Event-related potentials in face naming and tip-of-the-tongue state: Further results

This study was carried out to investigate the ERP correlates (some of which were characterized in a previous study) of the “tip-of-the-tongue” (TOT) state, in a face naming task, and to determine how dissociation of the manual and verbal responses (delaying the verbal response 2 s from the stimulus onset) affects the Late Negative Wave (LNW). The results showed: 1) new ERP correlates of the TOT state, as the latency of both the Early P3 and N450 components was significantly longer in TOT than in successful naming, reflecting slower access in TOT, from the 300 ms post-stimulus, to information about the famous people, and 2) no differences in the amplitude of LNW among response categories, which suggests that the LNW amplitude is modulated by the brain activity associated with the verbal response.