HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gold, B. T. Articles by Rastle, K. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Gold, B. T. Articles by Rastle, K.

Neural Correlates of Morphological Decomposition during Visual Word Recognition

¹ University of Kentucky, ² University of London

Reprint requests should be sent to Brian T. Gold, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Kentucky School of Medicine, Lexington, KY 40536-0298, or via e-mail: brian.gold{at}uky.edu.

Considerable behavioral research has demonstrated that the visual word recognition system is sensitive to morphological structure. It has typically been assumed that analysis of morphologically complex words occurs only when the meaning of these words can be derived from the meanings of their constituents (e.g., hunter = hunt + er). However, results from recent behavioral research using the masked priming technique have demonstrated that morphological analysis can occur at an earlier orthographic level, in cases in which the meanings of complex words cannot be derived from their constituents (e.g., corner = corn + er). Here, we combine the logic of behavioral masked priming with the neurophysiological phenomenon of functional magnetic resonance imaging priming suppression to look for evidence of nonsemantic morphological priming at the neural level. Both behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging results indicated priming effects associated with the mere appearance of morphological structure (corner–CORN). In addition, these effects were distinguishable from lexical–semantic effects (bucket–PAIL) and orthographic effects (brothel–BROTH). Three left-lateralized occipito-temporal regions showed sensitivity to early morphological components of visual word recognition. Two of these regions also showed orthographic priming (BA 37, peak: –48 –60 –17; BA 19, peak: –40 –77 –1), whereas one was sensitive only to morphological similarity between primes and targets (BA 19, peak: –37 –67 –7). These findings provide a neurobiological basis for a purely structural morphemic segmentation mechanism operating at early stages of visual word recognition.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				Q. Cai, M. Lavidor, M. Brysbaert, Y. Paulignan, and T. A. Nazir Cerebral lateralization of frontal lobe language processes and lateralization of the posterior visual word processing system. J. Cogn. Neurosci., April 1, 2008; 20(4): 672 - 681. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]