NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE PROCESSING

Neurophysiological studies of language processing in the intact brain have identified 3 major event-related potential (ERP) components corre lating with different aspects of language: iii an early left anterior negativity (ELAN) obtained in correlation with early syntactic process es, primarily processes of structuring the language input, (2) a centr oparietal negativity around 400 ms (N400) reflecting lexical-semantic integration processes, and (3) a late centroparietal positivity (P600) observed in correlation with secondary syntactic processes such as re analysis and repair. These components manifest themselves approximatel y around 200 ms, 400 ms and 600 ms post onset of a critical word. Thei r variation in latency and magnitude can be used as a diagnostic crite rion for language impairment. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.