Rapid acquisition of novel written word-forms: ERP evidence
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Bermúdez‑Margaretto et al. Behav Brain Funct (2020) 16:11 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12993-020-00173-7
Open Access
RESEARCH
Rapid acquisition of novel written word‑forms: ERP evidence Beatriz Bermúdez‑Margaretto1* , Yury Shtyrov1,2, David Beltrán3, Fernando Cuetos4 and Alberto Domínguez3
Abstract Background: Novel word acquisition is generally believed to be a rapid process, essential for ensuring a flexible and efficient communication system; at least in spoken language, learners are able to construct memory traces for new linguistic stimuli after just a few exposures. However, such rapid word learning has not been systematically found in visual domain, with different confounding factors obscuring the orthographic learning of novel words. This study explored the changes in human brain activity occurring online, during a brief training with novel written word-forms using a silent reading task Results: Single-trial, cluster-based random permutation analysis revealed that training caused an extremely fast (after just one repetition) and stable facilitation in novel word processing, reflected in the modulation of P200 and N400 components, possibly indicating rapid dynamics at early and late stages of the lexical processing. Furthermore, neural source estimation of these effects revealed the recruitment of brain areas involved in orthographic and lexico-seman‑ tic processing, respectively. Conclusions: These results suggest the formation of neural memory traces for novel written word-forms after a mini‑ mal exposure to them even in the absence of a semantic reference, resembling the rapid learning processes known to occur in spoken language. Keywords: Word learning, ERP methodology, Cluster-based random permutation analysis, N400, P200 Background Human brain possesses an impressive ability to learn novel vocabulary, not only during the first years of life when language development is taking off but also in adulthood, when learning a foreign language or acquiring new terms in the native one. Moreover, this capability of learning new vocabulary is highly efficient, as the acquisition and representation of novel words1 unfolds in a particularly fast and accurate fashion. Thus, in spoken 1
By novel words we understand linguistic stimuli never experienced before and hence unknown, with no information stored about either their auditory/ visual form or meaning yet.
*Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
language domain, extensive behavioral research has consistently proven the acquisition of new vocabulary as a very fast process, with learning outcomes obtained after relatively short training periods, in some cases involving just a few exposures [22, 26, 27, 33, 42, 44, 45, 51, 66, 105]. Indeed, this process was referred to as fast mapping in early developmental studies, in
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