Processing Concepts and Scenarios: Electrophysiological Findings on Language Representation

Abstract

Studying the underlying neuronal substrate of language processing with electrophysiological techniques, we could provide evidence for a physiological reality of linguistic categories. The processing of abstract concepts (Nouns) activates a less complicated network in the brain, thus showing different functional representation than concrete concepts. As we have demonstrated earlier this is only true with respect to those frequency bands of the EEG, which reflect higher cognitive processes. In other frequency bands the processing of both abstract and concrete nouns activates similar networks. This can be explained by the fact that mere acoustical and visual word perception does not differ between concrete and abstract nouns. The comprehension of complex sentences requires analysis of whole scenarios depending on phonological, syntactic and semantic entities across time. This can also be monitored by EEG-analysis. Even working memory demands can be observed in frontal cortical regions during sentence processing. EEG coherence analysis seems to be an important tool for the investigation of the physiology of language representation and supports theoretical findings in linguistics and philosophy of language.