TY - JOUR
T1 - Neural specialization to English words in Chinese children
T2 - Joint contribution of age and English reading abilities
AU - Huo, Shuting
AU - Lo, Jason Chor Ming
AU - Ma, Jie
AU - Maurer, Urs
AU - McBride, Catherine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
PY - 2023/10
Y1 - 2023/10
N2 - N1 tuning to words, a neural marker of visual word recognition, develops by an interaction between age and ability. The development of N1 tuning to a second learnt print is unclear. The present study examined the joint contribution of age and English reading abilities to N1 amplitude and tuning to English print in Chinese children in Hong Kong. EEG signals were recorded from 179 children (six to nine years old) while they were performing a repetition detection task comprised of different print stimuli measuring three types of tuning, i.e., coarse tuning (real word versus false font), fine tuning (real versus nonword), and lexicality effect (real versus pseudo word). Children were assessed in English word reading accuracy (EWR) and English sub-lexical orthographic knowledge (EOK). Results indicated that coarse tuning decreased with age but increased with EWR and EOK. Fine tuning uniquely increased with EOK, and the lexicality effect increased with EWR. At last, higher EWR was linked to less right-lateralized coarse tuning in younger children. Taken together, the findings support the visual perceptual expertise account in the L2 context, in that N1 coarse tuning, fine tuning, and lexicality effect are driven by skill improvement.
AB - N1 tuning to words, a neural marker of visual word recognition, develops by an interaction between age and ability. The development of N1 tuning to a second learnt print is unclear. The present study examined the joint contribution of age and English reading abilities to N1 amplitude and tuning to English print in Chinese children in Hong Kong. EEG signals were recorded from 179 children (six to nine years old) while they were performing a repetition detection task comprised of different print stimuli measuring three types of tuning, i.e., coarse tuning (real word versus false font), fine tuning (real versus nonword), and lexicality effect (real versus pseudo word). Children were assessed in English word reading accuracy (EWR) and English sub-lexical orthographic knowledge (EOK). Results indicated that coarse tuning decreased with age but increased with EWR and EOK. Fine tuning uniquely increased with EOK, and the lexicality effect increased with EWR. At last, higher EWR was linked to less right-lateralized coarse tuning in younger children. Taken together, the findings support the visual perceptual expertise account in the L2 context, in that N1 coarse tuning, fine tuning, and lexicality effect are driven by skill improvement.
KW - Age effect
KW - Cross-sectional
KW - English as a second language
KW - N1 print tuning
KW - Word reading abilities
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85170057784&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101292
DO - 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101292
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 37666027
AN - SCOPUS:85170057784
SN - 1878-9293
VL - 63
JO - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
M1 - 101292
ER -