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Methods 276 Trials (240 critical trials, 24 probes, 12 filler trials) were presented during a Semantic Categorization task – press to animal names (Go/no-go).

Stimuli were white characters on a neutral grey background.

Target stimuli were 5 letter uppercase words preceded by a forward mask and a 50ms lowercase prime.

Primes were either the same word (repeated) or a different word (un-repeated) than the subsequent target and were filtered so that they contained either only high (> 7.0 Hz/letter), only low (< 1.7 Hz/letter), or full spatial frequency information.

EEG data were digitized continuously from 32 scalp sites (.01 to 15 Hz).

Investigating the Role of High and Low Spatial Frequencies in Written Word Recognition: Evidence from ERP Masked Priming

Kurt Winsler,1 Jonathan Grainger,2 Ben Eaton1, Katherine J. Midgley1 & Phillip J. Holcomb1

1 – San Diego State University, San Diego, CA; 2 – CNRS: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Marseille, France

CNS, 2016 @ New York. The research presented here was supported by NIH Grant HD25889. - contact: kurtwinsler@gmail.com

Introduction • The visual system breaks down information into component spatial frequencies to

be processed in distinct pathways on the way to visual perception (DeValois & DeValois, 1988).

• Multiple studies have shown that the recognition of complex visual stimuli such as scenes (Peyrin et al., 2004) or faces (Vuilleumier et al., 2003) use these multiple streams of spatial frequencies in different ways to optimize recognition.

• Further research has associated a deficit in low spatial frequency processing with certain types of dyslexia (Buchholz & McKone, 2004).

• The current study extends the research on the role of spatial frequency to visual word recognition.

• Specifically, we used a classic masked repetition priming paradigm in which we filtered out either high, low, or no spatial frequencies from the primes.

Participants 30 San Diego State University students, 20 females, mean age = 22.8 years.

Right-handed, monolingual English speakers with normal or corrected-to-normal vision.

electrode montage

References

Conclusions

• Full spatial frequency primes showed the typical masked priming effects of attenuated N250 and N400 to repeated words compared to unrelated words (see Grainger & Holcomb, 2009).

• High spatial frequency primes elicited a similar, but weaker repetition effect in the N250 and a marginally significant anterior N400 effect.

• Interestingly, low spatial frequency primes produced a reversed effect in a late N/P150 time window (repeated words more negative than unrelated words) as well as a late N400-like effect.

• The early low spatial frequency effect may represent some kind of rough word shape matching process, while the late effect may be due to backwards priming.

• Together these findings suggest that although the typical masked repetition priming ERP effects seem to be more dependent on high spatial frequency information, low spatial frequency information is necessary for the full range of these effects and furthermore, does produce distinct low spatial frequency repetition priming effects.

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prime

TARGET

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t

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Buchholz, J., & McKone, E. (2004). Adults with dyslexia show deficits on spatial frequency doubling and visual attention tasks. Dyslexia, 10(1), 24-43.

DeValois, R., & DeValois, K. (1988). Spatial Vision (No. 14). Oxford University Press, USA.

Grainger, J., & Holcomb, P. J. (2009). Watching the Word Go by: On the Time‐course of Component Processes in Visual Word Recognition.Language and linguistics compass, 3(1), 128-156.

Peyrin, C., Baciu, M., Segebarth, C., & Marendaz, C. (2004). Cerebral regions and hemispheric specialization for processing spatial frequencies during natural

scene recognition. An event-related fMRI study. Neuroimage,23(2), 698-707.

Vuilleumier, P., Armony, J. L., Driver, J., & Dolan, R. J. (2003). Distinct spatial frequency sensitivities for processing faces and emotional expressions. Nature

neuroscience, 6(6), 624-631.

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Methods 276 Trials (240 critical trials, 24 probes, 12 filler trials) were presented during a Semantic Categorization task – press to animal names (Go/no-go).

Stimuli were white characters on a neutral grey background.

Target stimuli were 5 letter uppercase words preceded by a forward mask and a 50ms lowercase prime.

Primes were either the same word (repeated) or a different word (un-related) than the subsequent target and were filtered so that they contained either only high (> 7.0 Hz/letter), only low (< 1.7 Hz/letter), or full spatial frequency information.

EEG data were digitized continuously from 32 scalp sites (.01 to 15 Hz).

Investigating the Role of High and Low Spatial Frequencies in Written Word Recognition: Evidence from ERP Masked Priming

Kurt Winsler,1 Jonathan Grainger,2 Ben Eaton1, Katherine J. Midgley1 & Phillip J. Holcomb1

1 – San Diego State University, San Diego, CA; 2 – CNRS: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Marseille, France

CNS, 2016 @ New York. The research presented here was supported by NIH Grant HD25889. - contact: kurtwinsler@gmail.com

Introduction The visual system breaks down information into component spatial frequencies to be processed in distinct pathways on the way to visual perception (DeValois & DeValois, 1988). Multiple studies have shown that the recognition of complex visual stimuli such as scenes (Peyrin et al., 2004) or faces (Vuilleumier et al., 2003) use these multiple streams of spatial frequencies in different ways to optimize recognition. Further research has associated a deficit in low spatial frequency processing with certain types of dyslexia (Buchholz & McKone, 2004).

The current study extends the research on the role of spatial frequency to visual word recognition. Specifically, we used a classic masked repetition priming paradigm in which we filtered out either high, low, or no spatial frequencies from the primes.

Participants 30 San Diego State University students, 20 females, mean age = 22.8 years.

Right-handed, monolingual English speakers with normal or corrected-to-normal vision.

References

Conclusions

• Full spatial frequency primes showed the typical masked priming effects of attenuated N250 and N400 to repeated words compared to unrelated words (see Grainger & Holcomb, 2009).

• High spatial frequency primes elicited a similar, but weaker repetition effect in the N250 and a marginally significant anterior N400 effect.

• Interestingly, low spatial frequency primes produced a reversed effect in a late N/P150 time window (repeated words more negative than unrelated words) as well as a late N400-like effect.

• The early low spatial frequency effect may represent some kind of rough word shape matching process, while the late effect may be due to backwards priming.

• Together these findings suggest that although the typical masked repetition priming ERP effects seem to be more dependent on high spatial frequency information, low spatial frequency information is necessary for the full range of these effects and furthermore, does produce distinct low spatial frequency repetition priming effects.

Buchholz, J., & McKone, E. (2004). Adults with dyslexia show deficits on spatial frequency doubling and visual attention tasks. Dyslexia, 10(1), 24-43.

DeValois, R., & DeValois, K. (1988). Spatial Vision (No. 14). Oxford University Press, USA.

Grainger, J., & Holcomb, P. J. (2009). Watching the Word Go by: On the Time‐course of Component Processes in Visual Word Recognition.Language and linguistics compass, 3(1), 128-156.

Peyrin, C., Baciu, M., Segebarth, C., & Marendaz, C. (2004). Cerebral regions and hemispheric specialization for processing spatial frequencies during natural scene

recognition. An event-related fMRI study. Neuroimage,23(2), 698-707.

Vuilleumier, P., Armony, J. L., Driver, J., & Dolan, R. J. (2003). Distinct spatial frequency sensitivities for processing faces and emotional expressions. Nature

neuroscience, 6(6), 624-631.

electrode montage

#######

prime

TARGET

+

t

700 ms

300 ms

50 ms

300 ms

1800 ms

Fixation cross

Blank screen

Forward mask

Unrepeated or repeated target

High, low, or full spatial frequency prime

Full-pass prime

High-pass prime

Low-pass prime

Full Spatial Frequency Primes

High Spatial Frequency Primes

Low Spatial Frequency Primes

Unrelated words

Repeated words

Unrelated words

Repeated words

Unrelated words

Repeated words

Voltage maps (repeated – unrelated)

Voltage maps (repeated – unrelated)

Voltage maps (repeated – unrelated)

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