An event-related brain potential analysis of the use of temporal connectives in language production

Abstract

This study investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms involved in the linearization of events during language production, focusing on the processing of temporal conjunctions "before" and "after." While natural language typically presents events in chronological order, non-chronological sequences, as required by "before" sentences, impose additional cognitive demands. Using an adapted network task, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in 24 healthy German speaking participants to examine the brain activity associated with these demands. Results showed that "before" sentences elicited early positivity and later negativity in ERPs, particularly over left temporal and frontocentral regions, suggesting increased working memory requirements for reordering events. These findings align with previous behavioral and neuroimaging studies, indicating that both language production and comprehension of "before" sentences necessitate more complex cognitive processing than "after" sentences. This research highlights the significant role of working memory during the conceptualization stage of language production exemplified by the brain’s handling of non-chronological sequences.