Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

Sec. Cognitive Neuroscience

Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1647925

Tracking novel visual word learning via different methods with an original FPVS-EEG approach

Provisionally accepted
  • Universite du Luxembourg Institute of Cognitive Science and Assessment, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Reading is a crucial human skill and learning novel written word forms is a life-long process. Here, we tracked the emergence of novel word lexical and neural representations after a training procedure, contrasting two learning methods, in 32 monolingual adults. Half of the novel words were provided with orthographic and phonological information (OP), and half with additional explicit semantic information (OPS). At the neural level, we demonstrate for the first time the sensitivity of EEG recordings with fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) to track novel visual word learning. We used an oddball paradigm, with base stimuli (pseudowords) displayed at 10 Hz with deviant stimuli (words) every fifth item (at 2Hz), in which word-selective responses at 2Hz demonstrate lexical discrimination. While at pre-test, novel words were not discriminated, results show clear word-selective responses over the left occipital-temporal cortex (VOTC) post-learning with both methods. This finding suggests the creation of orthographic representations for novel words and fits with current views that this region is specialized for the rapid recognition and fast learning of novel word forms. Moreover, the behavioral lexical decision data reveal significant increases in reaction times after learning, for novel words’ lexical neighbors, which suggests lexical engagement through competition arising from newly formed representation. Contrary to our expectations, no advantage was found for the OPS method. Instead, results show stronger behavioral and neural changes with the OP method. In the discussion, we highlight possible reasons for this unexpected finding. First, the current implementation of the OPS method displaying simultaneous images and words during learning could have dragged the participant’s attention away from the orthographic form. Second, the speed of presentation of stimuli might have been too fast to allow fast semantic retrieval. Finally, semantic learning might have a different timeframe than word form learning, and the current findings would reflect only the latter. Our results nevertheless highlight the rapid emergence of new word-form representations, captured by the EEG-FPVS approach.

Keywords: EEG-FPVS, word representation, Novel words learning, reading, semantic

Received: 16 Jun 2025; Accepted: 25 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Barillon, Schiltz and Lochy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Amaury Barillon, amaury.barillon@uni.lu

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.