Bermeitinger Christina, Frings Christian, Wentura Dirk
Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany.
Neuroreport. 2008 Oct 8;19(15):1479-82. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e32830f4b0b.
We investigated electrophysiological correlates of the access to semantic representations. Participants had to make word/nonword decisions to target words. A first word (i.e. the prime) preceded the target. The prime was either semantically related or unrelated to the target. Using a special masking technique we were able to present the prime rather long (approximately 140 ms) while preventing participants from consciously processing the prime. In line with former studies, participants showed a reversed priming effect: they reacted faster to unrelated compared with related targets. Interestingly, the N400 mimicked the behavioral effect: we observed more negative-going waveforms to related relative to unrelated targets. The result indicates that the N400 can reflect temporarily reduced access to semantic representations.
我们研究了通达语义表征的电生理相关因素。参与者必须对目标词做出单词/非单词判断。一个首词（即启动词）先于目标词出现。启动词与目标词在语义上要么相关，要么不相关。使用一种特殊的掩蔽技术，我们能够较长时间地呈现启动词（约140毫秒），同时防止参与者有意识地加工启动词。与之前的研究一致，参与者表现出反向启动效应：与相关目标相比，他们对不相关目标的反应更快。有趣的是，N400模仿了行为效应：相对于不相关目标，我们观察到与相关目标相比有更多的负向波。结果表明，N400能够反映对语义表征的暂时减少的通达。
