title: Subcortical neural representation to Mandarin pitch contours in American and Chinese newborns.
abstract: Voice pitch carries important information for speech understanding. This study examines the neural representation of voice pitch at the subcortical level, as reflected by the scalp-recorded frequency-following responses from ten American and ten Chinese newborns. By utilizing a set of four distinctive Mandarin pitch contours that mimic the English vowel /yi/, the results indicate that the rising and dipping pitch contours produce significantly better tracking accuracy and larger response amplitudes than the falling pitch contour. This finding suggests a hierarchy of potential stimuli when testing neonates who are born in a tonal or non-tonal linguistic environment.
authors.affiliation: Communication Sciences and Disorders, Ohio University, Grover Center W224, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA jeng@ohio.edu.
authors.forename: Fuh-Cherng
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Jeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-HNS, China Medical University Hospital, 2 Yuh-Der Road, Taichung 404, Taiwan d6355@mail.cmuh.org.tw, d12493@mail.cmuh.org.tw.
authors.forename: Chia-Der
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-HNS, China Medical University Hospital, 2 Yuh-Der Road, Taichung 404, Taiwan d6355@mail.cmuh.org.tw, d12493@mail.cmuh.org.tw.
authors.forename: Tang-Chuan
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000162:Acoustics; D000367:Age Factors; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D002657:Child Development; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009820:Ohio; D010700:Phonetics; D010898:Pitch Perception; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013624:Taiwan; D014833:Voice Quality