Early stage of processing of target, non-target known and unknown verbal stimuli

Characteristics of P100/N100 and N170 components of ERPs in response to target and non-target known words and unknown words were studied. EEG was recorded while participants made a decision whether or not visually presented words were related to a given category. Intra- and interhemispheric features of P100/N100 and N170 components evoked by different types of verbal stimuli were revealed. It was found that N170 amplitude evoked by target known words was higher than that evoked by nontarget known words and unknown words. The results suggest that motivation can affect the early word processing.