title: Neural manifestation of cognitive and precognitive mismatch detection in early infancy.
abstract: We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in 2-month-old infants in two different states of alertness: awake and asleep. Syllables varying in vowel duration (long vs short) were presented in an oddball paradigm, known to elicit a mismatch brain response. ERPs of both groups showed a mismatch response reflected in a positivity followed by a frontal negativity. While the positivity was present as a function of the stimulus type (present for long deviants only), the negativity varied as a function of the state of alertness (present for awake infants only). These data indicate a functional separation between precognitive and cognitive aspects of duration mismatch essential for the distinction between long and short vowels during early infancy.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, PO. Box 500 355, 04303 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Angela D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Friederici
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Friedrich
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weber
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D010700:Phonetics; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology