The Level of Passive Voice Comprehension in the 4–5 Years Old Russian Children Reflects in the ERP’s

Passive Voice Comprehension during Thematic-Role Assignment in Russian-Speaking Children Aged 4–6 Is Reflected in the Sensitivity of ERP to Noun Inflections

“…The higher ERP amplitude for PV could be related to the subjective complexity of the task and increased demands on brain resources [ 75 ]. Data obtained are confirmed by our results on adults and children four-to-five years old with different levels of passive voice comprehension [ 62 ], where we demonstrated ERP sensitivity of the frontocentral and temporoparietal cortical areas bilaterally to the grammatical markers of the voice. At the same time, the sensitivity of the left temporoparietal cortex was manifested only in those who were successful in passive voice comprehension—in adults and children with a high (over 80%) level of correct thematic-role identification [ 62 ].…”

“…Data obtained are confirmed by our results on adults and children four-to-five years old with different levels of passive voice comprehension [ 62 ], where we demonstrated ERP sensitivity of the frontocentral and temporoparietal cortical areas bilaterally to the grammatical markers of the voice. At the same time, the sensitivity of the left temporoparietal cortex was manifested only in those who were successful in passive voice comprehension—in adults and children with a high (over 80%) level of correct thematic-role identification [ 62 ]. The specific role of the left temporal cortex in syntax processing was shown for the anterior portion of the left superior temporal gyrus (left aSTG) as being involved in syntactic processing at the phrase level [ 41 , 42 ], and the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) as being involved in sentence comprehension in three-to-six-year-olds [ 59 ].…”

“…The differentiation of temporal and parietal areas in semantics and syntax analyses occurs with the increasing influence of frontal cortical areas in syntax analysis [ 40 ]. The improvement of grammar skills at this age is reflected in a gradual switch to P600 mechanisms in sentence analysis [ 62 ]. In this study, only six-year-olds begin to show differences between AV and PV on the P600 component.…”

“…ERP results of six out of 13 four-year-old’s. and 11 out of 14 five-year-old’s were averaged in a previous study in the mixed four to five year old group of children with high (>80%) comprehension level of thematic roles assignment [ 62 ].…”

“…As a first step, we studied adults and children of four to five years of age that were distinguished by their comprehension of the passive voice: high (>80%) and low (40–60%) levels of comprehension [ 62 ]. In both adults and children with a high level of correct thematic role assignment in PV (>80%), cerebral sensitivity to syntactic markers of grammar voice (distinctive morphemes: inflections or suffixes) was shown.…”