Background: Zapotec is a language used mainly in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico of tonal characteristic; homophone words with difference in fundamental frequency with different meanings. Our objective was to analyze changes in the electroencephalographic (EEG) theta rhythm during word discrimination of lexical tonal bi-syllabic homophone word samples of Zapotec.
Methods: We employed electroencephalography analysis during lexical tonal discrimination in 12 healthy subjects 9-16 years of age.
Results: We observed an increase in theta relative power between lexical discrimination and at rest eyes-open state in right temporal site. We also observed several significant intra- and inter-hemispheric correlations in several scalp sites, mainly in left fronto-temporal and right temporal areas when subjects were performing lexical discrimination.
Conclusions: Our data suggest more engagement of neural networks of the right hemisphere are involved in Zapotec language discrimination.
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