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How Attention Networks Relate to Reading Subskills: ERP Evidence from Chinese Adults and Children
Poster Session F, Friday, October 2, 2:45 - 4:45 pm, Wangari Maathai
Siyi Zhao1, Urs Maurer1; 1The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Background. Reading is a complex cognitive activity that relies on visual attention to coordinate multiple processes within a constrained temporal window (e.g., Arrington et al., 2014; Hidi et al., 1995). According to the Attention Network Framework (Posner & Petersen, 1990), attention comprises three interacting systems: alerting (maintaining a state of readiness), orienting (selecting spatial locations), and executive control (resolving conflict and regulating responses). Although attention is crucial for decoding, retention, and integration of written text, it remains unclear how each attentional network contributes to reading. The present study aims to identify neural markers of each attentional network and examine whether network-specific ERP components are differentially associated with specific types of Chinese reading measures across stages of literacy development. Method. Fifty-one Chinese-speaking college students and 62 primary school children (Grades 1–6) participated in a child-friendly version of the Attention Network Test (Child-ANT) while EEG was recorded from a 128-channel system. In each trial, participants identified the direction of a central target fish flanked by congruent or incongruent distractors under different cueing conditions. Behavioral indices of attentional network efficiency were calculated from reaction time (RT) differences: alerting (no-cue vs. double-cue), orienting (center-cue vs. spatial-cue), and executive control (incongruent vs. congruent trials). Reading ability was assessed using single-character reading, two-character word reading, and reading comprehension tasks. For ERP analyses, target-locked mean amplitudes were extracted from occipital electrodes for alerting and orienting effects (P1/N1) and from centro-parietal electrodes for executive control (P3). Results. ERP analyses revealed distinct age-related patterns of attentional network activity. Adults showed significant alerting N1, orienting P1, and executive P3 effects, whereas children showed significant orienting N1 and executive P3 effects, but no significant orienting P1 effect. Executive P3 amplitude in adults was positively associated with single-character recognition after controlling for verbal working memory, and the association remained significant after FDR correction. Executive P3 amplitude was also positively correlated with two-character word reading and reading comprehension, although these correlations did not survive FDR correction. No significant correlations were found between ERP amplitudes and behavioral measures of network efficiency. In children, the brain–behavior relationship was observed in the alerting N1 component. After controlling for age and verbal working memory, alerting N1 amplitude was negatively correlated with two-character word reading, and this correlation was marginally significant after FDR correction. Discussion. The age-related temporal shift in orienting signatures indicates that spatial attention becomes more automated during development. Brain-behavior analyses further indicated different attention-reading strategies. In developing readers, multi-character processing relied more on bottom-up processing, as shown by the negative correlation with alerting N1 amplitude. In mature readers, however, processing shifted toward a more efficient top-down strategy, with executive control supporting single-character recognition during basic orthographic decoding. Future research could explore the developmental trajectory of attention-reading associations and clarify how the role of each attention network in orthographic processing changes with literacy development.
Topic Areas: Reading, Language Development/Acquisition