Abstract In context-driven word production, picture naming is faster following constrained than neutral sentential contexts (e.g., “The farmer milked the… [picture]” vs. “The child drew a… [picture]”, followed by the picture of a cow), suggesting conceptual-lexical pre-activation of the target response. Power decreases in the alpha-beta oscillatory band (8–25 Hz) are consistently found for constrained relative to neutral contexts prior to picture onset, when conceptual and lexical retrieval is ongoing. However, it remains a matter of debate whether the alpha-beta power decreases reflect (low-level) expectations of the visual input, conceptual and lexical retrieval, or motor preparation. The present study aimed at investigating the lexical-semantic nature of alpha-beta oscillations. Participants performed context-driven picture naming with constrained and neutral contexts. In addition, an auditory distractor word was presented before picture onset. Distractors were either semantically related (e.g., “goat”) or unrelated (e.g., “bean”) to the picture to be named. Picture naming was faster with constrained than neutral contexts. Distractor type did not affect naming latencies nor the behavioural context effect. In the oscillatory brain responses, the context-related alpha-beta power decreases were observed throughout the pre-picture interval when distractors were semantically unrelated to the picture, in line with previous findings. However, with semantically related distractors, the context effect was delayed until a period after distractor processing. Thus, alpha-beta power seems to be sensitive to the semantic relationship between the distractor word and the picture to be named. We interpret these results as suggesting that alpha-beta power decreases in context-driven word production reflect lexical-semantic retrieval mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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上下文驱动的单词生成中 alpha-beta 振荡的词汇性质

摘要在上下文驱动的单词生产中，图片命名在受约束的句子上下文中比中性句子上下文更快（例如，“农民挤奶了……[图片]”与“孩子画了一个……[图片]”，然后是牛），建议目标反应的概念词汇预激活。当概念和词汇检索正在进行时，α-β 振荡带（8-25 Hz）中的功率下降始终存在于图片开始之前相对于中性上下文的约束。然而，α-β 能力的降低是否反映了对视觉输入、概念和词汇检索或运动准备的（低水平）期望仍然存在争议。本研究旨在调查 alpha-beta 振荡的词汇语义性质。参与者使用受约束和中性的上下文执行上下文驱动的图片命名。此外，在图片开始之前呈现了一个听觉干扰词。干扰者与要命名的图片在语义上相关（例如“山羊”）或不相关（例如“豆”）。与中性上下文相比，受约束的图片命名速度更快。Distractor 类型不影响命名延迟和行为上下文效果。在振荡的大脑反应中，当干扰项在语义上与图片无关时，在整个预图片间隔中观察到与上下文相关的 alpha-beta 功率降低，这与之前的发现一致。然而，对于语义相关的干扰项，上下文效应被延迟到干扰项处理后的一段时间。因此，alpha-beta power 似乎对干扰词和要命名的图片之间的语义关系很敏感。我们将这些结果解释为表明上下文驱动的单词生成中 alpha-beta 功率的降低反映了词汇语义检索机制。