A developmental investigation of ERP auditory rhyming effects

Abstract

In a simple auditory rhyming paradigm requiring a button-press response (rhyme/nonrhyme) to the second word (target) of each spoken stimulus pair, both the early (P50, N120, P200, N240) and late (CNV, N400, P300) components of the ERP waveform evidenced considerable change from middle childhood to adulthood. In addition, behavioral accuracy and reaction time improved with increasing age. In contrast, the size, distribution and latency of each of several rhyming effects (including the posterior N400 rhyming effect, a left hemisphere anterior rhyming effect, and early rhyming effects on P50 latency, N120 latency and P200 amplitude) remained constant from age 7 to adulthood. These results indicate that the neurocognitive networks involved in processing auditory rhyme information, as indexed by the present task, are well established and have an adult-like organization at least by the age of 7.

Development of neural processes mediating rhyme judgments: Phonological and orthographic interactions

“…Event-related potentials (ERPs) reflecting the rhyming effect are similar in young children and adults, and suggest that the neural processes mediating rhyme judgments mature early (Coch, Grossi, Coffey-Corina, Holcomb, & Neville, 2002;Grossi, Coch, Coffey-Corina, Holcomb, & Neville, 2001). As previously described for adults (Rugg, 1984), larger amplitude negativities (N350) were elicited by the non-rhyming (compared to rhyming) targets.…”

“…As previously described for adults (Rugg, 1984), larger amplitude negativities (N350) were elicited by the non-rhyming (compared to rhyming) targets. The rhyming effect (RE), measured as a difference wave (non-rhyme À rhyme), of adults and children displayed similar onset and peak latencies and spatial distributions (Coch et al, 2002;Grossi et al, 2001). Further, children's REs were adultlike for both visual and auditory rhyming tasks (Coch et al, 2002;Grossi et al, 2001).…”

“…The rhyming effect (RE), measured as a difference wave (non-rhyme À rhyme), of adults and children displayed similar onset and peak latencies and spatial distributions (Coch et al, 2002;Grossi et al, 2001). Further, children's REs were adultlike for both visual and auditory rhyming tasks (Coch et al, 2002;Grossi et al, 2001). Thus, the electrophysiological evidence converges with the behavioral findings to strongly indicate that not only does rhyme awareness develop early in childhood but also that the neural processes that index rhyme effects are adultlike by the age of 7 years for simple word-pair stimuli (Coch et al, 2002;Grossi et al, 2001).…”

Developmental changes in brain regions involved in phonological and orthographic processing during spoken language processing

“…Neuroimaging research employing auditorily-presented rhyme decision tasks in children is more limited (Coch, et al 2002;Corina, et al 2001, Raizada, et al in press). Raizada et al (in press) examined relationships among brain activation, behavior (including standardized test scores and rhyme task performance), and environmental variables (including socio-economic status), in fourteen 5-year-old children.…”

“…The authors did not provide main effects of the rhyme task within either group, disallowing the observance of effects of this task in typically-achieving children. Coch et al (2002) examined developmental differences in auditory rhyme decisions using event-related potentials (ERP) in participants ranging from seven years of age into adulthood. Accuracy and reaction times improved with age, and some age-related differences in ERP responses were observed for the task as a whole.…”