Concurrent effects of lexical status and letter-rotation during early stages of visual word recognition: evidence from ERPs
Abstract
Recent studies report that the occipito-temporal N170 component of the ERP is enhanced by letter strings, relative to non-linguistic strings of similar visual complexity, with a left-lateralized distribution. This finding is consistent with underlying mechanisms that serve visual word recognition.
Conclusions about the level of analysis reflected within the N170 effects, and therefore the timecourse of word recognition, have been mixed. Here, we investigated the timing and nature of brain responses to putatively low- and high-level processing difficulty.
Low-level processing difficulty was modulated by manipulating letter-rotation parametrically at 0 degrees, 22.5 degrees, 45 degrees, 67.5 degrees, and 90 degrees. Higher-level processing difficulty was modulated by manipulating lexical status (words vs. word-like pseudowords).
Increasing letter-rotation enhanced the N170 led to monotonic increases in P1 and N170 amplitude up to 67.5 degrees but then decreased amplitude at 90 degrees. Pseudowords enhan