title: Spatial attention and reading ability: ERP correlates of flanker and cue-size effects in good and poor adult phonological decoders.
abstract: To investigate facilitatory and inhibitory processes during selective attention among adults with good (n=17) and poor (n=14) phonological decoding skills, a go/nogo flanker task was completed while EEG was recorded. Participants responded to a middle target letter flanked by compatible or incompatible flankers. The target was surrounded by a small or large circular cue which was presented simultaneously or 500ms prior. Poor decoders showed a greater RT cost for incompatible stimuli preceded by large cues and less RT benefit for compatible stimuli. Poor decoders also showed reduced modulation of ERPs by cue-size at left hemisphere posterior sites (N1) and by flanker compatibility at right hemisphere posterior sites (N1) and frontal sites (N2), consistent with processing differences in fronto-parietal attention networks. These findings have potential implications for understanding the relationship between spatial attention and phonological decoding in dyslexia.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 30, Hobart, TAS 7000, Australia. Electronic address: Allison.Matthews@utas.edu.au.
authors.forename: Allison Jane
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 30, Hobart, TAS 7000, Australia; School of Psychology, The University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, NSW 2258, Australia.
authors.forename: Frances Heritage
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000503:physiopathology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cue-size effect; Dyslexia; ERPs; Flanker effect; N1; N2; Phonological decoding; Reading; Spatial attention