title: Neural basis of the non-attentional processing of briefly presented words.
abstract: The neural basis of the automatic activation of words was investigated in an fMRI study. In the study, words were presented briefly (51 or 151 msec) followed by a mask. To prevent attentional processing, subjects attended to the masks and not the words, and were required to make perceptual judgment about the masks. We found that a distributed neural network (including the frontal, temporal, occipital, parietal lobes, and the cerebellum) was activated during non-attentional processing of words in both exposure durations. A significant main effect of presentation duration was found in bilateral cerebellum and the right fusiform gyrus, suggesting their role in the later (151 msec) processing of words. In addition, a significant interaction between presentation duration and word frequency was obtained. When the presentation duration was 151 msec, no significant difference in activation was found between high- and low-frequency words. Alternatively, when the presentation duration was 51 msec, high-frequency words evoked significantly greater activation in bilateral fusiform gyri, cerebellum, right inferior parietal lobe, medial frontal gyrus (BA 45/46/9), and the right temporal-occipital junction (BA 21/37). These results suggest that these regions are sensitive to word frequency, and are related to both the attentional and non-attentional access of lexical representations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. pdl3507@bnu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Dan-ling
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Duo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Guo-sheng
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Conrad
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D013997:Time Factors