Event-related magnetic fields at latencies of over 400 ms in silent reading of Japanese Katakana meaningless words.

Event-related magnetic fields (ERFs) were recorded when subjects were presented with meaningless readable words or unreadable words. The ERF averages for readable words and those for unreadable words showed a large difference at latencies of over 400 ms. The equivalent current dipoles were obtained only for readable words, and were located near the cingulate gyrus and the supplementary motor area whose functions are considered to be related to attention and motor planning.