Journal
JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 21, Issue 2, Pages 403-414Publisher
MIT PRESS
DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2008.21030
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Marie Curie Research Training Network Language and Brain [MRTNCT-2004-512141]
- Italian Ministry of Instruction, University and Research (PRIN)
- Israeli Science Foundation and the ERC
- Royal Society
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the left hemisphere has been shown to disrupt semantic processing but, to date, there has been no direct demonstration of the electrophysiological correlates of this interference. To gain insight into the neural basis of semantic systems, and in particular, study the temporal and functional organization of object categorization processing, we combined repetitive TMS (rTMS) and ERPs. Healthy volunteers performed a picture word matching task in which Snodgrass drawings of natural (e.g., animal) and artifactual (e.g., tool) categories were associated with a word. When short trains of high-frequency rTMS were applied over Wernicke's area ( in the region of the CP5 electrode) immediately before the stimulus onset, we observed delayed response times to artifactual items, and thus, an increased dissociation between natural and artifactual domains. This behavioral effect had a direct ERP correlate. In the response period, the stimuli from the natural domain elicited a significant larger late positivity complex than those from the artifactual domain. These differences were significant over the centro-parietal region of the right hemisphere. These findings demonstrate that rTMS interferes with post-perceptual categorization processing of natural and artifactual stimuli that involve separate subsystems in distinct cortical areas.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available