P200 can be modulated by orthography alone in reading Chinese words

The present study examined the relation between the event-related potential component P200 and orthographic processing in reading Chinese words. Participants performed a semantic judgment task on pairs of words (prime–target pairs) presented sequentially and the P200 elicited by the second target word was examined and compared across different prime conditions. The critical pairs were single characters similar in orthography but unrelated in phonology or semantics. Results showed that for both integrated and composite characters, visually similar primes led to reduced P200 than control primes and the effect was larger for composite characters than integrated characters. The study presented clear evidence that P200 is sensitive to orthographic similarity and can be modulated by orthography alone in reading Chinese word.

► Prime–probe Chinese character pairs were presented in sequence for meaning decision.
► Primes visually similar to the probe led to reduced P200 response to the probe than control primes.
► P200 effect was more salient for visually similar composite characters than integrated characters.
► P200 can be modulated by orthographic processing alone.