On the Proper Treatment of the N400 and P600 in Language Comprehension

Brouwer, Harm; Crocker, Matthew W.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01327

Cited by 59 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Notably, this LPC was not initiated directly following the parafoveal N400, resulting in a substantial deviation from the timing of the typical biphasic N400‐LPC pattern attested in prior work (e.g., Brouwer & Crocker, ; Delong, Urbach, Groppe, & Kutas, , ; Hoeks, Stowe, & Doedens, ). We conducted a detailed onset latency analysis of the LPC difference wave (incongruent − unexpected) in the plausibility judgment condition, showing that the effect onset was well outside of the window typical of the LPC (which is canonically measured from ~500‒800 ms poststimulus onset).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Event‐related brain potentials reveal how multiple aspects of semantic processing unfold across parafoveal and foveal vision during sentence reading

2019

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Recent event‐related brain potential (ERP) experiments have demonstrated parafoveal N400 expectancy and congruity effects, showing that semantic information can be accessed from words in parafoveal vision (a conclusion also supported by some eye‐tracking work). At the same time, it is unclear how higher‐order integrative aspects of language comprehension unfold across the visual field during reading. In the current study, we recorded ERPs in a parafoveal flanker paradigm, while readers were instructed to read passively for comprehension or to judge the plausibility of sentences in which target words varied in their semantic expectancy and congruity. We directly replicated prior work showing graded N400 effects for parafoveal viewing, which are then not duplicated when the target words are processed foveally. Critically, although N400 effects were not modulated by task goals, a posteriorly distributed late positive component thought to reflect semantic integration processes was observed to semantic incongruities only in the plausibility judgment task. However, this effect was observed at a considerable delay, appearing only after words had moved into foveal vision. Our findings thus suggest that semantic access can be initiated in parafoveal vision, whereas central foveal vision may be necessary to enact higher‐order (and task‐dependent) integrative processing.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Event‐related brain potentials reveal how multiple aspects of semantic processing unfold across parafoveal and foveal vision during sentence reading

2019

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“…The P600 was long understood to be a manifestation of syntactic processing, whereas the N400 was associated with semantic processing. Therefore, after the finding that the P600 was elicited by a semantic anomaly, researchers have re-examined the sources of the P600, and the processing behind the P600 is still under intense discussion (Gouvea et al, 2010;Brouwer et al, 2012;Brouwer and Crocker, 2017). However, the exact comparison between each finding is difficult because the experiments that reported the P600 are different in terms of the constructions, languages, and experimental settings.…”

Section: Semantic Anomalymentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Linking Between Negative and Positive ERPs for Syntactic Processing in Japanese: Mutual Enhancement, Syntactic Prediction, and Working Memory Constraints

2019

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This study attempts to detect the differences in event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with two syntactic processes: the syntactic integration of discontinuous dependency and the detection of a violation of the syntactic island constraint. We recorded the electroencephalogram elicited by complex sentences in Japanese that included a dependency between a quantifier and its head noun, in which we changed the word order of the two words to manipulate the presence and absence of a syntactic integration and a syntactic island violation while keeping the lexical items and construction unchanged. We found significant negative and positive deflections for the syntactic integration only when a quantifier preceded its head noun. We also observed significant negative and positive deflections for the syntactic island violation, for which the negativity was more salient when a quantifier preceded its head noun. This study is the first to report a late positive ERP for a violation of the syntactic island constraints in Japanese, and the results showed that the ERP elicited by syntactic integration and that by syntactic island violation were different in terms of their latency, topography, and duration. More importantly, the ERPs elicited by the two syntactic processes were biphasic, and the amplitudes of the negative ERP and of the positive ERP were positively correlated. This positive correlation could be a characteristic of syntactic processing because it contrasted with the negative correlation reported for the ERP elicited by semantic anomalies in English. Furthermore, the amplitude of the ERP for syntactic integration was negatively correlated with the individual capacity of working memory (WM). That is, a reader with greater WM capacity showed smaller negativity and positivity for the syntactic integration, whereas the amplitude for the syntactic island violation showed no significant correlation with the individual capacity of WM. Our results suggested that linguistic ERPs functionally interacted with each other and that the ERP involving the retention and the retrieval of a distant word could be constrained by the individual differences in WM capacity. We discuss the possible reasons for the contrast between English and Japanese on the basis of the cross-linguistic differences in the two languages.

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“…3 Note that the fact that the two elaborate conditions seem not to differ from each other in the P600 time window is likely due to component overlap. Since the processes underlying the N400 and the P600 may overlap in time, the amplitudes of the two components are likely to affect each other, as noticed in the literature (Brouwer & Crocker, 2017;Brouwer & Hoeks, 2013;Hagoort, 2003;Kutas, van Petten, & Kluender, 2006;Thornhill & van Petten, 2012, for a related proposal, see Tarren & Hell, 2014). In the 350-550 ms time window, coarse boundary targets are more negative than fine boundary targets (the N400 effect).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

On the predictability of event boundaries in discourse: An ERP investigation

2017

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When reading a text describing an everyday activity, comprehenders build a model of the situation described that includes prior knowledge of the entities, locations, and sequences of actions that typically occur within the event. Previous work has demonstrated that such knowledge guides the processing of incoming information by making event boundaries more or less expected. In the present ERP study, we investigated whether comprehenders' expectations about event boundaries are influenced by how elaborately common events are described in the context. Participants read short stories in which a common activity (e.g., washing the dishes) was described either in brief or in an elaborate manner. The final sentence contained a target word referring to a more predictable action marking a fine event boundary (e.g., drying) or a less predictable action, marking a coarse event boundary (e.g., jogging). The results revealed a larger N400 effect for coarse event boundaries compared to fine event boundaries, but no interaction with description length. Between 600 and 1000 ms, however, elaborate contexts elicited a larger frontal positivity compared to brief contexts. This effect was largely driven by less predictable targets, marking coarse event boundaries. We interpret the P600 effect as indexing the updating of the situation model at event boundaries, consistent with Event Segmentation Theory (EST). The updating process is more

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On the Proper Treatment of the N400 and P600 in Language Comprehension

Cited by 59 publications

References 28 publications

Event‐related brain potentials reveal how multiple aspects of semantic processing unfold across parafoveal and foveal vision during sentence reading

Event‐related brain potentials reveal how multiple aspects of semantic processing unfold across parafoveal and foveal vision during sentence reading

Functional Linking Between Negative and Positive ERPs for Syntactic Processing in Japanese: Mutual Enhancement, Syntactic Prediction, and Working Memory Constraints

On the predictability of event boundaries in discourse: An ERP investigation

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