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διοργανώνει διάλεξη με θέμα:

“Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Lexical Ambiguity Processing”

την

Τετάρτη, 07 Μαΐου 2008, Ώρα 1830 μ.μ.

στην Αίθουσα Α008, Κεντρικό Κτίριο

με ομιλήτρια την:

Αικατερίνη Κλεπουσνιώτου, Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology

Η διάλεξη είναι ανοικτή στο κοινό

Abstract: EEG and fMRI data designed to investigate the access and representation of different types of ambiguous words will be presented. Under the theoretical assumption that lexical ambiguity is not a homogeneous phenomenon, but rather that it is subdivided into two distinct types, namely homonymy (i.e., a word form with two or more distinct and unrelated meanings) and polysemy (i.e., a single word with multiple related senses), the present set of studies investigated the time-course of meaning activation and the localization patterns of these different types of lexical ambiguity.

The EEG study, focusing on event-related potentials (ERPs), indicates that the theoretical distinction between homonymy and polysemy was reflected in the N400 component of the ERPs. These findings are consistent with previous behavioural studies that indicate differences in the processing of homonymous and polysemous words and point toward differences in their representation in the mental lexicon depending on the type of lexical ambiguity (i.e., distinct representations for each meaning in homonymy; single core meaning representation in polysemy).

With respect to the fMRI study, which was designed to examine activation related to the processing of lexical ambiguity within the right-hemisphere, comparison of the experimental conditions with the baseline control condition revealed evidence for bilateral activations in language related cortical areas, such as the pars opercularis (Brodmann’s area 44) and the inferior parietal lobule (Brodmann’s area 40).