An ERP study of hemispheric differences in perceptual representations of language reveals meaning attribution in the right hemisphere and constituents of the N400-effect.

Autor: Male AG; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, USA. Electronic address: malea@uci.edu., Smith CA; Discipline of Psychology, College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia., Gouldthorp B; Discipline of Psychology, College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia; Hollywood Private Hospital, Perth, Australia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Brain and language [Brain Lang] 2021 Aug; Vol. 219, pp. 104963. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Jun 01.
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104963
Abstrakt: Recent findings have revealed that the right hemisphere (RH) is uniquely involved in integrating perceptual information from linguistic input to simulate a mental model of that input. We extend on these findings by testing whether meaning is generated from such models. Participants (N = 37) heard auditory passages describing the visuospatial arrangement of elements into a perceptual representation of a familiar object, then judged whether a laterally-presented target word matched the object. We found a central N400-effect for left visual-field targets, suggesting that meaning was also accessible to the RH. There was no statistical difference for right visual-field targets. Principle component analysis of the data revealed that the N400-effect was driven by positive components. Consequently, the results suggest that i) RH contributions to language comprehension include integrative and perceptual processes that enable overall meaning to be generated from representations of discourse, and ii) positive ERP components may produce N400-effects.
(Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE