successful object identification? In this electroencephalogram study, a task-switching paradigm (covert naming or living/non-living judgment) was used. Images of objects were repeated either within the same task, or with a switch from a covert naming task to a living or non-living judgment and vice versa. While covert naming accesses entrylevel (basic or subordinate), living/non-living judgments rely on superordinate classification. Our behavioral results demonstrated clear priming effects within both tasks. However, asymmetries were found when task-switching had occurred, with facilitation for covert naming but not for categorization. We also found lower accuracy and early-starting and persistent enhancements of event-related potentials (ERPs) for covert naming, indicating that this task was more difficult and involved more intense perceptual and semantic processing. Perceptual priming was marked by consistent reductions of the ERP component L1 for repeated presentations, both with and without task switching. Additional repetition effects were found in early event-related activity between 150-190 ms (N1) when a repeated image had been named at initial presentation. We conclude that differences in N1 indicate task-related changes in the identification process itself. Such enhancements for covert naming again emerge in a later time window associated with depth of semantic processing. Meanwhile, L1 reflects modulations due to implicit memory of objects. In conclusion, evidence was found for representational overlap; changes in ERP markers started early and revealed cross-task priming at the level of object structure analysis and more intense perceptual and semantic processing for covert naming.

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

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.

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

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.

scholarly journals The Truth Before and After: Brain Potentials Reveal Automatic Activation of Event Knowledge during Sentence Comprehension

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 2215-2228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mante S. Nieuwland
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Critical Word ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Event Knowledge ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Automatic Activation ◽  
Truth Value

How does knowledge of real-world events shape our understanding of incoming language? Do temporal terms like “before” and “after” impact the online recruitment of real-world event knowledge? These questions were addressed in two ERP experiments, wherein participants read sentences that started with “before” or “after” and contained a critical word that rendered each sentence true or false (e.g., “Before/After the global economic crisis, securing a mortgage was easy/harder”). The critical words were matched on predictability, rated truth value, and semantic relatedness to the words in the sentence. Regardless of whether participants explicitly verified the sentences or not, false-after-sentences elicited larger N400s than true-after-sentences, consistent with the well-established finding that semantic retrieval of concepts is facilitated when they are consistent with real-world knowledge. However, although the truth judgments did not differ between before- and after-sentences, no such sentence N400 truth value effect occurred in before-sentences, whereas false-before-sentences elicited an enhanced subsequent positive ERPs. The temporal term “before” itself elicited more negative ERPs at central electrode channels than “after.” These patterns of results show that, irrespective of ultimate sentence truth value judgments, semantic retrieval of concepts is momentarily facilitated when they are consistent with the known event outcome compared to when they are not. However, this inappropriate facilitation incurs later processing costs as reflected in the subsequent positive ERP deflections. The results suggest that automatic activation of event knowledge can impede the incremental semantic processes required to establish sentence truth value.

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