Electrophysiological evidence of an early effect of sentence context in reading

Recognition Potential is an electrophysiological response of the brain that is sensitive to semantic aspects of stimuli. According to its peak values (about 250 ms), Recognition Potential appears as a good candidate to reflect lexical selection processes. Consequently, Recognition Potential might be sensitive to contextual information during reading a sentence. In present study, the standard procedures to improve the visibility of Recognition Potential (Rapid Stream Stimulation paradigm) were used in a task in which sentence context was crucial. A parieto-occipital Recognition Potential was observed to peak about 264 ms after stimulus onset, followed by a centro-parietal N400 peaking at about 450 ms. Recognition Potential was affected by contextual information though, contrary to N400, presenting larger amplitude to contextually congruous words. These results support the assumption that Recognition Potential may reflect lexical selection processes, representing also evidence of context effects on ERP around 250 ms after stimulus onset during sentence reading.