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Navarrete-Arroyo S, Virtala P, Nie P, Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist L, Salonen S, Kujala T. Infant mismatch responses to speech-sound changes predict language development in preschoolers at risk for dyslexia. Clin Neurophysiol 2024; 162:248-261. [PMID: 38492973 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2024.02.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Revised: 02/07/2024] [Accepted: 02/23/2024] [Indexed: 03/18/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE We investigated how infant mismatch responses (MMRs), which have the potential for providing information on auditory discrimination abilities, could predict subsequent development of pre-reading skills and the risk for familial dyslexia. METHODS We recorded MMRs to vowel, duration, and frequency deviants in pseudo-words at birth and 28 months in a sample over-represented by infants with dyslexia risk. We examined MMRs' associations with pre-reading skills at 28 months and 4-5 years and compared the results in subgroups with vs. without dyslexia risk. RESULTS Larger positive MMR (P-MMR) at birth was found to be associated with better serial naming. In addition, increased mismatch negativity (MMN) and late discriminative negativity (LDN), and decreased P-MMR at 28 months overall, were shown to be related to better pre-reading skills. The associations were influenced by dyslexia risk, which was also linked to poor pre-reading skills. CONCLUSIONS Infant MMRs, providing information about the maturity of the auditory system, are associated with the development of pre-reading skills. Speech-processing deficits may contribute to deficits in language acquisition observed in dyslexia. SIGNIFICANCE Infant MMRs could work as predictive markers of atypical linguistic development during early childhood. Results may help in planning preventive and rehabilitation interventions in children at risk of learning impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergio Navarrete-Arroyo
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland; Finnish Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland.
| | - Paula Virtala
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland; Finnish Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Peixin Nie
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland; Finnish Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Linda Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Satu Salonen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Teija Kujala
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland; Finnish Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
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Themas L, Lippus P, Padrik M, Kask L, Kreegipuu K. Maturation of the mismatch response in pre-school children: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 153:105366. [PMID: 37633625 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2023] [Revised: 06/28/2023] [Accepted: 08/20/2023] [Indexed: 08/28/2023]
Abstract
Event-related potentials (ERPs), specifically the Mismatch Response (MMR), holds promise for investigating auditory maturation in children. It has the potential to predict language development and distinguish between language-impaired and typically developing groups. However, summarizing the MMR's developmental trajectory in typically developing children remains challenging despite numerous studies. This pioneering meta-analysis outlines changes in MMR amplitude among typically developing children, while offering methodological best-practices. Our search identified 51 articles for methodology analysis and 21 for meta-analysis, involving 0-8-year-old participants from 2000 to 2022. Risk of Bias assessment and methodology analysis revealed shortcomings in control condition usage and reporting of study confounders. The meta-analysis results were inconsistent, indicating large effect sizes in some conditions and no effect sizes in others. Subgroup analysis revealed the main effects of age and brain region, as well as an interaction of age and time-window of the MMR. Future research requires a specific protocol, larger samples, and replication studies to deepen the understanding of the auditory discrimination maturation process in children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liis Themas
- University of Tartu, Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, Jakobi 2, 51005 Tartu, Estonia; University of Tartu, Institute of Psychology, Näituse 2, 50409 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Pärtel Lippus
- University of Tartu, Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, Jakobi 2, 51005 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Marika Padrik
- University of Tartu, Institute of Education, Jakobi 5, 51005 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Liis Kask
- University of Tartu, Institute of Psychology, Näituse 2, 50409 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Kairi Kreegipuu
- University of Tartu, Institute of Psychology, Näituse 2, 50409 Tartu, Estonia.
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Discriminatory Brain Processes of Native and Foreign Language in Children with and without Reading Difficulties. Brain Sci 2022; 13:brainsci13010076. [PMID: 36672057 PMCID: PMC9856413 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13010076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2022] [Revised: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 12/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The association between impaired speech perception and reading difficulty has been well established in native language processing, as can be observed from brain activity. However, there has been scarce investigation of whether this association extends to brain activity during foreign language processing. The relationship between reading skills and neuronal speech representation of foreign language remains unclear. In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) with high-density EEG to investigate this question. Eleven- to 13-year-old children typically developed (CTR) or with reading difficulties (RD) were tested via a passive auditory oddball paradigm containing native (Finnish) and foreign (English) speech items. The change-detection-related ERP responses, the mismatch response (MMR), and the late discriminative negativity (LDN) were studied. The cluster-based permutation tests within and between groups were performed. The results showed an apparent language effect. In the CTR group, we found an atypical MMR in the foreign language processing and a larger LDN response for speech items containing a diphthong in both languages. In the RD group, we found unstable MMR with lower amplitude and a nonsignificant LDN response. A deficit in the LDN response in both languages was found within the RD group analysis. Moreover, we observed larger brain responses in the RD group and a hemispheric polarity reversal compared to the CTR group responses. Our results provide new evidence that language processing differed between the CTR and RD groups in early and late discriminatory responses and that language processing is linked to reading skills in both native and foreign language contexts.
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Huang W, Wong LLN, Chen F. Pre-attentive fundamental frequency processing in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants as revealed by the peak latency of positive mismatch response. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:1045939. [PMID: 36570825 PMCID: PMC9773377 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1045939] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction Fundamental frequency (F0) serves as the primary acoustic cue for Mandarin tone perception. Recent behavioral studies suggest that F0 information may be differently processed between Mandarin-speaking normal-hearing (NH) children and children with cochlear implants (CIs), which may partially explain the unsatisfactory outcome of lexical tone recognition using CIs with tonal language-oriented speech processing strategies. The aim of the current study was to provide neural evidence of F0 processing in Mandarin-speaking kindergarten-aged children with CIs compared with NH children. Methods Positive mismatch responses (p-MMRs) to the change of the two acoustic dimensions of F0 (F0 contour and F0 level) in Mandarin-speaking kindergarten-aged children with CIs (n = 19) and their age-matched NH peers (n = 21). Results The two groups of children did not show any significant difference on the mean amplitude of p-MMR to either F0 contour or F0 level change. While the CI group exhibited a significantly shorter peak latency of p-MMR to F0 contour change than to F0 level change, an opposite pattern was observed in the NH group. Discussion This study revealed a higher sensitivity to F0 contour change than to F0 level change in children with CIs, which was different from that in NH children. The neural evidence of discrepant F0 processing between children with CIs and NH children in this study was consistent with the previously reported behavioral findings and may serve as a reference for the development and improvement of tonal language-oriented speech processing strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wanting Huang
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| | - Lena L. N. Wong
- Unit of Human Communication, Development, and Information Sciences, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Fei Chen
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China,*Correspondence: Fei Chen,
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Linnavalli T, Lahti O, Törmänen M, Tervaniemi M, Cowley BU. Children's inhibition skills are associated with their P3a latency-results from an exploratory study. BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN FUNCTIONS : BBF 2022; 18:13. [PMID: 36456950 PMCID: PMC9714064 DOI: 10.1186/s12993-022-00202-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2022] [Accepted: 11/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The P3a response is thought to reflect involuntary orienting to an unexpected stimulus and has been connected with set-shifting and inhibition in some studies. In our exploratory study, we investigated if the amplitude and the latency of the P3a response were associated with the performance in a modified flanker task measuring inhibition and set-shifting in 10-year-old children (N = 42). Children participated in electroencephalography (EEG) measurement with an auditory multifeature paradigm including standard, deviating, and novel sounds. In addition, they performed a separate flanker task requiring inhibition and set-shifting skills. RESULTS The P3a latencies for deviant sounds were associated with the reaction time reflecting inhibition: the shorter the response latencies were, the faster the reaction time was. The P3a latencies for novel sounds were not linked to the reaction times reflecting either inhibition or set-shifting. In addition, the magnitude of the P3a response was not associated with the performance in the flanker task. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that P3a response latency and reaction speed reflecting inhibitory skills are based on shared neural mechanism. Thus, the present study brings new insight to the field investigating the associations between behavior and its neural indices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanja Linnavalli
- grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Cicero Learning, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland ,grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland ,grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Outi Lahti
- grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Minna Törmänen
- grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland ,grid.466279.80000 0001 0710 6332Institute for Professionalization and System Development, University of Teacher Education in Special Needs, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Mari Tervaniemi
- grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Cicero Learning, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland ,grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland ,grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Benjamin Ultan Cowley
- grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland ,grid.7737.40000 0004 0410 2071Cognitive Science, Department of Digital Humanities, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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Atalık G, Yağcıoğlu S, Yiğit Ö, Belgin E, Sendesen E, Türkyılmaz MD. Multi-feature mismatch negativity: How can reliable data be recorded in a short time? Clin Neurophysiol 2022; 144:8-15. [PMID: 36195030 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2022.09.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2021] [Revised: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 09/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to conduct multi-feature mismatch negativity (MMN) implementations and identify via a test-retest study the reliability of MMN responses obtained through a 5-stimulus version of the MMN paradigm. It was also aimed to identify a reliable MMN recording number by comparing the MMN responses obtained under conditions of ten and four recordings conditions while making the recording time shorter. METHODS Twenty-one healthy volunteers, aged between 18 and 36 years, were included in the study. A 5-stimulus version of the multi-feature MMN paradigm was presented to participants. Ten recordings were obtained for each participant under both test and retest conditions. The MATLAB program was utilized in the evaluation of MMN amplitude and latency. The Fz was chosen for the statistical analysis. Four of the ten recordings were chosen at random, and statistical analyses were performed again for those four recordings. RESULTS There was no statistically significant difference in amplitudes obtained from test and retest conditions with ten recordings. With four recordings, for frequency, intensity, duration, and gap deviants, there were no statistically significant differences between amplitudes obtained under test and retest conditions. However, there was a statistically significant difference between amplitudes of the location deviant. No statistically significant difference was observed among latencies under test-retest conditions with both ten and four recordings. CONCLUSIONS These findings demonstrate that MMN amplitudes could be used reliably as short-time evaluations with four recordings, but more recordings are required for MMN latencies. In terms of practicality, four recordings are more advantageous and comfortable for both clinicians and patients in MMN practice. SIGNIFICANCE When behavioral tests are required, MMN is regarded as an objective test that can be used reliably for adults, children, and infants who cannot be evaluated using behavioral methods. It is concluded that conditions with four recordings aremore advantageous and comfortable for both clinicians and patients in MMN practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Güzide Atalık
- Gazi University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Ankara, Turkey.
| | - Süha Yağcıoğlu
- Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Biophysics, Ankara, Turkey(2)
| | - Öznur Yiğit
- Hacettepe University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Audiology, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Erol Belgin
- Ankara Medipol University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Audiology, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Eser Sendesen
- Hacettepe University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Audiology, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Meral Didem Türkyılmaz
- Hacettepe University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Audiology, Ankara, Turkey
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Torppa R, Kuuluvainen S, Lipsanen J. The development of cortical processing of speech differs between children with cochlear implants and normal hearing and changes with parental singing. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:976767. [PMID: 36507354 PMCID: PMC9731313 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.976767] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Accepted: 11/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective The aim of the present study was to investigate speech processing development in children with normal hearing (NH) and cochlear implants (CI) groups using a multifeature event-related potential (ERP) paradigm. Singing is associated to enhanced attention and speech perception. Therefore, its connection to ERPs was investigated in the CI group. Methods The paradigm included five change types in a pseudoword: two easy- (duration, gap) and three difficult-to-detect (vowel, pitch, intensity) with CIs. The positive mismatch responses (pMMR), mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a and late differentiating negativity (LDN) responses of preschoolers (below 6 years 9 months) and schoolchildren (above 6 years 9 months) with NH or CIs at two time points (T1, T2) were investigated with Linear Mixed Modeling (LMM). For the CI group, the association of singing at home and ERP development was modeled with LMM. Results Overall, responses elicited by the easy- and difficult to detect changes differed between the CI and NH groups. Compared to the NH group, the CI group had smaller MMNs to vowel duration changes and gaps, larger P3a responses to gaps, and larger pMMRs and smaller LDNs to vowel identity changes. Preschoolers had smaller P3a responses and larger LDNs to gaps, and larger pMMRs to vowel identity changes than schoolchildren. In addition, the pMMRs to gaps increased from T1 to T2 in preschoolers. More parental singing in the CI group was associated with increasing pMMR and less parental singing with decreasing P3a amplitudes from T1 to T2. Conclusion The multifeature paradigm is suitable for assessing cortical speech processing development in children. In children with CIs, cortical discrimination is often reflected in pMMR and P3a responses, and in MMN and LDN responses in children with NH. Moreover, the cortical speech discrimination of children with CIs develops late, and over time and age, their speech sound change processing changes as does the processing of children with NH. Importantly, multisensory activities such as parental singing can lead to improvement in the discrimination and attention shifting toward speech changes in children with CIs. These novel results should be taken into account in future research and rehabilitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ritva Torppa
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland,Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland,Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Soila Kuuluvainen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland,Department of Digital Humanities, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Jari Lipsanen
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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Ziatabar Ahmadi Z, Mahmoudian S, Ashayeri H. P-MMR and LDN beside MMN as Speech-evoked Neural Markers in Children with Cochlear Implants: A Review. Dev Neuropsychol 2021; 47:1-16. [PMID: 34927493 DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2021.2004601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
This review mainly explores less-reported neural markers to speech-evoked contrasts in children with cochlear implants (CI). Databases and electronic journals were searched with keywords of "mismatch responses" AND "positive mismatch response" (p-MMR) AND "late discriminate negativity" (LDN). P-MMR likely is as a measurement of brain immaturity in CI children while the developmental trajectories of LDN remain unexplained in older CI children. In CI children, there is a p-MMR-MMN-LDN sequence to speech stimuli developmentally. Whereas these aforementioned neural responses anticipate developmental changes in CI groups, it is still uncertain about the cutoff age for disappearance of p-MMR and LDN.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zohreh Ziatabar Ahmadi
- Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran
| | - Saied Mahmoudian
- ENT and Head & Neck Research Center and Department, The Five Senses Health Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.,Department of Otolaryngology, Medical University of Hannover (Mhh), Hannover, Germany
| | - Hassan Ashayeri
- Department of Basic Sciences in Rehabilitation, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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Zhu J, Chen X, Yang Y. Effects of Amateur Musical Experience on Categorical Perception of Lexical Tones by Native Chinese Adults: An ERP Study. Front Psychol 2021; 12:611189. [PMID: 33790832 PMCID: PMC8005537 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.611189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2020] [Accepted: 02/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Music impacting on speech processing is vividly evidenced in most reports involving professional musicians, while the question of whether the facilitative effects of music are limited to experts or may extend to amateurs remains to be resolved. Previous research has suggested that analogous to language experience, musicianship also modulates lexical tone perception but the influence of amateur musical experience in adulthood is poorly understood. Furthermore, little is known about how acoustic information and phonological information of lexical tones are processed by amateur musicians. This study aimed to provide neural evidence of cortical plasticity by examining categorical perception of lexical tones in Chinese adults with amateur musical experience relative to the non-musician counterparts. Fifteen adult Chinese amateur musicians and an equal number of non-musicians participated in an event-related potential (ERP) experiment. Their mismatch negativities (MMNs) to lexical tones from Mandarin Tone 2–Tone 4 continuum and non-speech tone analogs were measured. It was hypothesized that amateur musicians would exhibit different MMNs to their non-musician counterparts in processing two aspects of information in lexical tones. Results showed that the MMN mean amplitude evoked by within-category deviants was significantly larger for amateur musicians than non-musicians regardless of speech or non-speech condition. This implies the strengthened processing of acoustic information by adult amateur musicians without the need of focused attention, as the detection of subtle acoustic nuances of pitch was measurably improved. In addition, the MMN peak latency elicited by across-category deviants was significantly shorter than that by within-category deviants for both groups, indicative of the earlier processing of phonological information than acoustic information of lexical tones at the pre-attentive stage. The results mentioned above suggest that cortical plasticity can still be induced in adulthood, hence non-musicians should be defined more strictly than before. Besides, the current study enlarges the population demonstrating the beneficial effects of musical experience on perceptual and cognitive functions, namely, the effects of enhanced speech processing from music are not confined to a small group of experts but extend to a large population of amateurs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaqiang Zhu
- School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Xiaoxiang Chen
- School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Yuxiao Yang
- Foreign Studies College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
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David C, Roux S, Bonnet-Brilhault F, Ferré S, Gomot M. Brain responses to change in phonological structures of varying complexity in children and adults. Psychophysiology 2020; 57:e13621. [PMID: 32557624 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2019] [Revised: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 05/10/2020] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Language-related change-detection processes are often investigated using syllables that are very simple in terms of phonological structure. However, phonological complexity is known to be challenging for young typically developing children and pathological populations. We investigated brain correlates of phonological processing and their age-related changes with a passive change-detection protocol including stimuli of varying phonological complexity, which allowed comparing responses to simple and complex phonological deviancies. Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and Late Discriminative Negativity (LDN) responses were recorded in both school-age children (n = 22) and adults (n = 24). MMN was similar for simple and complex phonological deviancy in both groups, whereas LDN appeared to be modulated by phonological complexity, albeit with different patterns according to age. In response to complex phonological change, children displayed a larger LDN response with a typical fronto-central scalp distribution, while adults showed an additional right-posterior activity but no larger amplitude than for simple change. Thus, LDN appears to be a good electrophysiological index of phonological complexity processing. This study validated the use of the LDN through this protocol for the investigation of phonological complexity processing throughout the development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Céline David
- UMR1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| | - Sylvie Roux
- UMR1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| | - Frédérique Bonnet-Brilhault
- UMR1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France.,Centre Universitaire de Pédopsychiatrie, CHRU de Tours, Tours, France
| | - Sandrine Ferré
- UMR1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| | - Marie Gomot
- UMR1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
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Yu YH, Tessel C, Han X, Campanelli L, Vidal N, Gerometta J, Garrido-Nag K, Datta H, Shafer VL. Neural Indices of Vowel Discrimination in Monolingual and Bilingual Infants and Children. Ear Hear 2020; 40:1376-1390. [PMID: 31033699 PMCID: PMC6814506 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000000726] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To examine maturation of neural discriminative responses to an English vowel contrast from infancy to 4 years of age and to determine how biological factors (age and sex) and an experiential factor (amount of Spanish versus English input) modulate neural discrimination of speech. DESIGN Event-related potential (ERP) mismatch responses (MMRs) were used as indices of discrimination of the American English vowels [ε] versus [I] in infants and children between 3 months and 47 months of age. A total of 168 longitudinal and cross-sectional data sets were collected from 98 children (Bilingual Spanish-English: 47 male and 31 female sessions; Monolingual English: 48 male and 42 female sessions). Language exposure and other language measures were collected. ERP responses were examined in an early time window (160 to 360 msec, early MMR [eMMR]) and late time window (400 to 600 msec, late MMR). RESULTS The eMMR became more negative with increasing age. Language experience and sex also influenced the amplitude of the eMMR. Specifically, bilingual children, especially bilingual females, showed more negative eMMR compared with monolingual children and with males. However, the subset of bilingual children with more exposure to English than Spanish compared with those with more exposure to Spanish than English (as reported by caretakers) showed similar amplitude of the eMMR to their monolingual peers. Age was the only factor that influenced the amplitude of the late MMR. More negative late MMR was observed in older children with no difference found between bilingual and monolingual groups. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with previous studies, our findings revealed that biological factors (age and sex) and language experience modulated the amplitude of the eMMR in young children. The early negative MMR is likely to be the mismatch negativity found in older children and adults. In contrast, the late MMR amplitude was influenced only by age and may be equivalent to the Nc in infants and to the late negativity observed in some auditory passive oddball designs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan H. Yu
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, St.
John’s University, Queens, NY, USA
| | - Carol Tessel
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Florida
Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
| | - Xiaoxu Han
- Department of Computer and Information Science, Fordham
University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Luca Campanelli
- Ph.D. Program in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, The
Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
| | - Nancy Vidal
- Speech Communication Studies, Iona College, New Rochelle,
NY, USA
| | | | - Karen Garrido-Nag
- Hearing, Speech, Language Sciences, Gallaudet University,
Washington DC, USA
| | - Hia Datta
- Speech-Language Pathology, Molloy College, Rockville
Centre, NY, USA
| | - Valerie L. Shafer
- Ph.D. Program in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, The
Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
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12
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Musical playschool activities are linked to faster auditory development during preschool-age: a longitudinal ERP study. Sci Rep 2019; 9:11310. [PMID: 31383938 PMCID: PMC6683192 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-47467-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2018] [Accepted: 06/17/2019] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The influence of musical experience on brain development has been mostly studied in school-aged children with formal musical training while little is known about the possible effects of less formal musical activities typical for preschool-aged children (e.g., before the age of seven). In the current study, we investigated whether the amount of musical group activities is reflected in the maturation of neural sound discrimination from toddler to preschool-age. Specifically, we recorded event-related potentials longitudinally (84 recordings from 33 children) in a mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm to different musically relevant sound changes at ages 2–3, 4–5 and 6–7 years from children who attended a musical playschool throughout the follow-up period and children with shorter attendance to the same playschool. In the first group, we found a gradual positive to negative shift in the polarities of the mismatch responses while the latter group showed little evidence of age-related changes in neural sound discrimination. The current study indicates that the maturation of sound encoding indexed by the MMN may be more protracted than once thought and provides first longitudinal evidence that even quite informal musical group activities facilitate the development of neural sound discrimination during early childhood.
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Linnavalli T, Putkinen V, Huotilainen M, Tervaniemi M. Maturation of Speech-Sound ERPs in 5-6-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Study. Front Neurosci 2018; 12:814. [PMID: 30459549 PMCID: PMC6232289 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2018] [Accepted: 10/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The maturation of 5-6-year-old children's auditory discrimination - indicated by the development of the auditory event-related-potentials (ERPs) - has not been previously studied in longitudinal settings. For the first time, we present here the results based on extensive dataset collected from 75 children. We followed the 5- to 6-year-olds for 20 months and measured their ERPs four times with the same multifeature paradigm with phonemic stimuli. The amplitude of the mismatch negativity (MMN) response increased during this time for vowel, vowel duration and frequency changes. Furthermore, the P3a component started to mature toward adult-like positivity for the vowel, intensity and frequency deviants and the late discriminative negativity (LDN) component decreased with age for vowel and intensity deviants. All the changes in the components seemed to happen during the second follow-up year, when Finnish children are taught letter symbols and other preliminary academic skills before going to school at the age of seven. Therefore, further studies are needed to clarify if these changes in the auditory discrimination are purely age-related or due to increasing linguistic knowledge of the children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanja Linnavalli
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Cicero Learning, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Vesa Putkinen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Minna Huotilainen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Cicero Learning, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Mari Tervaniemi
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Cicero Learning, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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Rosburg T, Weigl M, Thiel R, Mager R. The event-related potential component P3a is diminished by identical deviance repetition, but not by non-identical repetitions. Exp Brain Res 2018; 236:1519-1530. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-018-5237-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2017] [Accepted: 03/16/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Healthy full-term infants' brain responses to emotionally and linguistically relevant sounds using a multi-feature mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm. Neurosci Lett 2018; 670:110-115. [PMID: 29374541 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2018.01.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2017] [Revised: 12/08/2017] [Accepted: 01/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
We evaluated the feasibility of a multi-feature mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm in studying auditory processing of healthy newborns. The aim was to examine the automatic change-detection and processing of semantic and emotional information in speech in newborns. Brain responses of 202 healthy newborns were recorded with a multi-feature paradigm including a Finnish bi-syllabic pseudo-word/ta-ta/as a standard stimulus, six linguistically relevant deviant stimuli and three emotionally relevant stimuli (happy, sad, angry). Clear responses to emotional sounds were found already at the early latency window 100-200 ms, whereas responses to linguistically relevant minor changes and emotional stimuli at the later latency window 300-500 ms did not reach significance. Moreover, significant interaction between gender and emotional stimuli was found in the early latency window. Further studies on using multi-feature paradigms with linguistic and emotional stimuli in newborns are needed, especially those containing of follow-ups, enabling the assessment of the predictive value of early variations between subjects.
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Uhlén I, Engström E, Kallioinen P, Nakeva von Mentzer C, Lyxell B, Sahlén B, Lindgren M, Ors M. Using a multi-feature paradigm to measure mismatch responses to minimal sound contrasts in children with cochlear implants and hearing aids. Scand J Psychol 2017; 58:409-421. [DOI: 10.1111/sjop.12391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2016] [Accepted: 08/02/2017] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Inger Uhlén
- Department of Hearing and Balance; Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet (CLINTEC); Stockholm Sweden
| | - Elisabet Engström
- Department of Hearing and Balance; Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet (CLINTEC); Stockholm Sweden
| | | | - Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning; Swedish Institute for Disability Research; Linköping University; Linköping Sweden
| | - Björn Lyxell
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning; Swedish Institute for Disability Research; Linköping University; Linköping Sweden
| | - Birgitta Sahlén
- Linneaus Centre; Cognition, Communication & Learning, Lund University; Lund Sweden
- Department of Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology; Lund University; Skåne University Hospital; Lund Sweden
| | - Magnus Lindgren
- Linneaus Centre; Cognition, Communication & Learning, Lund University; Lund Sweden
- Department of Psychology; Lund University; Lund Sweden
| | - Marianne Ors
- Linneaus Centre; Cognition, Communication & Learning, Lund University; Lund Sweden
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology; Lund University; Skåne University Hospital; Lund Sweden
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Niemitalo-Haapola E, Haapala S, Kujala T, Raappana A, Kujala T, Jansson-Verkasalo E. Noise Equally Degrades Central Auditory Processing in 2- and 4-Year-Old Children. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2017; 60:2297-2309. [PMID: 28763806 DOI: 10.1044/2017_jslhr-h-16-0267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2016] [Accepted: 02/04/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The aim of this study was to investigate developmental and noise-induced changes in central auditory processing indexed by event-related potentials in typically developing children. METHOD P1, N2, and N4 responses as well as mismatch negativities (MMNs) were recorded for standard syllables and consonants, frequency, intensity, vowel, and vowel duration changes in silent and noisy conditions in the same 14 children at the ages of 2 and 4 years. RESULTS The P1 and N2 latencies decreased and the N2, N4, and MMN amplitudes increased with development of the children. The amplitude changes were strongest at frontal electrodes. At both ages, background noise decreased the P1 amplitude, increased the N2 amplitude, and shortened the N4 latency. The noise-induced amplitude changes of P1, N2, and N4 were strongest frontally. Furthermore, background noise degraded the MMN. At both ages, MMN was significantly elicited only by the consonant change, and at the age of 4 years, also by the vowel duration change during noise. CONCLUSIONS Developmental changes indexing maturation of central auditory processing were found from every response studied. Noise degraded sound encoding and echoic memory and impaired auditory discrimination at both ages. The older children were as vulnerable to the impact of noise as the younger children. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5233939.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elina Niemitalo-Haapola
- Child Language Research Center, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Finland
- Clinical Neurophysiology, Oulu University Hospital, Finland
| | - Sini Haapala
- Clinical Neurophysiology, Oulu University Hospital, Finland
- Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Teija Kujala
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Antti Raappana
- PEDEGO Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Oulu University Hospital, Finland
| | - Tiia Kujala
- PEDEGO Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland
- Medical Research Center Oulu, Finland
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Phoneme processing skills are reflected in children's MMN responses. Neuropsychologia 2017; 101:76-84. [PMID: 28506807 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.05.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2016] [Revised: 04/13/2017] [Accepted: 05/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Phonological awareness (PA), the core contributor in phoneme processing abilities, has a link to later reading skills in children. However, the associations between PA and neural auditory discrimination are not clear. We used event-related potential (ERP) methodology and neuropsychological testing to monitor the neurocognitive basis of phonological awareness in typically developing children. We measured 5-6-year-old children's (N=70) phoneme processing, word completion and perceptual reasoning skills and compared their test results to their brain responses to phonemic changes, separately for each test. We found that children performing better in Phoneme processing test showed larger mismatch negativity (MMN) responses than children scoring lower in the same test. In contrast, no correspondence between test scores and brain responses was found for Auditory closure. Thus, the results suggest that automatic auditory change detection is linked to phoneme awareness in preschool children.
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Ziatabar Ahmadi SZ, Mahmoudian S, Ashayeri H, Allaeddini F, Farhadi M. Electrophysiological and phonological change detection measures of auditory word processing in normal Persian-speaking children. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol 2016; 90:220-226. [PMID: 27729137 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2016.09.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2016] [Revised: 09/11/2016] [Accepted: 09/13/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Auditory phoneme discrimination is a basic and important prerequisite for acquiring speech, reading, and spelling skills. Children, who are unable to perceive auditory phoneme discrimination, cannot develop phonemic representations. Therefore, the early identification of these deficits and application of effective therapeutic approaches is a necessity. We need to assess appropriately word or sound discrimination in normal populations using an objective passive task such as mismatch negativity (MMN). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate MMN responses using speech stimuli (words) in 6-7 year-old normal Persian-speaking children. METHODS Ten right-handed Persian-speaking children with normal visual and auditory acuity, aged from 6 to 7 years, participated in the study. Recording of electroencephalography (EEG) was done by 64 A g/AgCl electrodes. A new auditory paradigm was used with three deviant stimuli (/gam/,/jam/, and/tam/) which differed in the first consonant from a repeated standard word (/dam/). A total of 1500 stimuli, 750 standards and 750 deviants (250 each deviant), were presented by Cogent 2000 running in MATLAB software using two loud speakers. RESULTS MMN peaked over the fronto-central sites at around 380-424 ms after the onset of the stimulus. The comparison of the MMN amplitudes elicited by three deviants revealed a significant "initial phoneme type" effect in Fz and Cz (p < 0.05). This negativity was found to be larger for manner and voicing deviants compared with that of the place of articulation (p < 0.001) on midline scalps. The comparison of the MMN latencies revealed no significant main effect of all variables (p > 0.05). Also, the results revealed that only the MMN amplitude for the/gam/deviant correlated with the percentage of correct responses (R = -0.86, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION The current study showed that words can elicit MMN responses in ∼200 ms after the onset of changes. We can objectively evaluate children's neural speech sound discrimination using the developed paradigm in a natural word context. This paradigm can be useful objectively for investigating distinctive features of sounds and phonological discrimination development in normal children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seyyede Zohreh Ziatabar Ahmadi
- Department of Speech & Language Pathology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Saeid Mahmoudian
- Laboratory for Auditory Neuroscience, ENT and Head & Neck Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran.
| | - Hasan Ashayeri
- Department of Rehabilitation Basic Sciences, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Farshid Allaeddini
- ENT and Head & Neck Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran.
| | - Mohammad Farhadi
- ENT and Head & Neck Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran.
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Saarikivi K, Putkinen V, Tervaniemi M, Huotilainen M. Cognitive flexibility modulates maturation and music-training-related changes in neural sound discrimination. Eur J Neurosci 2016; 44:1815-25. [PMID: 26797826 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2015] [Revised: 01/08/2016] [Accepted: 01/13/2016] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has demonstrated that musicians show superior neural sound discrimination when compared to non-musicians, and that these changes emerge with accumulation of training. Our aim was to investigate whether individual differences in executive functions predict training-related changes in neural sound discrimination. We measured event-related potentials induced by sound changes coupled with tests for executive functions in musically trained and non-trained children aged 9-11 years and 13-15 years. High performance in a set-shifting task, indexing cognitive flexibility, was linked to enhanced maturation of neural sound discrimination in both musically trained and non-trained children. Specifically, well-performing musically trained children already showed large mismatch negativity (MMN) responses at a young age as well as at an older age, indicating accurate sound discrimination. In contrast, the musically trained low-performing children still showed an increase in MMN amplitude with age, suggesting that they were behind their high-performing peers in the development of sound discrimination. In the non-trained group, in turn, only the high-performing children showed evidence of an age-related increase in MMN amplitude, and the low-performing children showed a small MMN with no age-related change. These latter results suggest an advantage in MMN development also for high-performing non-trained individuals. For the P3a amplitude, there was an age-related increase only in the children who performed well in the set-shifting task, irrespective of music training, indicating enhanced attention-related processes in these children. Thus, the current study provides the first evidence that, in children, cognitive flexibility may influence age-related and training-related plasticity of neural sound discrimination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katri Saarikivi
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 9, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Vesa Putkinen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 9, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland.,Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Mari Tervaniemi
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 9, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland.,CICERO Learning, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Minna Huotilainen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 9, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland
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Kuuluvainen S, Alku P, Makkonen T, Lipsanen J, Kujala T. Cortical speech and non-speech discrimination in relation to cognitive measures in preschool children. Eur J Neurosci 2016; 43:738-50. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2015] [Revised: 11/20/2015] [Accepted: 11/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Soila Kuuluvainen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit; Institute of Behavioural Sciences; University of Helsinki; Helsinki Finland
| | - Paavo Alku
- Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics; Aalto University; Helsinki Finland
| | - Tommi Makkonen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit; Institute of Behavioural Sciences; University of Helsinki; Helsinki Finland
| | - Jari Lipsanen
- Institute of Behavioural Sciences; University of Helsinki; Helsinki Finland
| | - Teija Kujala
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit; Institute of Behavioural Sciences; University of Helsinki; Helsinki Finland
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Strotseva-Feinschmidt A, Cunitz K, Friederici AD, Gunter TC. Auditory Discrimination Between Function Words in Children and Adults: A Mismatch Negativity Study. Front Psychol 2015; 6:1930. [PMID: 26733918 PMCID: PMC4686640 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01930] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2015] [Accepted: 11/30/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous behavioral studies showed that it is not until around the age of seven that German children reliably use case markers for the interpretation of complex sentences. Some explanations of this late development suggested that children might have difficulties in perceptual differentiation between function words that carry case information. We tested this hypothesis by using the neurophysiological index of pre-attentive discrimination, the mismatch negativity (MMN). Our data showed that children at the age of 3 years are able to automatically discriminate between the two determiner forms der and den when presented out of sentential context. The determiner form der elicited a more mature MMN response in children than the form den. In adults, the MMN pattern also differed with der showing an earlier peak than den. These findings indicate that der is easier to process than den, which in turn is related to the occurrence frequency of the determiner forms in language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Strotseva-Feinschmidt
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig, Germany
| | - Katrin Cunitz
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig, Germany
| | - Angela D Friederici
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig, Germany
| | - Thomas C Gunter
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig, Germany
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Putkinen V, Tervaniemi M, Saarikivi K, Huotilainen M. Promises of formal and informal musical activities in advancing neurocognitive development throughout childhood. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2015; 1337:153-62. [PMID: 25773630 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.12656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Adult musicians show superior neural sound discrimination when compared to nonmusicians. However, it is unclear whether these group differences reflect the effects of experience or preexisting neural enhancement in individuals who seek out musical training. Tracking how brain function matures over time in musically trained and nontrained children can shed light on this issue. Here, we review our recent longitudinal event-related potential (ERP) studies that examine how formal musical training and less formal musical activities influence the maturation of brain responses related to sound discrimination and auditory attention. These studies found that musically trained school-aged children and preschool-aged children attending a musical playschool show more rapid maturation of neural sound discrimination than their control peers. Importantly, we found no evidence for pretraining group differences. In a related cross-sectional study, we found ERP and behavioral evidence for improved executive functions and control over auditory novelty processing in musically trained school-aged children and adolescents. Taken together, these studies provide evidence for the causal role of formal musical training and less formal musical activities in shaping the development of important neural auditory skills and suggest transfer effects with domain-general implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vesa Putkinen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Finnish Centre of Interdisciplinary Music Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
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