Research › Learning & Development
Reading aloud: A psychophysiological investigation in children
STS Instructor Authored by Giuseppe A. Chiarenza
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Study at a glance
- Area
- Learning & Development
- Study type
- Observational study
- Authors
- Chiarenza GA, Olgiati P, Trevisan C, De Marchi I, Casarotto S
- Journal
- Neuropsychologia
- Year
- 2013
- Participants
- 65 healthy children (6–13 years)
- Population
- Children, Adolescents
- Protocol
- reading-related potentials to single letters (covert vs overt, automatic vs self-paced) with EMG
Key findings
- Reading-related potentials were split into preparatory, pre-lexical, lexical and post-lexical stages
- Stages were tied to preparation, visual processing, sensory feedback from speaking and post-task evaluation
- Responses varied significantly with electrode location and task in all stages
- Provides a normal reference for later study of impaired readers
DOI 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.11.030 → PubMed 23211993 →
Healthy children were shown single Italian letters very briefly, either at random times or when they pressed a button themselves, and either just looked at them or read them aloud, while brain potentials and forearm and lip muscle activity were recorded. Lining up the brain responses with the muscle activity during self-paced reading aloud let the researchers divide the response into four stages: getting ready to read, early visual processing, the reading act itself, and feedback after finishing. Brain responses differed by electrode site and task in every stage, and the authors see this as groundwork for brain-based models and therapies for dyslexia.