Electromagnetic indices of language processing

In this chapter, we describe the processes underlying language comprehension, both in the visual modality of reading and in the auditory modality of listening, by focusing on the main stages of linguistic information processing, from the sensory to the symbolic levels. Given the particular nature of the research techniques used, linguistic production mechanisms will not be addressed here, because of the well-known motor-related electromagnetic artifacts induced by spontaneous speech. Briefly, linguistic production mechanisms are based on the ability to: formulate a thought by accessing conceptual representations, provide it with a correct structure from the lexical (semantics) and syntactic points of view (ordering and attribution of roles), access the phonologic and phonemic form of the various discourse parts (nouns, verbs, function words), pre-program the muscular and articulatory movements involved in phonation, and implement those commands by performing the emission of appropriate linguistic phonemes fluently and with the right prosody. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Milan.