I WAS IN GREAT PERPLEXITY: AN ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATION OF MEANING THREAT

Abstract

Meaning Maintenance Model (MMM) predicts that violations in meaning can result in the affirmation of alternative or novel meaning frameworks. These violations, known as meaning threats, often occur unconsciously yet have been shown to significantly influence cognition. An increased ability to learn an artificial grammar when exposed to meaning threat has been reported as well as a polarization of beliefs in social justice and pacifism. Several different stimuli have been found to cause meaning threat behavior: anomalous playing cards, absurdist literature by Kafka, films by David Lynch, and the unconscious switching of experimenters half-way through a study. However, no studies have attempted to measure the neurological effects of meaning threats. Using the N400 event-related potential as a "window into the neurobiology of meaning," this study examined the change in mean N400 amplitude of related and unrelated word pairs due to meaning threat. Additionally, source localization techniques were used to examine if there was increased activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a hypothesized prediction in the MMM literature. There were no significant differences found in mean N400 amplitude due to meaning threat nor were there any significant differences in ACC activation levels.