Event-related potential asymmetries during the reading of sentences

This report is an overview of the lateral distribution of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) recorded during silent reading in 7 different experiments. Both single word and cross-sentence averages revealed the presence of several ERP asymmetries. The P1, P2 and a negativity between 300 and 500 msec were found to be larger over the right than the left hemisphere. It was argued that this asymmetric negativity was due primarily to the contribution of the N400 elicited by all content words. The degree of N400 asymmetry was unaffected either by the rate of sentence presentation or the ratio of congruent to incongruent sentences but was quite sensitive to family history of left-handedness. In contrast, the P1 and P2 asymmetries were uninfluenced by lexical class or familial sinistrality.