Electrophysiological indices of brain activity to "the" in discourse.
In a first experiment, we recorded event-related-potentials (ERPs) to "the" followed by meaningful words (Story) versus "the" followed by nonsense syllables (Nonse). Left and right lateral anterior positivities (LAPs) were seen from the onset of "the" up to 200 ms in both conditions. Later than 200 ms following the onset of "the", the left and right LAPs continued for "the" in the Story, but were replaced by a negativity in the Nonse Condition. In a second experiment, ERPs were recorded to "the" in the Story and Nonse contexts mixed together under two different task instructions (attend to the auditory stimuli versus ignore the auditory stimuli). The same pattern of findings as Experiment 1 were observed for the Story and Nonse contexts when the participants attended to the auditory stimuli. Ignoring the auditory stimuli led to an attenuation of the right LAP, supporting the hypothesis that it is an index of discourse processing.
Shafer
Valerie L
VL
City University of New York and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Program in Speech and Hearing Sciences, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA. vshafer@gc.cuny.edu
Kessler
Kathy L
KL
Schwartz
Richard G
RG
Morr
Mara L
ML
Kurtzberg
Diane
D
D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics