Does Development Affect the Error-related Negativity of Impaired and Skilled Readers? An ERP Study

Previous findings of reduced error-related and correct-related negativities (ERN/CRN) and semantic N400 responses associated with reading errors among impaired adult readers led to the current study on age effects on these components. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 43 adolescents and 46 adults, including skilled readers and persons with a history of reading disability, on a lexical decision task. Adolescents exhibited smaller ERN amplitudes and larger N400 amplitudes during reading errors, presumably due to the late maturation of the prefrontal cortex. The ERN amplitude difference between impaired and skilled readers was smaller in adolescents than adults, and adolescents exhibited a smaller N400 difference between correct and erroneous responses than adults. ERN amplitude increased with age in impaired readers. It is postulated that the still developing mental lexicon among adolescents results in greater semantic effort and reduced ERN differences.