Neural correlates of orthographic and phonological consistency effects in children
Open Access
- 23 October 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Human Brain Mapping
- Vol. 29 (12), 1416-1429
- https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.20476
Abstract
The objective of this study was to examine the neural correlates of phonological inconsistency (relationship of spelling to sound) and orthographic inconsistency (relationship of sound to spelling) in visual word processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Children (9‐ to 15‐year‐old) performed a rhyming and spelling task in which two words were presented sequentially in the visual modality. Consistent with previous studies in adults, higher phonological inconsistency was associated with greater activation in several regions including left inferior frontal gyrus and medial frontal gyrus/anterior cingulate cortex. We additionally demonstrated an effect of orthographic inconsistency in these same areas, suggesting that these regions are involved in the integration of orthographic and phonological information and, with respect to the medial frontal/anterior cingulate, greater demands on executive function. Higher phonological and orthographic consistency was associated with greater activation in precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex, the putative steady state system active during resting, suggesting lower demands on cognitive resources for consistent items. Both consistency effects were larger for the rhyming compared with the spelling task suggesting greater demands of integrating spelling and sound in the former task. Finally, accuracy on the rhyming task was negatively correlated with the consistency effect in left fusiform gyrus. In particular, this region showed insensitivity to consistency in low performers, sensitivity to inconsistency (higher activity) in moderate performers, and sensitivity to inconsistency (high activation) and to consistency (deactivation). In general, these results show that the influence of spelling–sound (and sound–spelling) correspondences on processing in fusiform gyrus develops as a function of skill. Hum Brain Mapp, 2008.Keywords
This publication has 52 references indexed in Scilit:
- Anticipatory conditioning of spelling-to-sound translationJournal of Memory and Language, 2007
- Weaker top–down modulation from the left inferior frontal gyrus in childrenNeuroImage, 2006
- Semantic relevance explains category effects in medial fusiform gyriNeuroImage, 2006
- Automatic Priming of Semantically Related Words Reduces Activity in the Fusiform GyrusJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2005
- fMRI evidence for the automatic phonological activation of briefly presented wordsCognitive Brain Research, 2004
- The neural correlates of consciousness: an analysis of cognitive skill learningPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 1998
- The Feedback Consistency Effect in Lexical Decision and NamingJournal of Memory and Language, 1997
- Practice-related Changes in Human Brain Functional Anatomy during Nonmotor LearningCerebral Cortex, 1994
- The Abstraction and Recognition of Prototypes by Children and AdultsChild Development, 1982
- The influence of orthography on readers' conceptualization of the phonemic structure of wordsApplied Psycholinguistics, 1980