Münte T F, Wieringa B M, Weyerts H, Szentkuti A, Matzke M, Johannes S
Department of Neuropsychology, University of Magdeburg, 39106, Magdeburg, Germany.
Neuropsychologia. 2001;39(1):91-102. doi: 10.1016/s0028-3932(00)00095-6.
Closed class (determiners, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions etc. ) and open class (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) words have different linguistic functions and have been proposed to be processed by different neural systems. Here, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in young German-speaking subjects while they read closed class and open class words flashed upon a video-screen. In the first experiment closed class words were sorted into four different frequency categories and open class words into three categories. The words were presented in a list with the subjects' task to detect occasional non-words. A centroparietal negativity (N400) with a peak latency of about 400 ms varied in amplitude as a function of frequency in both classes. The N400 in closed class items, however, was considerably smaller than that in open class words of similar frequency. A left anterior negativity (N280/LPN) showed some degree of frequency-sensitivity regardless of word class. Only for the very high frequency closed class words a frontal negativity with an onset of about 400 ms was obtained (N400-700). This N400-700 effect was replicated in the second study, in which medium frequency closed and open class words and very high frequency closed class words were presented at the fifth position of simple German sentences. It is suggested that neither N400 nor the left anterior negativity (N280/LPN) distinguish qualitatively between the two word classes and thus claims about different brain systems involved in the processing of open and closed class words are not substantiated electrophysiologically. The N400-700 effect is possibly related to specific grammatical functions of some closed class items, such as determiners.
封闭类词（限定词、代词、连词、介词等）和开放类词（名词、动词、形容词、副词）具有不同的语言功能，并且有人提出它们由不同的神经系统进行处理。在此，我们记录了讲德语的年轻受试者在阅读视频屏幕上闪现的封闭类词和开放类词时的事件相关电位（ERP）。在第一个实验中，封闭类词被分为四个不同的频率类别，开放类词被分为三个类别。这些词以列表形式呈现，受试者的任务是检测偶尔出现的非词。一个峰值潜伏期约为400毫秒的中央顶叶负波（N400），其幅度在两类词中均随频率变化。然而，封闭类词中的N400明显小于频率相似的开放类词中的N400。一个左前负波（N280/LPN）无论词类如何都表现出一定程度的频率敏感性。仅对于非常高频的封闭类词，获得了一个起始时间约为400毫秒的额叶负波（N400 - 700）。在第二项研究中重复了这种N400 - 700效应，在该研究中，中频的封闭类词和开放类词以及非常高频的封闭类词被呈现在简单德语句子的第五个位置。研究表明，N400和左前负波（N280/LPN）在性质上都无法区分这两类词，因此关于参与处理开放类词和封闭类词的不同脑系统的说法在电生理学上没有得到证实。N400 - 700效应可能与某些封闭类词项（如限定词）的特定语法功能有关。
