Abstract
Auditory event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded to words and pseudowords to compare repetition effects when first and second presentations were in the same voices (male-male or female-female) and when they were in different voices (male-female or female-male). The participant's task was to detect pseudo-words. A negative wave (N300) was elicited for the immediate repetition (lag 0) of words and pseudowords irrespective of voice. The development of N300 was enlarged in the same voice repetition compared to the different voice repetition. The reduction of N400 was observed for both immediate and delayed (lag 10-11) repetitions, and no substantial effect of voice was found. These two types of repetition priming effects on N300 and N400 were discussed in relation to stimulus processing at the acoustic and semantic levels, respectively. In addition, a right frontal negativity enhanced for immediate repetition of pseudowords was suggested to reflect the activation of an alertness system.
