Audiovisual integration for speech during mid-childhood: electrophysiological evidence

Previous studies have demonstrated that the presence of visual speech cues reduces the amplitude and latency of the N1 and P2 event-related potential (ERP) components elicited by speech stimuli. However, the developmental trajectory of this effect is not yet fully mapped. We examined ERP responses to auditory, visual, and audiovisual speech in two groups of school-age children (7-8-year-olds and 10-11-year-olds) and in adults. Audiovisual speech led to the attenuation of the N1 and P2 components in all groups of participants, suggesting that the neural mechanisms underlying these effects are functional by early school years. Additionally, while the reduction in N1 was largest over the right scalp, the P2 attenuation was largest over the left and midline scalp. The difference in the hemispheric distribution of the N1 and P2 attenuation supports the idea that these components index at least somewhat disparate neural processes within the context of audiovisual speech perception.