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Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language01:10

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
Sensory Modalities01:15

Sensory Modalities

Sensation typically is the process by which the sensory receptors and sense organs detect stimuli from the internal and external environment and transmit this information to the central nervous system for processing.
General senses refer to the broad category of sensory information detected by receptors in the body and can be further grouped into somatic and visceral senses. Somatic sensations include touch, pressure, temperature, and pain and are essential for navigating our environment and...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 30, 2026

A Semantic Priming Event-related Potential (ERP) Task to Study Lexico-semantic and Visuo-semantic Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder
08:17

A Semantic Priming Event-related Potential (ERP) Task to Study Lexico-semantic and Visuo-semantic Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Published on: April 12, 2018

Switching Modalities in A Sentence Verification Task: ERP Evidence for Embodied Language Processing.

Lea A Hald1, Julie-Ann Marshall, Dirk P Janssen

  • 1Department of Applied Social Sciences, Canterbury Christ Church University Canterbury, UK.

Frontiers in Psychology
|July 23, 2011
PubMed
Summary

The modality switch effect, observed in event-related potential (ERP) experiments, shows faster conceptual access for modality-matched sentences. This effect, measured by N400 brain responses, was significant for true but not false statements.

Keywords:
ERPN400embodimentlanguage processingmodalitymodality switch effectveracity

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Last Updated: May 30, 2026

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Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Published on: September 5, 2019

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Event-Related Potentials (ERP)

Background:

  • The modality switch effect describes how processing shifts when information from different sensory modalities is presented sequentially.
  • Previous research indicated modality effects using pictorial stimuli, but less is known about their manifestation in written language.
  • The N400 component in event-related potentials (ERPs) is sensitive to semantic processing and expectation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if the N400 component is modulated by the modality switch effect in a written language ERP experiment.
  • To determine if this effect differs for true versus false sentences.
  • To explore the temporal dynamics of conceptual access related to sensory modalities.

Main Methods:

  • An event-related potential (ERP) experiment was conducted using only written sentences.
  • Participants processed sentences describing facts grounded in specific modalities (e.g., visual, tactile).
  • The N400 component was analyzed at critical words, comparing modality-matched and modality-mismatched sentence pairs, for both true and false statements.

Main Results:

  • For true sentences, a significant early N400-like effect (270-370 ms) was observed at frontal sites during modality mismatch compared to modality match.
  • This modality switch effect was not found for the critical words in false sentences.
  • Similar frontal negativity patterns were observed in a later time window (500-700 ms), mirroring findings from pictorial stimuli studies.

Conclusions:

  • The study demonstrates fast access to conceptual properties for modality-matched written information, leading to embodiment effects.
  • These findings suggest that modality effects in conceptual processing are not limited to pictorial stimuli but extend to written language.
  • The results highlight the role of sensory grounding in semantic processing and its neural correlates within the N400 time frame.