title: Pseudohomophone effects provide evidence of early lexico-phonological processing in visual word recognition.
abstract: Previous research using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) suggested that phonological processing in visual word recognition occurs rather late, typically after semantic or syntactic processing. Here, we show that phonological activation in visual word recognition can be observed much earlier. Using a lexical decision task, we show that ERPs to pseudohomophones (PsHs) (e.g., ROZE) differed from well-matched spelling controls (e.g., ROFE) as early as 150 ms (P150) after stimulus onset. The PsH effect occurred as early as the word frequency effect suggesting that phonological activation occurs early enough to influence lexical access. Low-resolution electromagnetic tomography analysis (LORETA) revealed that left temporoparietal and right frontotemporal areas are the likely brain regions associated with the processing of phonological information at the lexical level. Altogether, the results show that phonological processes are activated early in visual word recognition and play an important role in lexical access.
authors: General and Neurocognitive Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. mario.braun@fu-berlin.de
authors: Mario
authors: M
authors: Braun
authors: Florian
authors: F
authors: Hutzler
authors: Johannes C
authors: JC
authors: Ziegler
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Dambacher
authors: Arthur M
authors: AM
authors: Jacobs
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult