title: Grammatical markers switch roles and elicit different electrophysiological responses under shallow and deep semantic requirements.
abstract: Static knowledge about the grammar of a natural language is represented in the cortico-subcortical system. However, the differences in dynamic verbal processing under different cognitive conditions are unclear. To clarify this, we conducted an electrophysiological experiment involving a semantic priming paradigm in which semantically congruent or incongruent word sequences (prime nouns-target verbs) were randomly presented. We examined the event-related brain potentials that occurred in response to congruent and incongruent target words that were preceded by primes with or without grammatical case markers. The two participant groups performed either the shallow (lexical judgment) or deep (direct semantic judgment) semantic tasks. We hypothesized that, irrespective of the case markers, the congruent targets would reduce centro-posterior N400 activities under the deep semantic condition, which induces selective attention to the semantic relatedness of content words. However, the same congruent targets with correct case markers would reduce lateralized negativity under the shallow semantic condition because grammatical case markers are related to automatic structural integration under semantically unattended conditions. We observed that congruent targets (e.g., 'open') that were preceded by primes with congruent case markers (e.g., 'shutter-object case') reduced lateralized negativity under the shallow semantic condition. In contrast, congruent targets, irrespective of case markers, consistently yielded N400 reductions under the deep semantic condition. To summarize, human neural verbal processing differed in response to the same grammatical markers in the same verbal expressions under semantically attended or unattended conditions.
authors: Department of Humanity and Literatures, Faculty of Letters, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan; National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Takahiro
authors: T
authors: Soshi
authors: Department of English Language and Cultures, Faculty of Letters, Gakushuin University, Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Heizo
authors: H
authors: Nakajima
authors: Department of Humanity and Literatures, Faculty of Letters, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Language Sciences, Graduate School of Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Hiroko
authors: H
authors: Hagiwara
keywords: Neuroscience