TY - JOUR
T1 - Early Auditory Event-Related Potentials Are Modulated by Alphabetic Literacy Skills in Logographic Chinese Readers
AU - Zhang, Yubin
AU - Pattamadilok, Chotiga
AU - Lau, Dustin Kai Yan
AU - Bakhtiar, Mehdi
AU - Yim, Long Ying
AU - Leung, Ka Yui
AU - Zhang, Caicai
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (ECS: 25603916), the Departmental General Research Funds–International Collaboration (P0008738) and the Departmental Reward Scheme for Research Publications in Indexed Journals, and was carried out under the aegis of the Labex BLRI (ANR-11-LABX-0036), the Institut Convergence ILCB (ANR-16-CONV-0002), and the Excellence Initiative of Aix-Marseille University (A∗MIDEX).
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Zhang, Pattamadilok, Lau, Bakhtiar, Yim, Leung and Zhang.
PY - 2021/7/29
Y1 - 2021/7/29
N2 - The acquisition of an alphabetic orthography transforms speech processing in the human brain. Behavioral evidence shows that phonological awareness as assessed by meta-phonological tasks like phoneme judgment, is enhanced by alphabetic literacy acquisition. The current study investigates the time-course of the neuro-cognitive operations underlying this enhancement as revealed by event-related potentials (ERPs). Chinese readers with and without proficiency in Jyutping, a Romanization system of Cantonese, were recruited for an auditory onset phoneme judgment task; their behavioral responses and the elicited ERPs were examined. Proficient readers of Jyutping achieved higher response accuracy and exhibited more negative-going ERPs in three early ERP time-windows corresponding to the P1, N1, and P2 components. The phonological mismatch negativity component exhibited sensitivity to both onset and rhyme mismatch in the speech stimuli, but it was not modulated by alphabetic literacy skills. The sustained negativity in the P1-N1-P2 time-windows is interpreted as reflecting enhanced phonetic/phonological processing or attentional/awareness modulation associated with alphabetic literacy and phonological awareness skills.
AB - The acquisition of an alphabetic orthography transforms speech processing in the human brain. Behavioral evidence shows that phonological awareness as assessed by meta-phonological tasks like phoneme judgment, is enhanced by alphabetic literacy acquisition. The current study investigates the time-course of the neuro-cognitive operations underlying this enhancement as revealed by event-related potentials (ERPs). Chinese readers with and without proficiency in Jyutping, a Romanization system of Cantonese, were recruited for an auditory onset phoneme judgment task; their behavioral responses and the elicited ERPs were examined. Proficient readers of Jyutping achieved higher response accuracy and exhibited more negative-going ERPs in three early ERP time-windows corresponding to the P1, N1, and P2 components. The phonological mismatch negativity component exhibited sensitivity to both onset and rhyme mismatch in the speech stimuli, but it was not modulated by alphabetic literacy skills. The sustained negativity in the P1-N1-P2 time-windows is interpreted as reflecting enhanced phonetic/phonological processing or attentional/awareness modulation associated with alphabetic literacy and phonological awareness skills.
KW - alphabetic orthography
KW - auditory onset phoneme judgment
KW - Chinese
KW - event-related potentials
KW - phonological awareness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112479927&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.663166
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.663166
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85112479927
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 12
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
M1 - 663166
ER -