Impact of associative word learning on phonotactic processing in 6-month-old infants: A combined EEG and fNIRS study.
During early language development native phonotactics are acquired in a 'bottom-up' fashion, relying on exquisite auditory differentiation skills operational from birth. Since basic lexico-semantic abilities have been demonstrated from 6 months onwards, 'top-down' influences on phonotactic learning may complement the extraction of transitional probabilities in phonotactic learning. Such a bidirectional acquisition strategy predicts, that familiarization with (proto)words should affect processing of untrained word-forms of similar phonological structure. We investigated 6-month-old infants undergoing an associative training to establish a pseudoword-pseudoobject link. Comparison between pre- and post-training responses to trained and untrained items allowed investigating training effects. Additionally phonotactic status (50% legal, 50% illegal with regard to German) allowed investigating influences of previous language experience. EEG and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) provided measures of electrophysiological and hemodynamic responses. We find evidence for a robust effect of associative training on pseudoword processing when presented in isolation. This transferred to untrained items. Previous linguistic experience showed a much weaker effect. Taken together the results suggest that sensitivity to phonotactic contrasts is present at 6 months, but that acceptance as lexical candidates is rapidly modulated when word forms following non-native phonotactics become potentially meaningful due to repeated exposure in a semantic context.
Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig & Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: obrig@cbs.mpg.de.
Hellmuth
H
Obrig
Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig & Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Tübingen, Germany.
Julia
J
Mock
Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig & Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Institute of Educational Sciences, University of Leipzig, Germany.
Franziska
F
Stephan
Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig & Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Germany.
Maria
M
Richter
Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig & Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Micol
M
Vignotto
Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig & Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Department for Medical Psychology & Department for Speech, Hearing, and Voice Disorders, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Sonja
S
Rossi
D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*
Associative training; Language development; Phonotactics; fNIRS
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