title: Exploring the multiple-level hypothesis of AoA effects in spoken and written object naming using a topographic ERP analysis.
abstract: Here we tested the multiple-loci hypothesis of age-of-acquisition effects in both spoken and handwritten object naming using Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) and spatiotemporal segmentation analysis. Participants had to say aloud or write down picture names that varied on frequency trajectory (age-of-acquisition). Early-acquired words yielded shorter naming times than late-acquired words in both spoken and written naming. More importantly, AoA modulated ERPs only during a later time-window in both output modalities: waveforms started to diverge around 400 ms, which corresponded to the end of a period of topographic stability starting at around 260 ms in both conditions. These stable electrophysiological maps lasted longer in the late than in the early-acquired condition and shifted the onset of the following periods of stable electrophysiological activity. Taken together, the findings are at odds with the multiple loci hypothesis, but support the hypothesis that AoA affects a single encoding level, namely the word-form encoding process.
authors.affiliation: University of Poitiers, CerCA - UMR 7295 - CNRS, 5 rue Théodore Lefebvre, F86000, Poitiers, France. Electronic address: cyril.perret@univ-poitiers.fr.
authors.forename: Cyril
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Perret
authors.affiliation: University of Bourgogne, LEAD - UMR 5022 - CNRS, Pôle AAFE, 11 place Erasme, F21000, Dijon, France; Institut Universitaire de France, 103 bd Saint Michel, F75005, France.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonin
authors.affiliation: University of Geneva, FAPSE, 40 bd Pont d'Arve, CH1211, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laganaro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D013060:Speech; D013997:Time Factors; D014956:Writing; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Age of acquisition; Evoked potentials; Frequency trajectory; Spatio-temporal segmentation; Spoken picture naming; Written picture naming