Neural basis of the non-attentional processing of briefly presented words.

Full Abstract

The neural basis of the automatic activation of words was investigated in an fMRI study. In the study, words were presented briefly (51 or 151 msec) followed by a mask. To prevent attentional processing, subjects attended to the masks and not the words, and were required to make perceptual judgment about the masks. We found that a distributed neural network (including the frontal, temporal, occipital, parietal lobes, and the cerebellum) was activated during non-attentional processing of words in both exposure durations. A significant main effect of presentation duration was found in bilateral cerebellum and the right fusiform gyrus, suggesting their role in the later (151 msec) processing of words. In addition, a significant interaction between presentation duration and word frequency was obtained. When the presentation duration was 151 msec, no significant difference in activation was found between high- and low-frequency words. Alternatively, when the presentation duration was 51 msec, high-frequency words evoked significantly greater activation in bilateral fusiform gyri, cerebellum, right inferior parietal lobe, medial frontal gyrus (BA 45/46/9), and the right temporal-occipital junction (BA 21/37). These results suggest that these regions are sensitive to word frequency, and are related to both the attentional and non-attentional access of lexical representations.Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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Author information

Author/s: Peng, Dan-ling (DL); Xu, Duo (D); Jin, Zhen (Z); Luo, Qian (Q); Ding, Guo-sheng (GS); Perry, Conrad (C); Zhang, Lei (L); Liu, Ying (Y);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. pdl3507(-atsign-)bnu.edu.cn

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Human brain mapping (Hum Brain Mapp), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Mar; vol 18 (issue 3) : pp 215-21

Dates: Created 2003/02/24; Completed 2003/05/07; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12599280, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Adult
Attention - physiology
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Female
Humans

Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neural Pathways
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Reading
Time Factors

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