Dissimilar Age Influences on Two ERP Waveforms (LPC and N400) Reflecting Semantic Context Effect

Age-related changes in semantic context effects were examined using late event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Auditory ERPs to semantically congruous and incongruous final words in spoken sentences were recorded in 16 children (aged 5-11 years) and 16 adults. Previous findings concerning age-related effects on N400 were replicated: the N400 effect was significantly larger in children than in adults. The main new finding was that a late positive component (LPC) following N400 and modulated by semantic context in adults was not found in children. Thus, the common generalization that semantic context effects decline with age holds only for ERP components occurring in the N400 time window or earlier. The cognitive function reflected by the semantic LPC we observed is not clear, but it seems to have a role different from that of the N400, although in adults the components often co-exist as an N400-LPC complex.