title: Short-term second language and music training induces lasting functional brain changes in early childhood.
abstract: Immediate and lasting effects of music or second-language training were examined in early childhood using event-related potentials. Event-related potentials were recorded for French vowels and musical notes in a passive oddball paradigm in thirty-six 4- to 6-year-old children who received either French or music training. Following training, both groups showed enhanced late discriminative negativity (LDN) in their trained condition (music group-musical notes; French group-French vowels) and reduced LDN in the untrained condition. These changes reflect improved processing of relevant (trained) sounds, and an increased capacity to suppress irrelevant (untrained) sounds. After 1 year, training-induced brain changes persisted and new hemispheric changes appeared. Such results provide evidence for the lasting benefit of early intervention in young children.
authors.affiliation: Rotman Research Institute.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.forename: Yunjo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Janus
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bialystok
mesh_terms: D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D009146:Music; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*