Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
Brain Imaging Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
Exp Brain Res. 2022 Jun;240(6):1775-1790. doi: 10.1007/s00221-022-06369-9. Epub 2022 May 4.
A consistent relationship has been found between rhythmic processing and reading skills. Impairment of the ability to entrain movements to an auditory rhythm in clinical populations with language-related deficits, such as children with developmental dyslexia, has been found in both behavioral and neural studies. In this study, we explored the relationship between rhythmic entrainment, behavioral synchronization, reading fluency, and reading comprehension in neurotypical English- and Mandarin-speaking adults. First, we examined entrainment stability by asking participants to coordinate taps with an auditory metronome in which unpredictable perturbations were introduced to disrupt entrainment. Next, we assessed behavioral synchronization by asking participants to coordinate taps with the syllables they produced while reading sentences as naturally as possible (tap to syllable task). Finally, we measured reading fluency and reading comprehension for native English and native Mandarin speakers. Stability of entrainment correlated strongly with tap to syllable task performance and with reading fluency, and both findings generalized across English and Mandarin speakers.
在具有语言相关缺陷的临床人群（例如，发展性阅读障碍儿童）中，人们已经发现节奏处理与阅读技能之间存在一致的关系。在行为和神经研究中都发现，与节奏同步的能力会受损，这些人无法跟随听觉节奏进行运动。在这项研究中，我们探索了节奏同步、行为同步、阅读流畅度和阅读理解之间的关系，研究对象是英语和普通话为母语的神经正常成年人。首先，我们通过让参与者在有不可预测的干扰来破坏同步的听觉节拍器中协调敲击来检查同步稳定性。接下来，我们通过让参与者在尽可能自然地阅读句子时用他们发出的音节来协调敲击（敲击到音节任务）来评估行为同步。最后，我们测量了以英语和普通话为母语的人的阅读流畅度和阅读理解能力。同步的稳定性与敲击到音节任务的表现以及阅读流畅度密切相关，这两个发现都适用于英语和普通话使用者。
