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Use of Prosocial Word Enhances the Processing of Language: Frequency Domain Analysis of Human EEG

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Abstract

Use of prosocial language enhances human cooperation and harmony. Previous research has shown that talking about helping, sharing and giving to others creates positive impression on others, by which individuals and governments gain public approval. So far, the value judgement of approval and disapproval in terms of prosocial or antisocial has not been investigated in the domain of neuroscience of language. Here, the influence of prosocial words towards neural adaptability for greater acceptance is examined using behavioural response mapping with electroencephalography activities of human brain. The prosocial and antisocial words employing correct and incorrect set of sentences in English are presented to participants for performing grammatical judgement task. Our results show that processing of antisocial word requires larger neurocognitive resources as compared to prosocial one, which is corroborated with our behavioural response time suggesting higher response time for antisocial than prosocial words.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by Seed Grant, NIT Raipur (Grant No. NITRR/SeedGrant/2016-17/009), Department of Science and Technology, Government of West Bengal (IN) (Grant No. SERB/ECR/00015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, Raipur, India

    Shashikanta Tarai

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, Raipur, 492010, India

    Rupsha Mukherjee, Quais Ain Qurratul, Bikesh Kumar Singh & Arindam Bit

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  1. Shashikanta Tarai
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  2. Rupsha Mukherjee
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  3. Quais Ain Qurratul
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Correspondence to Arindam Bit.

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Tarai, S., Mukherjee, R., Qurratul, Q.A. et al. Use of Prosocial Word Enhances the Processing of Language: Frequency Domain Analysis of Human EEG. J Psycholinguist Res 48, 145–161 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-018-9595-2

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