title: N400 modulation by categorical or associative interference in a famous face naming task.
abstract: It is controversial whether the organization of biographical information relating to known persons is categorical or associative. To shed light on semantic organization, researchers have studied semantic access of proper names using priming or interference paradigms with associated and/or category-specific primes or distractors, in recognition, familiarity or naming tasks. Depending on the task, categorical and/or associative effects have been obtained. In order to disambiguate those conflicting results, in the present event-related potentials (ERP) study, we capitalized on the fact that the N400 component is sensitive to the congruity of a stimulus with the current semantic context. We used an interference paradigm with delayed naming, in which a celebrity face target and a proper name distractor (auditory stimulus) were either associated or belonged to the same category (in the control condition, the face was preceded by a white noise). The results showed an associative interference effect with a more negative N400 component for associated name distractors than in the other conditions. These results are consistent not only with a categorical organization but also with an associative organization of biographical information for people.
authors.affiliation: Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, LAPSCO, BP 10448, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France.
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Germain-Mondon
authors.forename: Laetitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Silvert
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Izaute
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005197:Famous Persons; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009275:Names; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D060865:Repetition Priming / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult