Event-related potentials in Chinese characters semantic priming and arithmetic tasks:comparative study between healthy children and children with cognitive disorder

Objective To explore the cognitive psychological process of healthy children and children with cognitive disorder.Methods Single Chinese character semantic priming and arithmetic tasks were delivered to 20 8-year-old healthy children,and 20 11-year-old healthy children,and 30 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,23 children with epilepsy,and 22 age-matched normal children as controls.Electroencephalography was used.Event-related potential was distilled by BESA software.Results ①During the Chinese character semantic priming,the amplitudes of N2 toward the non-related words and pseud-words in the 8-year-old group were 12.1 μV and 11.7 μV respectively,both significantly larger than those of the 11-year-old group (3.7 μV and 4.8 μV,respectively,both P0.05).The amplitudes of N2 and P2 toward the non-related words and pseud-words among the children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were both significantly lower than those in the healthy children (both P0.05).②During the arithmetic task,the latency values of P2 and P3 of addition,subtraction,and multiplication in the 8-year-old group of healthy children were all significantly longer than those of the 11-year-old group of healthy children (all P0.05).The P3 latency of the children with epilepsy was significantly longer than that of the healthy children (P0.05).Conclusion Chinese character and arithmetic cognitive waves are steady.ERP can be used to estimate the healthy children's impersonality index.Quantitative indicators are helpful in diagnosis and treatment of cognitive and learning disorders.