title: Predictive brain signals of linguistic development.
abstract: The ability to extract word forms from continuous speech is a prerequisite for constructing a vocabulary and emerges in the first year of life. Electrophysiological (ERP) studies of speech segmentation by 9- to 12-month-old listeners in several languages have found a left-localized negativity linked to word onset as a marker of word detection. We report an ERP study showing significant evidence of speech segmentation in Dutch-learning 7-month-olds. In contrast to the left-localized negative effect reported with older infants, the observed overall mean effect had a positive polarity. Inspection of individual results revealed two participant sub-groups: a majority showing a positive-going response, and a minority showing the left negativity observed in older age groups. We retested participants at age three, on vocabulary comprehension and word and sentence production. On every test, children who at 7 months had shown the negativity associated with segmentation of words from speech outperformed those who had produced positive-going brain responses to the same input. The earlier that infants show the left-localized brain responses typically indicating detection of words in speech, the better their early childhood language skills.
authors: Food and Biobased Research, Wageningen University and Research Centre Wageningen, Netherlands.
authors: Valesca
authors: V
authors: Kooijman
authors: Caroline
authors: C
authors: Junge
authors: Elizabeth K
authors: EK
authors: Johnson
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Hagoort
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Cutler
keywords: ERPs; brain development; brain polarity; infant speech perception; language skill development; speech segmentation; vocabulary size
references: Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2005 Jun;24(1):109-16
references: 15922163
references: J Cogn Neurosci. 1993 Summer;5(3):317-34
references: 23972220
references: Dev Sci. 2012 Jul;15(4):482-95
references: 22709398
references: Cogn Psychol. 1995 Aug;29(1):1-23
references: 7641524
references: J Cogn Neurosci. 2004 Oct;16(8):1452-64
references: 15509390
references: Dev Sci. 2010 May;13(3):407-420
references: 20443962
references: Dev Sci. 2011 Sep;14(5):1100-6
references: 21884325
references: Dev Sci. 2012 Jul;15(4):463-73
references: 22709396
references: Prog Brain Res. 2011;189:239-57
references: 21489393
references: Brain Res. 2007 Oct 31;1178:106-13
references: 17931604
references: Dev Psychol. 2006 Jul;42(4):643-55
references: 16802897
references: Psychophysiology. 1985 Nov;22(6):642-7
references: 4089090
references: Neuroreport. 2003 Dec 19;14(18):2307-10
references: 14663181
references: Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2004 Jan;18(2):149-61
references: 14736574
references: J Acoust Soc Am. 1995 Mar;97(3):1893-904
references: 7699171
references: Brain Res. 2010 May 21;1332:75-89
references: 20331982
references: Child Dev. 2004 Jul-Aug;75(4):1067-84
references: 15260865
references: Infancy. 2012 Mar;17(2):198-232
references: 32693528
references: Dev Sci. 2005 Mar;8(2):162-72
references: 15720374
references: Cogn Psychol. 1999 Nov-Dec;39(3-4):159-207
references: 10631011
references: Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2008 Mar 12;363(1493):979-1000
references: 17846016
references: J Cogn Neurosci. 2008 Jun;20(6):952-64
references: 18211232
references: Neuroreport. 2005 Apr 4;16(5):495-8
references: 15770158
references: Neuroreport. 2002 Jan 21;13(1):47-51
references: 11924892
references: Dev Sci. 2006 Jan;9(1):F1-12
references: 16445386
references: Infancy. 2009 Nov 12;14(6):591-612
references: 32693518
references: Brain Res. 2006 Dec 6;1123(1):168-78
references: 17064672