The effects of visual material and temporal synchrony on the processing of letters and speech sounds. 2011

Maria Mittag, and Rika Takegata, and Teija Kujala
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. maria.mittag@helsinki.fi

Associating letters with speech sounds is essential for reading skill acquisition. In the current study, we aimed at determining the effects of different types of visual material and temporal synchrony on the integration of letters and speech sounds. To this end, we recorded the mismatch negativity (MMN), an index of automatic change detection in the brain, from literate adults. Subjects were presented with auditory consonant-vowel syllable stimuli together with visual stimuli, which were either written syllables or scrambled pictures of the written syllables. The visual stimuli were presented in half of the blocks synchronously with the auditory stimuli and in the other half 200 ms before the auditory stimuli. The auditory stimuli were consonant, vowel or vowel length changes, or changes in syllable frequency or intensity presented by using the multi-feature paradigm. Changes in the auditory stimuli elicited MMNs in all conditions. MMN amplitudes for the consonant and frequency changes were generally larger for the sounds presented with written syllables than with scrambled syllables. Time delay diminished the MMN amplitude for all deviants. The results suggest that speech sound processing is modulated when the sounds are presented with letters versus non-linguistic visual stimuli, and further, that the integration of letters and speech sounds seems to be dependent on precise temporal alignment. Moreover, the results indicate that with our paradigm, a variety of parameters relevant and irrelevant for reading can be tested within one experiment.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D010700 Phonetics The science or study of speech sounds and their production, transmission, and reception, and their analysis, classification, and transcription. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed) Speech Sounds,Sound, Speech,Sounds, Speech,Speech Sound
D010775 Photic Stimulation Investigative technique commonly used during ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY in which a series of bright light flashes or visual patterns are used to elicit brain activity. Stimulation, Photic,Visual Stimulation,Photic Stimulations,Stimulation, Visual,Stimulations, Photic,Stimulations, Visual,Visual Stimulations
D011932 Reading Acquiring information from text.
D005072 Evoked Potentials, Auditory The electric response evoked in the CEREBRAL CORTEX by ACOUSTIC STIMULATION or stimulation of the AUDITORY PATHWAYS. Auditory Evoked Potentials,Auditory Evoked Response,Auditory Evoked Potential,Auditory Evoked Responses,Evoked Potential, Auditory,Evoked Response, Auditory,Evoked Responses, Auditory,Potentials, Auditory Evoked
D005074 Evoked Potentials, Visual The electric response evoked in the cerebral cortex by visual stimulation or stimulation of the visual pathways. Visual Evoked Response,Evoked Potential, Visual,Evoked Response, Visual,Evoked Responses, Visual,Potential, Visual Evoked,Potentials, Visual Evoked,Response, Visual Evoked,Responses, Visual Evoked,Visual Evoked Potential,Visual Evoked Potentials,Visual Evoked Responses
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000161 Acoustic Stimulation Use of sound to elicit a response in the nervous system. Auditory Stimulation,Stimulation, Acoustic,Stimulation, Auditory
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults

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