Abstract
This study investigated the neural basis of letter and speech sound (LS) integration in 53 typical readers (35 girls, all White) during the first 2 years of reading education (ages 7–9). Changes in both sensory (multisensory vs unisensory) and linguistic (congruent vs incongruent) aspects of LS integration were examined. The left superior temporal cortex and bilateral inferior frontal cortex showed increasing activation for multisensory over unisensory LS over time, driven by reduced activation to speech sounds. No changes were noted in the congruency effect. However, at age nine, heightened activation to incongruent over congruent LS pairs were observed, correlating with individual differences in reading development. This suggests that the incongruency effect evolves at varying rates depending on reading skills.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | e236-e252 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Child Development |
| Volume | 95 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 23 Feb 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Empirical article-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.
Funding
We would like to thank all the families that participated in the current study. This work was funded by the National Science Centre grants (2011/03/D/HS6/05584 and 2018/31/N/HS6/01109). The project was realized with the aid of CePT research infrastructure purchased with funds from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the Innovative Economy Operational Programme, 2007\u20132013. This work was funded by Polish National Science Centre grants: 2011/03/D/HS6/05584\u2014PI Katarzyna Jednor\u00F3g and 2018/31/N/HS6/01109\u2014PI Joanna Beck.