title: Alpha and gamma band oscillations index differential processing of acoustically reduced and full forms.
abstract: Reduced forms like yeshay for yesterday often occur in conversations. Previous behavioral research reported a processing advantage for full over reduced forms. The present study investigated whether this processing advantage is reflected in a modulation of alpha (8-12Hz) and gamma (30+Hz) band activity. In three electrophysiological experiments, participants listened to full and reduced forms in isolation (Experiment 1), sentence-final position (Experiment 2), or mid-sentence position (Experiment 3). Alpha power was larger in response to reduced forms than to full forms, but only in Experiments 1 and 2. We interpret these increases in alpha power as reflections of higher auditory cognitive load. In all experiments, gamma power only increased in response to full forms, which we interpret as showing that lexical activation spreads more quickly through the semantic network for full than for reduced forms. These results confirm a processing advantage for full forms, especially in non-medial sentence position.
authors.affiliation: Radboud University, Centre for Language Studies, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Montessorilaan 3, 6525 HR Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: linda.drijvers@mpi.nl.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Drijvers
authors.affiliation: Radboud University, Centre for Language Studies, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Kimberley
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mulder
authors.affiliation: Radboud University, Centre for Language Studies, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mirjam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ernestus
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition; D065818:Gamma Rhythm; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cognitive load; Neuronal oscillations; Semantic integration; Speech comprehension; Speech reduction