Neuromagnetic evidence for the timing of lexical activation: An MEG component sensitive to phonotactic probability but not to neighborhood density

Liina Pylkkänen, Andrew Stringfellow, Alec Marantz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Evidence from electrophysiological measures such as ERPs (event-related potentials) and MEG (magnetoencephalography) suggest that the first evoked brain response component sensitive to stimulus properties affecting reaction times in word recognition tasks occurs at 300-400 ms. The present study used the stimulus manipulation of Vitevich and Luce (1999) to investigate whether the M350, an MEG response component peaking at 300-400 ms, reflects lexical or postlexical processing. Stimuli were simultaneously varied in phonotactic probability, which facilitates lexical activation, and in phonological neighborhood density, which inhibits the lexical decision process. The present results indicate that the M350 shows facilitation by phonotactic probability rather than inhibition by neighborhood density. Thus the M350 cannot be a postlexical component.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)666-678
Number of pages13
JournalBrain and Language
Volume81
Issue number1-3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002

Keywords

  • Lexical access
  • Lexical decision
  • M350
  • MEG
  • N400
  • Neighborhood effects
  • Phonotactic probability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Speech and Hearing

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