A Review of Event-Related Potential Applications in Second Language Acquisition Research

Event-related potentials(ERPs)are a non-invasive neuro-electrophysiological technique that offers high resolution,real-time continuous measurements,as well as multidimensional probing capabilities,of the temple area of the head.These features enable precise,real-time brain activity measurements,making ERPs a preferred tool for linguistic researchers over the past five decades.This paper reviews the ERP applications and their significance in Second Language Acquisition(SLA)research.By analyzing the cognitive changes in the bilingual language processing mechanisms and language switching processes during SLA,this paper aims to demonstrate how ERPs provide in-depth insights into the cognitive mechanisms of SLA.In addition,this paper explores the prospects for ERP applications and the directions for their technological advancement in China.

Icon memory research under different time pressures and icon quantities based on event-related potential

In order to obtain related brain electrical components and neural bases of physiology assessment of icon elements in a digital human-computer interface the modified sample-delay matching task experimental paradigm is used under different time pressures 4 000 and 2 000 ms and different icon quantities three five and ten icons on icon memory based on event-related potential ERP technology.Experimental results demonstrate that P300 has significant volatility changes and the maximum amplitude around the middle line of the parietal area PZ and P200 has obvious volatility changes around the middle line of the frontal and central area FCZ during icon cognition.P300 and P200 amplitudes increase as tasks become more difficult.Thus P300 latency is positively correlated with task difficulty. ERP research on the characteristics of icon memory will be an important reference standard in guiding user neurocognitive behavior and physiology assessment on interface usability.

Differential cognitive responses to guqin music and piano music in Chinese subjects： an event-related potential study

Objective To compare the cognitive effects of guqin （the oldest Chinese instrument） music and piano music. Methods Behavioral and event-related potential （ERP） data in a standard two-stimulus auditory oddball task were recorded and analyzed. Results This study replicated the previous results of culture-familiar music effect on Chinese subjects： the greater P300 amplitude in frontal areas in a culture-familiar music environment. At the same time, the difference between guqin music and piano music was observed in NI and later positive complex （LPC： including P300 and P500）： a relatively higher participation of right anterior-temporal areas in Chinese subjects. Conclusion The results suggest that the special features of ERP responses to guqin music are the outcome of Chinese tonal language environments given the similarity between Guqin＇s tones and Mandarin lexical tones.

Effect of Neurofeedback on Visual-Spatial Attention in Male Children with Reading Disabilities: An Event-Related Potential Study

Recent studies describe a number of difficulties associated with attention deficit in children with reading disabilities. Information about visual-spatial attention mainly arises from studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) during Posner’s spatial cueing paradigm. This study aims to use neurofeedback with a special protocol for treating children with reading disabilities, and moreo-ver, to evaluate visual-spatial attention ability by means of Posner paradigm task and ERPs. The study was conducted in a single subject design in 20 sessions. Participants were 2 male children, aged between 10 - 12 years old, who completed twelve 30-min neurofeedback sessions. Repeated measurements were performed during the baseline, treatment, and post treatment phases. Results showed some improvement in Posner paradigm parameters (correct response, valid and invalid reaction times). Furthermore, grand average ERPs for both of the participants in each of the four conditions (Valid-right, Invalid-right, Valid-left and Invalid-left) were analyzed. The analysis of P3 component showed a reduction in latency, indicating an improvement in the timing of cognitive processes. In addition, the graphs showed a decrease in amplitude level, which meant easier processing than before.

头低位模拟失重对听觉ERPs早成分的影响

目的观察头低位模拟失重对听觉事件关联电位 (ERPs)早成分的影响 ,进一步了解模拟失重条件下脑功能的变化特点。方法被试者为 1 4名右利手正常在校大学生 (2 0～ 2 3岁 )。以头低位倾斜 (- 1 0°,HDT)模拟失重 ,头高位倾斜 (+1 0°,HUT)为对照。要求被试者对 4个方位的声音信号进行音调选择方位区分反应 (SR)。在不同体位记录 4套SR作业的ERPs。对 -t和方差分析统计听觉ERPs早成分。结果与HUT相比 ,HDT条件下靶信号 (T)ERPs和非靶信号 (NT)ERPs早成分的平均幅值在第 4套作业时均显著降低 ,且以F5区受影响最大 ,并表现出一定的方位特征。结论HDT对听觉ERPs早成分有一定的抑制性影响 ,提示HDT下脑的警觉激活程度降低。

Dissociated neural potential for processing strategies between decimals and fractions

The entity and symbolic fraction comparison tasks separating identification and semantic access stages based on event-related potential technology were used to investigate neural differences between fraction and decimal strategies in magnitude processing of nonsymbolic entities and symbolic numbers.The experimental results show that continuous entities elicit stronger left-lateralized anterior N2 in decimals,while discretized ones elicit more significant right-lateralized posterior N2 in fractions during the identification stage.On the other hand,decimals elicit stronger N2 over the left-lateralized fronto-central sites while fractions elicit the more profound P2 over the right-lateralized fronto-central sites and N2 at biparietal regions during the semantic access stage.Hence,for nonsymbolic entity processing,alignments of decimals and continuous entities activate the phonological network,while alignments of fractions and discretized entities trigger the visuospatial regions.For symbolic numbers processing,exact strategies with rote arithmetic retrieval in verbal format are used in decimal processing,while approximate strategies with complex magnitude processing in a visuospatial format are used in fraction processing.

The Objective Assessment of Event-Related Potentials:An Influence of Chronic Pain on ERP Parameters

The article presents an original method for the automatic assessment of the quality of event-related potentials(ERPs),based on the calculation of the coefficientε,which describes the compliance of recorded ERPs with some statistically significant parameters.This method was used to analyze the neuropsychological EEG monitoring of patients suffering from migraines.The frequency of migraine attacks was correlated with the spatial distribution of the coefficientsε,calculated for EEG channels.More than 15 migraine attacks per month was accompanied by an increase in calculated values in the occipital region.Patients with infrequent migraines exhibited maximum quality in the frontal areas.The automatic analysis of spatial maps of the coefficientεdemonstrated a statistically significant difference between the two analyzed groups with different means of migraine attack numbers per month.

“学习—再认”范式下汉字错误记忆的ERP效应

采用"学习一再认"的实验范式探讨汉字再认时不同再认结果下的ERP效应。发现在300～600ms期间击中条件下的LPC最正,正确否定条件下的ERP最负,漏报和虚报条件下的ERP居中并且两者没有差异。不同再认结果下ERP出现差异的原因可能是由于两种熟悉感共同作用的结果。

条件推理中否定前件下信念偏差发生阶段的ERP研究

以日常生活中的条件推理语句为实验材料,采用大、小前提和结论依次呈现的"推断-判断"范式,利用事件相关电位(event-related brain potential,ERP)技术探讨了条件推理中否定前件下信念偏差效应的脑内时程动态变化。结果发现:在行为反应上,较信念促进,信念阻碍下的正确率更低反应时更长;在脑电上,两条件(信念阻碍和信念促进)诱发的ERP波形仅在大前提加工阶段出现明显的分离。这表明该推理下的信念偏差效应可能早在对大前提的语义表征阶段就已发生。

睡眠过程中信息加工的ERP研究进展

本文综述了事件相关电位(ERP)外源性成分———N1、MMN、N550和内源性成分———P3、N300、N400在睡眠过程中的特点,以及论述了各成分在睡眠信息加工中的作用。

快速ICA算法在ERP信号处理中的应用

介绍了独立分量分析(ICA)的基本原理.针对事件相关电位(ERP)的信号特点及对快速处理的要求,引入一种快速定点ICA算法,并编写了相应的程序.利用该程序,进行了ERP实测数据的处理实验.实验显示,快速ICA算法能有效地分离和消除噪声干扰,并能改善和增强单次ERP的信号特征.文中还就实验结果和独立分量分析在ERP处理中的应用进行了讨论.

Processing Relative Clauses in Chinese:Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

The interpretation of Chinese relative clauses has become of significant interest in sentence processing research, since some studies found that Chinese comprehension patterns violate the well-known universal subject relatives preference proposed by NAPH theory and proved by cross-linguistic studies. The current study uses the neuropsychological measure of ERP. It supports such a language-specific phenomenon, with the results showing that both subject- and object- modifying subject relatives eliciting larger ERP components than object relatives. The results suggest that object relatives are easier to process than subject relatives at both modifying positions, challenging the claim of universal subject preference for all languages. In addition, this study casts doubts on CWO and working memory-based DLT models despite results being compatible with them, and concludes that none of the current models are comprehensive enough to account for the data. Finally, this study offers a piece of evidence for the garden path effect caused by the surface NVN word order in the Chinese relative clause. All in all, this study adds to the evidence that processing preference is not universal. It contributes to a comprehensive model of how complex structures are processed.

基于ICA的消除ERP中伪迹干扰的方法

概述了消除事件相关脑电位 (ERP)伪迹的一般方法和存在的问题 ,介绍了独立分量分析 (ICA)的基本原理及其两个关键内容 .将 ICA算法用于消除 ERP伪迹干扰 ,根据 ERP伪迹的特点用 ICA算法编写了一组用于盲信号分离和伪迹干扰消除的程序 .利用该组程序 ,进行了仿真实验和消除 ERP实测数据中伪迹干扰的处理实验 .仿真实验完全分离出了 4组人为随机混合的信号 ,实测信号实验较好地消除了伪迹干扰的影响 .实验结果表明 ,使用 ICA算法消除

PINPOINT SOURCE LOCALIZATION FOR OCULAR NONSELECTIVE ATTENTION WITH COMBINATION OF ERP AND fNIRI MEASUREMENTS

Compared with event-related potential(ERP)which is widely used in psychology research,functional near-infrared imaging(fNIRI)is a new technique providing hemodynamic information related to brain activity,except for electrophysiological signals.Here,we use both these techniques to study ocular attention.We conducted a series of experiments with a classic paradigm of ocular nonselective attention,and monitored responses with fNIRI and ERP respectively.The results showed that fNIRI measured brain activations in the left prefrontal lobe,while ERPs showed activation in frontal lobe.More importantly,only with the combination measurements of fNIRI and ERP,we were then able to find the pinpoint source of ocular nonselective attention,which is in the left and upper corner in Brodmann area 10.These results demonstrated that fNIRI is a reliable technique in psychology,and the combination of fNIRI and ERP can be promising to reveal more information in the research of brain mechanism.

Event-related potentials study on cross-modal discrimination of Chinese characters

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured in 15 normal young subjects (18-22 years old) using the cross-modal and delayed response paradigm, which is able to improve inattention purity. The stimuli consisted of written and spoken single Chinese characters. The presentation probability of standard stimuli was 82.5% and that of deviant stimuli was 17.5%. The attention components were obtained by subtracting the ERPs of inattention condition from those of attention condition. The results of the Nl scalp distribution demonstrated a cross-modal difference. This result is in contrast to studies with non-verbal as well as with English verbal stimuli. This probably reflected the brain mechanism feature of Chinese language processing. The processing location of attention was varied along with verbal/ non-verbal stimuli, auditory/visual modalities and standard/deviant stimuli, and thus it has plasticity. The early attention effects occurred before the exogenous components, and thus provided evidence supporting the early selective theory of attention. According to the relationship of Nl and Ndl, the present result supported the viewpoint that the Nl enhancement was caused by endogenous components overlapping with exogenous one rather than by pure exogenous component.

Using an improved sentence paradigm of event-related potentials to examine puns' cognitive mechanism

In order to specify brain temporal dynamics difference between two representative puns, homonymic and semantic puns, alternate presentation of words and phrase(APWP) paradigm was proposed. The highlight of APWP paradigm is to make sentences strictly presented in word-phrase-word-phrase-word forms, which helps relieve visual fatigue of the monotonous presentation form and prevent disturbance by the settled position of the ending word. Following the APWP paradigm, participants are invited to read puns presenting in word-phrase-word-phrase-word forms. Meanwhile, event-related potential(ERP) was adopted to record their electroencephalogram(EEG) data. By observing two linguistic cognitive indexes of EEG data, N400 and P600 caused by puns, it was found that there were significant difference of logical mechanisms between homonymic and semantic puns. For homonymic puns, a significant P600 effect without any obvious N400 amplitude was elicited for the pronunciation of heterograph. For semantic puns, an apparent N400 amplitude might reflect ambiguities and comprehensive difficulty of a homonym into its discourse context. This study also conveyed that the APWP paradigm proved to be a good model for sentences research, which can be applied to other linguistic phenomena of complete context, such as metaphor, irony and jokes, sentence pattern and syntactic research.

Measuring Mental Workload Using ERPs Based on FIR,ICA,and MARA

Mental workload is considered to be strongly linked to human performance,and the ability to measure it accurately is key for balancing human health and work.In this study,brain signals were elicited by mental arithmetic tasks of varying difficulty to stimulate different levels of mental workload.In addition,a finite impulse response(FIR)filter,independent component analysis(ICA),and multiple artifact rejection algorithms(MARAs)were used to filter event-related potentials(ERPs).Then,the data consisting of ERPs,subjective ratings of mental workload,and task performance,were analyzed through the use of variance and Spearman’s correlation during a simulated computer task.We found that participants responded faster and performed better in the easy task condition,followed by the medium and high-difficulty conditions,which verifies the validity of the ERP filtering.Moreover,larger P2 and P3 waveforms were evoked as the task difficulty increased,and a higher task difficulty elicited a more enhanced N300.Correlation analysis revealed a negative relationship between the amplitude of P3 and the subjective ratings,and a positive relationship between the P3 amplitude and accuracy.The results presented in this paper demonstrate that a combination of FIR,ICA,and MARA methods can filter ERPs in the non-invasive real-time measurement of workload.Additionally,frontocentral P2,N3,and parietal P3 components showed differences between genders.The proposed measurement of mental workload can be useful for real-time identification of mental states and can be applied to human-computer interaction in the future.

A New Association Evaluation Stage in Cartoon Apprehension: Evidence from an ERP Study

The aim of this study was to investigate the temporal cortical activation patterns underlying different stages of humor comprehension (e.g., detection of incongruity stage, resolution of incongruity stage, and affective stage). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured when 16 subjects were apprehending cartoon pictures including humorous, non-humorous and unrelated items. Results showed that both humorous and unrelated items elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N500-800) than non-humorous ones between 500 - 800 ms, which might reflect detection to incongruent element during humor apprehension. Then, both humorous and non-humorous items elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P800-1000) than unrelated ones between 800 - 1000 ms, which might reflect a classification process preliminarily evaluating whether there were attainable cues in the pictures used to form possible association between context and picture (we named it “association evaluation” stage). Furthermore, humorous items elicited a more positive slow wave than non-humorous items which also elicited a more positive wave than unrelated items between 1000 - 1600 ms, during which this component might be involved in the forming of novel associations (resolution of incongruity). Lastly, between 1600 - 2000 ms, humorous items elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P1600-2000) than both non-humorous and unrelated items, which might be related to emotion processing during humor apprehension. Based on these results, we deeply subdivided the second stage (resolution of incongruity) into two stages: association evaluation and incongruity resolution.

Auditory ERP Differences in the Perception of Anticipated Speech Sequences in 5 - 6 Years Old Children and Adults

The perception of complex auditory information such as complete speech sequences develops during human ontogeny. In order to explore age differences in the auditory perception of predictable speech sequences we compared event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded in 5- to 6-year-old children (N = 15) and adults (N = 15) in response to anticipated speech sequences as successive and reverse digital series with randomly omitted digits. The ERPs obtained from the omitted digits significantly differed in the amplitude and latency of the N200 and P300 components between adults and children, the N400 and LPC components were more pronounced in children in the right frontal area for the digits presentation. These findings indicate that the perception of a successive speech structure is less automated in children and requires a detailed analysis of the successive structure and error detection. These differences in auditory ERPs reflect developmental changes in the auditory perception of speech sequences and can serve as indicators of the maturity of cognitive functions in children.

P240的语义距离效应

通过视觉呈现汉语双字词,在词汇决定实验中操纵启动词和目标词的语义距离,得到了一个对语义加工敏感的P240成分,它在头皮中央偏左的部位较早出现,头皮右侧的P240虽然出现较晚,但波幅较大,它可能是一种与汉语语义加工有关的新的ERP成分。