Representational Pattern Similarity of Electrical Brain Activity Reveals Rapid and Specific Prediction during Language Comprehension.

ABSTRACT: Predicting upcoming events is a critical function of the brain, and language provides a fertile testing ground for studying prediction, as comprehenders use context to predict features of upcoming words. Many aspects of the mechanisms of prediction remain elusive, partly due to a lack of methodological tools to probe prediction formation in the moment. To elucidate what features are neurally preactivated and when, we used representational similarity analysis on previously collected sentence reading data. We compared EEG activity patterns elicited by expected and unexpected sentence final words to patterns from the preceding words of the sentence, in both strongly and weakly constraining sentences. Pattern similarity with the final word was increased in an early time window following the pr

SUBMITTER: Hubbard RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8328210 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature