Right-hemisphere coherence to speech at pre-reading stages predicts reading performance one year later
The hypothesis that neural entrainment to the low-frequency modulations of speech contributes significantly to reading acquisition receives increasing support in the literature. Still, no previous study has actually attempted to establish a longitudinal link between them. The present study tested Basque-speaking children twice: once before reading was formally instructed (t1; 5-6 years old) and once after they had received a full school year of reading instruction (t2; 6-7 years old). At t1, speech-brain coherence was recorded via EEG. At t2, in addition to the coherence measure, reading performance was assessed. Our results show that children with larger pre-reading delta-band (< 1 Hz) speech-brain coherence at right sites of the scalp performed better in the reading tasks one year later. Moreover, the increase in coherence from pre-reading into reading stages tended to correlate negatively with reading outcome. The latter result, though statistically weak, suggests that reading instruction might lead to the recruitment of less delta tracking resources. Overall, our results provide preliminary support for a relevant contribution of right-hemisphere speech-brain coherence to successful reading development and point towards pre-reading neural coherence indexes as useful tools for the early detection of developmental reading disorders.