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Theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception

The development of speech perception shows a dramatic transition between infancy and adulthood. Between 6 and 12 months, infants' initial ability to discriminate all phonetic units across the world's languages narrows—native discrimination increases while non-native discrimination shows a...

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Autores principales: Bosseler, Alexis N., Taulu, Samu, Pihko, Elina, Mäkelä, Jyrki P., Imada, Toshiaki, Ahonen, Antti, Kuhl, Patricia K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3795304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24130536
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00690
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author Bosseler, Alexis N.
Taulu, Samu
Pihko, Elina
Mäkelä, Jyrki P.
Imada, Toshiaki
Ahonen, Antti
Kuhl, Patricia K.
author_facet Bosseler, Alexis N.
Taulu, Samu
Pihko, Elina
Mäkelä, Jyrki P.
Imada, Toshiaki
Ahonen, Antti
Kuhl, Patricia K.
author_sort Bosseler, Alexis N.
collection PubMed
description The development of speech perception shows a dramatic transition between infancy and adulthood. Between 6 and 12 months, infants' initial ability to discriminate all phonetic units across the world's languages narrows—native discrimination increases while non-native discrimination shows a steep decline. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine whether brain oscillations in the theta band (4–8 Hz), reflecting increases in attention and cognitive effort, would provide a neural measure of the perceptual narrowing phenomenon in speech. Using an oddball paradigm, we varied speech stimuli in two dimensions, stimulus frequency (frequent vs. infrequent) and language (native vs. non-native speech syllables) and tested 6-month-old infants, 12-month-old infants, and adults. We hypothesized that 6-month-old infants would show increased relative theta power (RTP) for frequent syllables, regardless of their status as native or non-native syllables, reflecting young infants' attention and cognitive effort in response to highly frequent stimuli (“statistical learning”). In adults, we hypothesized increased RTP for non-native stimuli, regardless of their presentation frequency, reflecting increased cognitive effort for non-native phonetic categories. The 12-month-old infants were expected to show a pattern in transition, but one more similar to adults than to 6-month-old infants. The MEG brain rhythm results supported these hypotheses. We suggest that perceptual narrowing in speech perception is governed by an implicit learning process. This learning process involves an implicit shift in attention from frequent events (infants) to learned categories (adults). Theta brain oscillatory activity may provide an index of perceptual narrowing beyond speech, and would offer a test of whether the early speech learning process is governed by domain-general or domain-specific processes.
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spelling pubmed-37953042013-10-15 Theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception Bosseler, Alexis N. Taulu, Samu Pihko, Elina Mäkelä, Jyrki P. Imada, Toshiaki Ahonen, Antti Kuhl, Patricia K. Front Psychol Psychology The development of speech perception shows a dramatic transition between infancy and adulthood. Between 6 and 12 months, infants' initial ability to discriminate all phonetic units across the world's languages narrows—native discrimination increases while non-native discrimination shows a steep decline. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine whether brain oscillations in the theta band (4–8 Hz), reflecting increases in attention and cognitive effort, would provide a neural measure of the perceptual narrowing phenomenon in speech. Using an oddball paradigm, we varied speech stimuli in two dimensions, stimulus frequency (frequent vs. infrequent) and language (native vs. non-native speech syllables) and tested 6-month-old infants, 12-month-old infants, and adults. We hypothesized that 6-month-old infants would show increased relative theta power (RTP) for frequent syllables, regardless of their status as native or non-native syllables, reflecting young infants' attention and cognitive effort in response to highly frequent stimuli (“statistical learning”). In adults, we hypothesized increased RTP for non-native stimuli, regardless of their presentation frequency, reflecting increased cognitive effort for non-native phonetic categories. The 12-month-old infants were expected to show a pattern in transition, but one more similar to adults than to 6-month-old infants. The MEG brain rhythm results supported these hypotheses. We suggest that perceptual narrowing in speech perception is governed by an implicit learning process. This learning process involves an implicit shift in attention from frequent events (infants) to learned categories (adults). Theta brain oscillatory activity may provide an index of perceptual narrowing beyond speech, and would offer a test of whether the early speech learning process is governed by domain-general or domain-specific processes. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC3795304/ /pubmed/24130536 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00690 Text en Copyright © 2013 Bosseler, Taulu, Pihko, Mäkelä, Imada, Ahonen and Kuhl. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 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.
spellingShingle Psychology
Bosseler, Alexis N.
Taulu, Samu
Pihko, Elina
Mäkelä, Jyrki P.
Imada, Toshiaki
Ahonen, Antti
Kuhl, Patricia K.
Theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception
title Theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception
title_full Theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception
title_fullStr Theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception
title_full_unstemmed Theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception
title_short Theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception
title_sort theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3795304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24130536
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00690
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