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Lying, as a deplorable behavior, induces changes in the vegetative system because of the sense of guilt and the anxiety of being uncovered, and the current lie-detectors, as the polygraph, register these changes as cues of a deceptive behavior. Such modulations, however, aren't direct measures of deception per se, but products of emotions in general, that could also affect an innocent suspect, wrongly accused. But what happens in the brain? Is it possible to define the relationship between lies and emotions? The purpose of this study was thus to investigate the neural correlates of deceptive behavior in response to neutral and affective questions, created ad-hoc, through the analysis of the electrocortical indexes registered in healthy volunteers. ERPs were recorded from 128 sites. From ERP responses it was possible to notice, at anterior brain areas, a late modulation of the electrocortical activity during the lying versus the telling the truth condition, according to the affective valence of the stimuli. This finding is particularly relevant in that it confirms the ambiguity of data coming from studies related to peripheral indexes measures. An earlier peak was found over the prefrontal regions that distinguished between truthful and mendacious responses, irrespective of the affective context. This component would thus represent the neural marker of deception. A swLORETA linear inverse solution was computed on its amplitude. The results showed that a deceptive behavior is related to the activation of anterior brain areas reflecting an increasing need in higher-level cognitive functions, namely working memory, conflict monitoring, controlled- and task switching-processes, also suggested by behavioral responses.

The capacity to deceive others is a complex, multicomponential and typically human cognitive ability, which requires higher-order cognitive functions and the ability to suppress truthful information. Nothwithstanding the polygraph is widely used in countries such as USA to detect deception, not much is known about the role of emotional processes (such as the fear of being considered guilty while being innocent) in affecting physiological responses used as lie indicators. The aim of this study was to investigate the time course and neural correlates of untruthful behaviour in response to visually presented neutral and affective questions through the analysis of electro-cortical potentials; the questions could also be inherently true or false and ERP were recorded from 128 scalp sites in 23 volunteers. Behavioural and ERP responses indicated that when one is lying there is an increased need for executive functions, namely working memory, inhibition and task switching processes. Deceptive responses elicited a more negative N400 over the prefrontal regions and a smaller late positivity (LP 550-750 ms) over the prefrontal and frontal areas. However, such a reduction in LP amplitude was elicited also by truthful affective responses, thus resulting in a lack of difference between mendacious and truthful responses to emotional questions. A swLORETA inverse solution was applied to the N400 component (300-400 ms) that indeed would represent the neural marker of deception (difference-wave: untruthful-truthful). The results showed the activation of the precentral gyrus (BA6), of the superior, medial, middle and inferior frontal gyrus (BA9, 11, 47), and of the anterior cingulate cortex during deceptive responding.

Previous studies have investigated a linguistic aspect of humour that requires high level cognitive functions, such as theory of mind. However, scarce knowledge is available about another source of humor that comes from a particular kind of comedy, called slapstick, characterized by a type of broad, physical comedy involving misfortune situations. The goal of the present study was to shed some light on this matter by measuring brain bioelectrical activity during the perception of funny vs. non funny misfortune circumstances. According to our hypothesis the element mostly providing a comic element during a misfortune situation is the facial expression of the victims: if they show a funny bewilderment face, the observer's reaction will usually be laughing, while if they express pain or anger, we won't laugh, but we could empathized with them instead. In this study 210 coloured photos depicting men and women involved in misfortune situations were presented to 29 Italian healthy volunteers, while their EEG was recorded. Three different misfortune situations were considered: people showing a painful or an angry expression (affective); people showing a bewilderment expression and, so, a comic look, provoking amusement in the observer (comic); people engaged in similar misfortune situations but with no face visible (control condition). The ERP results showed that the mean amplitude of both the posterior N1 and anterior N220 components were much larger in amplitude to comic pictures, than other stimulus types. This early response could be considered the first identification of a comic element and the evidence of the compelling response that usually characterizes people amused reaction during the observation of comic misfortune situation. In addition, we observed a larger P300 amplitude in response to comic than affective pictures. This might be interpreted as sign of an increased arousal associated with the processing of positively-valenced affective information involved in humour appreciation, and possibly linked to a pleasure response. Finally, no face pictures elicited an anteriorly distributed N400 which might reflect the extra-effort needed to comprehend the nature of the situation displayed without affective facial information. This piece of data support the hypothesis that the facial expression of the victim of a misfortune act as a specific trigger for the amusement feeling that observers usually experience when someone falls down. Overall, the data indicate the existence of a power and primitive neural response that is associated with the recognition and appreciation of the comic element in a misfortune situation.

It has been consistently shown that words with high lexical frequencies are recognized more quickly and accurately than words with lower frequencies in the same language. Word frequency has therefore played a central role in the development of lexical processing models. There is increasing behavioral evidence that the age at which words are learned is a variable with as much significance as lexical frequency. Nevertheless, while neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies have provided remarkable evidence of the influence of word frequency on brain activity, little is known about how words acquired earlier or later in life are represented in the brain. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the processing of early- vs. late-acquired words affects the timing and topographical distribution of ERP components differently than the processing of high- vs. low-frequency words. Participants were asked to perform an orthographic decision task (detection of a target letter) while EEG measurements were taken from 128 scalp sites. The LORETA source localization technique was applied to identify the intracranial generators of the surface potentials. Reaction times showed an effect of both word age of acquisition (AoA) and lexical frequency as well as an interaction between the two psycholinguistic variables. The electrophysiological data revealed a neuro-functional dissociation between AoA and frequency effects in early visual word processing. AoA modulated the amplitude of left occipito-temporal selection negativity, suggesting an effect of word AoA on early orthographic and lexical access and revealing the crucial role of AoA in determining how words are neurally represented in the ventral pathway. Lexical frequency modulated the amplitude of left anterior negativity, providing evidence for the involvement of the left inferior frontal cortex in the processing of low-frequency words.

Aim Several studies showed that an early music training modifies functional brain structure and enhances connectivity, but little is known about the effects to read a musical sheet on brain plasticity. The aim of this study was to compare visual processing of notes and words in 15 professional musicians and 15 controls while EEGs recorded their visual processing Materials Stimuli comprised 300 words and 300 short (1 measure) music scores that were randomly presented at the center of a PC screen located approximately 114 cm from the viewer's eyes Thirty healthy right-handed participants (18 males and 12 females) were recruited for this experiment. They were matched for cultural status and education level (except for musical expertise) across groups. All had normal or corrected-to-normal vision and reported no history of neurological illness or drug abuse. Half of them were professional musicians with a Conservatory degree in violin, trumpet, clarinet, piano, composition, orchestra conduction. Musicians usually read their music scores in Violin and/or Bass clefs. The mean age of acquisition (AoA) of musical abilities (playing an instrument) for musicians was 8.57 years. The mean age of musicians was 31.7 years (SD= 12), while of control was 26 ys. (SD=69). Non musicians (control group) were totally unable to read musical notation as determined by a note reading test (solfeggio) administered prior to recruitment. People who recognized a single note were not enrolled in the study. Handedness was assessed with the Italian version of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Salmaso and Longoni, 1985), a laterality preference questionnaire. All participants reported strong right-handedness and right ocular dominance. Methods In this study 300 Italian words and 300 musical beats were presented for 1600 ms in the central visual field. ERPs were recorded from 128 scalp sites in a group of Italian University students and in a group of professional musicians. Participants had to press a button when they recognized a certain note or letter included (or not) in the musical beats or in the word. Results Letter processing was strongly left lateralized in controls, while the fusiform (BA37) and inferior occipital gyri (BA18) were activated in both hemispheres in musicians during both word and music reading. Discussion The right hemispheric involvement during orthographic reading could be considered a result of music reading ability. Conclusions Our study provided, for the first time, evidence that early acquisition of the ability to read a musical sheet could modifies the cerebral mechanisms involved in the visual word recognition.

The goal of the present study was to shed some light on a particular kind of humour, called slapstick, by measuring brain bioelectrical activity during the perception of funny vs. non-funny pictures involving misfortunate circumstances. According to our hypothesis, the element mostly providing a comic feature in a misfortunate situation is the facial expression of the victims: the observer[U+05F3]s reaction will usually be laughing only if the victims will show a funny bewilderment face and not a painful or anger expression. Several coloured photographs depicting people involved in misfortunate situations were presented to 30 Italian healthy volunteers, while their EEG was recorded. Three different situations were considered: people showing a painful or an angry expression (Affective); people showing a bewilderment expression and, so, a comic look (Comic); people engaged in similar misfortunate situations but with no face visible (No Face). Results showed that the mean amplitude of both the posterior N170 and anterior N220 components was much larger in amplitude to comic pictures, than the other stimuli. This early response could be considered the first identification of a comic element and evidence of the compelling and automatic response that usually characterizes people amused reaction during a misfortune. In addition, we observed a larger P300 amplitude in response to comic than affective pictures, probably reflecting a more conscious processing of the comic element. Finally, no face pictures elicited an anteriorly distributed N400, which might reflect the effort to comprehend the nature of the situation displayed without any affective facial information, and a late positivity, possibly indexing a re-analysis processing of the unintelligible misfortunate situation (comic or unhappy) depicted in the No Face stimuli. These data support the hypothesis that the facial expression of the victims acts as a specific trigger for the amused feeling that observers usually experience when someone falls down. Overall, the data indicate the existence of a neural circuit that is capable of recognize and appreciate the comic element of a misfortunate situation in a group of young adults.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of both word age of acquisition (AoA) and frequency of occurrence on the timing and topographical distribution of ERP components. The processing of early- versus late-acquired words was compared with that of high-frequency versus low-frequency words. Participants were asked to perform an orthographic task while EEG was recorded from 128 sites. RTs showed an effect of both word AoA and lexical frequency. ERPs revealed a neuro-functional dissociation between AoA and frequency effects in early word processing. AoA modulated the amplitude of left occipito-temporal selection-negativity, suggesting an effect of AoA on early orthographic and lexical access and revealing the crucial role of AoA in determining how words are neurally represented in the ventral pathway. Lexical frequency modulated the amplitude of left anterior negativity, providing evidence for the involvement of the left inferior frontal cortex in the processing of low-frequency words.

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate how proper and common nouns are represented in the brain independent of memory retrieval processes. Participants were instructed to perform a lexical decision task while dense-array EEG was continuously recorded. Both ERP components (namely N400 and P300) and swLORETA suggested that proper name processing engaged a more widespread neural network and required more cognitive resources than common noun processing. Overall, our results come down in favor of the hypothesis that specific effects of proper vs. common noun processing exist, and they suggest a possible neuro-functional segregation of proper vs. common noun processing. The difference in proper and common noun processing seems to emerge at the level of storage or representation of lexical knowledge, and it may crucially depend on their semantic characteristics.

It is known that early sensory deprivation modifies brain functional structure and connectivity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neuro-functional organization of reading in a patient with profound congenital unilateral deafness. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we compared cortical networks supporting the processing of written words in patient RA (completely deaf in the right ear since birth) and in a group of control volunteers. We found that congenital unilateral hearing deprivation modifies neural mechanisms of word reading. Indeed, while written word processing was left-lateralized in controls, we found a strong right lateralization of the fusiform and inferior occipital gyri activation in RA. This finding goes in the same direction of recent proposals that the ventral occipito-temporal activity in word reading seem to lateralize to the same hemisphere as the one involved in spoken language processing.

While the existence of a mirror neuron system (MNS) representing and mirroring simple purposeful actions (such as reaching) is known, neural mechanisms underlying the representation of complex actions (such as ballet, fencing, etc.) that are learned by imitation and exercise are not well understood. In this study, correct and incorrect basketball actions were visually presented to professional basketball players and naïve viewers while their EEG was recorded. The participants had to respond to rare targets (unanimated scenes). No category or group differences were found at perceptual level, ruling out the possibility that correct actions might be more visually familiar. Large, anterior N400 responses of event-related brain potentials to incorrectly performed basketball actions were recorded in skilled brains only. The swLORETA inverse solution for incorrect-correct contrast showed that the automatic detection of action ineffectiveness/incorrectness involved the fronto/parietal MNS, the cerebellum, the extra-striate body area, and the superior temporal sulcus. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

The purposes of the doctoral thesis were manifold. First of all, we aimed at clarifying the neural underpinnings of single word reading and the time course of lexical processing by comparing the bioelectrical activity elicited by stimuli with different degrees of orthographic legality (letter strings, legal pseudo-words and words) and semantic denotation (flora names vs. fauna names; concrete words vs. abstract words). A strong effort was directed to avoid possible confounding effects of psycholinguistic variables like frequency of occurrence and length, which are known to affect written word processing. Source reconstruction by means of LORETA was aimed to draw inferences on the cerebral regions specifically involved in different processing stages, with the final purpose of integrate current knowledge resulting from neuroimaging and electrophysiological approach. Overall the data provided evidence that the orthographic and lexico-semantic word properties were processed in parallel between 200 and 400 ms after stimulus onset. The temporo-parietal region was sensitive to orthographic legality (250-350 ms). The latency of lexical effects (word/pseudo-word discrimination) varied as a function of the number of a word's orthographic neighbours, being faster (200-250 ms) to pseudo-words with a small number of neighbours over anterior sites. The lexical effect found over the left occipito-temporal region (300-400 ms, BA 19 and BA 37) suggested a lexical access by means of a visual route. Semantic categories were discriminated as early as 200 ms post stimulus over the left occipito-temporal areas (BA 37 and BA 20). The results are discussed in the light of the possible role played by the word age of acquisition, as well as the specific properties of living concepts (biological relevance and homomorphism). Abstract and concrete word processing differed in terms of a stronger involvement of extra-striate visual areas during concrete word processing (350-380 ms) and a stronger involvement of prefrontal cortex in response to abstract words (350-380 ms). The results suggested that concrete, imaginable concepts activate perceptually based representations not available to abstract concepts. Overall, these data show how ERPs can dissociate between lexical and higher level processes. Semantic processing may take place near-simultaneously and in different brain regions with the processing of information about the form of a word and its lexical properties.

Background The specific role of the two cerebral hemispheres in processing idiomatic language is highly debated. While some studies show the involvement of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), other data support the crucial role of right-hemispheric regions, and particularly of the middle/superior temporal area. Time-course and neural bases of literal vs. idiomatic language processing were compared. Fifteen volunteers silently read 360 idiomatic and literal Italian sentences and decided whether they were semantically related or unrelated to a following target word, while their EEGs were recorded from 128 electrodes. Word length, abstractness and frequency of use, sentence comprehensibility, familiarity and cloze probability were matched across classes. Results Participants responded more quickly to literal than to idiomatic sentences, probably indicating a difference in task difficulty. Occipito/temporal N2 component had a greater amplitude in response to idioms between 250-300 ms. Related swLORETA source reconstruction revealed a difference in the activation of the left fusiform gyrus (FG, BA19) and medial frontal gyri for the contrast idiomatic-minus-literal. Centroparietal N400 was much larger to idiomatic than to literal phrases (360-550 ms). The intra-cortical generators of this effect included the left and right FG, the left cingulate gyrus, the right limbic area, the right MTG (BA21) and the left middle frontal gyrus (BA46). Finally, an anterior late positivity (600-800 ms) was larger to idiomatic than literal phrases. ERPs also showed a larger right centro-parietal N400 to associated than non-associated targets (not differing as a function of sentence type), and a greater right frontal P600 to idiomatic than literal associated targets. Conclusion The data indicate bilateral involvement of both hemispheres in idiom comprehension, including the right MTG after 350 ms and the right medial frontal gyrus in the time windows 270-300 and 500-780 ms. In addition, the activation of left and right limbic regions (400-450 ms) suggests that they have a role in the emotional connotation of colourful idiomatic language. The data support the view that there is direct access to the idiomatic meaning of figurative language, not dependent on the suppression of its literal meaning, for which the LIFG was previously thought to be responsible.

Background One of the most debated issues in the cognitive neuroscience of language is whether distinct semantic domains are differentially represented in the brain. Clinical studies described several anomic dissociations with no clear neuroanatomical correlate. Neuroimaging studies have shown that memory retrieval is more demanding for proper than common nouns in that the former are purely arbitrary referential expressions. In this study a semantic relatedness paradigm was devised to investigate neural processing of proper and common nouns. Methodology/Principal Findings 780 words (arranged in pairs of Italian nouns/adjectives and the first/last names of well known persons) were presented. Half pairs were semantically related (“Woody Allen” or “social security”), while the others were not (“Sigmund Parodi” or “judicial cream”). All items were balanced for length, frequency, familiarity and semantic relatedness. Participants were to decide about the semantic relatedness of the two items in a pair. RTs and N400 data suggest that the task was more demanding for common nouns. The LORETA neural generators for the related-unrelated contrast (for proper names) included the left fusiform gyrus, right medial temporal gyrus, limbic and parahippocampal regions, inferior parietal and inferior frontal areas, which are thought to be involved in the conjoined processing a familiar face with the relevant episodic information. Person name was more emotional and sensory vivid than common noun semantic access. Conclusions/Significance When memory retrieval is not required, proper name access (conspecifics knowledge) is not more demanding. The neural generators of N400 to unrelated items (unknown persons and things) did not differ as a function of lexical class, thus suggesting that proper and common nouns are not treated differently as belonging to different grammatical classes.

The comprehension of idiomatic language is a matter of debate for what concern its neural basis and the psycholinguistic theories that better describe the process. Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies report highly different outcome, especially about the specific role of the two cerebral hemispheres: while some studies show the involvement of th e left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), other data support the crucial role of right-hemispheric regions, and particularly of the middle/superior temporal area. Different psycholinguistic models have been proposed to explain how we can understand these semantically eccentric expressions; these models can be broadly divided in those that predict direct access to the idiomatic meaning and those in which it is dependent on the suppression of its literal meaning. Fifteen volunteers took part to the present experiment. They silently read 360 idiomatic and literal Italian sentences and decided whether they were semantically related or unrelated to a following target word, while their EEGs were recorded from 128 electrodes. Only purely idiomatic expression were selected, excluding metaphors or fixed expressions in general. Word length, word frequency, sentence comprehensibility and familiarity, sentence cloze probability, overall salience and abstractedness were balanced. Subjects were faster in responding to literal than idiomatic sentences, probably suggesting a difference in task difficulty. ERP components elicited by sentence final words showed the existence of at least three processing stages in which differences were observed between ERP data elicited by idiomatic vs. literal sentences. N2 component evidenced a greater amplitude in response to idioms between 250 and 300 ms of latency. swLORETA for this effect revealed a generator in the left fusiform gyrus. It was also found a bilateral N400 component between 360 and 550 ms, which was much larger to idioms than literal sentences. The intra-cortical generators for this effect included the left and right FGs, the left cingulate gyrus, the right limbic area, the left superior temporal gyrus and left frontal inferior gyrus. The activation of left and right limbic regions suggests that they have a role in the emotional connotation of colorful idiomatic language. Finally an anterior P300 was identifie d between 600 and 800 ms, that was more positive to idiomatic than literal sentences. Overall, the data indicate a bilateral involvement of both hemispheres during idioms comprehension, with a special role for right hemisphere, especially after 350 ms post-stimulus. They also support the view of a direct access to the idiomatic meaning of figurative language, not dependent on the suppression of its literal meaning. ERPs synchronized with the target word showed a larger right centroparietal N400 to associated than non-associated targets (not differing as a function of sentence type), and a greater right frontal P600 to idiomatic than literal associated targets.

Attention to word orthographic properties has been shown to enhance the activity of VWFA. The temporal resolution of this effect remains still uncertain. In this study the attentive processing of orthographic vs. semantic features was compared by presenting the same set of words in two different conditions: letter detection vs. lexical decision. ERPs to targets were recorded in thirty-two right-handed students from 128 scalp sites. RTs, ERPs and swLORETA source reconstruction showed the prioritized processing of word orthographic features, able to enhance the activity of left fusiform gyrus (BA19/37) and cerebellar structures as early as 70-90 ms from stimulus-onset, as reflected by the increased amplitude of mesial C1 and lateral-occipital P1 components. On the other hand, attention to word lexical properties strongly enhanced the amplitude of left occipito/temporal N170, whose neural generators seemed to include regions devoted to lexical processing (VWFA), semantic processing (left BA39), and the effortful retrieval of semantic information (left and right BA10).

Recent findings have demonstrated that women might be more reactive than men to viewing painful stimuli (vicarious response to pain), and therefore more empathic [Han, S., Fan, Y., & Mao, L. (2008). Gender difference in empathy for pain: An electrophysiological investigation. Brain Research, 1196, 85-93]. We investigated whether the two sexes differed in their cerebral responses to affective pictures portraying humans in different positive or negative contexts compared to natural or urban scenarios. 440 IAPS slides were presented to 24 Italian students (12 women and 12 men). Half the pictures displayed humans while the remaining scenes lacked visible persons. ERPs were recorded from 128 electrodes and swLORETA (standardized weighted Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography) source reconstruction was performed. Occipital P115 was greater in response to persons than to scenes and was affected by the emotional valence of the human pictures. This suggests that processing of biologically relevant stimuli is prioritized. Orbitofrontal N2 was greater in response to positive than negative human pictures in women but not in men, and not to scenes. A late positivity (LP) to suffering humans far exceeded the response to negative scenes in women but not in men. In both sexes, the contrast suffering-minus-happy humans revealed a difference in the activation of the occipito/temporal, right occipital (BA19), bilateral parahippocampal, left dorsal prefrontal cortex (DPFC) and left amygdala. However, increased right amygdala and right frontal area activities were observed only in women. The humans-minus-scenes contrast revealed a difference in the activation of the middle occipital gyrus (MOG) in men, and of the left inferior parietal (BA40), left superior temporal gyrus (STG, BA38) and right cingulate (BA31) in women (270-290 ms). These data indicate a sex-related difference in the brain response to humans, possibly supporting human empathy.

Background It is known that the orthographic properties of linguistic stimuli are processed within the left occipitotemporal cortex at about 150–200 ms. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to words in standard or mirror orientation to investigate the role of visual word form in reading. Word inversion was performed to determine whether rotated words lose their linguistic properties. Methods About 1300 Italian words and legal pseudo-words were presented to 18 right-handed Italian students engaged in a letter detection task. EEG was recorded from 128 scalp sites. Results ERPs showed an early effect of word orientation at ~150 ms, with larger N1 amplitudes to rotated than to standard words. Low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) revealed an increase in N1 to rotated words primarily in the right occipital lobe (BA 18), which may indicate an effect of stimulus familiarity. N1 was greater to target than to non-target letters at left lateral occipital sites, thus reflecting the first stage of orthographic processing. LORETA revealed a strong focus of activation for this effect in the left fusiform gyrus (BA 37), which is consistent with the so-called visual word form area (VWFA). Standard words (compared to pseudowords) elicited an enhancement of left occipito/temporal negativity at about 250–350 ms, followed by a larger anterior P3, a reduced frontal N400 and a huge late positivity. Lexical effects for rotated strings were delayed by about 100 ms at occipito/temporal sites, and were totally absent at later processing stages. This suggests the presence of implicit reading processes, which were pre-attentive and of perceptual nature for mirror strings. Conclusion The contrast between inverted and standard words did not lead to the identification of a purely linguistic brain region. This finding suggests some caveats in the interpretation of the inversion effect in subtractive paradigms.

The capacity to deceive others is a complex mental skill that requires the ability to suppress truthful information. The polygraph is widely used in countries such as the USA to detect deception. However, little is known about the effects of emotional processes (such as the fear of being found guilty despite being innocent) on the physiological responses that are used to detect lies. The aim of this study was to investigate the time course and neural correlates of untruthful behavior by analyzing electrocortical indexes in response to visually presented neutral and affective questions. Affective questions included sexual, shameful or disgusting topics. A total of 296 questions that were inherently true or false were presented to 25 subjects while ERPs were recorded from 128 scalp sites. Subjects were asked to lie on half of the questions and to answer truthfully on the remaining half. Behavioral and ERP responses indicated an increased need for executive control functions, namely working memory, inhibition and task switching processes, during deceptive responses. Deceptive responses also elicited a more negative N400 over the prefrontal areas and a smaller late positivity (LP 550-750 ms) over the prefrontal and frontal areas. However, a reduction in LP amplitude was also elicited by truthful affective responses. The failure to observe a difference in LP responses across conditions likely results from emotional interference. A swLORETA inverse solution was computed on the N400 amplitude (300-400 ms) for the dishonest - honest contrast. These results showed the activation of the superior, medial, middle and inferior frontal gyri (BA9, 11, 47) and the anterior cingulate cortex during deceptive responses. Our results conclude that the N400 amplitude is a reliable neural marker of deception.