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Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Electrophysiology Reveals the Neural Dynamics of Naturalistic Auditory Language Processing: Event-Related Potentials
Phillip M Alday1, Matthias Schlesewsky2, Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky2
1Department of the Psychology of Language, Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen 6500AH, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The recent trend away from ANOVA-based analyses places experimental investigations into the neurobiology of cognition in more naturalistic and ecologically valid designs within reach. Using mixed-effects models for epoch-based regression, we demonstrate the feasibility of examining event-related potentials (ERPs), and in particular the N400, to study the neural dynamics of human auditory language processing in a naturalistic setting. Despite the large variability between trials during naturalistic stimulation, we replicated previous findings from the literature: the effects of frequency, animacy, and word order and find previously unexplored interaction effects. This suggests a new perspective on ERPs, namely, as a continuous modulation reflecting continuous stimulation instead of a series of discrete and essentially sequential processes locked to discrete events.
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