Electrophysiological responses of relatedness to consecutive word stimuli in relation to an actively recollected target word

In this paper, we investigate the robustness of electrophysiological responses of relatedness to multiple consecutive word stimuli (probes), in relation to an actively recollected target word. Such relatedness information could be used by a Brain Computer Interface to infer the active semantic concept on a user’s mind, by integrating the knowledge of the relationship between the multiple probe words and the ‘unknown’ target. Such a BCI can take advantage of the N400: an event related potential that is sensitive to semantic content of a stimulus in relation to an established semantic context. However, it is unknown whether the N400 is suited for the multiple probing paradigm we propose, as other intervening words might distract from the established context (i.e., the target word). We perform an experiment in which we present up to ten words after an initial target word, and find no attenuation of the strength of the N400 in grand average ERPs and no decrease in classification accuracy for probes occurring later in the sequences. These results are groundwork for developing a BCI that infers the concept on a user’s mind through repeated probing, however, low single trial decoding accuracy, and high subject variability may limit practical applicability.