Elsevier

Brain and Language

Volume 16, Issue 2, July 1982, Pages 300-315
Brain and Language

Event-related potential studies of cerebral specialization during reading: I. Studies of normal adults

https://doi.org/10.1016/0093-934X(82)90088-8Get rights and content

Abstract

A number of methodological features were incorporated in a paradigm designed to maximize the likelihood of finding reliable event-related potential (ERP) signs of functional specializations between and within the cerebral hemispheres. Every subject was more accurate in identifying words presented to the right than to the left visual field. The morphology of the ERPs elicited by these words varied considerably as a function of electrode position both within and between the hemispheres. Amplitude asymmetries of ERP components recorded from occipital regions of the two hemispheres varied systematically with the position of the word in the visual field. On the other hand, ERPs from more anterior (temporal and frontal) regions displayed large asymmetries which were in the same direction regardless of the visual field of word presentation. The most prominent such asymmetry was in the negativity in the region 300–500 msec (N410) which was larger in the left than the right hemisphere in every subject. These results demonstrate that in this paradigm which demands specialized language processing ERPs are sensitive to aspects of cerebral organization both within and between the two hemispheres.

References (20)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (111)

  • Reduced right-hemisphere ERP P600 grammaticality effect is associated with greater right-hemisphere inhibition: Evidence from right-handers with familial sinistrality

    2020, Brain Research
    Citation Excerpt :

    Visual N1 and selection negativity. With the split-visual field presentation, laterally presented stimuli are expected to elicit larger N1 responses and a sustained selection negativity over the hemisphere contralateral to the visual field of presentation (Federmeier et al., 2005; Federmeier & Kutas, 2002; Neville et al., 1982). Fig. 3 plots the responses recorded over representative electrode sites.

  • Unique N170 signatures to words and faces in deaf ASL signers reflect experience-specific adaptations during early visual processing

    2020, Neuropsychologia
    Citation Excerpt :

    Traditionally, in hearing readers, increased RH recruitment has been associated with poorer reading skill (Emmorey et al., 2017; Laszlo and Sacchi, 2015; Shaywitz and Shaywitz, 2005) and regarded as maladaptive, perhaps related to the fact that the right occipito-temporal regions might be responsible for coarser level processing or might process words as visual objects, which could consequently lead to less efficient or less precise orthographic representations (Laszlo and Sacchi, 2015). Neville and colleagues (Neville et al., 1982a, 1984; Neville et al., 1982b) also reported reduced N170 asymmetry to visually presented words in deaf individuals and originally attributed the outcome to the possibility that their deaf participants may have not had full mastery of English grammar because English was acquired as a second language. Given that our participants rated themselves as proficient in written English (mean 6 on a 1–7 scale; 7 = “like native”), this explanation for our results is unlikely.

  • Hemispheric differences and similarities in comprehending more and less predictable sentences

    2016, Neuropsychologia
    Citation Excerpt :

    The factors of VF and Hemisphere interacted [F(1, 31)=72.33, p<.0001] as expected, with enhanced N1 amplitude over LH scalp sites for RVF presentation, and the opposite pattern for LVF presentation (Fig. 1). We also examined a contralateral selection negativity—an ERP response that has similarly been observed in several prior studies using lateralized language stimuli (e.g., Federmeier and Kutas, 1999b, 2002; Coulson et al., 2005; Federmeier et al., 2005; Neville et al., 1982). To characterize this effect, which manifests as a sustained negativity effect over lateral posterior electrode sites, we performed the same ANOVA as for the N1, but used a 300–1000 ms time window.

  • Sublexical ambiguity effect in reading Chinese disyllabic compounds

    2011, Brain and Language
    Citation Excerpt :

    The amplitude of the N1 was larger over the right than the left hemisphere (−1.1 vs. 1.9 μV) when stimuli appeared in the LVF/RH, and it showed reverse asymmetry (2.4 vs. −1.6 μV) when stimuli appeared in the RVF/LH [VF × laterality, F(1, 20) = 53.5, p < .001]. The reversed asymmetries of the visual N1 contingent on hemifield were as expected; it confirmed that the procedures for maintaining central gaze fixation and rejection of trials with lateral eye movements were adequate to ensure lateralized processing, at least at the level of visual processing indexed by the N1 (Hillyard & Anllo-Vento, 1998; Neville, Kutas, & Schmidt, 1982). Previous studies measuring ERPs to lateralized visual stimuli have reported a sustained late negative-going effect (has been referred to as the selection negativity) over lateral and posterior scalp sites contralateral to the visual filed of stimulus presentation (Federmeier, Mai, & Kutas, 2005; Neville et al., 1982), and we also observed a visually similar effect in this study (Fig. 3).

View all citing articles on Scopus

Supported by NIH Research Grant No. NS14365, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Axe-Houghton Foundation. Marta Kutas is supported by Research Scientist Development Award USPHS 1 K02 MH 00322.02.

View full text