“Electrophysiological Patterns of Sentence Superiority Effect in Sentence Repetition”
So Yeon Chun, Doctoral Candidate in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Penn State
Friday, September 30, 9:00–10:30 a.m. EDT, 127 Moore Building and virtually via Zoom
Sentence repetition has been widely used to assess linguistic deficits in individuals with developmental language disorders (DLD), yet its fundamental mechanism has not been fully explained. One of the critical factors is the sentence superiority effect (SSE), the processing benefit of recalling words in a sentence compared to a random sequence of words due to the existence of sentence structure that mitigates processing costs. The current study investigated the role of SSE in sentence repetition in neurotypical adults by examining the differences in neural oscillations in delta (1-4Hz) and beta (13-30Hz) frequency bands using electroencephalography (EEG). The results showed a general desynchronization in the delta and beta bands in all conditions. SSE was found in both frequency bands, with greater power in sentences than in word lists, especially when there was background noise. Also, sentence repetition accuracy was negatively correlated with delta and beta frequency power. The results provide partial support for the information via desynchronization hypothesis, suggesting that a decrease in beta power plays an important role in memory retrieval. Future studies involving participants with DLD are needed to fully understand the role of SSE in sentence repetition when assessing linguistic difficulties in individuals with DLD.