Spatiotemporal analysis of event-related potentials during Chinese sentences comprehension / 中华神经医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To elucidate the neuromechanism of Chinese words comprehension with spatiotemporal pattern of event-related potential (ERP).Methods Fifteen people were recruited during 2011 and 2012.After using Chinese words as stimulating materials,each subject was required to judge whether a target Chinese word belongs to the same class as semantic match or mismatch.EEG was recorded using an ERP system of 19 channels developed.Statistical parametric mapping of t-valus [SPM (t)] was gained from interpolation calculated by each channel's t-value.Results Under two classes,the ERP of 19 channels showed N200,N400 and P600 elements:N200 might be distributed in the bilateral occipital and post-temporal areas,and N400 and P600 might be widely distributed in the double top central-occipital and temporal region.SPM(t) presented differences in multiple regions in 3 stages:during 100-300 ms,the early left hemispheric significant positive deflections 240 ms in left temporoccipital and left frontal regions; during 300-400 ms (the N400 stage),negative deflections in right post-temporal,and both centroparietal and left frontal regions; during 440-580 ms (P600 stage),significant positive deflections in both occipitaloparietal and right temporal regions.Conclusion The positive effects within left temporoccipital and left frontal regions seem to reflect visual word processing and initial syntactic processing; the N400 effects within right post-temporal,both centroparietal and left frontal regions seem to reflect integrate semantic analysis processing,and P600 effects within occipitaloparietal and right temporal regions seem to reflect reanalysis and the integration of semantic and syntactic to obtain the overall meanings of Chinese sentences