The Basis for Language Acquisition: Congenitally Deaf Infants Discriminate Vowel Length in the First Months after Cochlear Implantation

Vavatzanidis, Niki; Mürbe, Dirk; Friederici, Angela D.; Hahne, Anja

doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00868

Cited by 21 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…We therefore assume that in our group the long absence of any auditory stimulation causes but a brief delay in catching up with normal hearing peers. That would be in line with our findings on the processing of vowel duration, where congenitally deaf children display ERPs equivalent to their normal hearing peers already after 2 months of implant use (Vavatzanidis et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…As to the longer duration, we were able to show that congenitally deaf children need only 2 months of hearing experience with the implant to differentiate between short and long vowel durations. After 4 months, they have already reached the level of normal hearing peers (Vavatzanidis et al, 2015 ). We can thus conclude that at least one prerequisite for the perception of stress pattern is available to the children soon after implantation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Perception of Stress Pattern in Young Cochlear Implanted Children: An EEG Study

et al. 2016

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Children with sensorineural hearing loss may (re)gain hearing with a cochlear implant—a device that transforms sounds into electric pulses and bypasses the dysfunctioning inner ear by stimulating the auditory nerve directly with an electrode array. Many implanted children master the acquisition of spoken language successfully, yet we still have little knowledge of the actual input they receive with the implant and specifically which language sensitive cues they hear. This would be important however, both for understanding the flexibility of the auditory system when presented with stimuli after a (life-) long phase of deprivation and for planning therapeutic intervention. In rhythmic languages the general stress pattern conveys important information about word boundaries. Infant language acquisition relies on such cues and can be severely hampered when this information is missing, as seen for dyslexic children and children with specific language impairment. Here we ask whether children with a cochlear implant perceive differences in stress patterns during their language acquisition phase and if they do, whether it is present directly following implant stimulation or if and how much time is needed for the auditory system to adapt to the new sensory modality. We performed a longitudinal ERP study, testing in bimonthly intervals the stress pattern perception of 17 young hearing impaired children (age range: 9–50 months; mean: 22 months) during their first 6 months of implant use. An additional session before the implantation served as control baseline. During a session they passively listened to an oddball paradigm featuring the disyllable “baba,” which was stressed either on the first or second syllable (trochaic vs. iambic stress pattern). A group of age-matched normal hearing children participated as controls. Our results show, that within the first 6 months of implant use the implanted children develop a negative mismatch response for iambic but not for trochaic deviants, thus showing the same result as the normal hearing controls. Even congenitally deaf children show the same developing pattern. We therefore conclude (a) that young implanted children have early access to stress pattern information and (b) that they develop ERP responses similar to those of normal hearing children.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Perception of Stress Pattern in Young Cochlear Implanted Children: An EEG Study

et al. 2016

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“…In our study, improvements in behavioural electrode discrimination were accompanied by an increase in spatial ACC amplitude over the first 6 months of CI use. Whilst changes in the spatial ACC over time have not been previously reported, a number of studies have assessed longitudinal changes in discrimination ability in CI users using MMN measurements (Lonka et al, 2013(Lonka et al, , 2004Purdy and Kelly, 2016;Vavatzanidis et al, 2015). In general, these studies have shown an increase in MMN amplitude with CI experience but in most cases the MMN could not be recorded in the early period after switch-on.…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of electrophysiological and behavioural measures of electrode discrimination in adult cochlear implant users

Mathew

Vickers²,

Boyle³

et al. 2018

Hearing Research

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The plasticity of the auditory system enables it to adjust to electrical stimulation from cochlear implants (CI). Whilst speech perception may develop for many years after implant activation, very little is known about the changes in auditory processing that underpin these improvements. Such an understanding could help guide interventions that improve hearing performance. In this longitudinal study, we examine how electrode discrimination ability changes over time in newly implanted adult CI users. Electrode discrimination was measured with a behavioural task as well as the spatial auditory change complex (ACC), which is a cortical response to a change in place of stimulation. We show that there was significant improvement in electrode discrimination ability over time, though in certain individuals the process of accommodation was slower and more limited. We found a strong relationship between objective and behavioural measures of electrode discrimination using pass-fail rules. In several cases, the development of the spatial ACC preceded accurate behavioural discrimination. These data provide evidence for plasticity of auditory processing in adult CI users. Behavioural electrode discrimination score but not spatial ACC amplitude was found to be a significant predictor of speech perception. We suggest that it would be beneficial to measure electrode discrimination in CI users and that interventions that exploit the plastic capacity of the auditory system to improve basic auditory processing, could be used to optimize performance in CI users.

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“…Because our knowledge of and discourse around how spoken language develops among d/hh children and the availability of technologies that may support access to speech have both changed dramatically in recent years, this review focuses only on the research published on this topic within the last 20 years. Among studies of language acquisition after cochlear implantation, study designs and salient participant demographics vary widely from longitudinal case studies of a single child [43], to short-term investigations with multiple children [44]. Some studies focus on participant language development from as early as seven months old [45], while others investigate the period immediately after implantation or several years after implantation up to ages 10-15 [20].…”

Section: Spoken Language Development and Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Development and Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children

Scott

Dostal

2019

Education Sciences

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This article explores the available research literature on language development and language interventions among deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) children. This literature is divided into two broad categories: Research on natural languages (specifically American Sign Language and spoken English) and research on communication systems (specifically iterations of signed English and cued speech). These bodies of literature are summarized, with special attention paid to intervention research and research exploring the impacts of language skills on literacy development. Findings indicate that there is generally a stronger research base on natural languages as compared to communication systems, though more studies in both categories are necessary. Additionally, there are very few intervention studies and even fewer that aim to intervene upon language with the explicit goal of impacting literacy; therefore, there is little known about whether and how interventions that aim to support language development may have direct or indirect impacts on literacy within this population. Further research on this topic, as well as replication studies and research with larger sample sizes, is strongly recommended.

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The Basis for Language Acquisition: Congenitally Deaf Infants Discriminate Vowel Length in the First Months after Cochlear Implantation

Cited by 21 publications

References 49 publications

The Perception of Stress Pattern in Young Cochlear Implanted Children: An EEG Study

The Perception of Stress Pattern in Young Cochlear Implanted Children: An EEG Study

Development of electrophysiological and behavioural measures of electrode discrimination in adult cochlear implant users

Language Development and Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children

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