Event-related brain potential markers of high-language proficiency in adults.
The central issue addressed is whether there are electrophysiological markers for high-language proficiency in adults. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded in 19 young adults who demonstrated either "normal" or "high" language proficiency. ERPs were obtained during a sentence-processing task and analyzed for specific response components elicited by different word types. The ERPs in the normal and high-language proficiency groups were similar for early sensory related processing but differed in the later components thought to be more closely related to lexical access and post-lexical processing. The findings for the ERP waveforms suggest that adults with high-language proficiency show slightly faster lexical access over left anterior brain regions for closed class items, and a reduced reliance on contextual information contained in sentences.
Purdue University, Audiology and Speech Sciences, Heavilon Hall-B1353, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1353, USA. weberfox@purdue.edu
Christine
C
Weber-Fox
Laura J
LJ
Davis
Elizabeth
E
Cuadrado
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D011897:Random Allocation; D013997:Time Factors; D014825:Vocabulary