N400 effects for category exemplars primed by category labels

We analyzed the ERP correlates of a category priming task. In particular, participants had to judge the orthography of a target word that followed a shortly presented but clearly visible prime word. Primes and targets had a superordinate-subordinate relation (FLOWER-tulip). The behavioral effects corresponded to the typical finding – participants reacted faster to targets which were preceded by related primes (e.g., FLOWER-tulip) compared to unrelated primes (e.g., BIRD-tulip). Accordingly, the ERPs showed that unrelated prime-target trials elicited more negative going waveforms at central recording sites as compared to related trials in the N400 time window. The behavioral and the N400 priming effect were significantly correlated, thereby indicating the functional character of the ERP correlate.