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Right hemisphere activation during indirect semantic priming: evidence from event-related potentials
1University of Heidelberg, Psychiatric Hospital, Section for Experimental Psychopathology, Germany Markus.Kiefer@medizin.uni-ulm.de
Brain and Language
|September 23, 1998
Summary
This study investigated semantic priming using event-related potentials (ERPs). Findings suggest the right hemisphere plays a role in processing distant semantic information, impacting word recognition.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Semantic priming influences word recognition.
- Event-related potentials (ERPs) measure brain activity during cognitive tasks.
- The role of different brain hemispheres in semantic processing is debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural correlates of semantic priming using ERPs.
- To examine how semantic distance affects N400 responses and reaction times (RTs).
- To explore hemispheric differences in processing directly and indirectly related words.
Main Methods:
- Healthy subjects performed a lexical decision task.
- Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 64 channels.
- Semantic priming involved directly, indirectly, and nonrelated word pairs.
Main Results:
- N400 effects to nonrelated pairs at centro-parietal sites were sensitive to direct, not indirect, priming.
- RT data mirrored these N400 priming effects.
- Indirectly related words elicited ERP priming effects primarily over the right hemisphere at inferior fronto-temporal sites.
Conclusions:
- The right hemisphere semantic system is implicated in processing remote semantic information.
- Hemispheric specialization may exist for different types of semantic relationships.
- ERP findings align with behavioral data in reflecting semantic processing.