title: ERP evidence of a meaningfulness impact on visual global/local processing: when meaning captures attention.
abstract: Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to investigate whether the meaningfulness of experimental stimuli impacted performances during global/local visual tasks. Participants were presented with compound stimuli, based on either meaningful letters, meaningful objects, or meaningless non-objects. The ERP recordings displayed typical early components, P1 and N1, evoked by task-related processes that affected global and local processes differently according to the meaningfulness of the stimuli. The effect of meaningfulness of the stimuli during global processing showed that P1 amplitudes were larger in response to objects and non-objects compared to letters, while letters and objects elicited larger N1 amplitudes than non-objects. Second, during local processing, the mean amplitudes of the ERPs recorded for object and letter stimuli were systematically smaller than the amplitudes recorded for non-object stimuli for both P1 and N1 components. In addition, object and letter stimuli elicited comparable mean ERP responses during local processing. These results are discussed in terms of the influences of both attentional and top-down identification processes. Taken together, these findings suggested that looking for meaning is crucial in the perception of visual scenes and that the meaningfulness nature of the stimuli should be taken into account in future studies.
authors.affiliation: EA 2027, Laboratoire de Psychopathologie et Neuropsychologie, University of Paris 8, 2 rue de la liberté, 93526 Saint Denis, France. Electronic address: virginie.beaucousin@univ-paris8.fr.
authors.forename: Virginie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Beaucousin
authors.affiliation: Centre de Gestion Scientifique, Mines ParisTech, 60, Boulevard Saint-Michel, 75272 Paris, France; UMR 6232, CI-NAPS, CNRS, CEA, University of Caen & University of Paris Descartes, Sorbonne, Campus Jules Horowitz, Bd Henri Becquerel, BP 5229, 14074 Caen Cedex 5, France. Electronic address: mat.cassotti@yahoo.fr.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cassotti
authors.affiliation: UMR 6232, CI-NAPS, CNRS, CEA, University of Caen & University of Paris Descartes, Sorbonne, Campus Jules Horowitz, Bd Henri Becquerel, BP 5229, 14074 Caen Cedex 5, France. Electronic address: simon@cyceron.fr.
authors.forename: Grégory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.affiliation: UMR 6232, CI-NAPS, CNRS, CEA, University of Caen & University of Paris Descartes, Sorbonne, Campus Jules Horowitz, Bd Henri Becquerel, BP 5229, 14074 Caen Cedex 5, France. Electronic address: pineau@cyceron.fr.
authors.forename: Arlette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pineau
authors.affiliation: EA 2027, Laboratoire de Psychopathologie et Neuropsychologie, University of Paris 8, 2 rue de la liberté, 93526 Saint Denis, France. Electronic address: milena.kostova@univ-paris8.fr.
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kostova
authors.affiliation: UMR 6232, CI-NAPS, CNRS, CEA, University of Caen & University of Paris Descartes, Sorbonne, Campus Jules Horowitz, Bd Henri Becquerel, BP 5229, 14074 Caen Cedex 5, France; Institut Universitaire de France, 103, Bd Saint-Michel, 75005 Paris, France. Electronic address: olivier.houde@parisdescartes.fr.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Houdé
authors.affiliation: UMR 6232, CI-NAPS, CNRS, CEA, University of Caen & University of Paris Descartes, Sorbonne, Campus Jules Horowitz, Bd Henri Becquerel, BP 5229, 14074 Caen Cedex 5, France. Electronic address: nicolas.poirel@parisdescartes.fr.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Poirel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult