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N400 repetition suppression for Chinese words, but not English words and number strings in Chinese children
Poster Session E, Friday, October 2, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm, Wangari Maathai
Urs Maurer1, Chenyu Jiang1, Xin Huang1,2; 1The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2Nanjing Normal University
Repetition suppression indicates experience-related brain activity with stimuli, such as visual words, and has been shown to be reduced in dyslexia. Recent ERP studies in Chinese adults showed repetition suppression in response to visual words from around 250 to 450 ms suggesting reduced N250/N400 components. Word repetition also led to earlier facilitation effects in the P1-N1 and N1-P2 transitions. It is unclear whether such repetition effects also occur in children, and whether they are specific to Chinese words or generalize to other stimuli. Here we report ERP data from 27 Chinese children (7-12 years) who were presented with repeated and non-repeated Chinese words, English words, and number strings. TANOVA at each time point revealed a N400-like repetition effect for Chinese words from around 300-500 ms with parietal negativity and frontal positivity. This N400 repetition effect tended to be larger in children with better reading skills after controlling for age. No significant repetition effects were found for English words or number strings, respectively. The results suggest that repetition effects in Chinese children are restricted to Chinese word stimuli and occur during late phases of processing. Unlike in adults, early facilitatory effects of repetition are still absent in children and develop later during reading acquisition.
Topic Areas: Reading, Language Development/Acquisition