title: PSPs and ERPs: applying the dynamics of post-synaptic potentials to individual units in simulation of temporally extended Event-Related Potential reading data.
abstract: The Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) framework is built on neural-style computation, and is thus well-suited for simulating the neural implementation of cognition. However, relatively little cognitive modeling work has concerned neural measures, instead focusing on behavior. Here, we extend a PDP model of reading-related components in the Event-Related Potential (ERP) to simulation of the N400 repetition effect. We accomplish this by incorporating the dynamics of cortical post-synaptic potentials--the source of the ERP signal--into the model. Simulations demonstrate that application of these dynamics is critical for model elicitation of repetition effects in the time and frequency domains. We conclude that by advancing a neurocomputational understanding of repetition effects, we are able to posit an interpretation of their source that is both explicitly specified and mechanistically different from the well-accepted cognitive one.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Binghamton, 4400 Vestal Parkway East, Binghamton, NY 13902, United States. Electronic address: cogneuro@alum.mit.edu.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laszlo
authors.affiliation: Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language, Paseo Mikeletegi 69, Piso 2, San Sebastian 20009, Spain.
authors.forename: Blair C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Armstrong
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008959:Models, Neurological; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D011932:Reading; D055366:Synaptic Potentials / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: ERPs; N400; Neural computation; Parallel distributed processing; Post-synaptic potentials; Repetition effects; Visual word recognition