Development of neural perceptual vowel spaces during the first year of life

McCarthy, Kathleen M.; Skoruppa, Katrin; Iverson, Paul

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-55085-y

Cited by 13 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The PCM model, in addition, proposes that, during development, infants can use both an acoustically grounded perception mode and categorical perception in parallel (Gallé & McMurray, 2014, based on Pisoni & Tash, 1974). Infants would co‐improve both modes constantly with age, but younger infants would rely more on the acoustic channel than older infants (see McCarthy et al, 2019, for spectral vowel properties, and the discussion in Mugitani et al, 2009, for vowel length properties).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to PRIMIR, infants' earliest speech perception is organized on a general perceptual level. Phonetic information is encoded following primary auditory processing mechanisms (McCarthy et al, 2019) and modulated by initial biases (e.g., preference for ID‐speech, point vowels, a.o.). With growing language experience, these early sound representations are reorganized as a function of the frequency and distribution of features (including acoustic, auditory–visual, and articulatory information) encountered in the environment, and as a function of contextual needs (e.g., word learning).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Sing for me, Mama! Infants' discrimination of novel vowels in song

Falk

Fasolo

Genovese

et al. 2021

Infancy

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When adults speak or sing with infants, they sound differently than in adult communication. Infant‐directed (ID) communication helps caregivers to regulate infants' emotions and helps infants to process speech information, at least from ID‐speech. However, it is largely unclear whether infants might also process speech information presented in ID‐singing. Therefore, we examined whether infants discriminate vowels in ID‐singing, as well as potential differences with ID‐speech. Using an alternating trial preference procedure, infants aged 4–6 and 8–10 months were tested on their discrimination of an unfamiliar non‐native vowel contrast presented in ID‐like speech and singing. Relying on models of early speech sound perception, we expected that infants in their first half year of life would discriminate the vowels, in contrast to older infants whose non‐native sound perception should deteriorate, at least in ID‐like speech. Our results showed that infants of both age groups were able to discriminate the vowels in ID‐like singing, while only the younger group discriminated the vowels in ID‐like speech. These results show that infants process speech sound information in song from early on. They also hint at diverging perceptual or attentional mechanisms guiding infants' sound processing in ID‐speech versus ID‐singing toward the end of the first year of life.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Sing for me, Mama! Infants' discrimination of novel vowels in song

Falk

Fasolo

Genovese

et al. 2021

Infancy

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“…Neural commitment to the native language at the age of 7.5 months can predict language development up to two years following initial neural measurements (Rivera-Gaxiola, Klarman, et al 2005;Rivera-Gaxiola, Silva-Pereyra, et al 2005;Kuhl et al 2008). A recent study of acoustic change complex in the infant LLR demonstrated a transformation from a merely acoustical-driven pattern to native phonemecategory sensitivity around the age of 6 months (McCarthy et al 2019). Though the findings from these pioneering LLR-based (mostly MMN) studies provide an initial neural explanation for perceptual narrowing, these studies are focused largely on the role of the cortex.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Early Development of Neural Speech Encoding Depends on Age but Not Native Language Status: Evidence From Lexical Tone

Novitskiy

Maggu

Lai

et al. 2021

Neurobiology of Language

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We investigated the development of early-latency and long-latency brain responses to native and non-native speech to shed light on the neurophysiological underpinnings of perceptual narrowing and early language development. Specifically, we postulated a two-level process to explain the decrease in sensitivity to non-native phonemes towards the end of infancy. Neurons at the earlier stages of the ascending auditory pathway mature rapidly during infancy facilitating the encoding of both native and non-native sounds. This growth enables neurons at the later stages of the auditory pathway to assign phonological status to speech according to the infant’s native language environment. To test this hypothesis, we collected early- latency and long-latency neural responses to native and non-native lexical tones from 85 Cantoneselearning children aged between 23 days and 24 months and 16 days. As expected, a broad range of presumably subcortical early-latency neural encoding measures grew rapidly and substantially during the first two years for both native and non-native tones. By contrast, longlatency cortical electrophysiological changes occurred on a much slower scale and showed sensitivity to nativeness at around six months. Our study provided a comprehensive understanding of early language development by revealing the complementary roles of earlier and later stages of speech processing in the developing brain.

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“…On a related note, early auditory‐based discrimination was reported in a recent neurophysiological study of infants learning British English by McCarthy, Skoruppa, and Iverson (2019). McCarthy et al.…”

Section: The Age Of the Universal Listenermentioning

confidence: 68%

The What and When of Universal Perception: A Review of Early Speech Sound Acquisition

Chládková

Paillereau

2020

Language Learning

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The young universal listener is an established concept in psycholinguistics. However, it is unclear what abilities universal perception entails and at what age it exists. This article aims to motivate rethinking about what it means to be a universal listener. Early and recent studies on infant speech acquisition are reviewed, considered in the light of cross‐language variation and adult performance, and finally linked to the current understanding of fetal hearing and learning. It turns out that language‐universal perception is best described as an auditory‐based perception rather than an ability to perceptually categorize the sounds of any possible language. Interestingly, at birth infants might no longer listen in a language‐universal mode because learning from the ambient speech signal begins at least several weeks before birth. Future studies need to answer the remaining questions concerning the point in perinatal development at which speech perception begins to take on language‐specific traits and for which sounds.

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Development of neural perceptual vowel spaces during the first year of life

Cited by 13 publications

References 37 publications

Sing for me, Mama! Infants' discrimination of novel vowels in song

Sing for me, Mama! Infants' discrimination of novel vowels in song

Early Development of Neural Speech Encoding Depends on Age but Not Native Language Status: Evidence From Lexical Tone

The What and When of Universal Perception: A Review of Early Speech Sound Acquisition

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