Skip Navigation



Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on August 13, 2009
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp153
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Strijkers, K.
Right arrow Articles by Thierry, G.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Strijkers, K.
Right arrow Articles by Thierry, G.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Tracking Lexical Access in Speech Production: Electrophysiological Correlates of Word Frequency and Cognate Effects

Kristof Strijkers1,2, Albert Costa2 and Guillaume Thierry3

1 Universitat de Barcelona, Department of Psicologia Bàsica, GRNC, 08035 Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain, 2 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Dept. de Tecnologia, ICREA, 08018 Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain, 3 Bangor University, School of Psychology, ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism in Theory and Practice, Bangor, LL57 2DG Wales, UK

Address correspondence to Albert Costa, PhD, Dept. de Tecnologia, ICREA, Universitat de Pompeu Fabra, C/ Tanger, 122-140, 08018 Barcelona, Spain. Email: costalbert{at}gmail.com.

The present study establishes an electrophysiological index of lexical access in speech production by exploring the locus of the frequency and cognate effects during overt naming. We conducted 2 event-related potential (ERP) studies with 16 Spanish–Catalan bilinguals performing a picture naming task in Spanish (L1) and 16 Catalan–Spanish bilinguals performing a picture naming task in Spanish (L2). Behavioral results showed a clear frequency effect and an interaction between frequency and cognate status. The ERP elicited during the production of high-frequency words diverged from the low-frequency ERP between 150 and 200 ms post-target presentation and kept diverging until voice onset. The same results were obtained when comparing cognate and noncognate conditions. Positive correlations were observed between naming latencies and mean amplitude of the P2 component following the divergence, for both the lexical frequency and the cognate effects. We conclude that lexical access during picture naming begins approximately 180 ms after picture presentation. Furthermore, these results offer direct electrophysiological evidence for an early influence of frequency and cognate status in speech production. The theoretical implications of these findings for models of speech production are discussed.

Key Words: ERP • language production • lexical activation • time course


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.