Event-related potentials during auditory and visual proverb presentation in non-brain-damaged controls and brain-damaged individuals: Results of a pilot study

Author(s): Hild, M., Witzke, W., Schonle, P. W.

Journal/Book: Brain Cognition. 1996; 30: 525B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495. Academic Press Inc Jnl-Comp Subscriptions. 294-297.

Abstract: Employing the event-related potential (ERP) technique, the processing of proverbs was investigated in non-brain-damaged individuals and brain-damaged patients. False proverbs clearly elicited the 400-msec negative potential in non-brain-damaged adults. Whereas highly automatic language processing, as represented by proverbs, was not preserved in patients in an apallic state, an N400 could be elicited in response to semantically incongruent proverbs in other severely brain-damaged patients. This, however, did not necessarily imply that the patients were able to comprehend the metaphorical meaning of the proverb. Introduction of ERPs can provide a useful index of the timing of covert sensory, cognitive, and linguistic processing (e.g., Mlnte et al., 1993). Cognitive processes such as context updating, information delivery, or stimulus categorization have been associated with processing is the 400-msec negative potential (N400) which seems to be related to the occurrence of context incongruity and coherence disruption. (Curran et al., in press; George, Mannes, & Hoffman, 1994; Kutas & Hillyard, 1980).

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