title: Oscillatory Brain Dynamics during Sentence Reading: A Fixation-Related Spectral Perturbation Analysis.
abstract: The present study investigated oscillatory brain dynamics during self-paced sentence-level processing. Participants read fully correct sentences, sentences containing a semantic violation and "sentences" in which the order of the words was randomized. At the target word level, fixations on semantically unrelated words elicited a lower-beta band (13-18 Hz) desynchronization. At the sentence level, gamma power (31-55 Hz) increased linearly for syntactically correct sentences, but not when the order of the words was randomized. In the 300-900 ms time window after sentence onsets, theta power (4-7 Hz) was greater for syntactically correct sentences as compared to sentences where no syntactic structure was preserved (random words condition). We interpret our results as conforming with a recently formulated predictive-coding framework for oscillatory neural dynamics during sentence-level language comprehension. Additionally, we discuss how our results relate to previous findings with serial visual presentation vs. self-paced reading.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vignali
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Nicole A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Himmelstoss
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hawelka
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Richlan
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hutzler
keywords: brain oscillations; electroencephalography; eye movements; semantic violation; sentence processing