Extracting, computing, coordination: what does a triphasic ERP pattern say about language processing?

Abstract

The current study aims at contributing to the interpretation of the most prominent language-related ERP effects, N400 and P600, by investigating how neural responses to congruent and incongruent sentence endings vary, when the language processor processes the full array of the lexico-syntactic content in verbs with three affixes in canonical Turkish sentences. The ERP signals in response to three different violation conditions reveal a similar triphasic (P200/N400/P600) pattern resembling in topography and peak amplitude The P200 wave is interpreted as the extraction of meaning from written.form by generating a code which triggers the computation of neuronal ensembles in the distributed LTM (N400). The P600 potential reflects the widely distributed coordination process of activated neuronal patterns of semantic and morphosyntactic cues by connecting the generated subsets of these patterns and adapting them into the current context. It further can be deduced that these ERP components reflect cognitive rather than linguistic processes. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.