bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/671933; this version posted June 14, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Dissociating activation and integration of discourse referents: evidence from ERPs and oscillations Cas W. Coopmans1,2 & Mante S. Nieuwland1,3 1Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands 2Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 3Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Contact details: Cas Coopmans Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Wundtlaan 1, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands Tel.: +31-24 3521331 Email address:
[email protected] Author note: In accordance with the Peer Review Openness Initiative (Morey et al., 2016), all materials, data and analysis scripts are publicly available on the Open Science Framework (anonymized, view-only link for reviewers: https://osf.io/nbjfm/). 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/671933; this version posted June 14, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Abstract A key challenge in understanding stories and conversations is the comprehension of ‘anaphora’, words that refer back to previously mentioned words or concepts (‘antecedents’). In psycholinguistic theories, anaphor comprehension involves the initial activation of the antecedent and its subsequent integration into the unfolding representation of the narrated event.