Electrophysiological evidence of automatic early semantic processing.
This study investigates the automatic-controlled nature of early semantic processing by means of the Recognition Potential (RP), an event-related potential response that reflects lexical selection processes. For this purpose tasks differing in their processing requirements were used. Half of the participants performed a physical task involving a lower-upper case discrimination judgement (shallow processing requirements), whereas the other half carried out a semantic task, consisting in detecting animal names (deep processing requirements). Stimuli were identical in the two tasks. Reaction time measures revealed that the physical task was easier to perform than the semantic task. However, RP effects elicited by the physical and semantic tasks did not differ in either latency, amplitude, or topographic distribution. Thus, the results from the present study suggest that early semantic processing is automatically triggered whenever a linguistic stimulus enters the language processor.
Hinojosa
José A
JA
Brain Mapping Unit, Universidad Complutense, Pluridisciplinary Institute, UCM, Po. Juan XXIII, 1, Madrid 28040, Spain. hinojosa@pluri.ucm.es
Martín-Loeches
Manuel
M
Muñoz
Francisco
F
Casado
Pilar
P
Pozo
Miguel A
MA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*