dc.description.abstract | The Visual Word Form Area is a portion of the occipitotemporal cortex which has been shown to respond specifically to visually presented words, leading to it being implicated as a significant region in the process of reading. The VWFA seems to display a great deal of plasticity, as the ability to read has been proposed to be based on a functional reorganization of this area during the process of learning to read and becoming attenuated to language specific word-formation regularities. The effect of familiarity with an orthographic system and the way in which it modulates the N170 ERP response originating in the Visual Word-Form Area is still largely uncertain. Previous research by Maurer et al. (2008) has demonstrated a left-lateralization for familiar orthographies which is absent in novel orthographies which tend to demonstrate either a lack of lateralization in this response, or a slight right-lateralization. Based on Maurer et al. (2008), we have conducted a study which built upon their approach but adjusted their methodology and stimuli in several ways. Firstly, a single experiment was designed, including all 3 language conditions of interest: English, Japanese Hiragana, and a non-linguistic symbol set. The experiment was further randomized across all three conditions rather than presented in block format. This allowed for the direct comparison of language conditions for participants within the same experiment, allowing comparisons across conditions tested within the same experimental context with the same participants. In addition, our study included tighter controls for word length, bigram frequency, character size and spacing to further ensure the veracity of our data. Our results confirm the left-lateralization observed for familiar language conditions, but also demonstrate an amplitude modulation of the N170 response for familiarity, in which novel orthographies create a more negative response than familiar orthographies in the N170 time window. This pattern was later reversed in subsequent time windows as lexical processes were engaged, prompting a much more negative response for familiar orthographic conditions over novel ones. This indicates that the amplitude of the N170 response is directly affected by experience with orthographic systems. | |