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A long-standing but implicit assumption is that words strongly associated with a presented cue are automatically activated in the memory through rapid spread of activation within brain semantic networks. The current study was aimed to provide direct evidence of such rapid access to words' semantic representations and to investigate its neural sources using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and distributed source localization technique. Thirty-three neurotypical subjects underwent the MEG recording during verb generation task, which was to produce verbs related to the presented noun cues. Brain responses evoked by the noun cues were examined while manipulating the strength of association between the noun and the potential verb responses. The strong vs. weak noun-verb association led to a greater noun-related neural response at 250-400 ms after cue onset, and faster verb production. The cortical sources of the differential response were localized in left temporal pole, previously implicated in semantic access, and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), thought to subserve controlled semantic retrieval. The strength of the left VLPFC's response to the nouns with strong verb associates was positively correlated to the speed of verbs production. Our findings empirically validate the theoretical expectation that in case of a strongly connected noun-verb pair, successful access to target verb representation may occur already at the stage of lexico-semantic analysis of the presented noun. Moreover, the MEG results suggest that contrary to the previous conclusion derived from fMRI studies left VLPFC supports selection of the target verb representations, even if they were retrieved from semantic memory rapidly and effortlessly. The discordance between MEG and fMRI findings in verb generation task may stem from different modes of neural activation captured by phase-locked activity in MEG and slow changes of blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal in fMRI.

For decades, scientists have been trying to solve the problem of dementia, with no cure currently available. Semantic–lexical impairment is well established as the early critical sign of dementia, although there are still gaps in knowledge that must be investigated. In this study, we used fMRI to observe the neural activity of 31 subjects, including 16 HC (Healthy Control) and 15 AD (Alzheimer’s Disease), who participated in the naming task. The neuropsychology profile of HC (Healthy Control) and AD (Alzheimer’s Disease) are discussed in this study. The involvement of FG (Fusiform Gyrus) and IFG (Inferior Frontal Gyrus) shows dominant activation in both of the groups. We observed a decrease in neural activity in the AD group, resulting in semantic deficit problems in this preliminary study. Furthermore, ROI analysis was performed and revealed both hyperactivation and hypoactivation in the AD group. The compensatory mechanism demonstrated during the task, due to the effort required to identify an animal’s name, represents the character profile of AD.

This study investigates the mechanisms responsible for fast changes in processing foreign-accented speech. Event Related brain Potentials (ERPs) were obtained while native speakers of Spanish listened to native and foreign-accented speakers of Spanish. We observed a less positive P200 component for foreign-accented speech relative to native speech comprehension. This suggests that the extraction of spectral information and other important acoustic features was hampered during foreign-accented speech comprehension. However, the amplitude of the N400 component for foreign-accented speech comprehension decreased across the experiment, suggesting the use of a higher level, lexical mechanism. Furthermore, during native speech comprehension, semantic violations in the critical words elicited an N400 effect followed by a late positivity. During foreign-accented speech comprehension, semantic violations only elicited an N400 effect. Overall, our results suggest that, despite a lack of improvement in phonetic discrimination, native listeners experience changes at lexical-semantic levels of processing after brief exposure to foreign-accented speech. Moreover, these results suggest that lexical access, semantic integration and linguistic re-analysis processes are permeable to external factors, such as the accent of the speaker.

Semantic processing is an essential mechanism in human language comprehension and has profound implications for speech brain-computer interface technologies. Despite recent advances in brain imaging techniques and data analysis algorithms, the mechanisms underlying human brain semantic representations remain a topic of debate, specifically whether this occurs through the activation of selectively separated cortical regions or via a network of distributed and overlapping regions. This study investigates spatiotemporal neural representation during the perception of semantic words related to faces, numbers, and animals using electroencephalography. Source‐level analysis focuses on contrasting neural responses to different semantic categories. Critical intervals used in the source contrast analysis are defined using the peak duration of global field power. Effective connectivity, determined through a causality analysis of brain regions activated for semantic processing, is explored. The findings reveal the necessity of a distributed network of regions for processing specific semantic categories and provide evidence suggesting the existence of a neural substrate for semantic representations.

Introduction: Sound symbolism is the phenomenon of sounds having non-arbitrary meaning, and it has been demonstrated that pseudowords with sound symbolic elements have similar meaning to lexical words. It is unclear how the impression given by the sound symbolic elements is semantically processed, in contrast to lexical words with definite meanings. In event-related potential (ERP) studies, phonological mapping negativity (PMN) and N400 are often used as measures of phonological and semantic processing, respectively. Therefore, in this study, we analyze PMN and N400 to clarify the differences between existing sound symbolic words (onomatopoeia or ideophones) and pseudowords in terms of semantic and phonological processing. Methods: An existing sound symbolic word and pseudowords were presented as an auditory stimulus in combination with a picture of an event, and PMN and N400 were measured while the subjects determined whether the sound stimuli and pictures match or mismatch. Results: In both the existing word and pseudoword tasks, the amplitude of PMN and N400 increased when the picture of an event and the speech sound did not match. Additionally, compared to the existing words, the pseudowords elicited a greater amplitude for PMN and N400. In addition, PMN latency was delayed in the mismatch condition relative to the match condition for both existing sound symbolic words and pseudowords. Discussion: We concluded that established sound symbolic words and sound symbolic pseudowords undergo similar semantic processing. This finding suggests that sound symbolism pseudowords are not judged on a simple impression level (e.g., spiky/round) or activated by other words with similar spellings (phonological structures) in the lexicon, but are judged on a similar contextual basis as actual words.

This study investigates whether and, if so, how cognates facilitate lexical–semantic processing during early bilingual development. Additionally, we examine the interaction between the cognate facilitation effect (CFE) and bilingual experience factors, such as language proficiency, exposure, and age. We investigated language backgrounds and recorded event-related potentials during a semantic priming task in Dutch–German bilingual children. Most participants were Dutch-dominant, characterized by higher exposure and proficiency in Dutch. We compared the N400 response to target words preceded by semantically related cognate versus non-cognate primes. We found a reduced N400 effect (indexing cognate facilitation) only in the non-dominant language (nDL; German). Individual difference analyses further revealed that higher proficiency of nDL and increasing age attenuated the CFE. In contrast, higher cumulative exposure was associated with an amplified CFE. These findings suggest that cross-linguistic activation in lexical–semantic processing may benefit younger children with either lower proficiency or higher exposure to their non-dominant language during language processing. Together, the study offers direct neural evidence for bilingual cognate facilitation effects and highlights the importance of investigating interactions with external factors in early bilingualism. Future longitudinal research should examine whether cognate reliance serves as a temporary scaffolding mechanism for the acquisition of the non-dominant language.

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder, characterised at the cognitive level by a phenotypic pattern of relative weaknesses (e.g., visuospatial skills) and strengths (e.g., some linguistic and nonverbal reasoning skills). In this study, we performed a systematic search and meta-analysis on lexical-semantic processing in WS, an area of knowledge in which contradictory results have been obtained. We found 42 studies matching our criteria, and, in total, 78 effect sizes were included in the meta-analysis. Results showed that individuals with WS have worse lexical-semantic skills than individuals with typical development, whether matched by chronological or mental age. However, people with WS have better lexical-semantic skills than people diagnosed with other cognitive disabilities. Finally, vocabulary skills seem to be relatively spared in WS, although they present some difficulties in semantic processing/integration, semantic memory organisation and verbal working memory skills. Taken together, these results support a neuroconstructivist approach, according to which the cognitive mechanisms involved in lexical-semantic processing may be modulated, even when performance in some tasks (i.e., vocabulary tasks) might be optimal.

The present study introduces the first substantial German database with norms for semantic typicality, age of acquisition, and concept familiarity for 824 exemplars of 11 semantic categories, including four natural ( animals, birds, fruits, and vegetables ) and five man-made ( clothing, furniture, vehicles, tools , and musical instruments ) categories, as well as professions and sports . Each category exemplar in the database was collected empirically in an exemplar generation study. For each category exemplar, norms for semantic typicality, estimated age of acquisition, and concept familiarity were gathered in three different rating studies. Reliability data and additional analyses on effects of semantic category and intercorrelations between age of acquisition, semantic typicality, concept familiarity, word length, and word frequency are provided. Overall, the data show high inter- and intrastudy reliabilities, providing a new resource tool for designing experiments with German word materials. The full database is available in the supplementary material of this file and also at www.psychonomic.org/archive .

Psycholinguistic research on temporal lobe epilepsy has identified deficits in lexical access to stored word knowledge, often showing difficulties with impaired naming, impaired verbal fluency, and slower processing time in semantic category decision tasks. Th is study presents the neuroanatomical correlates of dissociative lexical–semantic impairments in medial temporal lobe epilepsy in both dominant and non– dominant hemispheres. Clinical subjects demonstrated the same accuracy in lexical–semantic processing tasks as healthy participants, but significantly slower lexical–semantic processing compared to the control group. Further analysis showed that a lesion in the medial temporal lobe of the dominant hemisphere caused category–specific deficits, while a lesion in the non–dominant temporal lobe did not cause impairments. Th e results suggest that epilepsy of the medial temporal lobe can cause impaired lexical–semantic access, leading to disproportionate damage to certain lexical–semantic categories. Th e confirmed assumptions of this research are consistent with neuroanatomical models that show that hemispheric differences in the epileptic focus can affect the processing of certain lexical–semantic categories, disrupt certain lexical– semantic categories, and influence the reorganization of the language system.

Recent evidence demonstrates that lexical-semantic connections emerge over the second year of life for monolingual children. Yet, little is known about the developing lexical-semantic organization of children acquiring two languages simultaneously. Two- to 4 year-old French–Spanish bilingual children completed a within-language auditory semantic priming task in both of their languages, while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The results revealed that bilingual children exhibited sensitivity to taxonomic relationships between words in each of their languages, but the pattern of brain activity varied across the dominant (DL) and the non-dominant (NDL) languages. While the N2 occurred for both languages, the N400 appeared for target words in the DL only and the late anterior negativity for target words in the NDL only. These findings indicate that words are organized taxonomically in the bilinguals’ lexicons. However, the patterns of brain activity suggest that common and distinct neural resources underlie lexical-semantic processing in each language.