title: N1b and Na subcomponents of the N100 long latency auditory evoked-potential: neurophysiological correlates of voicing in French-speaking subjects.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To look for the presence of neurophysiological correlates of language-general voicing boundaries in French by analyzing the morphology of two N100 subcomponents (N1b and T-complex).
  
  
  METHODS
  /d/ and/t/ syllables with a voice onset time (VOT) value varying evenly from -75 and +75 ms were presented to French-speaking adults as stimuli for scalp-recorded auditory evoked-potentials. Morphologies and peak latencies of N1b and T-complex subcomponents were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Na subcomponent of the T-complex was double-peaked for VOT values below -30 ms and above +30 ms. N1b subcomponent revealed a double-peaked response above +30 ms VOT and a single-peaked response for all other VOT values. Whenever the response was double-peaked, there was a correlation between the VOT value and the N1b or Na supplementary peak latency.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The combined morphologies of N1b and Na yield clear neurophysiological correlates of the language-general boundaries. For negative VOT values, the differential behavior of N1b and Na subcomponents suggests that only Na possesses physiological properties indexing the two language-general boundaries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Rather than being lost, the universal sensitivity of human newborns to language-general boundaries remains present even if in some languages such as French, they do not separate phonological categories.
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. ihoonhor@ulb.ac.be
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hoonhorst
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Serniclaes
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Collet
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Colin
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Markessis
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Radeau
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Deltenre