AI Article Synopsis
- Silent reading generates verbal content without vocalization, raising the question of how this content is processed in the brain.
- Researchers analyzed eye movements, sound, and lip movements while participants silently read rare combinations of consonants and vowels (CCVs).
- Findings revealed that the length of initial fixations on these CCVs during silent reading is related to the physical effort needed to pronounce them, suggesting that a speech motor code plays a role in recognizing complex text during silent reading.
Article Abstract
Silent reading is a cognitive operation that produces verbal content with no vocal output. One relevant question is the extent to which this verbal content is processed as overt speech in the brain. To address this, we acquired sound, eye trajectories and lips' dynamics during the reading of consonant-consonant-vowel (CCV) combinations which are infrequent in the language. We found that the duration of the first fixations on the CCVs during silent reading correlate with the duration of the transitions between consonants when the CCVs are actually uttered. With the aid of an articulatory model of the vocal system, we show that transitions measure the articulatory effort required to produce the CCVs. This means that first fixations during silent reading are lengthened when the CCVs require a greater laryngeal and/or articulatory effort to be pronounced. Our results support that a speech motor code is used for the recognition of infrequent text strings during silent reading.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7052247 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-59199-6 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
The PSR corpus: A Persian sentence reading corpus of eye movements.
Behav Res Methods
December 2024
Centre for Cognitive Science, Jagiellonian University, Ul. Ingardena 3, 304, 30-060, Kraków, Poland.
The present study introduces the Persian Sentence Reading (PSR) Corpus, aiming to expand empirical data for Persian, an under-investigated language in research on oculomotor control in reading. Reading research has largely focused on Latin script languages with a left-to-right reading direction. However, languages with different reading directions, such as right-to-left and top-to-bottom, and particularly Persian script-based languages like Farsi and Dari, have remained understudied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInteractive and additive effects of word frequency and predictability: A fixation-related fMRI study.
Brain Lang
January 2025
Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.
The effects of word frequency and predictability are informative with respect to bottom-up and top-down mechanisms during reading. Word frequency is assumed to index bottom-up, whereas word predictability top-down information. Findings regarding potential interactive effects, however, are inconclusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExamining the Neural Markers of Speech Rhythm in Silent Reading Using Mass Univariate Statistics of EEG Single Trials.
Brain Sci
November 2024
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Literacy Studies, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA.
Article Synopsis
- The Implicit Prosody Hypothesis (IPH) suggests that people create internal vocal patterns while reading silently, similar to those used in spoken language.
- The study used EEG to analyze brain responses as participants read sequences of words with different stress patterns, revealing that unexpected stress in words triggered stronger brain reactions.
- Results indicated that various brain wave activities correlate with rhythmic expectations in language, supporting the idea that the same neural networks are involved in processing both spoken and silently read language.
Embodied Semantics: Early Simultaneous Motor Grounding in First and Second Languages.
Brain Sci
October 2024
Department of Neuroscience and Movement Science, Faculty of Science and Medicine, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.
Background/objectives: Although the embodiment of action-related language is well-established in the mother tongue (L1), less is known about the embodiment of a second language (L2) acquired later in life through formal instruction. We used the high temporal resolution of ERPs and topographic ERP analyses to compare embodiment in L1 and L2 and to investigate whether L1 and L2 are embodied with different strengths at different stages of linguistic processing.
Methods: Subjects were presented with action-related and non-action-related verbs in a silent reading task.
Metalinguistic and Reading Skills in a Sample of Colombian Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Children (Basel)
October 2024
Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30458, USA.
This study aimed to examine metalinguistic skills and reading processes in children diagnosed with ADHD, compared to a matched control group. An explanatory experimental design was employed, involving a sample of 194 children from Manizales, comprising 97 children diagnosed with ADHD and 97 controls. The study utilized tasks from the Children's Neuropsychological Assessment (CNA) protocol to assess metalinguistic and reading abilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!