An ERP study on the effect of self-relevant possessive pronoun.

The present study examined the electrophysiological correlates of the psychological processing of possessive pronouns such as "wo de" (Chinese for "my"/"mine") and "ta de" (Chinese for "his") using a three-stimulus oddball paradigm. Sixteen participants were visually presented the stimuli (possessive pronouns, small circle and big circle). The results showed that, relative to non-self-relevant possessive pronoun "ta de", self-relevant possessive pronoun "wo de" elicited a significantly larger P300 amplitude independently. The present study suggested that the self-relevant possessive pronoun was psychologically important to human beings.