Poster D72, Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 5:15 – 7:00 pm, Restaurant Hall
Print related activation in left superior temporal gyrus predicts future reading outcomes in Chinese beginning readers
Tian Hong1,2, Lan Shuai1, Kaja K. Jasińska1, Stephen J. Frost1, Kenneth R. Pugh1,3, Hua Shu2;1Haskins Laboratories, Yale University, 2State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, 3University of Connecticut, Department of Psychological Sciences
Reading acquisition is a process of building mappings between printed symbols and spoken sounds. However, there has been a debate on the cross-language universality of the role played by print-speech mapping in reading development. In this longitudinal study, we followed a group of young Chinese children for three years from a pre-reading stage (kindergarten, Time 1) to a beginning reading stage (Grade 2, Time 3). During this period, we measured how young Chinese children (7-year-olds) processed print and speech using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) at the end of the first semester of Grade 1. We found that the activation in left superior temporal gyrus (STG) induced by print stimuli had a positive correlation with future’s reading outcomes (Time 3), whereas no significant correlation between speech-related activation and later literacy skill was observed. In addition, the print-related neural activation in the left STG was also correlated with early phonological awareness (PA) score in kindergarten (Time 1). In this Chinese early reading developmental study, we found that the print-related activation in left STG mediated the effect of PA at kindergarten on literacy skill two years later. These findings point to the centrality of automatic print-speech mapping in reading acquisition at the beginning reading stage even in a language with opaque orthography.
Themes: Reading, Development
Method: Functional Imaging