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Marta Kutas

Bio: Marta Kutas is an academic researcher from University of California, San Diego. The author has contributed to research in topics: N400 & Sentence. The author has an hindex of 102, co-authored 277 publications receiving 41533 citations. Previous affiliations of Marta Kutas include University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign & University of California, Berkeley.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
11 Jan 1980-Science
TL;DR: In a sentence reading task, words that occurred out of context were associated with specific types of event-related brain potentials that elicited a late negative wave (N400).
Abstract: In a sentence reading task, words that occurred out of context were associated with specific types of event-related brain potentials. Words that were physically aberrant (larger than normal) elecited a late positive series of potentials, whereas semantically inappropriate words elicited a late negative wave (N400). The N400 wave may be an electrophysiological sign of the "reprocessing" of semantically anomalous information.

4,226 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The effectiveness of the N400 as a dependent variable for examining almost every aspect of language processing is emphasized and its expanding use to probe semantic memory is highlighted to determine how the neurocognitive system dynamically and flexibly uses bottom-up and top-down information to make sense of the world.
Abstract: We review the discovery, characterization, and evolving use of the N400, an event-related brain potential response linked to meaning processing. We describe the elicitation of N400s by an impressive range of stimulus types—including written, spoken, and signed words or pseudowords; drawings, photos, and videos of faces, objects, and actions; sounds; and mathematical symbols—and outline the sensitivity of N400 amplitude (as its latency is remarkably constant) to linguistic and nonlinguistic manipulations. We emphasize the effectiveness of the N400 as a dependent variable for examining almost every aspect of language processing and highlight its expanding use to probe semantic memory and to determine how the neurocognitive system dynamically and flexibly uses bottom-up and top-down information to make sense of the world. We conclude with different theories of the N400’s functional significance and offer an N400-inspired reconceptualization of how meaning processing might unfold.

3,164 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 1984-Nature
TL;DR: The amplitude of the N400 component of the e.r.p.ps was found to be an inverse function of the subject's expectancy for the terminal word as measured by its ‘Cloze probability’, which suggests N400 may reflect processes of semantic priming or activation.
Abstract: The neuroelectric activity of the human brain that accompanies linguistic processing can be studied through recordings of event-related potentials (erp components) from the scalp The erps triggered by verbal stimuli have been related to several different aspects of language processing For example, the N400 component, peaking around 400 ms post-stimulus, appears to be a sensitive indicator of the semantic relationship between a word and the context in which it occurs Words that complete sentences in a nonsensical fashion elicit much larger N400 waves than do semantically appropriate words or non-semantic irregularities in a text In the present study, erps were recorded in response to words that completed meaningful sentences The amplitude of the N400 component of the erp was found to be an inverse function of the subject's expectancy for the terminal word as measured by its 'Cloze probability' In addition, unexpected words that were semantically related to highly expected words elicited lower N400 amplitudes These findings suggest N400 may reflect processes of semantic priming or activation

1,971 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Findings using an electrophysiological brain component, the N400, that reveal the nature and timing of semantic memory use during language comprehension support a view of memory in which world knowledge is distributed across multiple, plastic-yet-structured, largely modality-specific processing areas, and in which meaning is an emergent, temporally extended process.

1,924 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
19 Aug 1977-Science
TL;DR: The data support the proposition that the latency of P300 corresponds to stimulus evaluation time and is independent of response selection.
Abstract: A technique for measuring the latency of the P300 component of event-related brain potentials on individual trials is described. Choice reaction times and the latency of the P300 were compared under speed-maximizing and under accuracy-mazimising instructions. The choice stimuli required different levels of semantic categorization. The data support the proposition that the latency of P300 corresponds to stimulus evaluation time and is independent of response selection.

1,671 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper forms a null hypothesis and shows that the nonparametric test controls the false alarm rate under this null hypothesis, enabling neuroscientists to construct their own statistical test, maximizing the sensitivity to the expected effect.

6,502 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The empirical and theoretical development of the P300 event-related brain potential is reviewed by considering factors that contribute to its amplitude, latency, and general characteristics.

6,283 citations

Book
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: The brain's default state: self-organized oscillations in rest and sleep, and perturbation of the default patterns by experience.
Abstract: Prelude. Cycle 1. Introduction. Cycle 2. Structure defines function. Cycle 3. Diversity of cortical functions is provided by inhibition. Cycle 4. Windows on the brain. Cycle 5. A system of rhythms: from simple to complex dynamics. Cycle 6. Synchronization by oscillation. Cycle 7. The brain's default state: self-organized oscillations in rest and sleep. Cycle 8. Perturbation of the default patterns by experience. Cycle 9. The gamma buzz: gluing by oscillations in the waking brain. Cycle 10. Perceptions and actions are brain state-dependent. Cycle 11. Oscillations in the "other cortex:" navigation in real and memory space. Cycle 12. Coupling of systems by oscillations. Cycle 13. The tough problem. References.

4,266 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
11 Jan 1980-Science
TL;DR: In a sentence reading task, words that occurred out of context were associated with specific types of event-related brain potentials that elicited a late negative wave (N400).
Abstract: In a sentence reading task, words that occurred out of context were associated with specific types of event-related brain potentials. Words that were physically aberrant (larger than normal) elecited a late positive series of potentials, whereas semantically inappropriate words elicited a late negative wave (N400). The N400 wave may be an electrophysiological sign of the "reprocessing" of semantically anomalous information.

4,226 citations