The Self-reference Effect Can Modulate Language Syntactic Processing Even Without Explicit Awareness: An Electroencephalography Study.

Although it is well established that self-related information can rapidly capture our attention and bias cognitive functioning, whether this self-bias can affect language processing remains largely unknown. In addition, there is an ongoing debate as to the functional independence of language processes, notably regarding the syntactic domain. Hence, this study investigated the influence of self-related content on syntactic speech processing. Participants listened to sentences that could contain morphosyntactic anomalies while the masked face identity (self, friend, or unknown faces) was presented for 16 msec preceding the critical word. The language-related ERP components (left anterior negativity [LAN] and P600) appeared for all identity conditions. However, the largest LAN effect followed by a reduced P600 effect was observed for self-faces, whereas a larger LAN with no reduction of the P600 was found for friend faces compared with unknown faces. These data suggest that both early and late syntactic processes can be modulated by self-related content. In addition, alpha power was more suppressed over the left inferior frontal gyrus only when self-faces appeared before the critical word. This may reflect higher semantic demands concomitant to early syntactic operations (around 150-550 msec). Our data also provide further evidence of self-specific response, as reflected by the N250 component. Collectively, our results suggest that identity-related information is rapidly decoded from facial stimuli and may impact core linguistic processes, supporting an interactive view of syntactic processing. This study provides evidence that the self-reference effect can be extended to syntactic processing.

Individual responsiveness to a school-based karate intervention: An ancillary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: School-based sport interventions have shown beneficial effects on psychosocial functioning and academic performance in children. However, the inter-individual variability in response to these types of interventions remains unclear. We aimed to determine which children benefit most from a school-based sport intervention. METHODS: This is an ancillary analysis of a randomized controlled trial assessing the effects of a 1-year school-based karate intervention (versus "traditional" physical education lessons) in children (7-8 years) from twenty schools across five European countries. Outcomes included psychosocial functioning (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [SDQ] for parents) and academic performance (grade point average). Only participants of the intervention group were included in the present ancillary analysis, and were categorized as responders or non-responders for the analyzed outcomes attending to whether improvements surpassed a minimal clinically important difference. RESULTS: About 388 children (187 girls) from the intervention group completed the study, of which 17% and 46% were considered responders for SDQ and academic performance, respectively. Responders for the SDQ presented higher SDQ scores (i.e., higher psychosocial difficulties) at baseline than non-responders (p < 0.001). Responders for academic performance were mostly males (p = 0.017), with an older age (p = 0.030), and with worse academic performance (p < 0.001) at baseline compared with non-responders, and tended to present higher SDQ scores (p = 0.055). Responders for one outcome obtained greater benefits from the intervention on the other outcome (e.g., responders for SDQ improved academic performance [p < 0.001] compared with non-responders). CONCLUSIONS: A school-based sport intervention (karate) seems particularly effective for children with psychosocial difficulties and low academic performance.

He had it Comin': ERPs Reveal a Facilitation for the Processing of Misfortunes to Antisocial Characters.

Human sociality and prosociality rely on social and moral feelings of empathy, compassion, envy, schadenfreude, as well as on the preference for prosocial over antisocial others. We examined the neural underpinnings of the processing of lexical input designed to tap into these type of social feelings. Brainwave responses from 20 participants were measured as they read sentences comprising a randomly delivered ending outcome (fortunate or unfortunate) to social agents previously profiled as prosocial or antisocial individuals. Fortunate outcomes delivered to prosocial and antisocial agents aimed to tap into empathy and envy/annoying feelings, respectively, whereas unfortunate ones into compassion for prosocial agents and schadenfreude for antisocial ones. ERP modulations in early attention-capture (100-200 ms), semantic fit (400 ms), and late reanalysis processes (600 ms) were analyzed. According to the functional interpretation of each of these event-related electrophysiological effects, we conclude that: 1) a higher capture of attention is initially obtained in response to any type of outcome delivered to a prosocial versus an antisocial agent (frontal P2); 2) a facilitated semantic processing occurs for unfortunate outcomes delivered to antisocial agents (N400); and 3) regardless of the protagonist's social profile, an increased later reevaluation for overall unfortunate versus fortunate outcomes takes place (Late Positive Potential). Thus, neural online measures capture a stepwise unfolding impact of social factors during language comprehension, which include a facilitated processing of misfortunes when they happen to occur to antisocial peers (i.e., schadenfreude).

Neural Dynamics in the Processing of Personal Objects as an Index of the Brain Representation of the Self.

Across time, personal belongings incorporate semantic self-knowledge contributing to the subjective meaning of mineness and preference, whose access is prioritized. Although neuroimaging is starting to explore self-knowledge processes, more research is still necessary to better understand many aspects of these processes. One, the timing of the mechanisms involved, is the main purpose of the present study. Here, we investigate the differential patterns of event-related brain potentials and the underlying dynamic causal connectivity between neural generators to self-related objects ranging in self-relevance, as compared to non-personal-related objects. Personal objects elicited lower N2 and higher P3 components compared to non-personal objects, and those with high relevance showed the lowest N2 and the highest P3 amplitudes. Brain sources connectivity corresponding to N2-P3 ERP complex revealed an early connectivity between posterior cingulate/precuneus and parahippocampal gyrus, common for both types of objects. However, this parietal connectivity was kept in later latencies only for personal objects, also intervening the anterior cingulate as the main driver of information flow to the parietal network. Personal objects showed more extensive connectivity between parietal areas and these with anterior cingulate. These findings provide new evidence of a neural connectivity and its temporal course underlying the interplay of lower-level and higher-level cognitive processes relative to personal objects. Further, the results offer new insights on how superordinate mental representations enable distinctive processing of relevant belongings, starting relatively early in time.

Neurofunctional characterization of early prefrontal processes contributing to interpersonal guilt.

Guilt is a social emotion that plays a central role in promoting prosocial behavior. Despite its relevance, it remains poorly understood. The present study aimed to fill this gap by verifying and characterizing a frontal negative fluctuation of the event-related brain potentials (ERP) emerging in conditions of interpersonal guilt. Paired participants would earn money if both performed correctly a dot estimation task (both right); otherwise, both would lose a similar amount (self wrong, partner wrong, and both wrong conditions). The reported feeling of guilt was noticeable in the self wrong condition, which yielded a frontal negativity between 300 and 500 ms after the onset of performance feedback. The amplitude of this fluctuation, however, did not correlate with the amount of guilt reported by the participants, whereas both these values did so with standard measures of empathy. Neither anxiety (trait or state) nor arousal (skin conductance response) seemed to relate to this negativity. A neural source (LORETA) analysis established its generators in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a region linked to guilt in fMRI studies but also, importantly, to empathy. The frontal negative fluctuation thus might reflect empathic processes contributing to achieve feelings of interpersonal guilt.

What makes the hedonic experience of a meal in a top restaurant special and retrievable in the long term? Meal-related, social and personality factors.

Knowing what makes a top gastronomy experience unique and retrievable in the long term is of interest for scientific and economic reasons. Recent attempts to isolate predictors of the hedonic evaluation of food have afforded several factors, such as individual and social attributes, or liking/disliking profiles. However, in these studies relevant variables have been examined in isolation without an integrative perspective. Here we investigated 80 guests enjoying a 23-course meal in a top gastronomy restaurant, in groups of four. Our main question concerned the factors driving the overall evaluation of the meal at its conclusion and after three months. To this aim we administered the Big Five Personality Inventory before the meal, dish-by-dish hedonic ratings, and a multi-dimensional Meal Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) at the end of the meal. Hedonic evaluations of the meal were collected immediately after the meal and three months later. Better immediate overall evaluations were predicted by both the number of peaks in dish-by-dish ratings and by positive ratings of the final dish. Both factors and the number of troughs were also critical for the long-term evaluation after three months. The MEQ dimensions overall interest, valence and distraction predicted immediate evaluations, while the long-term evaluations were determined by interest and high scores on the personality traits agreeableness and conscientiousness. High consistency of the hedonic ratings within quartets indicated the relevance of commensality for the meal experience. The present findings highlight the simultaneous relevance of food- and personality-related factors and commensality for a top gastronomy meal experience in the short and long-run. The uncovered relationships are of theoretical interest and for those involved in designing meals for consumers in various settings.

Sentential Negation Might Share Neurophysiological Mechanisms with Action Inhibition. Evidence from Frontal Theta Rhythm.

UNLABELLED: According to the literature, negations such as "not" or "don't" reduce the accessibility in memory of the concepts under their scope. Moreover, negations applied to action contents (e.g., "don't write the letter") impede the activation of motor processes in the brain, inducing "disembodied" representations. These facts provide important information on the behavioral and neural consequences of negations. However, how negations themselves are processed in the brain is still poorly understood. In two electrophysiological experiments, we explored whether sentential negation shares neural mechanisms with action monitoring or inhibition. Human participants read action-related sentences in affirmative or negative form ("now you will cut the bread" vs "now you will not cut the bread") while performing a simultaneous Go/NoGo task. The analysis of the EEG rhythms revealed that theta oscillations were significantly reduced for NoGo trials in the context of negative sentences compared with affirmative sentences. Given the fact that theta oscillations are often considered as neural markers of response inhibition processes, their modulation by negative sentences strongly suggests that negation uses neural resources of response inhibition. We propose a new approach that views the syntactic operator of negation as relying on the neural machinery of high-order action-monitoring processes. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Previous studies have shown that linguistic negation reduces the accessibility of the negated concepts and suppresses the activation of specific brain regions that operate in affirmative statements. Although these studies focus on the consequences of negation on cognitive and neural processes, the proper neural mechanisms of negation have not yet been explored. In the present EEG study, we tested the hypothesis that negation uses the neural network of action inhibition. Using a Go/NoGo task embedded in a sentence comprehension task, we found that negation in the context of NoGo trials modulates frontal theta rhythm, which is usually considered a signature of action inhibition and control mechanisms.

Tell me sweet little lies: An event-related potentials study on the processing of social lies.

In reading tasks, words that convey a false statement elicit an enhanced N400 brainwave response, relative to words that convey a true statement. N400 amplitude reductions are generally linked to the online expectancy of upcoming words in discourse. White lies, contrary to false statements, may not be unexpected in social scenarios. We used the event-related potential (ERP) technique to determine whether there is an impact of social context on sentence processing. We measured ERP responses to target words that either conveyed a social "white" lie or a socially impolite blunt truth, relative to semantic violations. Word expectancy was controlled for by equating the cloze probabilities of white lying and blunt true targets, as measured in previous paper-and-pencil tests. We obtained a classic semantic violation effect (a larger N400 for semantic incongruities relative to sense making statements). White lies, in contrast to false statements, did not enhance the amplitude of the N400 component. Interestingly, blunt true statements yielded both a late frontal positivity and an N400 response in those scenarios particularly biased to white lying. Thus, white lies do not interfere with online semantic processing, and they do not engage further reanalysis processes, which are typically indexed by subsequent late positivity ERP effects. Instead, an N400 and a late frontal positivity obtained in response to blunt true statements indicate that they were treated as unexpected events. In conclusion, unwritten rules of social communicative behavior influence the electrical brain response to locally coherent but socially inappropriate statements.

Midsagittal brain variation and MRI shape analysis of the precuneus in adult individuals.

Recent analyses indicate that the precuneus is one of the main centres of integration in terms of functional and structural processes within the human brain. This neuroanatomical element is formed by different subregions, involved in visuo-spatial integration, memory and self-awareness. We analysed the midsagittal brain shape in a sample of adult humans (n = 90) to evidence the patterns of variability and geometrical organization of this area. Interestingly, the major brain covariance pattern within adult humans is strictly associated with the relative proportions of the precuneus. Its morphology displays a marked individual variation, both in terms of geometry (mostly in its longitudinal dimensions) and anatomy (patterns of convolution). No patent differences are evident between males and females, and the allometric effect of size is minimal. However, in terms of morphology, the precuneus does not represent an individual module, being influenced by different neighbouring structures. Taking into consideration the apparent involvement of the precuneus in higher-order human brain functions and evolution, its wide variation further stresses the important role of these deep parietal areas in modern neuroanatomical organization.

Gamma power and cognition in patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives.

BACKGROUND: Gamma oscillations are essential for functional neural assembly formation underlying higher cerebral functions. Previous studies concerning gamma band power in schizophrenia have yielded diverse results. METHODS: In this study, we assessed gamma band power in minimally treated patients with schizophrenia, their first-degree relatives and healthy controls during an oddball paradigm performance, as well as the relation between gamma power and cognitive performance. RESULTS: We found a higher gamma power in the patient group than in the healthy controls at the P3, P4, Fz, Pz and T5 sites. Compared with their relatives, gamma power in the patients was only marginally higher over P3 and P4. We found a nearly significant inverse association between gamma power at F4 and Tower of London performance in the patients, as well as a significant inverse association between gamma power at T5 and verbal memory and working memory scores in the relatives. CONCLUSION: These results support higher total gamma power in association with schizophrenia and its inverse association with cognitive performance in patients and their first-degree relatives.

The bigger your pupils, the better my comprehension: an ERP study of how pupil size and gaze of the speaker affect syntactic processing.

Gaze direction and pupil dilation play a critical role in communication and social interaction due to their ability to redirect and capture our attention and their relevance for emotional information. The present study aimed to explore whether the pupil size and gaze direction of the speaker affect language comprehension. Participants listened to sentences that could be correct or contain a syntactic anomaly, while the static face of a speaker was manipulated in terms of gaze direction (direct, averted) and pupil size (mydriasis, miosis). Left anterior negativity (LAN) and P600 linguistic event-related potential components were observed in response to syntactic anomalies across all conditions. The speaker's gaze did not impact syntactic comprehension. However, the amplitude of the LAN component for mydriasis (dilated pupil) was larger than for miosis (constricted pupil) condition. Larger pupils are generally associated with care, trust, interest, and attention, which might facilitate syntactic processing at early automatic stages. The result also supports the permeable and context-dependent nature of syntax. Previous studies also support an automatic nature of syntax (fast and efficient), which combined with the permeability to relevant sources of communicative information, such as pupil size and emotions, is highly adaptive for language comprehension and social interaction.

Gender-based differences in the shape of the human corpus callosum are associated with allometric variations.

The corpus callosum displays considerable morphological variability between individuals. Although some characteristics are thought to differ between male and female brains, there is no agreement regarding the source of this variation. Biomedical imaging and geometric morphometrics have provided tools to investigate shape and size variation in terms of integration and correlation. Here we analyze variations at the midsagittal outline of the corpus callosum in a sample of 102 young adults in order to describe and quantify the pattern of covariation associated with its morphology. Our results suggest that the shape of the corpus callosum is characterized by low levels of morphological integration, which explains the large variability. In larger brains, a minor allometric component involves a relative reduction of the splenium. Small differences between males and?females are associated with this allometric pattern, induced primarily by size variation rather than gender-specific characteristics.

Subliminal Priming Effects of Masked Social Hierarchies During a Categorization Task: An Event-Related Brain Potentials Study.

Evidence so far shows that status detection increases attentional resources, especially for high hierarchies. However, little is known about the effects of masked social status cues on cognition. Here, we explore the masked priming effects of social status cues during a categorization task. For this purpose, we use Event-Related brain Potentials (ERP) time-locked to the presentation of two types of artworks (Christian, non-Christian) primed by masked social hierarchies sorted into two types (religious, military), and in two ranks (high, low) each. ERP results indicate early attention effects at N1, showing larger amplitudes for the processing of artworks after high and military ranks. Thereafter, the P3a increased for all artworks primed by religious vs. military figures, indicating a relevant role of task demands at this processing stage. Our results remark the automaticity of hierarchy detection and extend previous findings on the effects of social status cues on complex cognitive processes.

Spatio-temporal brain dynamics of self-identity: an EEG source analysis of the current and past self.

Current research on self-identity suggests that the self is settled in a unique mental representation updated across the lifespan in autobiographical memory. Spatio-temporal brain dynamics of these cognitive processes are poorly understood. ERP studies revealed early (N170-N250) and late (P3-LPC) waveforms modulations tracking the temporal processing of global face configuration, familiarity processes, and access to autobiographical contents. Neuroimaging studies revealed that such processes encompass face-specific regions of the occipitotemporal cortex, and medial cortical regions tracing the self-identity into autobiographical memory across the life span. The present study combined both approaches, analyzing brain source power using a data-driven, beamforming approach. Face recognition was used in two separate tasks: identity (self, close friend and unknown) and life stages (childhood, adolescence, adulthood) recognition. The main areas observed were specific-face areas (fusiform area), autobiographical memory areas (medial prefrontal cortex, parahippocampus, posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus), along with executive areas (dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior temporal cortices). The cluster-permutation test yielded no significant early effects (150-200 ms). However, during the 250-300 ms time window, the precuneus and the fusiform cortices exhibited larger activation to familiar compared to unknown faces, regardless of life stages. Subsequently (300-600 ms), the medial prefrontal cortex discriminates between self-identity vs. close-familiar and unknown. Moreover, significant effects were found in the cluster-permutation test specifically on self-identity discriminating between adulthood from adolescence and childhood. These findings suggest that recognizing self-identity from other facial identities (diachronic self) comprises the temporal coordination of anterior and posterior areas. While mPFC maintained an updated representation of self-identity (diachronic self) based on actual rewarding value, the dlPFC, FG, MTG, paraHC, PCC was sensitive to different life stages of self-identity (synchronic self) during the access to autobiographical memory.

Effects of a school-based karate intervention on academic achievement, psychosocial functioning, and physical fitness: A multi-country cluster randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE: To examine the effects of a school-based karate intervention on academic achievement, psychosocial functioning, and physical fitness in children aged 7-8 years. METHODS: Twenty schools in 5 different European countries (2 second-grade classrooms per school) participated in a cluster randomized controlled trial (Sport at School trial). Participants were assigned to either a control group, which continued with their habitual physical education lessons, or to an intervention group, which replaced these lessons with a 1-year karate intervention (Karate Mind and Movement program). A total of 721 children (344 girls and 377 boys, 7.4 ± 0.5 years old, mean ± SD) completed the study, of which 333 and 388 were assigned to the control group and intervention group, respectively. Outcomes included academic performance (average grade), psychosocial functioning (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for parents), and different markers of physical fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness, balance, and flexibility). RESULTS: The intervention provided small but significant benefits compared to the control group for academic achievement (d = 0.16; p = 0.003), conduct problems (d = -0.28; p = 0.003), cardiorespiratory fitness (d = 0.36; p < 0.001), and balance (d = 0.24; p = 0.015). There was a trend towards significant benefits for flexibility (d = 0.24; p = 0.056). No significant benefits were observed for other variables, including psychosocial difficulties, emotional symptoms, hyperactivity/inattention, peer problems, or prosocial behaviour (all p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: A 1-year school-based karate intervention was effective in improving academic achievement, conduct problems, and physical fitness in primary school children. The results support the inclusion of karate during physical education lessons.

The Automatic but Flexible and Content-Dependent Nature of Syntax.

Syntactic processing has often been considered an utmost example of unconscious automatic processing. In this line, it has been demonstrated that masked words containing syntactic anomalies are processed by our brain triggering event related potential (ERP) components similar to the ones triggered by conscious syntactic anomalies, thus supporting the automatic nature of the syntactic processing. Conversely, recent evidence also points out that regardless of the level of awareness, emotional information and other relevant extralinguistic information modulate conscious syntactic processing too. These results are also in line with suggestions that, under certain circumstances, syntactic processing could also be flexible and context-dependent. However, the study of the concomitant automatic but flexible conception of syntactic parsing is very scarce. Hence, to this aim, we examined whether and how masked emotional words (positive, negative, and neutral masked adjectives) containing morphosyntactic anomalies (half of the cases) affect linguistic comprehension of an ongoing unmasked sentence that also can contain a number agreement anomaly between the noun and the verb. ERP components were observed to emotional information (EPN), masked anomalies (LAN and a weak P600), and unmasked ones (LAN/N400 and P600). Furthermore, interactions in the processing of conscious and unconscious morphosyntactic anomalies and between unconscious emotional information and conscious anomalies were detected. The findings support, on the one hand, the automatic nature of syntax, given that syntactic components LAN and P600 were observed to unconscious anomalies. On the other hand, the flexible, permeable, and context-dependent nature of the syntactic processing is also supported, since unconscious information modulated conscious syntactic components. This double nature of syntactic processing is in line with theories of automaticity, suggesting that even unconscious/automatic, syntactic processing is flexible, adaptable, and context-dependent.

How society modulates our behavior: Effects on error processing of masked emotional cues contextualized in social status.

In the present study, we investigate whether subliminal complex social cues have an impact on error-monitoring processes. For this purpose, we presented two social status ranks (high and low) with three possible emotional expressions (happy, neutral, angry), using a backward masking paradigm. Participants were instructed to perform a flanker task while recording Event-Related brain Potentials. Results showed larger amplitudes for the Error-Related Negativity index after the presentation of high relative to low social ranks, only for neutral expressions. Neither the angry nor the happy faces induced significant differences in social rank processing. This indicates that subliminal high social ranks, specifically with neutral expressions, increase error processing by boosting attentional control to perform the ongoing task. Our findings extend current knowledge on the automaticity of social and emotional processing and its influence on performance monitoring mechanisms.

Effects of a school-based karate intervention on academic achievement, psychosocial functioning, and physical fitness: A multi-country cluster randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE: To examine the effects of a school-based karate intervention on academic achievement, psychosocial functioning, and physical fitness in children aged 7-8 years. METHODS: Twenty schools in 5 different European countries (2 second-grade classrooms per school) participated in a cluster randomized controlled trial (Sport at School trial). Participants were assigned to either a control group, which continued with their habitual physical education lessons, or to an intervention group, which replaced these lessons with a 1-year karate intervention (Karate Mind and Movement program). A total of 721 children (344 girls and 377 boys, 7.4 ± 0.5 years old, mean ± standard deviation) completed the study, of which 333 and 388 were assigned to the control group and intervention group, respectively. Outcomes included academic performance (average grade), psychosocial functioning (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for parents), and different markers of physical fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness, balance, and flexibility). RESULTS: The intervention provided small but significant benefits compared to the control group for academic achievement (d = 0.16; p = 0.003), conduct problems (d = -0.28; p = 0.003), cardiorespiratory fitness (d = 0.36; p < 0.001), and balance (d = 0.24; p = 0.015). There was a trend towards significant benefits for flexibility (d = 0.24; p = 0.056). No significant benefits were observed for other variables, including psychosocial difficulties, emotional symptoms, hyperactivity/inattention, peer problems, or prosocial behavior (all p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: A 1-year school-based karate intervention was effective in improving academic achievement, conduct problems, and physical fitness in primary school children. The results support the inclusion of karate during physical education lessons.

Am I the same person across my life span? An event-related brain potentials study of the temporal perspective in self-identity.

While self-identity recognition has been largely explored, less is known on how self-identity changes as a function of time. The present work aims to explore the influence of the temporal perspective on self-identity by studying event-related brain potentials (ERP) associated with face processing. To this purpose, participants had to perform a recognition task in two blocks with different task demands: (i) identity recognition (self, close-friend, unknown), and (ii) life stage recognition (adulthood -current-, adolescence, and childhood). The results showed that the N170 component was sensitive to changes in the global face configuration when comparing adulthood with other life stages. The N250 was the earliest neural marker discriminating self from other identities and may be related to a preferential deployment of attentional resources to recognize own face. The P3 was a robust index of self-specificity, reflecting stimulus categorization and presumably adding an emotional value. The results of interest emerged for the subsequent late positive complex (LPC). The larger amplitude for the LPC to the self-face was probably associated with further personal significance. The LPC, therefore, was able to distinguish the continuity of the self over time (i.e., between current self and past selves). Likewise, this component also could discriminate, at each life stage, the self-identity from other identities (e.g., between past self and past close-friend). This would confirm a remarkable role of the LPC reflecting higher self-relevance processes. Taken together, the neural representation of oneself (i.e., "I am myself") seems to be stable and also updated across time.

Situating language in a minimal social context: how seeing a picture of the speaker's face affects language comprehension.

Natural use of language involves at least two individuals. Some studies have focused on the interaction between senders in communicative situations and how the knowledge about the speaker can bias language comprehension. However, the mere effect of a face as a social context on language processing remains unknown. In the present study, we used event-related potentials to investigate the semantic and morphosyntactic processing of speech in the presence of a photographic portrait of the speaker. In Experiment 1, we show that the N400, a component related to semantic comprehension, increased its amplitude when processed within this minimal social context compared to a scrambled face control condition. Hence, the semantic neural processing of speech is sensitive to the concomitant perception of a picture of the speaker's face, even if irrelevant to the content of the sentences. Moreover, a late posterior negativity effect was found to the presentation of the speaker's face compared to control stimuli. In contrast, in Experiment 2, we found that morphosyntactic processing, as reflected in left anterior negativity and P600 effects, is not notably affected by the presence of the speaker's portrait. Overall, the present findings suggest that the mere presence of the speaker's image seems to trigger a minimal communicative context, increasing processing resources for language comprehension at the semantic level.