Brain potentials during language production in children and adults: an ERP study of the English past tense.

نویسندگان

  • Mary-Jane Budd
  • Silke Paulmann
  • Christopher Barry
  • Harald Clahsen
چکیده

The current study examines the neural correlates of 8-to-12-year-old children and adults producing inflected word forms, specifically regular vs. irregular past-tense forms in English, using a silent production paradigm. ERPs were time-locked to a visual cue for silent production of either a regular or irregular past-tense form or a 3rd person singular present tense form of a given verb (e.g., walked/sang vs. walks/sings). Subsequently, another visual stimulus cued participants for an overt vocalization of their response. ERP results for the adult group revealed a negativity 300-450ms after the silent-production cue for regular compared to irregular past-tense forms. There was no difference in the present form condition. Children's brain potentials revealed developmental changes, with the older children demonstrating more adult-like ERP responses than the younger ones. We interpret the observed ERP responses as reflecting combinatorial processing involved in regular (but not irregular) past-tense formation.

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عنوان ژورنال:
  • Brain and language

دوره 127 3  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2013