Presentation format affects the behavioural and neural processing costs of sentence reinterpretation

Although listening to speech and reading text rely on different lower-order cognitive neural processes, much of the literature higher-order comprehension assumes engagement a common conceptual-semantic system which is unaffected by input modality. However, few studies have tested this assumption directly. Moreover, many neuroimaging present sentences in an artificial, cognitively demanding word-by-word rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) format. We report behavioural fMRI experiments investigating whether format (Spoken, Written, or RSVP) modulates commonly reported costs associated with reinterpretation that contain lexical ambiguities. Reinterpretation-related processing were exaggerated RSVP format, both for response times task activation left inferior frontal gyrus. Presentation can interact language processes complex ways, we urge researchers carefully consider role study design interpretation research findings.