Predictions about prosody facilitate lexical access: Evidence from P50/N100 and MMN components

• Published in: International journal of psychophysiology Vol. 194; p. 112262
• Main Authors: Zora, Hatice, Wester, Janniek, Csépe, Valéria
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.12.2023
• Subjects: Lexical access; MMN; P50/N100; Predictive coding; Prosody; Predictive coding; Prosody; P50/N100; Lexical access; MMN
• ISSN: 0167-8760; 1872-7697
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2023.112262

Research into the neural foundation of perception asserts a model where top-down predictions modulate the bottom-up processing of sensory input. Despite becoming increasingly influential in cognitive neuroscience, the precise account of this predictive coding framework remains debated. In this study, we aim to contribute to this debate by investigating how predictions about prosody facilitate speech perception, and to shed light especially on lexical access influenced by simultaneous predictions in different domains, inter alia, prosodic and semantic. Using a passive auditory oddball paradigm, we examined neural responses to prosodic changes, leading to a semantic change as in Dutch nouns canon [ˈkaːnɔn] ‘canon’ vs kanon [kaːˈnɔn] ‘cannon’, and used acoustically identical pseudowords as controls. Results from twenty-eight native speakers of Dutch (age range 18–32 years) indicated an enhanced P50/N100 complex to prosodic change in pseudowords as well as an MMN response to both words and pseudowords. The enhanced P50/N100 response to pseudowords is claimed to indicate that all relevant auditory information is still processed by the brain, whereas the reduced response to words might reflect the suppression of information that has already been encoded. The MMN response to pseudowords and words, on the other hand, is best justified by the unification of previously established prosodic representations with sensory and semantic input respectively. This pattern of results is in line with the predictive coding framework acting on multiple levels and is of crucial importance to indicate that predictions about linguistic prosodic information are utilized by the brain as early as 50 ms. •The brain does not simply respond to prosodic changes in the acoustic environment but interprets them based on experiences.•Neural representation of word stress contributes to generating predictions during lexical access.•The brain evaluates linguistic prosodic information as early as 50 ms.