Distinct hemispheric specializations for native and non-native languages in one-day-old newborns identified by fNIRS

Abstract

This study assessed whether the neonatal brain recruits different neural networks for native and non-native languages at birth. Twenty-seven one-day-old full-term infants underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) recording during linguistic and non-linguistic stimulation. Fourteen newborns listened to linguistic stimuli (native and non-native language stories) and 13 newborns were exposed to non-linguistic conditions (native and non-native stimuli played in reverse). Comparisons between left and right hemisphere oxyhemoglobin (HbO2) concentration changes over the temporal areas revealed clear left hemisphere dominance for native language, whereas non-native stimuli were associated with right hemisphere lateralization. In addition, bilateral cerebral activation was found for non-linguistic stimulus processing. Overall, our findings indicate that from the first day after birth, native language and prosodic features are processed in parallel by distinct neural networks.

Cortical specialisation to social stimuli from the first days to the second year of life: A rural Gambian cohort

“…The non-social selectivity is only apparent during the earlier time epoch and the response to both stimuli becomes equivalent at a later time point during stimulus presentation. Although speech perception in newborn infants is well described (Dehaene-Lambertz and Spelke, 2015, Gervain et al, 2008, Pena et al, 2003, Vannasing et al, 2016), responses to human vocalisations are less well known. To allow us to compare these responses with a UK cohort, in collaboration with colleagues in Cambridge, we were able to use the auditory paradigm with newborn infants at the local maternity hospital.…”

Near‐infrared spectroscopy reveals neural perception of vocal emotions in human neonates

“…Research on language perception in neonates and fetuses has shown preferential responses to stimuli presented in the native language over unknown languages or the second language in babies born in a bilingual environment (Kisilevsky et al, 2009;Mehler et al, 1988;Moon, Cooper, & Fifer, 1993;Sato et al, 2012;Vannasing et al, 2016). One possibility is that the prosodic cues of a familiar language may have caught more attention of neonatal and prenatal participants with stronger emotional resonance compared to those of unfamiliar languages (Mehler et al, 1988;Mastropieri & Turkewitz, 1999).…”

The specificity of the neural response to speech at birth

“…Similar to adults, temporal and frontal areas of the brain are activated in very young infants in response to spoken language, but not to non-linguistic signals such as scrambled speech, sine-wave contours, tones, monkey calls, and backwards speech (Dehaene-Lambertz, Dehaene, & Hertz-Pannier, 2002;Minagawa-Kawai et al, 2011;Peña et al, 2003;Perani et al, 2011;Shultz, Vouloumanos, Bennett, & Pelphrey, 2014;Taga, Homae, & Watanabe, 2007). In many (Dehaene-Lambertz et al, 2002;Minagawa-Kawai et al, 2011;Peña et al, 2003;Sato et al, 2012;Shultz et al, 2014;Vannasing et al, 2016), but not all (May, Byers-Heinlein, Gervain, & Werker, 2011;Perani et al, 2011;Taga, Homae, & Watanabe, 2007) studies, these effects are most pronounced in the left hemisphere. It is unknown, however, whether neural specialization for language in neonates is restricted to speech.…”