Event-related potentials (ERPs) provide a window into how the brain is processing language. Here, we propose a theory that argues that ERPs such as the N400 and P600 arise as side effects of an error-based learning mechanism that explains linguistic adaptation and language learning. We instantiated this theory in a connectionist model that can simulate data from three studies on the N400 (amplitude modulation by expectancy, contextual constraint, and sentence position), five studies on the P600 (agreement, tense, word category, subcategorization and garden-path sentences), and a study on the semantic P600 in role reversal anomalies. Since ERPs are learning signals, this account explains adaptation of ERP amplitude to within-experiment frequency manipulations and the way ERP effects are shaped by word predictability in earlier sentences. Moreover, it predicts that ERPs can change over language development. The model provides an account of the sensitivity of ERPs to expectation mismatch, the relative timing of the N400 and P600, the semantic nature of the N400, the syntactic nature of the P600, and the fact that ERPs can change with experience. This approach suggests that comprehension ERPs are related to sentence production and language acquisition mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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语言 ERP 反映了通过预测错误传播的学习

事件相关电位 (ERP) 为了解大脑如何处理语言提供了一个窗口。在这里，我们提出了一个理论，该理论认为 N400 和 P600 等 ERP 是解释语言适应和语言学习的基于错误的学习机制的副作用。我们在一个联结主义模型中实例化了这个理论，该模型可以模拟来自 N400 的三项研究（由期望、上下文约束和句子位置进行的幅度调制）和 P600 的五项研究（一致、时态、词类别、子类别和花园路径）的数据。句子），以及角色反转异常中语义 P600 的研究。由于 ERP 是学习信号，因此该帐户解释了 ERP 振幅对实验内频率操作的适应性，以及 ERP 效果由较早句子中的单词可预测性塑造的方式。而且，它预测 ERP 可以随着语言发展而改变。该模型解释了 ERP 对期望失配的敏感性、N400 和 P600 的相对时间、N400 的语义性质、P600 的句法性质以及 ERP 可以随经验变化的事实。这种方法表明理解 ERP 与句子产生和语言习得机制有关。