Reading

The article I chose is titled Anatomy of word and sentence meaning, which focuses on tasks that involve obtaining the meaning of a word in isolation or in relation to a sentence. Granted many studies have brought about an agreement as to the general areas that are involved when it comes to comprehending words.  The data that was gathered from the article supports that the frontal semantic areas are active before the posterior areas become active. In the study the participants are showed a sentence with a missing word followed by a cross fixation, the participants were examined using EEG. They focus on the participants while reading and seeing how seeing how reading affects the comprehension of the word or sentence that is being seen.  I found it interesting that the results showed that within the left frontal area activation were seen when a task involved semantic classification where the frontal areas, more posterior demonstrated activation that were activated by phonological tasks, or the use of verbal working memory. This finding is interesting because much of the literature regarding lesions explains that semantic functions use Wernicke’s area which produces semantic aphasia where sentences will be uttered with a typical fluency but will not make any sense. One clue regarding how the frontal and posteriors areas share semantic processing during activities such as listening and reading, are through an eye movement study.  This showed how a skilled reader will stay on a word for only “300ms and the length and even the direction of the saccade  after this fixation are influenced by the meaning of the word currently fixated”.

Posner, Michael I., and Antonella Pavese. "Anatomy of Word and Sentence Meaning."Anatomy of Word and Sentence Meaning 95 (n.d.): 889-905.Http://www.pnas.org/content/95/3/899.full.pdf+html. Web.