Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 25, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advancing the Study of Brain-Heart Interplay with a Comprehensive EEGLAB Plugin for Multimodal Signal Analysis
Published on: April 26, 2024
Alpha and gamma band oscillations index differential processing of acoustically reduced and full forms
Linda Drijvers1, Kimberley Mulder2, Mirjam Ernestus3
1Radboud University, Centre for Language Studies, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Montessorilaan 3, 6525 HR Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Reduced forms like yeshay for yesterday often occur in conversations. Previous behavioral research reported a processing advantage for full over reduced forms. The present study investigated whether this processing advantage is reflected in a modulation of alpha (8-12Hz) and gamma (30+Hz) band activity. In three electrophysiological experiments, participants listened to full and reduced forms in isolation (Experiment 1), sentence-final position (Experiment 2), or mid-sentence position (Experiment 3). Alpha power was larger in response to reduced forms than to full forms, but only in Experiments 1 and 2. We interpret these increases in alpha power as reflections of higher auditory cognitive load. In all experiments, gamma power only increased in response to full forms, which we interpret as showing that lexical activation spreads more quickly through the semantic network for full than for reduced forms. These results confirm a processing advantage for full forms, especially in non-medial sentence position.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Aliasing
If the sampling frequency is below the Nyquist rate, these replicas overlap, preventing the original...
Bandpass Sampling
A bandpass signal has a spectrum with a lower frequency limit, denoted as ω1, and an upper frequency limit, denoted as ω2....
IR Spectrum Peak Splitting: Symmetric vs Asymmetric Vibrations
¹H NMR: Interpreting Distorted and Overlapping Signals
As Δν decreases and the signals move closer, the doublets appear increasingly distorted. The intensities of the inner lines increase at the cost of those of the outer lines as the signals are...
¹³C NMR: ¹H–¹³C Decoupling
A broadband decoupling technique is used to simplify these complex, sometimes overlapping, signals. Broadband decoupling relies on a...
Doppler Effect - II

