Current funded research examines how the meanings of words are processed, primarily through studying brain recordings (event-related potentials, ERPs) from subjects performing semantic tasks. The ERP data has generated a model of semantic processing in patients with various forms of language pathology. ERP data are also compared with results from exclusively behavioral measures, such as reaction time. Thus within the project opportunities exist for students to study brain-damage populations, normal brain activity and/or behavioral data relevant to semantic processing. The laboratory is also engaged in research on speech processing, again from behavioral as well as electrophysiological perspectives.

Recent publications include:

(1) Deacon, D., Mehta, A., Tinsley, C. & Nousak, J. M. (In press). Variation of the latencies and amplitudes of N400 and NA as a function of semantic priming. Psychophysiology

(2) Deacon, D., Pilotti, M., & Tinsley, C. (1995). Is the preattentive comparison of auditory stimuli effected on the basis of feature or gestalt representations? In G. Karmos, (Ed.) Perspectives of event-related potentials research: Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 44

(3)Ritter, W., Deacon, D., Gomes, H., Javitt, D.C., & Vaughan, H.G. (1995). The mismatch negativity of event-related potentials as a probe of transient auditory memory: A review. Ear and Hearing, 16, 52-67

 

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