Influence of language structure on brain-behavior development.
Lack of exposure to specific sensory patterns during critical periods of development can result in a lack of responsiveness to those stimuli in adulthood. The present study extends these observations to native speakers of Japanese, a language which does not contain the contrastive /r/ and /l/ sounds present in English. Both electrophysiological (P3 event-related evoked potential) and behavioral results indicate deficient or absent discrimination of /r/ versus /l/ sounds in Japanese adults compared to native speakers of English. Thus, language structure appears to provide a subtle yet measurable effect on specific aspects of brain development and function.
Buchwald
J S
JS
Department of Physiology, UCLA School of Medicine.
Guthrie
D
D
Schwafel
J
J
Erwin
R J
RJ
Van Lancker
D
D
D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003423:Critical Period, Psychological; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*