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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 18, 2026

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

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

The neural substrates of inferential and referential semantic processing.

Diego Marconi¹, Rosa Manenti, Eleonora Catricalà

¹Philosophy Department, Turin University, Turin, Italy. diego.marconi@unito.it

Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior

|September 27, 2012

Summary

This study found distinct brain areas for referential (word-to-world) and inferential (word-to-word) semantic tasks. Referential tasks activate the right fusiform gyrus, while inferential tasks engage left temporal areas.

Keywords:

Matching Naming by definition Picture naming Semantics fMRI

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Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

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Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Published on: June 29, 2021

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Semantics

Background:

Theoretical distinction proposed between referential (word-to-world) and inferential (word-to-word) semantic abilities.
Neurological evidence suggests different brain underpinnings via double dissociations in patients.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate distinct brain activity patterns for referential and inferential semantic tasks using fMRI.
Contrast neural correlates of picture naming and word-to-picture matching (referential) with naming to definition and word-to-word matching (inferential).

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment.
Contrasted brain activation during referential tasks (picture naming, word-to-picture matching) and inferential tasks (naming to definition, word-to-word matching).

Main Results:

All tasks engaged a common semantic network across both hemispheres.
Inferential tasks selectively activated left hemispheric temporal areas.
Referential tasks showed specific activation in the right fusiform gyrus.

Conclusions:

Inferential tasks recruit additional left hemispheric language areas for lexical retrieval.
Referential tasks engage right hemispheric areas associated with nonverbal object processing.
Findings align with observed double dissociations in neurological patients.