Fig 1.
Example stimuli and experimental conditions.
Example sentences and a comprehension question in each of the three critical conditions and the two filler conditions.
Fig 2.
Boxplot of nonliteral response rates in the three conditions in Experiment 1.
Horizontal lines in each box depict the median; black circles depict the mean. Boxes extend to first and third quartiles; whiskers extend to 1.5 x interquartile range.
Fig 3.
Histogram of nonliteral response rates.
Histogram displaying participants’ mean nonliteral response rate in irony condition only.
Fig 4.
Grand mean ERPs for the nonliteral group (n = 10) at 26 representative electrode sites.
The vertical calibration bar indicates the temporal onset of the emoji stimulus and extends to indicate ±2.5 μV of brain activity with negative voltage plotted up; 200 ms of prestimulus and 1000 ms of poststimulus brain activity are depicted.
Fig 5.
Topographic plots depicting ERP effects from the irony minus match condition difference waves.
The three time windows correspond to the P200 component (left), the P600 component (center), and late frontal positivity (right). Color scale (± 2μV) is held constant across scalp maps.
Fig 6.
Grand mean ERPs for the literal group (n = 25) at 26 representative electrode sites.
The vertical calibration bar indicates the temporal onset of the emoji stimulus and extends to indicate 2.5 μV of brain activity with negative voltage plotted up; 200 ms of prestimulus and 1000 ms of poststimulus brain activity are depicted.
Fig 7.
Topographic plots depicting ERP effects from the irony minus match condition difference waves.
The three time windows correspond to the P200 component (left), the P600 component (center), and late frontal positivity (right). Color scale (± 2μV) is held constant across scalp maps.
Fig 8.
Boxplot of nonliteral response rates in the three conditions in Experiment 2.
Horizontal lines in each box depict the median; black circles depict the mean. Boxes extend to first and third quartiles; whiskers extend to 1.5 x interquartile range.
Fig 9.
Grand mean ERPs in Experiment 2 (n = 35) at 26 representative electrode sites.
The vertical calibration bar indicates the temporal onset of the emoji stimulus and extends to indicate 2.5 μV of brain activity with negative voltage plotted up; 200 ms of prestimulus and 1000 ms of poststimulus brain activity are depicted.
Fig 10.
Topographic plots depicting ERP effects from the irony minus match condition difference waves.
The three time windows correspond to the P200 component (left), the P600 component (center), and late frontal positivity (right). Color scale (± 2μV) is held constant across scalp maps.
Fig 11.
Boxplot of nonliteral response rates in the three conditions in Experiment 3.
Horizontal lines in each box depict the median; black circles depict the mean. Boxes extend to first and third quartiles; whiskers extend to 1.5 x interquartile range.
Fig 12.
Grand mean ERPs in Experiment 3 (n = 36) at 26 representative electrode sites.
The vertical calibration bar indicates the temporal onset of the emoji stimulus and extends to indicate 2.5 μV of brain activity with negative voltage plotted up; 200 ms of prestimulus and 1000 ms of poststimulus brain activity are depicted.
Fig 13.
Topographic plots depicting ERP effects from the irony minus match condition difference waves.
The three time windows correspond to the P200 component (left), the P600 component (center), and late frontal positivity (right). Color scale (± 2μV) is held constant across scalp maps.
Fig 14.
Correlations of behavioral responses with ERP components across all three experiments.
a–P200 effect, irony condition; b–P600 effect, irony condition; c–LFP, irony condition; d–LFP, mismatch condition.
Table 1.
Summary of statistically significant effects across experiments.