Abstract
ABSTRACT Neural entrainment to the low-frequency modulations of speech might contribute significantly to reading acquisition. Still, no previous study has actually attempted to establish a longitudinal link between them. The present study tested Basque-speaking children twice: once before reading was formally instructed (t 1; 5–6 years old) and once after they had received a full school year of reading instruction (t 2; 6–7 years old). At t 1, speech-brain coherence was recorded via EEG. At t 2, in addition to the coherence measure, reading performance was assessed. Our results show that children with larger pre-reading delta-band (<1 Hz) speech-brain coherence at right sites of the scalp performed better in the reading tasks one year later. Overall, our results provide preliminary support for a relevant contribution of right-hemisphere speech-brain coherence to successful reading development and point towards pre-reading neural coherence indexes as useful tools for the early detection of developmental reading disorders.
Highlights
IntroductionAlong the last two decades, neural oscillations have been ascribed an increasing number of functions for language processing, from the sheer segmentation of syllables in the speech stream to higher linguistic functions such as syntactic computations (Meyer, 2018)
Along the last two decades, neural oscillations have been ascribed an increasing number of functions for language processing, from the sheer segmentation of syllables in the speech stream to higher linguistic functions such as syntactic computations (Meyer, 2018). Hypotheses such as the asymmetric sampling in time (AST) (Boemio et al, 2005; Poeppel, 2003; Poeppel et al, 2008) have proposed that the functional difference of neural oscillations at distinct frequencies is coded in cerebral asymmetries, such that the right hemisphere synchronises preferably to amplitude modulations at the syllable rate (∼4 Hz; theta band), whereas phonemic modulations (∼30 Hz) would be preferentially processed in the left hemisphere or bilaterally
The aim of this study was to establish a longitudinal relation between reading acquisition and neural oscillations responding to natural speech at low delta frequencies (< 1 Hz)
Summary
Along the last two decades, neural oscillations have been ascribed an increasing number of functions for language processing, from the sheer segmentation of syllables in the speech stream to higher linguistic functions such as syntactic computations (Meyer, 2018) Hypotheses such as the asymmetric sampling in time (AST) (Boemio et al, 2005; Poeppel, 2003; Poeppel et al, 2008) have proposed that the functional difference of neural oscillations at distinct frequencies is coded in cerebral asymmetries, such that the right hemisphere synchronises preferably to amplitude modulations at the syllable rate (∼4 Hz; theta band), whereas phonemic modulations (∼30 Hz) would be preferentially processed in the left hemisphere or bilaterally. Speech-brain coherence occurred only in the delta band frequency (
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