An electrophysiological investigation of discourse coherence in healthy adults.
This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate discourse-coherence processing. Because there are scant data on ERP indices of discourse coherence in typical adults, it is important to study a non-clinical population before examining clinical populations. Twelve adults listened to a story with sentences in a coherent versus incoherent order. Sequences of nonsense syllables served as a control. ERPs in the 200-400 ms time window, reflecting phonological and lexical processing, and in the 600-900 ms time window, reflecting later discourse processing for integration, were investigated. Results revealed a right anterior and posterior positivity that was greater for coherent than for incoherent discourse during the 600-900 ms time window. These findings point to an index of discourse coherence and further suggest that ERPs can be used as a clinical tool to study discourse-processing disorders in populations with brain damage, such as aphasia and traumatic brain injury.
Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, Queens College, City University of New York , USA .
Yael
Y
Neumann
Baila
B
Epstein
Yan H
YH
Yu
April A
AA
Benasich
Valerie
V
Shafer
D000328:Adult; D001037:Aphasia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*
Aphasia; discourse coherence; event-related potentials; lateralized anterior positivity (LAP)