Three kinds of rhymes: An ERP study

In a simple prime-target visual rhyming paradigm, pairs of words, nonwords, and single letters elicited similar event-related potential (ERP) rhyming effects in young adults. Within each condition, primes elicited contingent negative variation (CNV) while nonrhyming targets elicited more negative waveforms than rhyming targets within the 320-500ms (N400/N450) time window. The target rhyming effect, apparently primarily an index of phonological processing, was similar across conditions but tended to be smaller in mean amplitude for letters. One of the first reports of such a letter rhyming effect in the ERP literature, these findings could be important developmentally because letter rhyme tasks simultaneously index the two best predictors of ease of learning to read: letter name knowledge and phonological awareness.     

听觉呈现条件下汉语双字词语义和语音启动的ERP研究

在词汇决定实验中研究语义启动和语音启动,材料为通过听觉呈现的汉语双字词组成的词对(间隔600ms),记录行为数据和ERP数据,结果发现：(1)启动词与目标词之间的语义联系可显著改善对目标词的加工,表现为错误率降低、反应时缩短,以及N400波幅降低;(2)启动词与目标词之间的语音一致对目标词的加工既有干扰作用,又有促进作用。表现为错误率提高,但反应时趋向缩短,N400波幅亦呈下降趋势;(3)启动词与目标词首音相同比尾音相同有更大的干扰作用。     

An ERP investigation of conditional reasoning with emotional and neutral contents

In two experiments we investigate conditional reasoning using event-related potentials (ERPs). Our goal was to examine the time course of inference making in two conditional forms, one logically valid (Modus Ponens, MP) and one logically invalid (Affirming the Consequent, AC). We focus particularly on the involvement of semantically-based inferential processes potentially marked by modulations of the N400. We also compared reasoning about emotional and neutral contents with separate sets of stimuli of differing linguistic complexity across the two experiments. Both MP and AC modulated the N400 component, suggesting the involvement of a semantically-based inferential mechanism common across different logical forms, content types, and linguistic features of the problems. Emotion did not have an effect on early components, and did not interact with components related to inference making. There was a main effect of emotion in the 800–1050 ms time window, consistent with an effect on sustained attention. The results suggest that conditional reasoning is not a purely formal process but that it importantly implicates semantic processing, and that the effect of emotion on reasoning does not primarily operate through a modulation of early automatic stages of information processing.     

关于知觉干扰效应的ERP研究

利用ERP技术,采用知觉干扰效应的经典实验范式,首次从神经生理水平上探究知觉干扰效应的内部机制。结果发现,递进条件和标准条件均诱发了P2,P3,N400和晚期正成分LPC。在P2,P3和LPC成分上,标准条件的波幅均显著大于递进条件;在N400成分上,递进条件比标准条件波幅更负,潜伏期更长。此外,对递进条件下靶字各模糊水平（Level 1～Level 5）的ERPs进行比较分析表明,N400成分的波幅在各模糊水平间的差异均不显著。基本支持失匹配理论及词汇自动加工理论。     

Brain potentials for derivational morphology: an ERP study of deadjectival nominalizations in Spanish

This study investigates brain potentials to derived word forms in Spanish. Two experiments were performed on derived nominals that differ in terms of their productivity and semantic properties but are otherwise similar, an acceptability judgment task and a reading experiment using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in which correctly and incorrectly formed derived words were presented in sentence contexts. The first experiment indicated productivity differences between the different nominalization processes in Spanish. The second experiment yielded a pattern of ERP responses that differed from both the familiar lexical-semantic and grammatical ERP effects. Violations of derivational morphology elicited an increased N400 component plus a late positivity (P600), unlike gender-agreement violations, which produced the biphasic LAN/P600 ERP pattern known from previous studies of morpho-syntactic violations. We conclude that the recognition of derived word forms engages both word-level (lexical-semantic) and decompositional (morpheme-based) processes.     

Interplay between acoustic/phonetic and semantic processes during spoken sentence comprehension: an ERP study

When listening to speech in everyday-life situations, our cognitive system must often cope with signal instabilities such as sudden breaks, mispronunciations, interfering noises or reverberations potentially causing disruptions at the acoustic/phonetic interface and preventing efficient lexical access and semantic integration. The physiological mechanisms allowing listeners to react instantaneously to such fast and unexpected perturbations in order to maintain intelligibility of the delivered message are still partly unknown. The present electroencephalography (EEG) study aimed at investigating the cortical responses to real-time detection of a sudden acoustic/phonetic change occurring in connected speech and how these mechanisms interfere with semantic integration. Participants listened to sentences in which final words could contain signal reversals along the temporal dimension (time-reversed speech) of varying durations and could have either a low- or high-cloze probability within sentence context. Results revealed that early detection of the acoustic/phonetic change elicited a fronto-central negativity shortly after the onset of the manipulation that matched the spatio-temporal features of the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) recorded in the same participants during an oddball paradigm. Time reversal also affected late event-related potentials (ERPs) reflecting semantic expectancies (N400) differently when words were predictable or not from the sentence context. These findings are discussed in the context of brain signatures to transient acoustic/phonetic variations in speech. They contribute to a better understanding of natural speech comprehension as they show that acoustic/phonetic information and semantic knowledge strongly interact under adverse conditions.     

语义距离半球效应的ERP研究

以通过视觉通路呈现的汉语双字词为实验材料,操纵启动词与目标词的语义距离。在词汇决定实验中记录ERP,发现：（1）除N300外,P240亦对语义距离敏感,它可能是一种与语义加工有关的新的ERP成分;（2）P240在头皮中央偏左的部位较早出现,但在头皮右侧波幅较大;（3）N300和P240都不存在语义距离的半球效应,该结果没有证实右脑更专擅远距离语义加工的假设,表明使用汉语与使用拼音文字的脑机制存在差异。     

言语和非言语信号加工的早期分离——来自ERP研究的证据

利用128导事件相关电位技术,对19名正常被试在言语、峰鸣声和音乐刺激上产生的脑电早期外源性成分N1进行了考察。实验结果发现,在音素条件和蜂鸣声条件下,左侧额叶N1波幅显著高于右侧。偶极子溯源分析发现音素条件和蜂鸣声条件下的偶极子都位于左脑额叶,而音乐条件下的两个偶极子位于右脑额叶。证明范畴属性对信号加工大脑半球优势的影响在加工的早期就开始发挥作用。     

Early processing of emotional faces in children with autism: An event-related potential study

Social deficits are one of the most striking manifestations of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Among these social deficits, the recognition and understanding of emotional facial expressions has been widely reported to be affected in ASDs. We investigated emotional face processing in children with and without autism using event-related potentials (ERPs). High-functioning children with autism (n = 15, mean age = 10.5 ± 3.3 years) completed an implicit emotional task while visual ERPs were recorded. Two groups of typically developing children (chronological age-matched and verbal equivalent age-matched [both ns = 15, mean age = 7.7 ± 3.8 years]) also participated in this study. The early ERP responses to faces (P1 and N170) were delayed, and the P1 was smaller in children with autism than in typically developing children of the same chronological age, revealing that the first stages of emotional face processing are affected in autism. However, when matched by verbal equivalent age, only P1 amplitude remained affected in autism. Our results suggest that the emotional and facial processing difficulties in autism could start from atypicalities in visual perceptual processes involving rapid feedback to primary visual areas and subsequent holistic processing.     

物体分类任务中线索效应的ERP研究

本实验采用ERP技术,对图片分类任务中的线索效应进行研究。实验任务为:图形形状判断、动物/非动物判断。靶刺激图片前呈现线索。线索分为有效线索、无效线索和中性线索。结果发现:(1)有效线索条件下对靶刺激的早期知觉再认得到易化——知觉加工成分波幅下降;(2)有效线索条件下,靶刺激中与任务相关的信息得到加工——任务相关的特异性成分增强。有效线索易化对靶刺激的知觉辨认,提取与线索提供背景相关的信息,促进行为反应。     

An ERP study of famous face incongruity detection in middle age

Age-related changes in famous face incongruity detection were examined in middle-aged (mean = 50.6) and young (mean = 24.8) subjects. Behavioral and ERP responses were recorded while subjects, after a presentation of a "prime face" (a famous person with the eyes masked), had to decide whether the following "test face" was completed with its authentic eyes (congruent) or with other eyes (incongruent). The principal effects of advancing age were (1) behavioral difficulties in discriminating between incongruent and congruent faces; (2) a reduced N400 effect due to N400 enhancement for both congruent and incongruent faces; (3) a latency increase of both N400 and P600 components. ERPs to primes (face encoding) were not affected by aging. These results are interpreted in terms of early signs of aging.     

睡眠学习的ERP研究

夜间用脑电监测被试睡眠状态,并反复播放英语单词和中文对译词,第二天用词汇决定任务检查学习效果,并记录ERP,结果发现：（1）与未学过的英—中词对相比,被试对学过的词对中中文词的反应时明显缩短;（2）学过的词对中中文词引发的N600的波幅比未学过的明显降低。以上结果表明睡眠学习效果在内隐记忆测验中明显。另外发现被试几乎不能在播放学过的英语词时说出中文对译词,与未学过的词对相比没有显著差别,提示睡眠学习效果在外显记忆测验中不明显。以上结果表明,在本实验条件下,间接测验比直接测验更敏感。     

An ERP study on self-relevant object recognition

We performed an event-related potential study to investigate the self-relevance effect in object recognition. Three stimulus categories were prepared: SELF (participant's own objects), FAMILIAR (disposable and public objects, defined as objects with less-self-relevant familiarity), and UNFAMILIAR (others' objects). The participants' task was to watch the stimuli passively. Results showed that left-lateralized N250 activity differentiated SELF and FAMILIAR from UNFAMILIAR, but SELF and FAMILIAR were not differentiated. In the later time-course, SELF was dissociated from FAMILIAR, indicating the self-relevance effect in object recognition at this stage. This activity did not show consistent lateralization, in contrast to previous studies reporting right lateralization in self-relevant face and name recognition. We concluded that in object recognition, self-relevance was processed by higher-order cognitive functions later than 300ms after stimulus onset.     

Levels of visuo-spatial selection: An ERP study of negative priming

Usually, a probe target appearing in a recently ignored distractor location is less efficiently processed. This robust phenomenon is called (visuo-) spatial negative priming (SNP). Among other explanations, concepts of persisting or retrieved spatial inhibition play a major role. Two relevant issues were investigated using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The first pertains to context sensitivity of inhibition: Is a probe distractor necessary for SNP? The second concerns levels of processing at which spatial inhibition operates: Does SNP affect perception, selection, and/or stimulus classification? A localization task with and without probe distractors was employed while 64-channel EEG was recorded. Obviously, SNP does not require a probe distractor; the distractor-absent SNP effect was larger than the distractor-present SNP effect. Distractor-present SNP had two lateralized ERP effects, N1pc amplitude reduction and N2pc amplitude increase. Smaller N1pc may indeed reflect perceptual decrement, but was inversely related to size of behavioral SNP. By contrast, only strong-SNP participants showed N2pc increase, which points to selection disadvantage due to persisting inhibition of higher-level spatial representations. Distractor-absent SNP had no N1pc/N2pc correlates; instead, reduced amplitude of a broadly distributed P300 component suggests impaired stimulus classification due to episodic retrieval of inappropriate prime information. Overall, SNP seems to emerge from relatively late stages of processing, thus challenging the idea of context-free persisting inhibition of low-level spatial representations. Furthermore, distractor-present and distractor-absent SNP are qualitatively different from each other.     

Context and Complexity in Incremental Sentence Interpretation: An ERP Study on Temporal Quantification

The present event-related potential (ERP) study used picture–sentence verification to investigate the neurolinguistic correlates of the online processing of compositional-semantic information. To this end, we examined context effects on sentences involving temporal adverbial quantification likeJana war jeden Morgen schwimmen an den Arbeitstagen (“Jana went for a swim every morning during the working week”). We tested whether the conceptual complexity associated with quantifying over time intervals leads to delayed predictions regarding the upcoming words in a sentence. The present study replicated previous results relating to quantification over individuals, which are conceptually less complex than time intervals. Analogous to previous studies, false vs. true sentences elicited an N400 whenever contextual cues did not permit a potential revision of a locally assigned truth value. The present results are compatible with an approach under which contextual cues are immediately considered for predicting how a sentence continues. The fact that the contextual complexity did not lead to processing delays indicates that the processing system quickly abstracts away from the conceptual complexity associated with the linguistic input if such an abstraction is possible.     

Differentiation of stages in joke comprehension: Evidence from an ERP study

This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying joke comprehension using event‐related potentials (ERPs). Fourteen healthy college students were presented with the context of a story without its joke or nonjoke ending, and then, when the story ending was presented, they were asked to make a funny/unfunny judgment about these endings. The behavioral results showed that there was no significant difference between funny and unfunny items, which meant that subjects could understand funny items as easily as unfunny ones. However, the ERP results showed that funny items initially elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N350–450) over frontocentral scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the left temporal gyrus and the left medial frontal gyrus; it is suggested that these areas might be involved in detecting the incongruent element in joke comprehension. Between 600 and 800 ms, funny items subsequently elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N600–800) over frontocentral scalp regions and a more positive ERP deflection (P600–800) over posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), an area involved in the breaking of mental set/expectation and the forming of novel associations. Finally, funny items elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P1250–1400) over anterior and posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the middle frontal gyrus and the fusiform gyrus, areas that might be related to the affective appreciation stage in joke process. Unlike that of Coulson and Kutas (2001), the present study might support the hypothesis of a three stage model of humor processing (humor detection, resolution of incongruity and humor appreciation).     

Comparison of brain mechanisms underlying the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo-characters: an event-related potential study

Most Chinese characters are composed of a semantic radical on the left and a phonetic radical on the right. The semantic radical provides the semantic information; the phonetic radical provides information concerning the pronunciation of the whole character. The pseudo‐characters in the study consisted of different sub‐lexical parts of real Chinese characters and consequently they also had the semantic radical and the phonetic radical. But they were not readable and had no actual meaning. In order to investigate the spatiotemporal cortical activation patterns underlying the orthographic, phonological and semantic processing of Chinese characters, we used event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) to explore the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters when 14 healthy Chinese college students viewed the characters passively. Results showed that both Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters elicited an evident negative potential peaking around 120 ms (N120), which appeared to reflect initial orthographic distinction and evaluation. Then, Chinese pseudo‐characters elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P220) than did Chinese characters 200–250 ms after onset of the stimuli. It was similar to the recognition potential (RP) and might reflect the integration processes of phonological and semantic processing on the basis of early orthographic information. Dipole source analysis of the difference wave (pseudo‐characters minus characters) indicated that a generator localized in the left temporal‐occipital junction contributed to this effect, which was possibly related to phonological and perceptual–semantic information integration. Between 350–450 ms, a greater negativity (N360) in pseudo‐characters as compared to characters was found over midline fronto‐central scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator of N360 in the right parahippocampal cortex. Therefore, the N360 might be an N400 component and reflect the higher‐level semantic activation on the basis of orthographic, phonological and perceptual–semantic processing.     

汉字正字法家族效应的ERP研究

以汉字为实验材料,自变量为汉字正字法笔画家族大小,采用延迟反应的同一字判断任务,记录并研究大学生被试对刺激字的脑电(EEG)。本文对笔画家族的定义是,通过改变1~5笔笔画得到刺激字的正字法家族成员,改变的笔画不构成部件。脑电结果显示:大家族刺激字比小家族刺激字诱发更负的N400和N250成分、更低的P200,其中N400的结果与基于交互激活模型的二阶段理论的预期一致。     

跨通路识别汉字形音的偏差相关成分研究

采用提高非注意纯度的“跨通路延迟反应”实验范式,研究汉字形音识别的跨通路注意事件相关电位（ＥＲＰ）,以偏差刺激ＥＲＰ减去标准刺激ＥＲＰ的早期偏差相关负波（ＤＲＮ１）为主要分析对象。以１５名正常青年为被试。结果发现：无论注意与否及何种刺激,听觉Ｎ１最大峰均位于额中央部,而视觉Ｎ１最大峰位于两侧枕部与颠后部,具有明显的通路差异性。在本实验条件下,听觉与视觉通路的ＤＲＮ１与失匹配负波（ＭＭＮ）在许多性质上相似,反映着对汉字形音识别的自动加工。根据波幅及其头皮分布特点,注意条件下的Ｎ３５０很可能是Ｎ２００与Ｎ４００的重叠,并主要表现出Ｎ４００的特点;而非注意条件下的Ｎ３５０则可能是Ｎ２００。Ｎ３５０的属性因条件而异,表明ＥＲＰ成分反映的大脑加工机制具有可塑性。     

Brain responses to lexical-semantic priming in children at-risk for dyslexia

Deviances in early event-related potential (ERP) components reflecting auditory and phonological processing are well-documented in children at familial risk for dyslexia. However, little is known about brain responses which index processing in other linguistic domains such as lexicon, semantics and syntax in this group. The present study investigated effects of lexical-semantic priming in 20- and 24-month-olds at-risk for dyslexia and typically developing controls in two ERP experiments. In both experiments an early component assumed to reflect facilitated lexical processing for primed words was enhanced in the at-risk group compared to the control group. Moreover, an N400-like response which was prominent in the control group was attenuated or absent in at-risk children. Results suggest that deficiencies in young children at-risk for dyslexia are not restricted to perceptual and lower-level phonological abilities, but also affect higher order linguistic skills such as lexical and semantic processing.