Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 15, 2026
08:45
Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example
Published on: October 24, 2012
The role of attention in processing morphologically complex spoken words: an EEG/MEG study
Alina Leminen1, Minna Lehtonen, Miika Leminen
1Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|January 15, 2013
Summary
Morphological processing of spoken words involves automatic early stages independent of attention, but later compositional processes require focused attention for both inflected and derived word types.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Understanding how the brain processes spoken language, particularly morphologically complex words, is crucial.
- Investigating the role of attention in early versus later stages of spoken word recognition remains an active research area.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the extent to which morphological processing of spoken inflected and derived words is attention-independent.
- To differentiate the neural correlates of early and late spoken word recognition stages.
Main Methods:
- Recorded electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) responses from healthy participants.
- Presented participants with spoken Finnish inflected, derived, and monomorphemic words under attended and non-attended conditions.
- Time-locked neural responses to critical linguistic information (suffix onset or uniqueness point).
Main Results:
- Early event-related potentials (ERPs) and MEG source waveforms (~100 ms post-critical point) showed greater negativity for derived words, irrespective of attention.
- Later ERPs (~200 ms post-critical point) in the attended task revealed larger responses to inflected words, a difference not seen in the non-attended task.
- No significant differences between word types were observed in the non-attended task at later time points.
Conclusions:
- Early spoken word recognition stages, including morphological processing, appear to be automatic and attention-independent.
- Later compositional processes, particularly at the morphosyntactic-semantic level, necessitate focused attention.
- Distinct neural representations likely exist for derived and inflected words.
