Abstract
This study investigated whether semantic integration in discourse context could be influenced by topic structure using event-related brain potentials. Participants read discourses in which the last sentence contained a critical word that was either congruent or incongruent with the topic established in the first sentence. The intervening sentences between the first and the last sentence of the discourse either maintained or shifted the original topic. Results showed that incongruent words in topic-maintained discourses elicited an N400 effect that was broadly distributed over the scalp while those in topic-shifted discourses elicited an N400 effect that was lateralized to the right hemisphere and localized over central and posterior areas. Moreover, a late positivity effect was only elicited by incongruent words in topic-shifted discourses, but not in topic-maintained discourses. This suggests an important role for discourse structure in semantic integration, such that compared with topic-maintained discourses, the complexity of discourse structure in topic-shifted condition reduces the initial stage of semantic integration and enhances the later stage in which a mental representation is updated.
Highlights
A heated topic on discourse comprehension has been how readers interpret upcoming information with discourse context
It seems clear that semantic integration is rapidly influenced by global discourse context, whether and how semantic integration interacts with global discourse structure is less clear-cut
This study aimed to investigate whether and how semantic integration is influenced by discourse structure
Summary
A heated topic on discourse comprehension has been how readers interpret upcoming information with discourse context. A substantial body of studies has examined semantic integration in discourse context using eye movement and neurophysiological measures. The N400 is a central-parietal negativity, peaking around 400 ms post stimulus onset. It was first reported by Kutas & Hillyard [13] for semantic anomalies in sentence context. Semantically incongruent words elicit larger N400s than semantically congruent words. This is referred to as an N400 effect (for a review see Kutas & Federmeier [14]). The general consensus is that the amplitude of the N400 is attenuated when the meaning of a word can be accessed and integrated into the preceding context
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