a Center of Excellence-Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) , Bielefeld University , Bielefeld , Germany.
Cogn Neuropsychol. 2014;31(1-2):147-63. doi: 10.1080/02643294.2013.857649. Epub 2013 Nov 21.
Little is known about the neurophysiological correlates of lexical prosody in the comprehension of compound words, i.e., morphologically complex words. Here, it is investigated whether lexical prosody influences the decomposition of spoken compound words. In order to explore the neurophysiological correlates (event-related potentials, ERP) of a compound prosody, German native speakers had to judge the number agreement between numerals and nouns which did or did not agree in 50% of the cases. Importantly, the nouns carried either a compound or non-compound (single noun) prosody. The compound prosody led to increased reaction times (RTs) and reduced judgement accuracy. Critically, number violations for words with a compound prosody elicited an increased ERP negativity that was delayed by about 600 ms relative to a left-anterior negativity elicited by number violations for a single noun prosody. The ERP effect for the compound prosody preceded the according behavioural response by about 200 ms and the ERP peak latency effect correlated with the RT effect. These findings suggest that the ERP effect for the compound prosody could be functionally related to the accurate judgement performance for the compound prosody. The results suggest, more generally, that prosody plays a critical role in auditory compound comprehension and morphological processing.
关于复合词（即形态复杂的词）理解中词汇韵律的神经生理学相关性，目前知之甚少。在这里，我们研究了词汇韵律是否会影响口语复合词的分解。为了探索复合韵律的神经生理学相关性（事件相关电位，ERP），德语母语者必须判断数字和名词之间的数字一致性，其中有 50%的情况名词不一致。重要的是，名词带有复合韵律或非复合（单个名词）韵律。复合韵律导致反应时间（RT）延长和判断准确性降低。关键的是，具有复合韵律的单词的数字违规会引起 ERP 负向波，相对于单个名词韵律的数字违规引起的左前负向波延迟约 600 毫秒。复合韵律的 ERP 效应比相应的行为反应提前约 200 毫秒，并且 ERP 峰潜伏期效应与 RT 效应相关。这些发现表明，复合韵律的 ERP 效应可能与对复合韵律的准确判断性能有关。这些结果更普遍地表明，韵律在听觉复合词理解和形态处理中起着关键作用。
