title: Differential oscillatory encoding of foreign speech.
abstract: Neuronal oscillations play a key role in auditory perception of verbal input, with the oscillatory rhythms of the brain showing synchronization with specific frequencies of speech. Here we investigated the neural oscillatory patterns associated with perceiving native, foreign, and unknown speech. Spectral power and phase synchronization were compared to those of a silent context. Power synchronization to native speech was found in frequency ranges corresponding to the theta band, while no synchronization patterns were found for the foreign speech context and the unknown language context. For phase synchrony, the native and unknown languages showed higher synchronization in the theta-band than the foreign language when compared to the silent condition. These results suggest that neural synchronization patterns are markedly different for native and foreign languages.
authors.affiliation: BCBL - Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language, 20009 Donostia, Spain. Electronic address: a.perez@bcbl.eu.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.affiliation: BCBL - Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language, 20009 Donostia, Spain; Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011 Bilbao, Spain; Departamento de Filología Vasca, EHU/UPV, 48015 Bilbao, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carreiras
authors.affiliation: University of Nottingham Ningbo Interdisciplinary Centre on Research in Neuroscience (UNNICORN), 315100 Ningbo, China.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gillon Dowens
authors.affiliation: BCBL - Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language, 20009 Donostia, Spain.
authors.forename: Jon Andoni
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Duñabeitia
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D013030:Spain; D013060:Speech; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013826:Theta Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bilingualism; Foreign language; Language; Oscillations; Speech; Synchrony