Experience-dependent Changes in the Visual Processing of Letters: Evidence from Electroencephalography Decoding.

ABSTRACT: Learning to read involves the formation and tuning of letter representations, but it is unknown whether this orthographic tuning influences very early visual processing or only later processing. This study tested the hypothesis that experience increases the extraction of sensory information about letters by comparing the EEG activity elicited by upright and inverted letters. In a set of conventional univariate analyses, we found that inverted letters elicited larger P1 amplitudes (starting ca. 110 msec) and larger N170 amplitudes (starting ca. 160 msec) compared with upright letters. These larger amplitudes could reflect enhanced processing, but they might instead reflect degraded processing. We therefore performed multivariate pattern classification (decoding) to assess the amount of info

SUBMITTER: Winsler K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12462889 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature