Department of Psychology & Centre for Brain Science, University of Essex, UK.
Brain Lang. 2013 Dec;127(3):345-55. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2012.12.010. Epub 2013 Feb 8.
The current study examines the neural correlates of 8-to-12-year-old children and adults producing inflected word forms, specifically regular vs. irregular past-tense forms in English, using a silent production paradigm. ERPs were time-locked to a visual cue for silent production of either a regular or irregular past-tense form or a 3rd person singular present tense form of a given verb (e.g., walked/sang vs. walks/sings). Subsequently, another visual stimulus cued participants for an overt vocalization of their response. ERP results for the adult group revealed a negativity 300-450ms after the silent-production cue for regular compared to irregular past-tense forms. There was no difference in the present form condition. Children's brain potentials revealed developmental changes, with the older children demonstrating more adult-like ERP responses than the younger ones. We interpret the observed ERP responses as reflecting combinatorial processing involved in regular (but not irregular) past-tense formation.
本研究使用静默产生范式，考察了 8 至 12 岁儿童和成人产生屈折词形式（特别是英语中的规则过去式与不规则过去式）的神经相关性。事件相关电位（ERP）与视觉提示同步，提示参与者进行静默产生规则过去式或不规则过去式或给定动词的第三人称单数现在式（例如，walked/sang 与 walks/sings）。随后，另一个视觉刺激提示参与者口头表达他们的反应。成人组的 ERP 结果显示，与不规则过去式相比，在静默产生提示后 300-450 毫秒出现了对规则过去式的负向波。在现在式条件下没有差异。儿童的脑电位显示出发育变化，年龄较大的儿童表现出比年龄较小的儿童更接近成人的 ERP 反应。我们将观察到的 ERP 反应解释为反映了规则（而非不规则）过去式形成中涉及的组合加工。
