Although it is well established that self-related information can rapidly capture our attention and bias cognitive functioning, whether this self-bias can affect language processing remains largely unknown. In addition, there is an ongoing debate as to the functional independence of language processes, notably regarding the syntactic domain. Hence, this study investigated the influence of self-related content on syntactic speech processing. Participants listened to sentences that could contain morphosyntactic anomalies while the masked face identity (self, friend, or unknown faces) was presented for 16 msec preceding the critical word. The language-related ERP components (left anterior negativity [LAN] and P600) appeared for all identity conditions. However, the largest LAN effect followed by a reduced P600 effect was observed for self-faces, whereas a larger LAN with no reduction of the P600 was found for friend faces compared with unknown faces. These data suggest that both early and late syntactic processes can be modulated by self-related content. In addition, alpha power was more suppressed over the left inferior frontal gyrus only when self-faces appeared before the critical word. This may reflect higher semantic demands concomitant to early syntactic operations (around 150–550 msec). Our data also provide further evidence of self-specific response, as reflected by the N250 component. Collectively, our results suggest that identity-related information is rapidly decoded from facial stimuli and may impact core linguistic processes, supporting an interactive view of syntactic processing. This study provides evidence that the self-reference effect can be extended to syntactic processing.

Whether syntactic and semantic processes during sentence comprehension follow strict sets of rules or succumb to context-dependent heuristics was studied by recording event-related potentials in a dual-task design. In one condition, sentence-extraneous acoustic material was either semantically congruent or incongruent relative to an adjective in the visually presented sentence, the latter being either semantically correct or incorrect within the sentence context. Homologous syntactic (gender) manipulations were performed in another condition. Syntactic processing within the sentence appeared to be blind to the syntactic content of the second task. In contrast, semantically incongruous material of the second task induced fluctuations typically associated with the detection of within-sentence semantic anomalies (N400) even in semantically correct sentences. Subtle but extant differences in topography between this N400 and that obtained with within-sentence semantic violations add to recent proposals of separate semantic subsystems differing in their specificity for sentence structure and computational procedures. Semantically incongruous material of the second task also influenced later stages of the processing of semantically incorrect adjectives (P600 component), which are traditionally assumed to pertain to the syntactic domain. This result is discussed in the light of current proposals of a third combinatorial stream in sentence comprehension.

Several studies on hemodynamic brain activity indicate that emotional visual stimuli elicit greater activation than neutral stimuli in attention-related areas such as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the visual association cortex (VAC). In order to explore the temporo-spatial characteristics of the interaction between attention and emotion, two processes characterized by involving short and rapid phases, event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured in 29 subjects using a 60-electrode array and the LORETA source localization software. A cue/target paradigm was employed in order to investigate both expectancy-related and input processing related attention. Four categories of stimuli were presented to subjects: positive arousing, negative arousing, relaxing, and neutral. Three attention-related components were finally analyzed: N280pre (from pretarget ERPs), P200post and P340post (both from posttarget ERPs). N280pre had a prefrontal focus (ACC and/or medial prefrontal cortex) and presented significantly lower amplitudes in response to cues announcing negative targets. This result suggests a greater capacity of nonaversive stimuli to generate expectancy-related attention. P200post and P340post were both elicited in the VAC, and showed their highest amplitudes in response to negative- and to positive-arousing stimuli, respectively. The origin of P200post appears to be located dorsally with respect to the clear ventral-stream origin of P340post. The conjunction of temporal and spatial characteristics of P200post and P340post leads to the deduction that input processing-related attention associated with emotional visual stimulation involves an initial, rapid, and brief ‘early’ attentional response oriented to rapid motor action, being more prominent towards negative stimulation. This is followed by a slower but longer ‘late’ attentional response oriented to deeper processing, elicited to a greater extent by appetitive stimulation.