Modal and amodal cognition: an overarching principle in various domains of psychology.

Accounting for how the human mind represents the internal and external world is a crucial feature of many theories of human cognition. Central to this question is the distinction between modal as opposed to amodal representational formats. It has often been assumed that one but not both of these two types of representations underlie processing in specific domains of cognition (e.g., perception, mental imagery, and language). However, in this paper, we suggest that both formats play a major role in most cognitive domains. We believe that a comprehensive theory of cognition requires a solid understanding of these representational formats and their functional roles within and across different domains of cognition, the developmental trajectory of these representational formats, and their role in dysfunctional behavior. Here we sketch such an overarching perspective that brings together research from diverse subdisciplines of psychology on modal and amodal representational formats so as to unravel their functional principles and their interactions.

Regenerative Medicine: Pharmacological Considerations and Clinical Role in Pain Management.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Low back pain affects at least 80% of individuals at some point in their lifetime and is the fifth most common reason for physician visits in the USA. Treatment of an acute episode of LBP generally includes rest, activity modification, physical therapy, NSAIDs, and patient education. RECENT FINDINGS: A small percentage of patients will develop chronic pain lasting > 6 months duration. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is one of the main pillars of regenerative medicine, as its release of bioactive proteins supports the aim of RM of restoring the anatomical function in degenerative conditions. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells, multipotent progenitor cells, or marrow stromal cells found in various body tissues, including bone marrow, lung, and adipose tissue. Evidence from well-designed case-control or cohort studies for the use of PRP and MSCs in lumbar facet joint, lumbar epidural, and sacroiliac joint injections is currently described as level IV evidence. PRP and MSCs are used autogenously to help facilitate the healing process, and their injection has been studied in the long-term management of discogenic low back pain. PRP has been compared to steroid injections in the sacroiliac joint for chronic low back pain, with favorable results. MSCs have also been shown to be useful in intervertebral disc regeneration and treatment of chronic low back pain associated with degenerative disc disease. Currently, the price for these treatments is extremely high, and thus the standard of care continues to be steroid injections and other treatments. This could change, however, with more robust data and research on the safety and long-term efficacy of biologics compared to other interventional management.

Naphthalene: irritative and inflammatory effects on the airways.

OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study determined whether acute sensory irritative or (sub)chronic inflammatory effects of the eyes, nose or respiratory tract are observed in employees who are exposed to naphthalene at the workplace. METHODS: Thirtynine healthy and non-smoking male employees with either moderate (n = 22) or high (n = 17) exposure to naphthalene were compared to 22 male employees from the same plants with no or only rare exposure to naphthalene. (Sub)clinical endpoint measures included nasal endoscopy, smell sensitivity, self-reported work-related complaints and the intensity of naphthalene odor and irritation. In addition, cellular and soluble mediators in blood, nasal lavage fluid (NALF) and induced sputum (IS) were analysed. All measurements were carried out pre-shift on Monday and post-shift on Thursday. Personal air monitoring revealed naphthalene shift concentrations up to 11.6 mg/m3 with short-term peak concentrations up to 145.8 mg/m3 and 1- and 2-naphthol levels (sum) in post-shift urine up to 10.1 mg/L. RESULTS: Acute sensory irritating effects at the eyes and upper airways were reported to occur when directly handling naphthalene (e.g., sieving pure naphthalene). Generally, naphthalene odor was described as intense and unpleasant. Habituation effects or olfactory fatigue were not observed. Endoscopic examination revealed mild inflammatory effects at the nasal mucosa of exposed employees in terms of reddening and swelling and abnormal mucus production. No consistent pattern of cellular and soluble mediators in blood, NALF or IS was observed which would indicate a chronic or acute inflammatory effect of naphthalene in exposed workers. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that exposure to naphthalene induces acute sensory irritative effects in exposed workers. No (sub)chronic inflammatory effects on the nasal epithelium or the respiratory tract could be observed under the study conditions described here.

Tracking independence and merging of prosodic and phonemic processing across infancy.

Recent evidence suggests division of labor in phonological analysis underlying speech recognition. Adults and children appear to decompose the speech stream into phoneme-relevant information and into syllable stress. Here we investigate whether both speech processing streams develop from a common path in infancy, or whether there are two separate streams from early on. We presented stressed and unstressed syllables (spoken primes) followed by initially stressed early learned disyllabic German words (spoken targets). Stress overlap and phoneme overlap between the primes and the initial syllable of the targets varied orthogonally. We tested infants 3, 6 and 9 months after birth. Event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed stress priming without phoneme priming in the 3-month-olds; phoneme priming without stress priming in the 6-month-olds; and phoneme priming, stress priming as well as an interaction of both in 9-month-olds. In general the present findings reveal that infants start with separate processing streams related to syllable stress and to phoneme-relevant information; and that they need to learn to merge both aspects of speech processing. In particular the present results suggest (i) that phoneme-free prosodic processing dominates in early infancy; (ii) that prosody-free phoneme processing dominates in middle infancy; and (iii) that both types of processing are operating in parallel and can be merged in late infancy.

Engineered vascularized bone grafts.

Clinical protocols utilize bone marrow to seed synthetic and decellularized allogeneic bone grafts for enhancement of scaffold remodeling and fusion. Marrow-derived cytokines induce host neovascularization at the graft surface, but hypoxic conditions cause cell death at the core. Addition of cellular components that generate an extensive primitive plexus-like vascular network that would perfuse the entire scaffold upon anastomosis could potentially yield significantly higher-quality grafts. We used a mouse model to develop a two-stage protocol for generating vascularized bone grafts using mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) from human bone marrow and umbilical cord-derived endothelial cells. The endothelial cells formed tube-like structures and subsequently networks throughout the bone scaffold 4-7 days after implantation. hMSCs were essential for stable vasculature both in vitro and in vivo; however, contrary to expectations, vasculature derived from hMSCs briefly cultured in medium designed to maintain a proliferative, nondifferentiated state was more extensive and stable than that with hMSCs with a TGF-beta-induced smooth muscle cell phenotype. Anastomosis occurred by day 11, with most hMSCs associating closely with the network. Although initially immature and highly permeable, at 4 weeks the network was mature. Initiation of scaffold mineralization had also occurred by this period. Some human-derived vessels were still present at 5 months, but the majority of the graft vasculature had been functionally remodeled with host cells. In conclusion, clinically relevant progenitor sources for pericytes and endothelial cells can serve to generate highly functional microvascular networks for tissue engineered bone grafts.

Ongoing Sign Processing Facilitates Written Word Recognition in Deaf Native Signing Children.

Signed and written languages are intimately related in proficient signing readers. Here, we tested whether deaf native signing beginning readers are able to make rapid use of ongoing sign language to facilitate recognition of written words. Deaf native signing children (mean 10 years, 7 months) received prime target pairs with sign word onsets as primes and written words as targets. In a control group of hearing children (matched in their reading abilities to the deaf children, mean 8 years, 8 months), spoken word onsets were instead used as primes. Targets (written German words) either were completions of the German signs or of the spoken word onsets. Task of the participants was to decide whether the target word was a possible German word. Sign onsets facilitated processing of written targets in deaf children similarly to spoken word onsets facilitating processing of written targets in hearing children. In both groups, priming elicited similar effects in the simultaneously recorded event related potentials (ERPs), starting as early as 200 ms after the onset of the written target. These results suggest that beginning readers can use ongoing lexical processing in their native language - be it signed or spoken - to facilitate written word recognition. We conclude that intimate interactions between sign and written language might in turn facilitate reading acquisition in deaf beginning readers.

Binding of the receptor tyrosine kinase TrkB to the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) regulates phosphorylation of NCAM and NCAM-dependent neurite outgrowth.

Recognition molecules and neurotrophins play important roles during development and maintenance of nervous system functions. In this study, we provide evidence that the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and the neurotrophin receptor TrkB directly interact via sequences in their intracellular domains. Stimulation of TrkB by brain-derived neurotrophic factor leads to tyrosine phosphorylation of NCAM at position 734. Mutation of this tyrosine to phenylalanine completely abolishes tyrosine phosphorylation of NCAM by TrkB. Moreover, the knockdown of TrkB in hippocampal neurons leads to a reduction of NCAM-induced neurite outgrowth. Transfection of NCAM-deficient hippocampal neurons with mutated NCAM carrying an exchange of tyrosine by phenylalanine at position 734 leads to promotion of NCAM-induced neurite outgrowth in comparison with that observed after transfection with wild-type NCAM, whereas a reduction of neurite outgrowth was observed after transfection with mutated NCAM, which carries an exchange of tyrosine by glutamate that mimics the phosphorylated tyrosine. Our observations indicate a functional relationship between TrkB and NCAM.

No Evidence of Robust Noun-Referent Associations in German-Learning 6- to 14-Month-Olds.

Work with the looking-while-listening (LWL-) paradigm suggested that 6-month-old English-learning infants associated several labels for common nouns with pictures of their referents: While one distractor picture was present, infants systematically fixated the named target picture. However, recent work revealed constraints of infants' noun comprehension. The age at which these abilities can be obtained appears to relate to the infants' familiarity with the talker, the target language, and word frequency differences in target-distractor pairs. Here, we present further data to this newly established field of research. We tested 42 monolingual German-learning infants aged 6-14 months by means of the LWL-paradigm. Infants saw two pictures side-by-side on a screen, whilst an unfamiliar male talker named one of both. Overall, infants did not fixate the target picture more than the distractor picture. In line with previous results, infants' performance on the task was higher when target and distractor differed within their word frequency-as operationalized by the parental rating of word exposure. Together, our results add further evidence for constraints on early word learning. They point to cross-linguistic differences in early word learning and strengthen the view that infants might use extra-linguistic cues within the stimulus pairing, such as frequency imbalance, to disambiguate between two potential referents.

Phonemic Training Modulates Early Speech Processing in Pre-reading Children.

Phonemic awareness and rudimentary grapheme knowledge concurrently develop in pre-school age. In a training study, we tried to disentangle the role of both precursor functions of reading for spoken word recognition. Two groups of children exercised with phonemic materials, but only one of both groups learnt corresponding letters to trained phonemes. A control group exercised finger-number associations (non-linguistic training). After the training, we tested how sensitive children were to prime-target variation in word onset priming. A group of young adults took part in the same experiment to provide data from experienced readers. While decision latencies to the targets suggested fine-grained spoken word processing in all groups, event-related potentials (ERPs) indicated that both phonemic training groups processed phonemic variation in more detail than the non-linguistic training group and young adults at early stages of speech processing. Our results indicate temporal plasticity of implicit speech processing in pre-school age as a function of explicit phonemic training.

Activation of Literal Word Meanings in Idioms: Evidence from Eye-tracking and ERP Experiments.

How the language processing system handles formulaic language such as idioms is a matter of debate. We investigated the activation of constituent meanings by means of predictive processing in an eye-tracking experiment and in two ERP experiments (auditory and visual). In the eye-tracking experiment, German-speaking participants listened to idioms in which the final word was excised (Hannes let the cat out of the . . .). Well before the offset of these idiom fragments, participants fixated on the correct idiom completion (bag) more often than on unrelated distractors (stomach). Moreover, there was an early fixation bias towards semantic associates (basket) of the correct completion, which ended shortly after the offset of the fragment. In the ERP experiments, sentences (spoken or written) either contained complete idioms, or the final word of the idiom was replaced with a semantic associate or with an unrelated word. Across both modalities, ERPs reflected facilitated processing of correct completions across several regions of interest (ROIs) and time windows. Facilitation of semantic associates was only reliably evident in early components for auditory idiom processing. The ERP findings for spoken idioms compliment the eye-tracking data by pointing to early decompositional processing of idioms. It seems that in spoken idiom processing, holistic representations do not solely determine lexical processing.

(Mono-) Exposure to Naphthalene in the Abrasives Industry: Air Monitoring and Biological Monitoring.

Exposure to the bicyclic aromatic hydrocarbon naphthalene occurs in most cases along with other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Here we report from an investigation of 63 healthy, non-smoking male employees in the abrasives industry where naphthalene is the only relevant chemical exposure. Exposure assessment was performed using a combination of Air and Biological Monitoring over nearly a whole working week (Mo.-Th.). Air measurements were carried out during the shift on Thursday with the GGP mini-sampling system, combining particle and vapour sampling at low flow rates. In urine spot samples, the metabolites 1- and 2-naphthol were measured Mo.-Th. pre- and post-shift (for the reference group only Mo. pre- and Th. post-shift). With regard to naphthalene concentrations measured in air and concentrations of its metabolites (1- and 2-naphthol) in urine, study participants could be divided into a high and a low exposure group, and a reference group. The naphthalene concentration in air was in the range of 0.1-11.6 mg m-3, and naphthol concentrations (sum of 1- and 2-naphthol) in post-shift urine were in the range of <1 to 10 127 µg l-1. Naphthalene concentrations in air and naphthol concentrations in urine were closely correlated, indicating mainly airborne exposure at the investigated workplaces. As expected from toxicokinetic data, internal body burden increased slightly during a working week and did not completely decline over a work-free weekend to background concentrations observed in occupationally not exposed persons. Taking into account the observed increase in pre- and post-shift values during the working week, urine sampling for Biological Monitoring at workplaces should be carried out after several preceding shifts. Our data allow the derivation of biological limit values for the sum of 1- and 2-naphthol in urine corresponding to occupational exposure limits for naphthalene in air.

Obesity and Sex Affect the Immune Responses to Tick-Borne Encephalitis Booster Vaccination.

Obesity has dramatically increased over the last 30 years and reaches according to World Health Organization dimensions of a global epidemic. The obesity-associated chronic low-level inflammation contributes to severe comorbidities and directly affects many immune cells leading to immune dysfunction and increased susceptibility to infections. Thus, prophylaxis against vaccine-preventable diseases is crucial, yet the responsiveness to several vaccines is unclear under obesity. In order to assess the responsiveness to tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) vaccine, we revaccinated 37 obese individuals and 36 normal-weight controls with a licensed TBE vaccine. Metabolic, hormonal, and immunologic profiles along with vaccine-specific humoral and cellular immune responses were evaluated in sera and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) before, 1 week, 4 weeks, and 6 months after TBE booster. Obese adults had significantly increased metabolic (triglycerides, cholesterol ratios, leptin, insulin) and proinflammatory (C-reactive protein) parameters. They showed stronger initial increase of TBE-specific Ab titers (d7_d28) followed by a significantly faster decline after 6 months, which correlated with high body mass index and leptin and insulin levels. The fold increase of Ab-titer levels was significantly higher in obese compared to control males and linked to reduced testosterone levels. Obesity also affected cellular responses: PBMCs of the obese vaccinees had elevated interleukin 2 and interferon γ levels upon antigen stimulation, indicating a leptin-dependent proinflammatory TH1 polarization. The expansion of total and naive B cells in obese might explain the initial increase of Ab titers, whereas the reduced B-memory cell and plasma blast generation could be related to fast Ab decline with a limited maintenance of titers. Among T follicular helper cell (Tfh) cells, the Tfh17 subset was significantly expanded particularly in obese males, where we observed a strong initial Ab increase. Systemic but not local vaccine side effects were more frequent in obese subjects as a possible consequence of their low-grade proinflammatory state. In summary, TBE booster vaccination was effective in obese individuals, yet the faster Ab decline could result in a reduced long-term protection. The sex-based differences in vaccine responses indicate a complex interplay of the endocrine, metabolic, and immune system during obesity. Further studies on the long-term protection after vaccination are ongoing, and also evaluation of primary vaccination against TBE in obese individuals is planned. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT04017052; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04017052.

Correction to: Bone Marrow Derived Pluripotent Cells are Pericytes which Contribute to Vascularization.

Please note the following errors in the original version.

Neurophysiological evidence for underspecified lexical representations: asymmetries with word initial variations.

How does the mental lexicon cope with phonetic variants in recognition of spoken words? Using a lexical decision task with and without fragment priming, the authors compared the processing of German words and pseudowords that differed only in the place of articulation of the initial consonant (place). Across both experiments, event-related brain potentials indicated that pseudowords with initial noncoronal place (e.g., *Brachen) activate words with initial coronal place (e.g., Drachen [dragon]). In contrast, coronal pseudowords (e.g., *Drenze) do not as effectively activate noncoronal words (e.g., Grenze [border]). Thus, certain word onset variations do not hamper the speech recognition system. The authors interpret this asymmetry as a consequence of underspecified coronal place of articulation in the mental lexicon.

What determines the speed of speech recognition? Evidence from congenitally blind adults.

It is a matter of debate, whether and how improved auditory discrimination abilities enable speeded speech comprehension in congenitally blind adults. Previous research has concentrated on semantic and syntactic aspects of processing. Here we investigated phonologically mediated spoken word access processes by means of word onset priming. Blind adults and age- and gender-matched sighted adults listened to spoken word onsets (primes) followed by complete words (targets). Phonological overlap between primes and targets varied. Blind participants made faster lexical decision responses than sighted participants, yet their speeded responses were not restricted to phonologically overlapping trials. Furthermore, timing of Event Related Potential (ERP) results did not differ between blind and sighted participants. Together these results suggest that blind and sighted listeners are equally fast in implicit phonological encoding and lexical matching mechanisms. It appears that blind adults' speeded speech processing emerges when phonological analysis makes promising word candidates available for further processing. As one possible interpretation, we speculate that lexical selection processes in blind adults do not need to wait for information from the visual domain, while auditory-visual integration mechanisms are mandatorily implemented in speech recognition routines of sighted adults.

Enhancing engineered vascular networks in vitro and in vivo: The effects of IGF1 on vascular development and durability.

OBJECTIVES: Creation of functional, durable vasculature remains an important goal within the field of regenerative medicine. Engineered biological vasculature has the potential to restore or improve human tissue function. We hypothesized that the pleotropic effects of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) would enhance the engineering of capillary-like vasculature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The impact of IGF1 upon vasculogenesis was examined in in vitro cultures for a period of up to 40 days and as subcutaneous implants within immunodeficient mice. Co-cultures of human umbilical vein endothelial cells and human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in collagen-fibronectin hydrogels were supplemented with either recombinant IGF1 protein or genetically engineered cells to provide sustained IGF1. Morphometric analysis was performed on the vascular networks that formed in four concentrations of IGF1. RESULTS: IGF1 supplementation significantly enhanced de novo vasculogenesis both in vitro and in vivo. Effects were long-term as they lasted the duration of the study period, and included network density, vessel length, and diameter. Bifurcation density was not affected. However, the highest concentrations of IGF1 tested were either ineffective or even deleterious. Sustained IGF1 delivery was required in vivo as the inclusion of recombinant IGF1 protein had minimal impact. CONCLUSION: IGF1 supplementation can be used to produce neovasculature with significantly enhanced network density and durability. Its use is a promising methodology for engineering de novo vasculature to support regeneration of functional tissue.

ERP evidence for implicit L2 word stress knowledge in listeners of a fixed-stress language.

Languages with contrastive stress, such as English or German, distinguish some words only via the stress status of their syllables, such as "CONtent" and "conTENT" (capitals indicate a stressed syllable). Listeners with a fixed-stress native language, such as Hungarian, have difficulties in explicitly discriminating variation of the stress position in a second language (L2). However, Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) indicate that Hungarian listeners implicitly notice variation from their native fixed-stress pattern. Here we used ERPs to investigate Hungarian listeners' implicit L2 processing. In a cross-modal word fragment priming experiment, we presented spoken stressed and unstressed German word onsets (primes) followed by printed versions of initially stressed and initially unstressed German words (targets). ERPs reflected stress priming exerted by both prime types. This indicates that Hungarian listeners implicitly linked German words with the stress status of the primes. Thus, the formerly described explicit stress discrimination difficulty associated with a fixed-stress native language does not generalize to implicit aspects of L2 word stress processing.

Allergic patients with and without allergen-specific immunotherapy mount protective immune responses to tick-borne encephalitis vaccination in absence of enhanced side effects or propagation of their Th2 bias.

BACKGROUND: Allergic diseases are caused by Th2-driven immune responses and their treatment with specific immunotherapy (SIT) leads to immunomodulation via IL10, TGF-ß and Th1/Tr1 shift. This phase IV, open-label clinical trial investigated whether allergies and SIT treatment influenced immune responses to routine vaccination. METHODS: We studied three groups: 49 allergic patients (allergic group), 21 allergic patients receiving maintenance doses of SIT (SIT group), and 49 non-allergic controls. All subjects received tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) booster vaccines and humoral and cellular immune responses were evaluated after one week, four weeks and six months. RESULTS: The levels and kinetics of neutralizing TBE-specific antibodies, reflecting protection against TBE, were not significantly different in the three groups. The allergic group showed Th2 polarization pre-booster as indicated by increased TBE-specific IgG1 and elevated mitogen-induced IL5 production. Alum-adjuvanted TBE vaccine led to Th2 biased immune responses in the controls, but to no further enhancement of Th2 polarization in the allergic and SIT group. Furthermore, in the SIT group cellular parameters reflected the induction of immunomodulation due to increased Tregs, elevated baseline IL10 and lack of TBE-specific IL5. Importantly, these cellular regulatory responses did not limit the ability to mount sufficient TBE-specific antibodies after the booster. All groups tolerated the vaccine well with no exacerbation of allergic symptoms. CONCLUSION: TBE booster vaccinations were immunogenic and safe in both the allergic and SIT group and contributed to balanced immune responses. Our data indicate that all allergic patients, even when undergoing SIT, should be vaccinated without hesitation and at regular intervals according to standard recommendations. ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02511535).

Not every pseudoword disrupts word recognition: an ERP study.

BACKGROUND: If all available acoustic phonetic information of words is used during lexical access and consequently stored in the mental lexicon, then all pseudowords that deviate in a single acoustic feature from a word should hamper word recognition. By contrast, models assuming underspecification of redundant phonological information in the mental lexicon predict a differential disruption of word recognition dependent on the phonological structure of the pseudoword. Using neurophysiological measures, the present study tested the predicted asymmetric disruption by assuming that coronal place of articulation for consonants is redundant. METHODS: Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a lexical decision task. The focus of interest was on word medial consonants. The crucial pseudowords were created by replacing the place of articulation of the medial consonant in German disyllabic words. We analyzed the differential temporal characteristics of the N400 pseudoword effect. RESULTS: N400 amplitudes for pseudowords were enhanced compared to words. As the uniqueness and deviation points differ for coronal and non-coronal items, the ERPs had to be correspondingly adjusted. The adjusted ERPs revealed that the N400 pseudoword effect starts earlier for coronal than for non-coronal pseudoword variants. Thus, non-coronal variants are accepted as words longer than the coronal variants. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that lexical representations of words containing medial coronal consonants are initially activated by their corresponding non-coronal pseudowords. The most plausible explanation for the asymmetric neuronal processing of coronal and non-coronal pseudoword variants is an underspecified coronal place of articulation in the mental lexicon.

Neurophysiological correlates of mismatch in lexical access.

BACKGROUND: In the present study neurophysiological correlates related to mismatching information in lexical access were investigated with a fragment priming paradigm. Event-related brain potentials were recorded for written words following spoken word onsets that either matched (e.g., kan - Kante [Engl. edge]), partially mismatched (e.g., kan - Konto [Engl. account]), or were unrelated (e.g., kan - Zunge [Engl. tongue]). Previous psycholinguistic research postulated the activation of multiple words in the listeners' mental lexicon which compete for recognition. Accordingly, matching words were assumed to be strongly activated competitors, which inhibit less strongly activated partially mismatching words. RESULTS: ERPs for matching and unrelated control words differed between 300 and 400 ms. Difference waves (unrelated control words - matching words) replicate a left-hemispheric P350 effect in this time window. Although smaller than for matching words, a P350 effect and behavioural facilitation was also found for partially mismatching words. Minimum norm solutions point to a left hemispheric centro-temporal source of the P350 effect in both conditions. The P350 is interpreted as a neurophysiological index for the activation of matching words in the listeners' mental lexicon. In contrast to the P350 and the behavioural responses, a brain potential ranging between 350 and 500 ms (N400) was found to be equally reduced for matching and partially mismatching words as compared to unrelated control words. This latter effect might be related to strategic mechanisms in the priming situation. CONCLUSION: A left-hemispheric neuronal network engaged in lexical access appears to be gradually activated by matching and partially mismatching words. Results suggest that neural processing of matching words does not inhibit processing of partially mismatching words during early stages of lexical identification. Furthermore, the present results indicate that neurophysiological correlates observed in fragment priming reflect different aspects of target processing that are cumulated in behavioural responses. Particularly the left-hemispheric P350 difference potential appears to be closely related to fine-grained activation differences of modality-independent representations in the listeners' mental lexicon. This neurophysiological index might guide future studies aimed at investigating neural aspects of lexical access.