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Brain responses to negated and affirmative meanings in the auditory modality

Farshchi, Sara LU ; Andersson, Annika ; van de Weijer, Joost LU orcid and Paradis, Carita LU orcid (2023) In Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 17(2023).
Abstract
Negation is frequently used in natural language, yet relatively little is known about its processing. More importantly, what is known regarding the neurophysiological processing of negation is mostly based on results of studies using written stimuli (the word-by-word paradigm). While the results of these studies have suggested processing costs in connection to negation (increased negativities in brain responses), it is difficult to know how this translates into processing of spoken language. We therefore developed an auditory paradigm based on a previous visual study investigating processing of affirmatives, sentential negation (not), and prefixal negation (un-). The findings of processing costs were replicated but differed in the details.... (More)
Negation is frequently used in natural language, yet relatively little is known about its processing. More importantly, what is known regarding the neurophysiological processing of negation is mostly based on results of studies using written stimuli (the word-by-word paradigm). While the results of these studies have suggested processing costs in connection to negation (increased negativities in brain responses), it is difficult to know how this translates into processing of spoken language. We therefore developed an auditory paradigm based on a previous visual study investigating processing of affirmatives, sentential negation (not), and prefixal negation (un-). The findings of processing costs were replicated but differed in the details. Importantly, the pattern of ERP effects suggested less effortful processing for auditorily presented negated forms (restricted to increased anterior and posterior positivities) in comparison to visually presented negated forms. We suggest that the natural flow of spoken language reduces variability in processing and therefore results in clearer ERP patterns. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
negation, ERP, spoken language processing, sentence comprehension, negated sentence
in
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
volume
17
issue
2023
publisher
Frontiers Media S. A.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85147247815
  • pmid:36742356
ISSN
1662-5161
DOI
10.3389/fnhum.2023.1079493
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c588880a-0849-4fbc-926e-c4bc2296f783
date added to LUP
2023-01-19 12:13:27
date last changed
2023-02-24 03:00:02
@article{c588880a-0849-4fbc-926e-c4bc2296f783,
  abstract     = {{Negation is frequently used in natural language, yet relatively little is known about its processing. More importantly, what is known regarding the neurophysiological processing of negation is mostly based on results of studies using written stimuli (the word-by-word paradigm). While the results of these studies have suggested processing costs in connection to negation (increased negativities in brain responses), it is difficult to know how this translates into processing of spoken language. We therefore developed an auditory paradigm based on a previous visual study investigating processing of affirmatives, sentential negation (not), and prefixal negation (un-). The findings of processing costs were replicated but differed in the details. Importantly, the pattern of ERP effects suggested less effortful processing for auditorily presented negated forms (restricted to increased anterior and posterior positivities) in comparison to visually presented negated forms. We suggest that the natural flow of spoken language reduces variability in processing and therefore results in clearer ERP patterns.}},
  author       = {{Farshchi, Sara and Andersson, Annika and van de Weijer, Joost and Paradis, Carita}},
  issn         = {{1662-5161}},
  keywords     = {{negation; ERP; spoken language processing; sentence comprehension; negated sentence}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{2023}},
  publisher    = {{Frontiers Media S. A.}},
  series       = {{Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}},
  title        = {{Brain responses to negated and affirmative meanings in the auditory modality}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1079493}},
  doi          = {{10.3389/fnhum.2023.1079493}},
  volume       = {{17}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}