Abstract
Oscillatory neuronal dynamics, observed in the human electroencephalogram (EEG) during language processing, have been related to the dynamic formation of functionally coherent networks that serve the role of integrating the different sources of information needed for understanding the linguistic input. To further explore the functional role of oscillatory synchrony during language processing, we quantified event-related EEG power changes induced by the presentation of open-class (OC) words and closed-class (CC) words in a wide range of frequencies (from 1 to 30 Hz), while subjects read a short story. Word presentation induced three oscillatory components: a theta power increase (4-7 Hz), an alpha power decrease (10-12 Hz), and a beta power decrease (16-21 Hz). Whereas the alpha and beta responses showed mainly quantitative differences between the two word classes, the theta responses showed qualitative differences between OC words and CC words: A theta power increase was found over left temporal areas for OC words, but not for CC words. The left temporal theta increase may index the activation of a network involved in retrieving the lexical-semantic properties of the OC items.
Highlights
A central characteristic of language comprehension is that very rapidly very different sources of information, including information about form, syntax, and meaning of words and sentences, have to be accessed and combined
Figure 1), we identified by means of visual inspection, for each time-frequency range, a number of regions of interest (ROIs) corresponding to the topographic minima or maxima
To demonstrate a functional role of synchronous oscillatory neural activity in dynamically forming integrative networks involved in the processing of primarily semantic OC words and primarily syntactic CC words, we quantified the patterns of oscillatory EEG synchrony induced by words of both classes
Summary
A central characteristic of language comprehension is that very rapidly very different sources of information, including information about form, syntax, and meaning of words and sentences, have to be accessed and combined. Because at a given moment the different bits of information that are processed in different parts of the brain must be integrated to obtain a unified concept of the language input, the different brain areas involved have to communicate with each other. A good candidate mechanism for such dynamic network formation is that of synchronization and desynchronization of oscillatory neuronal activity. The notion that synchronous, oscillatory neuronal activity plays an important role in dynamically linking brain areas has gained firm experimental footing after the initial experi-
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