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Neural synchronization mediates on-line sentence processing: EEG coherence evidence from filler-gap constructions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2003

HENK J. HAARMANN ,
KATHERINE A. CAMERON  and
DANIEL S. RUCHKIN
HENK J. HAARMANN
Affiliation:
Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
KATHERINE A. CAMERON
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland, USA
DANIEL S. RUCHKIN
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Program in Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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Abstract

This study investigated cognitive and neural processes involved in gap filling during on-line sentence comprehension. Electroencephalogram (EEG) coherences were used to demonstrate that increases in the synchronization of neural activity in different cortical regions occur during gap filling when load in semantic working memory is high due to semantically unrelated words in the filler-gap interval. Sentences could either require gap filling at a verb or not, and the nouns preceding the verb could be either semantically related or unrelated. In the unrelated but not related condition, coherences in the beta band were larger during verb processing for sentences requiring gap filling compared to sentences not requiring gap filling. The coherence changes involved linkages between frontal and posterior temporal-parietal sites in both hemispheres. These results further indicate that semantic working memory is involved in the process of gap filling.

Keywords

EEG coherenceLanguageSentence processingSentence comprehensionFiller-gap sentencesLexical relatedness
Type
Research Article
Information
Psychophysiology , Volume 39 , Issue 6 , November 2002 , pp. 820 - 825
Copyright
2002 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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