Electroencephalographic activities during reading tasks in young adults : separate measures for localized and widespread brain functions

Based on these reports, we expected to find: 1) a frontal increase in 4-8 Hz amplitude during reading tasks as compared with a resting baseline, as affected by working memory mechanisms; 2) a bilateral decrease of 8-10 Hz (as compared with baseline) as affected by arousal and attentional processes; 3) a unilateral decrease of 8-12 Hz in the left hemisphere due to cognitive effort, as affected by the symbolic and analytic decoding nature of reading to which this latter band would selectively react; and 4)an increase of the 38-42 Hz activity, as affected by scanning and problem solving functions of reading. No prediction was made for the 0.5-4 Hz,12-21 Hz, and 21-32 Hz bands.