Lateralized frontal activity for Japanese phonological processing during child development.

ABSTRACT: Phonological awareness is essential for reading, and is common to all language systems, including alphabetic languages and Japanese. This cognitive factor develops during childhood, and is thought to be associated with shifts in brain activity. However, the nature of this neurobiological developmental shift is unclear for speakers of Japanese, which is not an alphabetical language. The present study aimed to reveal a shift in brain functions for processing phonological information in native-born Japanese children. We conducted a phonological awareness task and examined hemodynamic activity in 103 children aged 7-12 years. While younger children made mistakes and needed more time to sort phonological information in reverse order, older children completed the task quickly and accurately. Add

SUBMITTER: Goto T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4505106 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature