title: Brain potentials during language production in children and adults: an ERP study of the English past tense.
abstract: The current study examines the neural correlates of 8-to-12-year-old children and adults producing inflected word forms, specifically regular vs. irregular past-tense forms in English, using a silent production paradigm. ERPs were time-locked to a visual cue for silent production of either a regular or irregular past-tense form or a 3rd person singular present tense form of a given verb (e.g., walked/sang vs. walks/sings). Subsequently, another visual stimulus cued participants for an overt vocalization of their response. ERP results for the adult group revealed a negativity 300-450ms after the silent-production cue for regular compared to irregular past-tense forms. There was no difference in the present form condition. Children's brain potentials revealed developmental changes, with the older children demonstrating more adult-like ERP responses than the younger ones. We interpret the observed ERP responses as reflecting combinatorial processing involved in regular (but not irregular) past-tense formation.
authors: Department of Psychology & Centre for Brain Science, University of Essex, UK.
authors: Mary-Jane
authors: MJ
authors: Budd
authors: Silke
authors: S
authors: Paulmann
authors: Christopher
authors: C
authors: Barry
authors: Harald
authors: H
authors: Clahsen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Children; ERP; Morphology; Past tense; Production