title: Brain activity and language assessment using event-related potentials: development of a clinical protocol.
abstract: To test the validity of a new computerized task to assess children's receptive vocabulary, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 56 typically developing children ranging in age from 5 to 12 years. This ERP-computerized vocabulary task does not require a child to give a verbal or motor (i.e. pointing) response. Single pictures, from an existing standardized test of receptive vocabulary, were presented on a computer screen and simultaneously named either correctly (congruent) or incorrectly (incongruent) via a computer. As predicted, the N400 amplitude was found to be significantly higher to the incongruent picture-word pair (i.e. the child knew it was an incorrect pairing) than to the congruent picture-word pair (i.e. the child knew it was a correct pairing). This effect was found for each of the four age groups (5 to 6 years, 7 to 8 years, 9 to 10 years, 11 to 12 years). This task accurately estimated current receptive vocabulary in typically developing children. Although still in the development stage, it may eventually serve as an adjunct to a thorough neurological and neurodevelopmental assessment of some children presenting with moderate to severe cerebral palsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University School of Medicine, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Byrne
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: MacLean
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Dooley
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Beattie
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D014825:Vocabulary