N400 amplitude reduction correlates with an increase in pupil size

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Guillaume eThierry¹  Jan Rouke eKuipers¹ 

[1] Bangor University;

关键词: Locus Coeruleus;    ERP;    Event-related potentials;    N400;    Semantic Processing;    cognitive efficiency;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnhum.2011.00061

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Pupil dilation is classically associated with increase in cognitive load in humans. Here, we studied the potential link between human pupil dilation and meaning integration effort as indexed by event-related brain potentials (ERPs). We recorded pupil size variation and ERPs simultaneously while participants were presented with matching or unrelated picture-word pairs. Whilst relatedness in meaning between spoken words and pictures typically modulated ERPs, pupil size was also affected quickly after picture onset. Moreover, during the time-window associated with meaning integration, greater pupil dilation correlated with less negative N400 amplitudes elicited by unrelated pictures. Since pupil dilation has been linked to activity of the Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrine (LC-NE) system, these findings provide new insights into the suggested link between human high-level cognitive function and activity of the LC-NE system.

【 授权许可】

Unknown