Early encoding of conceptual modality in word comprehension: ERPs suggesting perceptual simulation (Bernabeu, Willems, &amp; Louwerse, in prep.)
Creators: name: Bernabeu, Pablo
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Neuroscience and Physiological Psychology
subject: 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology

description: Files: experiment overview; stimuli; EEG montage used; waveforms; difference topographies, critical statistics; fixed effects of final models; entire modeling; raw data. For a detailed view of the waveforms per group and electrode, see https://pablobernabeu.shinyapps.io/export_files/.The entire data set is available at https://osf.io/97unm/.<b>Abstract. </b>Sensory systems are activated during conceptual processing, yet the precise relevance of that remains unclear. For perceptual simulation to occur, those systems would have to contribute to the core of conceptual processing. We tested this in an Event-Related Potential (ERP) experiment that implemented the conceptual modality switch. In each trial, participants judged whether a property word could describe a concept word. Yet, the critical manipulation was the conceptual modality of successive trials (as enabled by modality-normed stimuli). Thus we measured whether switching across trials in different modalities incurred a processing cost, and if so, at what stages. Unlike previous studies, we time-locked ERPs to the first word of target trials, in order to measure any switching costs from the beginning, and also to reduce confound influence on the target word. Further, the experiment featured different types of switch—one from auditory to visual, and one from haptic to visual—, which were compared to the non-switch—visual to visual. Also, one group of participants was asked to respond quickly (<i>n</i> = 21), and another group to respond self-paced (<i>n</i> = 21), while a few others received no constraints (<i>n</i> = 5). We found ERP effects in four typical time windows from 160 to 750 ms after word onset. The overall effect is characterized by a negativity for modality-switching relative to not switching, and it increases over time. Further, it arises with both types of switch, and influences both participant groups within anterior and posterior brain regions. These results suggest that conceptual modality may be encoded from the beginning of word recognition, which underscores the plausibility of perceptual simulation.<b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b>ReferencesCollins, J., Pecher, D., Zeelenberg, R., &amp; Coulson, S. (2011). Modality switching in a property verification task: an ERP study of what happens when candles flicker after high heels click. <i>Frontiers in Psychology, 2.</i>Hald, L. A., Marshall, J.-A., Janssen, D. P., &amp; Garnham, A. (2011). Switching modalities in a sentence verification task: ERP evidence for embodied language processing. <i>Frontiers in Psychology, 2.</i> Hauk, O. (2016). Only time will tell—Why temporal information is essential for our neuroscientific understanding of semantics. <i>Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review, 23</i>.<i></i>Mahon, B.Z., &amp; Hickok, G. (2016). Arguments about the nature of concepts: Symbols, embodiment, and beyond. <em>Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review, 23, </em>941-958.