title: Relationships between quantity of language input and brain responses in bilingual and monolingual infants.
abstract: The present investigation explored the relation between the amount of language input and neural responses in English monolingual (N=18) and Spanish-English bilingual (N=19) infants. We examined the mismatch negativity (MMN); both the positive mismatch response (pMMR) and the negative mismatch response (nMMR), and identify a relationship between amount of language input and brain measures of speech discrimination for native and non-native speech sounds (i.e., Spanish, English and Chinese). Brain responses differed as a function of language input for native speech sounds in both monolinguals and bilinguals. Monolingual infants with high language input showed nMMRs to their native English contrast. Bilingual infants with high language input in Spanish and English showed pMMRs to both their native contrasts. The non-native speech contrast showed different patterns of brain activation for monolinguals and bilinguals regardless of amount of language input. Our results indicate that phonological representations of non-native speech sounds in bilingual infants are dependent on the phonetic similarities between their native languages.
authors.affiliation: Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, University of Connecticut, 850 Bolton Road, Unit 1085, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. Electronic address: adrian.garcia-sierra@ucon.edu.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garcia-Sierra
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
authors.forename: Nairan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ramírez-Esparza
authors.affiliation: Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, 1715 Columbia Road N., Portage Bay Building, Box 357988, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Kuhl
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Amount of language input; Bilingual infants; Event related potentials; Language learning; Mismatch response; Speech discrimination