Jm. Byrne et al., AN INNOVATIVE METHOD TO ASSESS THE RECEPTIVE VOCABULARY OF CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL-PALSY USING EVENT-RELATED BRAIN POTENTIALS, Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section A, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, 17(1), 1995, pp. 9-19
This single-case, multiple-control study illustrates the clinical use
of ERPs as part of the linguistic and cognitive assessment of individu
als who are unable to provide verbal or motor responses due to their m
ultiple handicaps. The single-word receptive vocabulary of a 17-year-o
ld patient with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and three age-matched controls was
measured using an event-related potential (ERP) paradigm. The Peabody
Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) was adapted for computer pre
sentation, with three levels of difficulty (Preschool, Child, Adult).
Individual pictures were presented successively, and correctly (congru
ent) or incorrectly (incongruent) named auditorially. ERP components w
ere derived for both the congruent and incongruent picture-word pairs.
As predicted, the N400 ERP component had a higher peak for the incong
ruent picture-word pairs at the Preschool and Child levels. At the Adu
lt level, the ERP pattern was reversed (higher peak in congruent condi
tion) for the CP patient and for two of the three controls and, it was
substantially attenuated for the third control. These ERP findings in
dicated that picture-word pairs within the range of acquired receptive
vocabulary were identified as correct or incorrect, but picture-word
pairs above an individual's level could not be differentiated as clear
ly. The findings demonstrate the clinical application of this paradigm
to assessing receptive vocabulary in motor- and communication-impaire
d patients.