Existential negation modulates inhibitory control processes and impacts recognition memory. Evidence from ERP and source localisation data

Abstract

ABSTRACT It has recently been proposed that comprehension of negation reuses the inhibitory control mechanisms. However, this Reusing Inhibition for Negation (RIN) hypothesis has mostly been confirmed with imperative sentences. The current study examined whether comprehension of negated existential sentences, which are purely declarative, also shares neural resources with inhibitory control processes. Participants read affirmative or negative existential sentences while performing an embedded Go/NoGo task, followed by a recognition probe to test the impact of negation on words activation. Relative to affirmative sentences, negation increased the P3 amplitude for NoGo trials, with estimated sources in the inhibition-related medial and dorsolateral areas in the prefrontal and parietal cortices. These results indicate that existential negation also shares neural mechanisms with inhibitory control, extending the RIN hypothesis. Furthermore, recognising negated words took longer and decreased the readiness potential of the responses compared to affirmed words, suggesting reduced accessibility of negated words in working memory.