Abstract
In this study, we measured event-related potential (ERP) responses to onomatopoeias (imitative words and mimetic words) and common words. Previous studies have shown that onomatopoeias are cognitively processed differently than common words. However, whether the temporal aspects of cognitive processing differ between onomatopoeias and common words remains unclear. The amplitude of the late positive complex (LPC), an index of sustained cognitive processing, of the ERP response to onomatopoeias was smaller than that for common words. In addition, the difference in the amplitude of the LPC between onomatopoeias and common words appeared from 200 ms until 900 ms after stimulus onset, suggesting that onomatopoeias do not require obligatory attentional capture or continued processing and encoding. Furthermore, marked differences between onomatopoeias and common words were evident in the early stages of cognitive processing. These results suggest that the temporal aspects of cognitive processing differ between onomatopoeias and common words.
Highlights
One of the characteristics of the Japanese language is that it contains numerous imitative words and mimetic words known as onomatopoeias (Asaga et al, 2008)
Subtest results showed that each late positive complex (LPC) amplitude was smaller during processing of onomatopoeias than during processing of common words
The early and middle LPCs were significantly smaller for onomatopoeias than for common words, no significant differences were seen in the late LPC
Summary
One of the characteristics of the Japanese language is that it contains numerous imitative words and mimetic words known as onomatopoeias (Asaga et al, 2008). Onomatopoeias have a unique word form in that they contain two meaningless and often identical vocal sounds (e.g., “zigzag” and “ticktack” in English, “giza-giza” and “kachi-kachi” in Japanese) (Iwasaki et al, 2007). Previous studies have elucidated the differences between onomatopoeias and common words. In their functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, Hashimoto et al (2006) reported that the cognitive processing of onomatopoeias involves regions of the brain for language processing, and for environmental sound processing. To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have investigated whether the temporal aspects of cognitive processing differ between onomatopoeias and common words when heard
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