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Cross-linguistic variation in the neurophysiological response to semantic processing : evidence from anomalies at the borderline of awareness

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dc.contributor.authorTune, S.
dc.contributor.authorSchlesewsky, M.
dc.contributor.authorSmall, S.L.
dc.contributor.authorSanford, A.J.
dc.contributor.authorBohan, J.
dc.contributor.authorSassenhagen, J.
dc.contributor.authorBornkessel Schlesewsky, I.
dc.date.issued2014
dc.description.abstractThe N400 event-related brain potential (ERP) has played a major role in the examination of how the human brain processes meaning. For current theories of the N400, classes of semantic inconsistencies which do not elicit N400 effects have proven particularly influential. Semantic anomalies that are difficult to detect are a case in point ("borderline anomalies", e.g. "After an air crash, where should the survivors be buried?"), engendering a late positive ERP response but no N400 effect in English (Sanford, Leuthold, Bohan, & Sanford, 2011). In three auditory ERP experiments, we demonstrate that this result is subject to cross-linguistic variation. In a German version of Sanford and colleagues' experiment (Experiment 1), detected borderline anomalies elicited both N400 and late positivity effects compared to control stimuli or to missed borderline anomalies. Classic easy-to-detect semantic (non-borderline) anomalies showed the same pattern as in English (N400 plus late positivity). The cross-linguistic difference in the response to borderline anomalies was replicated in two additional studies with a slightly modified task (Experiment 2a: German; Experiment 2b: English), with a reliable LANGUAGE×ANOMALY interaction for the borderline anomalies confirming that the N400 effect is subject to systematic cross-linguistic variation. We argue that this variation results from differences in the language-specific default weighting of top-down and bottom-up information, concluding that N400 amplitude reflects the interaction between the two information sources in the form-to-meaning mapping.
dc.identifier.citationNeuropsychologia, 2014; 56(1):147-166
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.01.007
dc.identifier.issn0028-3932
dc.identifier.issn1873-3514
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1959.8/158296
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherPergamon-Elsevier Science
dc.relation.fundingGerman Academic Exchange Service
dc.relation.fundingGerman Research Foundation BO2471/3-2
dc.relation.fundingNIH NIDCD DC-R01-3378
dc.rightsCopyright 2014 Elsevier Access Condition Notes: Accepted manuscript only available on Open Access
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.01.007
dc.subjectlanguage processing
dc.subjectcross-linguistic differences
dc.subjectborderline anomalies
dc.subjectshallow processing
dc.subjectN400
dc.subjectP600
dc.subjectlate positivity
dc.subjectbidirectional coding account
dc.subjecttop-down
dc.subjectbottom-up
dc.titleCross-linguistic variation in the neurophysiological response to semantic processing : evidence from anomalies at the borderline of awareness
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished
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ror.mmsid9915910294501831

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