Where context-based semantic inhibition functionally „matters“

Purpose: Lexical ambiguity resolution is assumed to be critically dependent on the integrity of two general cognitive mechanisms: Initial automatic fascilitation of all homograph meanings, followed by context-dependent inhibition of the inappropriate meaning. Inhibitory processing per se has often been associated with the prefrontal cortex. By exploiting the signal-to-noise (SNR) and contrast-to-noise (CNR) advantages of 3.0T for BOLD-fMRI the present study aimed at assessing the functional neuroanatomy of context-based semantic inhibition during the resolution of lexical ambiguity. Material and methods: Within…