| 1. |
- Alemán Bañón, José, et al.
(författare)
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The role of crosslinguistic differences in second language anticipatory processing : An event-related potentials study
- 2021
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 155
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study uses event-related potentials to investigate how crosslinguistic (dis)similarities modulate anticipatory processing in the second language (L2). Participants read predictive stories in English that made a genitive construction consisting of a third-person singular possessive pronoun and a kinship noun (e.g., his mother) likely in an upcoming continuation. The possessive pronoun?s form depended on the antecedent?s natural gender, which had been previously established in the stories. The continuation included either the expected genitive construction or an unexpected one with a possessive pronoun of the opposite gender. We manipulated crosslinguistic (dis)similarity by comparing advanced English learners with either Swedish or Spanish as their L1. While Swedish has equivalent possessive pronouns that mark the antecedent?s natural gender (i.e., hans/hennes ?his/her?), Spanish does not. In fact, Spanish possessive pronouns mark the syntactic features (number, gender) of the possessed noun (e.g., nosotros queremos a nuestra madre ?we-MASC love our-FEM mother-FEM). Twenty-four native speakers of English elicited an N400 effect for prenominal possessives that were unexpected based on the possessor noun?s natural gender, consistent with the possibility that they activated the pronoun?s form or its semantic features (natural gender). Thirty-two Swedish-speaking learners yielded a qualitatively and quantitatively native-like N400 for unexpected prenominal possessives. In contrast, twenty-five Spanish-speaking learners showed a P600 effect for unexpected possessives, consistent with the possibility that they experienced difficulty integrating a pronoun that mismatched the expected gender. Results suggest that differences with respect to the features encoded in the activated representation result in different predictive mechanisms among adult L2 learners.
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| 2. |
- Andin, Josefine, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Reorganization of large-scale brain networks in deaf signing adults: The role of auditory cortex in functional reorganization following deafness
- 2022
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 166
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- If the brain is deprived of input from one or more senses during development, functional and structural reorganization of the deprived regions takes place. However, little is known about how sensory deprivation affects large-scale brain networks. In the present study, we use data-driven independent component analysis (ICA) to characterize large-scale brain networks in 15 deaf early signers and 24 hearing non-signers based on resting-state functional MRI data. We found differences between the groups in independent components representing the left lateralized control network, the default network, the ventral somatomotor network, and the attention network. In addition, we showed stronger functional connectivity for deaf compared to hearing individuals from the middle and superior temporal cortices to the cingulate cortex, insular cortex, cuneus and precuneus, supramarginal gyrus, supplementary motor area, and cerebellum crus 1, and stronger connectivity for hearing non-signers to hippocampus, middle and superior frontal gyri, pre- and postcentral gyri, and cerebellum crus 8. These results show that deafness induces large-scale network reorganization, with the middle/superior temporal cortex as a central node of plasticity. Cross-modal reorganization may be associated with behavioral adaptations to the environment, including superior ability in some visual functions such as visual working memory and visual attention, in deaf signers.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Dorr, Felix, et al.
(författare)
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Dissociating memory and executive function impairment through temporal features in a word list verbal learning task
- 2023
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Ingår i: NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 189
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) is an established verbal learning test commonly used to quantify memory impairments due to Alzheimer's Disease (AD) both at a clinical dementia stage or prodromal stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Focal memory impairment-as quantified e.g. by the RAVLT-at an MCI stage is referred to as amnestic MCI (aMCI) and is often regarded as the cognitive phenotype of prodromal AD. However, recent findings suggest that not only learning and memory but also other cognitive domains, especially executive functions (EF) and processing speed (PS), influence verbal learning performance. This research investigates whether additional temporal features extracted from audio recordings from a participant's RAVLT response can better dissociate memory and EF in such tasks and eventually help to better describe MCI subtypes. 675 age-matched participants from the H70 Swedish birth cohort were included in this analysis; 68 participants were classified as MCI (33 aMCI and 35 due to executive impairment). RAVLT performances were recorded and temporal features extracted. Novel temporal features were correlated with established neuropsychological tests measuring EF and PS. Lastly, the downstream diagnostic potential of temporal features was estimated using group differences and a machine learning (ML) classification scenario. Temporal features correlated moderately with measures of EF and PS. Performance of an ML classifier could be improved by adding temporal features to traditional counts. We conclude that RAVLT temporal features are in general related to EF and that they might be capable of dissociating memory and EF in a word list learning task.
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| 5. |
- Eklund, Rasmus, et al.
(författare)
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The early but not the late neural correlate of auditory awareness reflects lateralized experiences
- 2021
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 158
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Theories disagree as to whether it is the early or the late neural correlate of awareness that plays a critical role in phenomenal awareness. According to recurrent processing theory, early activity in primary sensory areas corresponds closely to phenomenal awareness. In support, research with electroencephalography found that in the visual and somatosensory modality, an early neural correlate of awareness is contralateral to the perceived side of stimulation. Thus, early activity is sensitive to the perceived side of visual and somatosensory stimulation. Critically, it is unresolved whether this is true also for hearing. In the present study (N = 26 students), Bayesian analyses showed that the early neural correlate of awareness (auditory awareness negativity, AAN) was stronger for contralateral than ipsilateral electrodes whereas the late correlate of auditory awareness (late positivity, LP) was not lateralized. These findings demonstrate that the early but not the late neural correlate of auditory awareness reflects lateralized experiences. Thus, these findings imply that AAN is a more suitable NCC than LP because it correlates more closely with lateralized experiences.
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| 6. |
- Filimonov, Dmitri, et al.
(författare)
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Modality-specific and modality-general electrophysiological correlates of visual and auditory awareness : Evidence from a bimodal ERP experiment
- 2022
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 166
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To date, most studies on the event-related potential (ERP) correlates of conscious perception have examined a single perceptual modality. We compared electrophysiological correlates of visual and auditory awareness in the same experiment to test whether there are modality-specific and modality-general correlates of conscious perception. We used near threshold stimulation and analyzed event-related potentials in response to aware and unaware trials in visual, auditory and bimodal conditions. The results showed modality-specific negative amplitude correlates of conscious perception between 200 and 300 ms after stimulus onset. A combination of these auditory and visual awareness negativities was observed in the bimodal condition. A later positive amplitude difference, whose early part was modality-specific, possibly reflecting access to global workspace, and later part shared modality-general features, possibly indicating higher level cognitive processing involving the decision making, was also observed.
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| 7. |
- Freidle, Malin, et al.
(författare)
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No evidence for any effect of multiple sessions of frontal transcranial direct stimulation on mood in healthy older adults
- 2020
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 137
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is part of a network important for emotional regulation and the possibility of modulating activity in this region with transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) to change mood has gained great interest, particularly for application in clinical populations. Whilst results in major depressive disorder have been promising, less is known about the effects of TDCS on mood in non-clinical populations. We hypothesized that multiple sessions of anodal TDCS applied over the left DLPFC would enhance mood, primarily as measured by the Profile of Mood States questionnaire, in healthy older adults. In addition, in an exploratory analysis, we examined the potentially moderating role of working memory training. Working memory, just like emotional regulation, taxes the DLPFC, which suggests that engaging in a working memory task whilst receiving TDCS may have a different effect on activity in this region and consequently mood. A total of 123 participants between 65 and 75 years of age were randomly assigned to receive either 20 sessions of TDCS, with or without working memory training, or 20 sessions sham stimulation, with or without working memory training. We found no support for enhancement of mood due to TDCS in healthy older adults, with or without cognitive training and conclude that the TDCS protocol used is unlikely to improve mood in non-depressed older individuals.
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| 8. |
- Grande, Xenia, et al.
(författare)
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Content-specific vulnerability of recent episodic memories in Alzheimer's disease
- 2021
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932. ; 160
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Endel Tulving's episodic memory framework emphasizes the multifaceted re-experiencing of personal events. Indeed, decades of research focused on the experiential nature of episodic memories, usually treating recent episodic memory as a coherent experiential quality. However, recent insights into the functional architecture of the medial temporal lobe show that different types of mnemonic information are segregated into distinct neural pathways in brain circuits empirically associated with episodic memory. Moreover, recent memories do not fade as a whole under conditions of progressive neurodegeneration in these brain circuits, notably in Alzheimer's disease. Instead, certain memory content seem particularly vulnerable from the moment of their encoding while other content can remain memorable consistently across individuals and contexts. We propose that these observations are related to the content-specific functional architecture of the medial temporal lobe and consequently to a content-specific impairment of memory at different stages of the neurodegeneration. To develop Endel Tulving's inspirational legacy further and to advance our understanding of how memory function is affected by neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, we postulate that it is compelling to focus on the representational content of recent episodic memories.
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| 9. |
- Johansson, Jarkko, et al.
(författare)
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Longitudinal evidence that reduced hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry predicts episodic-memory impairment in aging
- 2020
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 137
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The HERA (Hemispheric Encoding/Retrieval Asymmetry) model captures hemispheric lateralization of prefrontal cortex (PFC) brain activity during memory encoding and retrieval. Reduced HERA has been observed in cross-sectional aging studies, but there is no longitudinal evidence, to our knowledge, on age-related changes in HERA and whether maintained or reduced HERA relates to well-preserved memory functioning. In the present study we set out to explore HERA in a longitudinal neuroimaging sample from the Betula study [3 Waves over 10 years; Wave-1: n = 363, W2: n = 227, W3: n = 101]. We used fMRI data from a face-name paired-associates task to derive a HERA index. In support of the HERA model, the mean HERA index was positive across the three imaging waves. The longitudinal age-HERA relationship was highly significant (p < 10(-11)), with a HERA decline occurring after age 60. The age-related HERA decline was associated with episodic memory decline (p < 0.05). Taken together, the findings provide large-scale support for the HERA model, and suggest that reduced HERA in the PFC reflects pathological memory aging possibly related to impaired ability to bias mnemonic processing according to the appropriate encoding or retrieval state.
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| 10. |
- Kerrén, Casper, et al.
(författare)
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Strategic retrieval prevents memory interference: the temporal dynamics of retrieval orientation
- 2021
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-3514 .- 0028-3932. ; 154
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Resolving interference between overlapping memories is crucial to remember the past. This study tests the novel prediction that orienting search focus benefits goal-relevant retrieval by reducing competition from unwanted memories. In a modified retrieval-practice paradigm, participants encoded word-pairs in one of two encoding tasks. Critically, to evaluate whether this retrieval orientation (RO) reduces memory interference, target and competitor memories were always related to different encoding tasks. At retrieval, instructions were provided for half of the blocks with the intention to bias remembering towards items encoded with one of the ROs. Behavioural data show that adopting an RO improved target accessibility, strengthened the testing effect, and reduced retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) of competitors. Specifically, RIF – typically attributed to inhibitory control of memory interference – was prominent when no retrieval orientation (NRO) instruction was provided. Furthermore, a neural correlate of RO was calculated by training a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to discriminate the electroencephalographic (EEG) spatial brain patterns correspondent to the two ROs over the time course of selective retrieval. RO was characterised by increases in the theta and decreases in the beta frequency band, evident both before and after category-cue onset. While the pre-cue RO reinstatement effect predicted both immediate retrieval-practice success and later target accessibility, the post-cue effect predicted disengagement of inhibitory control, such that participants showing a stronger RO reinstatement effect showed lower levels of RIF. These data suggest that strategically orienting search focus during retrieval both increases target memory accessibility and reduces memory interference, which consequently protects related memories from inhibition and later forgetting. Furthermore, they also highlight the roles of theta and beta oscillations in establishing and maintaining a task-relevant bias towards target memory representations during competitive memory retrieval.
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| 11. |
- Langensee, Lara, et al.
(författare)
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Beyond the language network : Associations between reading, receptive vocabulary, and grey matter volume in 10-year-olds
- 2023
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - 0028-3932. ; 191
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most research on the neurostructural basis of language abilities in children stems from small samples and surface-based measures. To complement and expand the existent knowledge, we investigated associations between grey matter volume and language performance in a large sample of 9-to-11-year-old children, using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N = 1865) and an alternative measure of grey matter morphology. We estimated whole-brain grey matter volume for one half of the sample (N = 939) and tested for correlations with scores on a picture vocabulary and a letter and word reading test, with and without factoring in general intelligence and total grey matter volume as additional covariates. The initial analyses yielded correlations between grey matter in the right occipital fusiform gyrus, the right lingual gyrus, and the cerebellum for both vocabulary and reading. Employing the significant clusters from the first analyses as regions of interest in the second half of the cohort (N = 926) in correlational and multiple regression analyses suggests the cluster in the right occipital fusiform and lingual gyri to be most robust. Overall, the amount of variance explained by grey matter volume is limited and factoring in additional covariates paints an inconsistent picture. The present findings reinforce existent doubt with respect to explaining individual differences in reading and vocabulary performance based on unique contributions of macrostructural brain features.
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| 12. |
- Mazza, Alessandro, et al.
(författare)
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Beyond alpha-band: The neural correlate of creative thinking
- 2023
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 179
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The compound nature of creativity entails the interplay of multiple cognitive processes, making it difficult to attribute creativity to a single neural signature. Divergent thinking paradigms, widely adopted to investigate creative production, have highlighted the key role of specific mental operations subserving creativity, such as inhibition of external stimuli, loose semantic associations, and mental imagery. Neurophysiological studies have typically shown a high alpha rhythm synchronization when individuals are engaged in creative ideation. Also, oculomotor activity and pupil diameter have been proposed as useful indicators of mental operations involved in such a thinking process. The goal of this study was to investigate whether beyond alpha-band activity other higher frequency bands, such as beta and gamma, may subserve divergent and convergent thinking and whether those could be associated with a different gaze bias and pupil response during ideas generation. Implementing a within-subjects design we collected behavioral measures, neural activity, gaze patterns, and pupil dilation while participants performed a revised version of the Alternative Uses Task, in which divergent thinking is contrasted to convergent thinking. As expected, participants took longer to generate creative ideas as compared to common ones. Interestingly, during divergent thinking participants displayed alpha synchronization along with beta and gamma desynchronization, more pronounced leftward gaze shift, and greater pupil dilation. During convergent thinking, an opposite pattern was observed: desynchronization in alpha and an increase in beta and gamma rhythm, along with a reduction of leftward gaze shift and greater pupil constriction. The present study uncovered specific neural dynamics and physiological patterns during idea generation, providing novel insight into the complex physiological signature of creative production.
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| 13. |
- Menelaou, Georgios, et al.
(författare)
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Hippocampal subfield volumes and olfactory performance : Emerging longitudinal associations over a 5-year interval
- 2022
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 176
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Olfaction, the sense of smell, provides important behavioral functions in many species. The hippocampus (HC) is critical for identifying odors, and hippocampal volume is associated with odor identification ability. Impaired odor identification is often reported in old age and might provide an early marker of cognitive decline and dementia. Here, we explored cross-sectional (n = 225) and longitudinal (n = 118) associations between odor identification ability and hippocampal subfield volumes in a sample of middle-aged and older persons (25-80 years). In older participants, longitudinally decreasing volumes of the hippocampal tail, subiculum, CA4 and the dentate gyrus correlated with changes in odor identification. None of these correlations were observed in younger participants, but there was a significant correlation between longitudinal volume reduction in the tail subfield of the hippocampus and odor identification change across all participants. There were no significant cross-sectional associations between hippocampal subfields and odor identification. These exploratory results provide new information regarding precisely where and when declining HC subfield volumes might be associated with odor identification.
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| 14. |
- Skagenholt, Mikael, et al.
(författare)
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Connectome-based predictive modeling indicates dissociable neurocognitive mechanisms for numerical order and magnitude processing in children
- 2023
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 184
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Symbolic numbers contain information about their relative numerical cardinal magnitude (e.g., 2 < 3) and ordinal placement in the count-list (e.g., 1, 2, 3). Previous research has primarily investigated magnitude discrimination skills and their predictive capacity for math achievement, whereas numerical ordering has been less systematically explored. At approximately 10-12 years of age, numerical order processing skills have been observed to surpass cardinal magnitude discrimination skills as the key predictor of arithmetic ability. The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this shift remain unclear. To this end, we investigated childrens (ages 10-12) neural correlates of numerical order and magnitude discrimination, as well as task-based functional connectomes and their predictive capacity for numeracy-related behavioral outcomes. Results indicated that number discrimination uniquely relied on bilateral temporoparietal correlates, whereas order processing recruited the bilateral IPS, cerebellum, and left premotor cortex. Connectome-based models were not cross -predictive for numerical order and magnitude, suggesting two dissociable mechanisms jointly supported by vi-suospatial working memory. Neural correlates of learning and memory were predictive of age and arithmetic ability, only for the ordinal task-connectome, indicating that the numerical order mechanism may undergo a developmental shift, dissociating it from mechanisms supporting cardinal number processing.
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| 15. |
- Vega-Mendoza, Mariana, et al.
(författare)
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Concurrent use of animacy and event-knowledge during comprehension : Evidence from event-related potentials
- 2021
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Ingår i: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 152
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In two ERP experiments, we investigated whether readers prioritize animacy over real-world event-knowledge during sentence comprehension. We used the paradigm of Paczynski and Kuperberg (2012), who argued that animacy is prioritized based on the observations that the ‘related anomaly effect’ (reduced N400s for context-related anomalous words compared to unrelated words) does not occur for animacy violations, and that animacy violations but not relatedness violations elicit P600 effects. Participants read passive sentences with plausible agents (e.g., The prescription for the mental disorder was written by the psychiatrist) or implausible agents that varied in animacy and semantic relatedness (schizophrenic/guard/pill/fence). In Experiment 1 (with a plausibility judgment task), plausible sentences elicited smaller N400s relative to all types of implausible sentences. Crucially, animate words elicited smaller N400s than inanimate words, and related words elicited smaller N400s than unrelated words, but Bayesian analysis revealed substantial evidence against an interaction between animacy and relatedness. Moreover, at the P600 time-window, we observed more positive ERPs for animate than inanimate words and for related than unrelated words at anterior regions. In Experiment 2 (without judgment task), we observed an N400 effect with animacy violations, but no other effects. Taken together, the results of our experiments fail to support a prioritized role of animacy information over real-world event-knowledge, but they support an interactive, constraint-based view on incremental semantic processing.
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| 16. |
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