Abstract
Neural specialization for print can be indexed by the left-lateralized N1 response as a tuning gradient to visual words, indicated by sensitivity (character vs. visual control) and selectivity (character vs. character-like stimuli). Forty-five Chinese children (20 boys) were recorded with EEG twice with a 2-year interval during a character decision task (T1, 2016-2017: 7–9 years old; T2, 2018-2020: 9–11). Character N1 amplitude decreased faster with age (7–11 years) compared to non-character N1, and character and character-like N1 became less right-lateralized. T1 better readers showed more longitudinal decrease of print sensitivity and more left-lateralized T2 print sensitivity and selectivity. To conclude, reading skill drives functional neural efficiency for processing print, and the left hemisphere may be a linguistically universal neural mechanism for reading development.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1632-1644 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Child Development |
| Volume | 96 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Early online date | 1 Jun 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 The Author(s). Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.
Funding
The Joint Chinese University of Hong Kong—New Territories East Cluster Clinical Research Ethics Committee approved the data collection procedure (Reference No.: 2017.479). This research was supported by the Collaborative Research Fund (CUHK8/CRF/13 G; C4054-17WF to C. McBride, PI) and the Theme-based Research Scheme (T44-410/21-N to U. Maurer, PC, C. McBride, PC) from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Research Grants Council.
Keywords
- N1 neural specialization to Chinese print
- brain–behavior relation
- longitudinal ERP study