Does silent reading speed in normal adult readers depend on early visual processes? Evidence from event-related brain potentials

Little is known about the relationship of reading speed and early visual processes in normal readers. Here we examined the association of the early P1, N170 and late N1 component in visual event-related potentials (ERPs) with silent reading speed and a number of additional cognitive skills in a sample of 52 adult German readers utilizing a Lexical Decision Task (LDT) and a Face Decision Task (FDT). Amplitudes of the N170 component in the LDT but, interestingly, also in the FDT correlated with behavioral tests measuring silent reading speed. We suggest that reading speed performance can be at least partially accounted for by the extraction of essential structural information from visual stimuli, consisting of a domain-general and a domain-specific expertise-based portion.

► We examined the association of silent reading speed with visual ERPs.
► Higher amplitudes of the N170 component to words were found for faster readers.
► Faster readers exhibited also higher N170 amplitudes to faces.
► The N170 seems to reflect extraction of structural information from visual stimuli.
► Silent reading speed depends on good visual structure-extraction capabilities.