Ganushchak, L. 1 , Acheson, D. 1, 2 , Christoffels, I. 3 & Hagoort, P. 1, 2
1 Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Nijmegen, The Netherlands
2 Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior. Radboud University. Nijmegen, The Netherlands
3 Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition. Universiteit Leiden. Leiden, The Netherlands
One of the physiological markers of monitoring in both speech and non-speech tasks is the so-called error related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential that is typically observed after error trials. However, the ERN is also observed after correct trials in both manual and verbal tasks, suggesting that it might be a more general marker for the monitoring of response conflict. The present work tests this hypothesis in speech production by exploring a situation where increased response conflict naturally occurs, namely, when multiple speech outputs are simultaneously activated. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants named pictures in their first and second languages. Activation of multiple outputs was manipulated through the form similarity between translation equivalents (i.e., cognate status). Replicating previous results, cognates were faster to name than non-cognates. Interestingly, response-locked analyses not only showed a reliable ERN on correct trials, but that the amplitude of the ERN was larger for cognates compared to non-cognates. Thus, despite being faster to name, cognates seem to induce more conflict during response monitoring. This in turn indicates that the ERN is not simply sensitive to conflicting motor responses, but also to more abstract conflict resulting from co-activation of multiple phonological representations.