Neural correlates of word-stem priming (original) (raw)
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Neural Interactions at the Core of Phonological and Semantic Priming of Written Words
Word processing is often probed with experiments where a target word is primed by preceding semantically or phonologically related words. Behaviorally, priming results in faster reaction times, interpreted as increased efficiency of cognitive processing. At the neural level, priming reduces the level of neural activation, but the actual neural mechanisms that could account for the increased efficiency have remained unclear. We examined whether enhanced information transfer among functionally relevant brain areas could provide such a mechanism. Neural activity was tracked with magnetoencephalography while subjects read lists of semantically or phonologically related words. Increased priming resulted in reduced cortical activation. In contrast, coherence between brain regions was simultaneously enhanced. Furthermore, while the reduced level of activation was detected in the same area and time window (superior temporal cortex [STC] at 250--650 ms) for both phonological and semantic priming, the spatiospectral connectivity patterns appeared distinct for the 2 processes. Causal interactions further indicated a driving role for the left STC in phonological processing. Our results highlight coherence as a neural mechanism of priming and dissociate semantic and phonological processing via their distinct connectivity profiles.
Separate Brain Circuits Support Integrative and Semantic Priming in the Human Language System
Cerebral Cortex, 2015
Semantic priming is a crucial phenomenon to study the organization of semantic memory. A novel type of priming effect, integrative priming, has been identified behaviorally, whereby a prime word facilitates recognition of a target word when the two concepts can be combined to form a unitary representation. Here, we used both functional and anatomical imaging approaches to investigate the neural substrates supporting such integrative priming, and compare them with those in semantic priming. Similar behavioral priming effects for both semantic (Bread -Cake) and integrative conditions (Cherry -Cake) were observed when compared to an unrelated condition. However, a clearly dissociated brain response was observed between these two types of priming. The semantic priming effect was localized to the posterior superior temporal and middle temporal gyrus. In contrast, the integrative priming effect localized to the left anterior inferior frontal gyrus and left anterior temporal cortices. Furthermore, fiber tractography showed that the integrative-priming regions were connected via uncinate fasciculus fiber bundle forming an integrative circuit, whereas the semantic-priming regions connected to the posterior frontal cortex via separated pathways. The results point to dissociable neural pathways underlying the two distinct types of priming, illuminating the neural circuitry organization of semantic representation and integration.
Frontiers in psychology, 2015
This study investigates priming in an implicit word stem completion (WSC) task by analyzing the effect of linguistic stimuli characteristics on said task. A total of 305 participants performed a WSC task in two phases (study and test). The test phase included 63 unique-solution stems and 63 multiple-solution stems. Analysis revealed that priming (mean = 0.22) was stronger in the case of multiple-solution stems, indicating that they were not a homogeneous group of stimuli. Thus, further analyses were performed only for the data of the unique-solution stems. Correlations between priming and familiarity, frequency of use, and baseline completion were significant. The less familiar words, which were less frequent, had higher priming values. At the same time, the stems with lower baseline completion generated more priming. A regression analysis showed that baseline completion was the only significant predictor of priming, suggesting that the previous processing of the stimuli had a great...
Electrophysiology of word processing: the lexical processing nature of the N400 priming effect
1996
Electrophysiological signs of priming 23 The N400 as a measure of semantic priming Aims of the thesis 30 Structure of the thesis 31 25 Chapter II The N400 as a function of the level of processing Introduction 34 Method 40 Results 44 Discussion 51 33 Chapter III An Event-Related Brain Potential analysis of visual word priming effects Introduction 58 Method 62 The lexical decision experiment 65 The silent reading experiment 75 General Discussion 82 57 Chapter IV The mechanism underlying backward priming: 89 Spreading of activation versus semantic matching Introduction 90 Method 98 Results юз Discussion 108 Chapter V The N400 and early stages of lexical processing us in a cross-modal priming paradigm Introduction 116 Method 119 Construction of the material 120 The gating study 121 The Event-Related Potential experiment 124 Method 124 Results 128 Discussion 133 The reaction time study 134 Method 135 Results 135 Discussion 137 General discussion 139 Chapter VI. Summary and concluding remarks 141 Lexical access versus integration 142 The N400 as an index of lexical integration 147 Problems for the postlexical integration view 148 Alternative views 150 Final conclusion ¡51 References 153 Appendices íes Samenvatting 183 Curriculum vitae 192