G. Mccarthy et al., LANGUAGE-RELATED FIELD POTENTIALS IN THE ANTERIOR-MEDIAL TEMPORAL-LOBE .1. INTRACRANIAL DISTRIBUTION AND NEURAL GENERATORS, The Journal of neuroscience, 15(2), 1995, pp. 1080-1089
Field potentials were recorded from intracranial electrodes in humans
to study language-related processing. Subjects viewed sentences in whi
ch each word was presented successively in the center of a video monit
or. Half of the sentences ended normally, while the other half ended w
ith a semantically anomalous word. The anomalous sentence-ending words
elicited a large negative field potential with a peak latency near 40
0 msec, which was focally distributed bilaterally in the anterior medi
al temporal robe (AMTL), anterior to the hippocampus and near the amyg
dala. Subdural electrodes positioned near the collateral sulcus just i
nferior and lateral to the amygdala recorded a positive field potentia
l at the same latency. This spatial distribution of voltage suggested
that this language-sensitive field potential was generated in the neoc
ortex near the collateral sulcus and anterior fusiform gyrus. Addition
al task-related field potentials were recorded in the hippocampus. The
AMTL field potential at 400 msec shares characteristics with the N400
potential recorded from scalp electrodes that has been associated wit
h semantic processing.