Spatiotemporal properties of the neural representation of conceptual content for words and pictures – an MEG study

The entwined nature of perceptual and conceptual processes renders an understanding of the interplay between perceptual recognition and conceptual access a continuing challenge. Here, to disentangle perceptual and conceptual processing in the brain, we combine magnetoencephalography (MEG), picture and word presentation and representational similarity analysis (RSA). We replicate previous findings of early and robust sensitivity to semantic distances between objects presented as pictures and show earlier (∼105 msec), but not later, representations can be accounted for by contemporary computer models of visual similarity (AlexNet). Conceptual content for word stimuli is reliably present in two temporal clusters, the first ranging from 230 to 335 msec, the second from 345 to 665 msec. The time-course of picture induced semantic content and the spatial location of conceptual representation were highly convergent, and the spatial distribution of both differed from that of words. While this may reflect differences in picture and word induced conceptual access, this underscores potential confounds in visual perceptual and conceptual processing. On the other hand, using the stringent criterion that neural and conceptual spaces must align, the robust representation of semantic content by 230-240 msec for visually unconfounded word stimuli significantly advances estimates of the timeline of semantic access and it’s orthographic and lexical precursors.