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Abstract:
Abstract: We examined the timing and location of brain
activity associated with the linguistic processing of a lexical
word and a function word in discourse. Event-related potentials
(ERPs) were recorded at 31 sites in adults to "the" and "cats" at
the onset of sentences in an auditorally presented story. A number
of previous studies have shown left anterior lateral activity
associated with the processing of grammatical violations and
function words presented in isolation. Greater posterior activity
has been associated with processing semantic information. In this
study, ERPs to "the" at the onset of sentences in the story showed
positive foci over lateral anterior sites. These positive foci were
maintained up to 800 ms following the onset of "the". This activity
was greater at right than left sites. ERPs to "cats" at the onset
of sentences showed a more central-posterior focus. In addition, a
negativity was observed after 300 ms, peaking at about 460 ms. This
may be related to the N400. We propose that the sustained
positivity reflects processes involved in generating and sustaining
syntactic and discourse representations. The observed negativity
may reflect lexical access or integration, as proposed by other
researchers.
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