On the origin of the N400 effects: An ERP waveform and source localization analysis in three matching tasks

Asaid Khateb; Alan J. Pegna; Theodor Landis; Michaël S. Mouthon; Jean Marie Annoni

doi:10.1007/s10548-010-0149-7

On the origin of the N400 effects: An ERP waveform and source localization analysis in three matching tasks

Asaid Khateb, Alan J. Pegna, Theodor Landis, Michaël S. Mouthon, Jean Marie Annoni

Department of Learning Disabilities

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The question of the cognitive nature and the cerebral origins of the event-related potential (ERP) N400 component has frequently been debated. Here, the N400 effects were analyzed in three tasks. In the semantic task, subjects decided whether sequentially presented word pairs were semantically related or unrelated. In the phonologic (rhyme detection) task, they decided if words were phonologically related or not. In the image categorization task, they decided whether images were categorically related or not. Difference waves between ERPs to unrelated and related conditions (defined here as the N400 effect) demonstrated a greater amplitude and an earlier peak latency effect in the image than in semantic and phonologic tasks. In contrast, spatial correlation analysis revealed that the maps computed during the peak of the N400 effects were highly correlated. Source localization computed from these maps showed the involvement in all tasks of the middle/superior temporal gyrus. Our results suggest that these qualitatively similar N400 effects index the same cognitive content despite differences in the representational formats (words vs. images) and the types of mismatch (semantic vs. phonological) across tasks.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	311-320
Number of pages	10
Journal	Brain Topography
Volume	23
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-010-0149-7
State	Published - Sep 2010

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgments This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation grants no’ 325100-118362 and 320030-125196, and the EEG Brain Mapping Core of the Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM) of Geneva and Lausanne. We thank Drs Rolando Grave de Peralta Menedez and Sara Gonzales Andino for the inverse solutions, and Tatiana Aboulafia for her contribution to the analysis of part of the data.

Keywords

Event-related potentials
Image categorization
Rhyme detection
Semantic judgment
Source localization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Anatomy
Radiological and Ultrasound Technology
Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
Neurology
Clinical Neurology

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Cite this

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title = "On the origin of the N400 effects: An ERP waveform and source localization analysis in three matching tasks",

abstract = "The question of the cognitive nature and the cerebral origins of the event-related potential (ERP) N400 component has frequently been debated. Here, the N400 effects were analyzed in three tasks. In the semantic task, subjects decided whether sequentially presented word pairs were semantically related or unrelated. In the phonologic (rhyme detection) task, they decided if words were phonologically related or not. In the image categorization task, they decided whether images were categorically related or not. Difference waves between ERPs to unrelated and related conditions (defined here as the N400 effect) demonstrated a greater amplitude and an earlier peak latency effect in the image than in semantic and phonologic tasks. In contrast, spatial correlation analysis revealed that the maps computed during the peak of the N400 effects were highly correlated. Source localization computed from these maps showed the involvement in all tasks of the middle/superior temporal gyrus. Our results suggest that these qualitatively similar N400 effects index the same cognitive content despite differences in the representational formats (words vs. images) and the types of mismatch (semantic vs. phonological) across tasks.",

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note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgments This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation grants no{\textquoteright} 325100-118362 and 320030-125196, and the EEG Brain Mapping Core of the Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM) of Geneva and Lausanne. We thank Drs Rolando Grave de Peralta Menedez and Sara Gonzales Andino for the inverse solutions, and Tatiana Aboulafia for her contribution to the analysis of part of the data.",

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On the origin of the N400 effects: An ERP waveform and source localization analysis in three matching tasks

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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