The N400 component in parents of children with specific language impairment

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) often have a family histor y of language disorder. In this study, ERPs in response to a visual semanti c priming task were recorded in parents of children with SLI. Despite equal performance, the ERPs displayed differences in language processing: larger N400 amplitudes indicated that the parents, especially the fathers, were l ess primed by the preceding context. Difference waveforms showed that the f athers of SLI children, contrary to controls, had less differentiated respo nses to congruent versus incongruent sentences. We propose that the N400 ob servations may be residual markers of past language deficiencies in the fat hers. No differences in the N400 effect were found in the mothers of SLI ch ildren. (C) 2001 Academic Press.