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Electrophysiological correlates of auditory semantic priming in 24-month-olds.

von Koss Torkildsen, Janne ; Syversen, Gro ; Gram Simonsen, Hanne ; Moen, Inger and Lindgren, Magnus LU (2007) In Journal of Neurolinguistics 20(4). p.332-351
Abstract
While the N400 component in adults is sensitive to both semantic incongruity and semantic relatedness between stimulus items, the N400 in toddlers has only been shown as an incongruity effect so far. The present event-related potential (ERP) study aimed to investigate whether the N400 in toddlers also indexes semantic relatedness between single words. To address this issue, we developed a unimodal auditory experiment with semantically related and unrelated word pairs, comparable to behavioral semantic priming tasks used with adults. In 24-month-old children, target words which were preceded by a semantically unrelated word elicited a broadly distributed N400-like effect compared to target words which were primed by a semantically related... (More)
While the N400 component in adults is sensitive to both semantic incongruity and semantic relatedness between stimulus items, the N400 in toddlers has only been shown as an incongruity effect so far. The present event-related potential (ERP) study aimed to investigate whether the N400 in toddlers also indexes semantic relatedness between single words. To address this issue, we developed a unimodal auditory experiment with semantically related and unrelated word pairs, comparable to behavioral semantic priming tasks used with adults. In 24-month-old children, target words which were preceded by a semantically unrelated word elicited a broadly distributed N400-like effect compared to target words which were primed by a semantically related word. For related words, toddlers displayed a negativity in the 200–400ms interval, indicating facilitated lexical-phonological processing. Results of the present study suggest that the N400 in toddlers is functionally equivalent to the adult component in indexing relatedness as well as semantic incongruity between stimulus items. Moreover, the study demonstrates an instrument for investigating semantic relatedness priming in young children, for whom behavioral tasks are often inappropriate. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
toddlers, event-related potentials, N400, semantic priming
in
Journal of Neurolinguistics
volume
20
issue
4
pages
332 - 351
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000247754000004
  • scopus:34249691974
ISSN
0911-6044
DOI
10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.02.003
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a3ef5dd2-fff9-4b08-af41-9d907eebb493 (old id 722028)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:45:01
date last changed
2022-04-28 19:28:05
@article{a3ef5dd2-fff9-4b08-af41-9d907eebb493,
  abstract     = {{While the N400 component in adults is sensitive to both semantic incongruity and semantic relatedness between stimulus items, the N400 in toddlers has only been shown as an incongruity effect so far. The present event-related potential (ERP) study aimed to investigate whether the N400 in toddlers also indexes semantic relatedness between single words. To address this issue, we developed a unimodal auditory experiment with semantically related and unrelated word pairs, comparable to behavioral semantic priming tasks used with adults. In 24-month-old children, target words which were preceded by a semantically unrelated word elicited a broadly distributed N400-like effect compared to target words which were primed by a semantically related word. For related words, toddlers displayed a negativity in the 200–400ms interval, indicating facilitated lexical-phonological processing. Results of the present study suggest that the N400 in toddlers is functionally equivalent to the adult component in indexing relatedness as well as semantic incongruity between stimulus items. Moreover, the study demonstrates an instrument for investigating semantic relatedness priming in young children, for whom behavioral tasks are often inappropriate.}},
  author       = {{von Koss Torkildsen, Janne and Syversen, Gro and Gram Simonsen, Hanne and Moen, Inger and Lindgren, Magnus}},
  issn         = {{0911-6044}},
  keywords     = {{toddlers; event-related potentials; N400; semantic priming}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{332--351}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Neurolinguistics}},
  title        = {{Electrophysiological correlates of auditory semantic priming in 24-month-olds.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.02.003}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.02.003}},
  volume       = {{20}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}