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Semantic priming increases left hemisphere theta power and intertrial phase synchrony
Author(s) -
Salisbury Dean F.,
Taylor Grantley
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01318.x
Subject(s) - psychology , lateralization of brain function , percept , priming (agriculture) , semantic memory , neuroscience , perception , cognitive psychology , cognition , botany , germination , biology
Information is stored in distributed cortical networks, but it is unclear how distributed stores are synthesized into a unified percept. Activation of local circuits in the gamma range (30 < < 80 Hz ), and distributed stores in the low theta range (3–5 Hz ) may underlie perceptual binding. Words have a crucial role in semantic memory. Within memory, the activation of distributed semantic stores is facilitated by conceptually related previous items, termed semantic priming. We sought to detect event‐related brain oscillations ( ERO s) sensitive to semantic activation and priming. Here, we show that low theta evoked power and intertrial phase locking (4–5 Hz ) from 250–350 msec over left hemisphere language areas was greater to related than to unrelated words. Theta band event‐related oscillations over left hemisphere language areas may provide a brain signature for semantic activation across distributed stores being facilitated by semantic priming.