Openness to experience modulates the neural dynamics of semantic processing

IF 2.7 3区医学 Q2 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Physiology & Behavior Pub Date : 2027-01-01 Epub Date: 2026-10-13 DOI:10.1016/j.physbeh.2026.115537

Bing Li, Chih-Mao Huang, Qiduo Lin, Hsu-Wen Huang

{"title":"Openness to experience modulates the neural dynamics of semantic processing","authors":"Bing Li, Chih-Mao Huang, Qiduo Lin, Hsu-Wen Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.physbeh.2026.115537","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Personality fundamentally shapes language processing, yet the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly understood. Openness to experience (Openness), as measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), has been associated with enhanced creativity and engagement with novel semantic information. This study examined how openness modulates the neural dynamics of semantic processing using event-related potentials (ERPs) during a semantic category verification task. Participants evaluated category relatedness across the four levels of semantic structure, including high typicality (HT), low typicality (LT), related violations (RV), and nonrelated violations (NRV). Neural responses exhibited the expected graded pattern, with N400 amplitudes becoming more negative as semantic relatedness decreased. Critically, higher Openness was associated with greater N400 differentiation between related and nonrelated violations, an effect uniquely predicted by Openness beyond the remaining four personality traits. Follow-up analyses revealed that this differentiation was primarily driven by enhanced N400 responses to nonrelated violations rather than by reduced responses to related violations. This pattern is inconsistent with a simple facilitation account in which higher Openness uniformly eases semantic processing. Instead, it suggests that Openness is associated with heightened sensitivity to semantic mismatch or more sustained semantic evaluation when incoming information is incompatible with an activated context. Behavioral performance was comparable across participants; the observed neural differences were not accompanied by detectable differences in task success. Together, these findings establish that Openness is systematically related to variation in the neural dynamics of semantic processing, while highlighting the need to clarify the underlying cognitive mechanisms and contributions of other individual differences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20201,"journal":{"name":"Physiology & Behavior","volume":"318 ","pages":"Article 115537"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2027-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Physiology & Behavior","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031938426003203","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/10/13 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Personality fundamentally shapes language processing, yet the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly understood. Openness to experience (Openness), as measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), has been associated with enhanced creativity and engagement with novel semantic information. This study examined how openness modulates the neural dynamics of semantic processing using event-related potentials (ERPs) during a semantic category verification task. Participants evaluated category relatedness across the four levels of semantic structure, including high typicality (HT), low typicality (LT), related violations (RV), and nonrelated violations (NRV). Neural responses exhibited the expected graded pattern, with N400 amplitudes becoming more negative as semantic relatedness decreased. Critically, higher Openness was associated with greater N400 differentiation between related and nonrelated violations, an effect uniquely predicted by Openness beyond the remaining four personality traits. Follow-up analyses revealed that this differentiation was primarily driven by enhanced N400 responses to nonrelated violations rather than by reduced responses to related violations. This pattern is inconsistent with a simple facilitation account in which higher Openness uniformly eases semantic processing. Instead, it suggests that Openness is associated with heightened sensitivity to semantic mismatch or more sustained semantic evaluation when incoming information is incompatible with an activated context. Behavioral performance was comparable across participants; the observed neural differences were not accompanied by detectable differences in task success. Together, these findings establish that Openness is systematically related to variation in the neural dynamics of semantic processing, while highlighting the need to clarify the underlying cognitive mechanisms and contributions of other individual differences.

查看原文本刊更多论文

经验开放性调节语义加工的神经动力学。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Physiology & Behavior 医学-行为科学

CiteScore

5.70

自引率

3.40%

发文量

274

审稿时长

47 days

期刊介绍： Physiology & Behavior is aimed at the causal physiological mechanisms of behavior and its modulation by environmental factors. The journal invites original reports in the broad area of behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, in which at least one variable is physiological and the primary emphasis and theoretical context are behavioral. The range of subjects includes behavioral neuroendocrinology, psychoneuroimmunology, learning and memory, ingestion, social behavior, and studies related to the mechanisms of psychopathology. Contemporary reviews and theoretical articles are welcomed and the Editors invite such proposals from interested authors.