Language comprehension interrupted: both language errors and word degradation activate Broca's area.

The proposal of a general conflict resolution mechanism in lIFG was investigated further in relation to language errors. In an fMRI study participants read sentences containing syntactic and plausibility violations. Furthermore, they were presented with sentences that were difficult to comprehend, due to degradation of the bottom-up signal (i.

States of indecision in the brain: ERP reflections of syntactic agreement violations versus visual degradation.

According to the monitoring theory of language perception, language errors can create strong conflicts between expected and observed representations. When a strong conflict is present this functions as a bottom-up signal to bias attention towards the unexpected representation for reprocessing to check for possible processing errors. This monitoring process, encompassing both the conflict and reprocessing, is thought to be reflected in the late positivity or P600 effect.

Monitoring in language perception: electrophysiological and hemodynamic responses to spelling violations.

The monitoring theory of language perception proposes that competing representations that are caused by strong expectancy violations can trigger a conflict which elicits reprocessing of the input to check for possible processing errors. This monitoring process is thought to be reflected by the P600 component in the EEG. The present study further investigated this monitoring process by comparing syntactic and spelling violations in an EEG and an fMRI experiment.

Speaking in ellipses: the effect of a compensatory style of speech on functional communication in chronic agrammatism.

This study investigated whether a Dutch and adapted version of Reduced Syntax Therapy (REST) could stimulate and automatise the production of ellipses in Dutch-speaking, chronically agrammatic speakers (N = 12). Ellipses are syntactic frames in which slots for grammatical morphology tend to be lacking (e.g.

Monitoring in language perception: mild and strong conflicts elicit different ERP patterns.

In the language domain, most studies of error monitoring have been devoted to language production. However, in language perception, errors are made as well and we are able to detect them. According to the monitoring theory of language perception, a strong conflict between what is expected and what is observed triggers reanalysis to check for possible perceptual errors, a process reflected by the P600.

Monitoring in language perception: evidence from ERPs in a picture-sentence matching task.

P600 effects have been observed after syntactic ambiguous sentences, after several types of syntactic and semantic anomalies and after orthographic anomalies. On the basis of these findings, several investigators propose the P600 effect to reflect syntactic repair or syntactic restructuring. According to our Monitoring Theory the P600 effect reflects more general sentence reanalysis, to check whether the input sentence has been perceived appropriately.

Immediate integration of novel meanings: N400 support for an embodied view of language comprehension.

A substantial part of language understanding depends on our previous experiences, but part of it consists of the creation of new meanings. Such new meanings cannot be retrieved from memory but still have to be constructed. The goals of this article were: first, to explore the nature of new meaning creation, and second, to test abstract symbol theories against embodied theories of meaning.

The interplay of heuristics and parsing routines in sentence comprehension: evidence from ERPs and reaction times.

Semantic anomalies like "the fox that hunted the poacher" elicit P600 effects. Kolk et al. [Kolk, H.

Monitoring in language perception: The effect of misspellings of words in highly constrained sentences.

We present evidence for a monitoring process in language perception at the word level, reflected by a P600. This P600 is triggered when a conflict evolves because the brain encounters an unexpected linguistic item when another item is highly expected. To resolve this conflict between representations, the brain monitors the input to check for possible processing errors.

When heuristics clash with parsing routines: ERP evidence for conflict monitoring in sentence perception.

Monitoring refers to a process of quality control designed to optimize behavioral outcome. Monitoring for action errors manifests itself in an error-related negativity in event-related potential (ERP) studies and in an increase in activity of the anterior cingulate in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Here we report evidence for a monitoring process in perception, in particular, language perception, manifesting itself in a late positivity in the ERP.

Accessing world knowledge: evidence from N400 and reaction time priming.

How fast are we in accessing world knowledge? In two experiments, we tested for priming for word triplets that described a conceptual script (e.g., DIRECTOR-BRIBE-DISMISSAL) but were not associatively related and did not share a category relationship.

An ERP study of P600 effects elicited by semantic anomalies.

Syntactic anomalies reliably elicit P600 effects. Recent studies, however, reported P600 effects to semantic anomalies. These findings are difficult to reconcile with the common view on the P600 as a purely syntactic component.

Event-related potential and reaction time evidence for inhibition between alternative meanings of ambiguous words.

We investigated the effects of two primes that converged onto the same semantic target representation (e.g., LION-STRIPES-TIGER) or diverged onto different semantic target representations (e.

Structure and limited capacity in verbal working memory: a study with event-related potentials.

In order to test recent claims about the structure of verbal working memory, two ERP experiments with Dutch speaking participants were carried out. We compared the ERP effects of syntactic and semantic mid-sentence anomalies in subject and object relative sentences. In Experiment 1, the participants made acceptability judgments, while in Experiment 2 they read for comprehension.

Evidence for magnocellular involvement in the identification of flanked letters.

Little is known about the role of the magno system in reading. One important hypothesis is that this system is involved in the allocation of attention. We reasoned that the presentation of a single letter automatically draws attention to this letter, whereas in the case of a flanked letter, an additional process of attention allocation is required for identification to occur.

Three-step priming in lexical decision.

In two experiments, we investigated mediated two-step priming (e.g., from LION to STRIPES via TIGER) and three-step priming (e.