Native and non-native speech sound processing and the neural mismatch responses: A longitudinal study on classroom-based foreign language learning.
Learning a foreign language in a natural immersion context with high exposure to the new language has been shown to change the way speech sounds of that language are processed at the neural level. It remains unclear, however, to what extent this is also the case for classroom-based foreign language learning, particularly in children. To this end, we presented a mismatch negativity (MMN) experiment during EEG recordings as part of a longitudinal developmental study: 38 monolingual (Swiss-) German speaking children (7.5 years) were tested shortly before they started to learn English at school and followed up one year later. Moreover, 22 (Swiss-) German adults were recorded. Instead of the originally found positive mismatch response in children, an MMN emerged when applying a high-pass filter of 3 Hz. The overlap of a slow-wave positivity with the MMN indicates that two concurrent mismatch processes were elicited in children. The children's MMN in response to the non-native speech contrast was smaller compared to the native speech contrast irrespective of foreign language learning, suggesting that no additional neural resources were committed to processing the foreign language speech sound after one year of classroom-based learning.
Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: lea.jost@psychologie.uzh.ch.
Lea B
LB
Jost
Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Aleksandra K
AK
Eberhard-Moscicka
Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Georgette
G
Pleisch
Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Veronica
V
Heusser
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP), Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany.
Daniel
D
Brandeis
Departments of Psychology and Linguistics, University of Southern California, USA.
Jason D
JD
Zevin
Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China.
Urs
U
Maurer
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*
ERP mapping; Foreign language learning; Mismatch negativity (MMN); Mismatch response (MMR); Speech sound processing