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Articles, Behavioral/Cognitive

Alpha Phase Determines Successful Lexical Decision in Noise

Antje Strauß, Molly J. Henry, Mathias Scharinger and Jonas Obleser
Journal of Neuroscience 18 February 2015, 35 (7) 3256-3262; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3357-14.2015
Antje Strauß
1Max Planck Research Group “Auditory Cognition,” Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany, and
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Molly J. Henry
1Max Planck Research Group “Auditory Cognition,” Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany, and
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Mathias Scharinger
1Max Planck Research Group “Auditory Cognition,” Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany, and
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Jonas Obleser
1Max Planck Research Group “Auditory Cognition,” Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany, and
2Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
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Abstract

Psychophysical target detection has been shown to be modulated by slow oscillatory brain phase. However, thus far, only low-level sensory stimuli have been used as targets. The current human electroencephalography (EEG) study examined the influence of neural oscillatory phase on a lexical-decision task performed for stimuli embedded in noise. Neural phase angles were compared for correct versus incorrect lexical decisions using a phase bifurcation index (BI), which quantifies differences in mean phase angles and phase concentrations between correct and incorrect trials. Neural phase angles in the alpha frequency range (8–12 Hz) over right anterior sensors were approximately antiphase in a prestimulus time window, and thus successfully distinguished between correct and incorrect lexical decisions. Moreover, alpha-band oscillations were again approximately antiphase across participants for correct versus incorrect trials during a later peristimulus time window (∼500 ms) at left-central electrodes. Strikingly, lexical decision accuracy was not predicted by either event-related potentials (ERPs) or oscillatory power measures. We suggest that correct lexical decisions depend both on successful sensory processing, which is made possible by the alignment of stimulus onset with an optimal alpha phase, as well as integration and weighting of decisional information, which is coupled to alpha phase immediately following the critical manipulation that differentiated words from pseudowords. The current study constitutes a first step toward characterizing the role of dynamic oscillatory brain states for higher cognitive functions, such as spoken word recognition.

  • bifurcation index
  • decision weighting
  • EEG
  • lexical decision
  • neural oscillations
  • sensory selection
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The Journal of Neuroscience: 35 (7)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 35, Issue 7
18 Feb 2015
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Alpha Phase Determines Successful Lexical Decision in Noise
Antje Strauß, Molly J. Henry, Mathias Scharinger, Jonas Obleser
Journal of Neuroscience 18 February 2015, 35 (7) 3256-3262; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3357-14.2015

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Alpha Phase Determines Successful Lexical Decision in Noise
Antje Strauß, Molly J. Henry, Mathias Scharinger, Jonas Obleser
Journal of Neuroscience 18 February 2015, 35 (7) 3256-3262; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3357-14.2015
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Keywords

  • bifurcation index
  • decision weighting
  • EEG
  • lexical decision
  • neural oscillations
  • sensory selection

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