Neurophysiological measures of reading difficulty in very-low-birthweight children

Twenty-four 8-10-year-old children (13 very low birthweight, 11 control) pe rformed a lexical decision and a semantic classification task while event-r elated potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Both groups were within normal rang e on standardized reading tests, but the very-low-birthweight group had low er scores. There were no differences between groups in reaction times or ac curacy for ERP tasks. On analyses of P2a (246 ms anteriorly), P2p (336 ms p osteriorly), N2a (356 ms anteriorly), and N2p (396 ms posteriorly) peaks an d a late positive component, control children showed greater right than lef t asymmetry at P2p and greater left than right asymmetry at N2a. Very-low-b irthweight children showed less asymmetry. For the late positive component, both groups showed greater left than right asymmetry, which was more marke d for the semantic classification task. The results suggest that very-low-b irthweight children display differing cortical utilization during reading.