Electrophysiological correlates of prosody and punctuation

Abstract

Psycholinguistic models of sentence parsing are primarily based on reading rather than auditory processing data. Moreover, both prosodic information and its potential orthographic equivalent, i.e., punctuation, have been largely ignored until recently. The unavailability of experimental online methods is one likely reason for this neglect. Here I give an overview of six event-related brain potential (ERP) studies demonstrating that the processing of both prosodic boundaries in natural speech and commas during silent reading can determine syntax parsing immediately. In ERPs, speech boundaries and commas reliably elicit a similar online brain response, termed the Closure Positive Shift (CPS). This finding points to a common mechanism, suggesting that commas serve as visual triggers for covert phonological phrasing. Alternative CPS accounts are tested and the relationship between the CPS and other ERP components, including the P600/SPS, is addressed.