Mind-Brain Lecture: Olaf Hauk (Cambridge)
Host: Friedemann Pulvermüller
We can retrieve the meaning of printed words with remarkable ease and
speed. I will present EEG/MEG and fMRI results that characterise the
spatio-temporal brain dynamics of visual word recognition. Neural and
behavioural data suggest that lexical and semantic retrieval processes
begin in parallel around 200 ms after word presentation. The task
modulation of early brain responses indicates that these retrieval
processes are best described as flexible rather than automatic. I will
present a novel methodological approach to extract single-trial time
courses for EEG/MEG components in order to investigate these brain
processes in more detail. The brain localisation of early lexical and
semantic effects suggests a prominent role of the left anterior
temporal lobe in the corresponding retrieval processes, lending
support to the hub-and-spoke model of lexico-semantic processing.
However, in a movement priming EEG/MEG study, we found a link between
cortical motor areas only with posterior superior temporal gyrus, in
the absence of behavioural effects. I will discuss to what degree an
optimal comprehender should rely on sensorimotor systems during
semantic processing.
Dr. Olaf Hauk, MRC-CBU (Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit), Cambridge, UK
