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Updated: Mar 24, 2026
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Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology
Published on: June 29, 2021
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Neural correlates of morphological decomposition during visual word recognition
Brian T Gold1, Kathleen Rastle
1Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Kentucky School of Medicine, Lexington, KY 40536-0298, USA. brian.gold@uky.edu
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|September 26, 2007
Summary
Visual word recognition is sensitive to word structure. New research shows morphological analysis occurs even without meaning, revealing a neural basis for early structural segmentation in the brain.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Behavioral studies show visual word recognition is sensitive to morphological structure.
- Previous assumptions limited morphological analysis to semantically transparent words.
- Recent research suggests early orthographic processing of morphology, even in non-semantic cases.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate neural evidence for non-semantic morphological priming.
- To differentiate early morphological processing from semantic and orthographic effects.
- To identify brain regions involved in structural morphemic segmentation.
Main Methods:
- Combined behavioral masked priming with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) priming suppression.
- Examined priming effects for morphologically related words (corner-CORN).
- Contrasted morphological priming with lexical-semantic (bucket-PAIL) and orthographic (brothel-BROTH) priming.
Main Results:
- Behavioral and fMRI data revealed priming effects from morphological structure alone.
- These morphological effects were distinct from semantic and orthographic priming.
- Three left-lateralized occipito-temporal regions showed sensitivity to early morphological components.
Conclusions:
- Provided neurobiological evidence for a structural morphemic segmentation mechanism.
- Demonstrated that morphological analysis can occur at early, non-semantic stages of word recognition.
- Identified specific brain regions supporting early structural processing of word forms.
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