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Junge C, Boumeester M, Mills DL, Paul M, Cosper SH. Development of the N400 for Word Learning in the First 2 Years of Life: A Systematic Review. Front Psychol 2021; 12:689534. [PMID: 34276518 PMCID: PMC8277998 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The N400 ERP component is a direct neural index of word meaning. Studies show that the N400 component is already present in early infancy, albeit often delayed. Many researchers capitalize on this finding, using the N400 component to better understand how early language acquisition unfolds. However, variability in how researchers quantify the N400 makes it difficult to set clear predictions or build theory. Not much is known about how the N400 component develops in the first 2 years of life in terms of its latency and topographical distributions, nor do we know how task parameters affect its appearance. In the current paper we carry out a systematic review, comparing over 30 studies that report the N400 component as a proxy of semantic processing elicited in infants between 0 and 24 months old who listened to linguistic stimuli. Our main finding is that there is large heterogeneity across semantic-priming studies in reported characteristics of the N400, both with respect to latency and to distributions. With age, the onset of the N400 insignificantly decreases, while its offset slightly increases. We also examined whether the N400 appears different for recently-acquired novel words vs. existing words: both situations reveal heterogeneity across studies. Finally, we inspected whether the N400 was modulated differently with studies using a between-subject design. In infants with more proficient language skills the N400 was more often present or showed itself here with earlier latency, compared to their peers; but no consistent patterns were observed for distribution characteristics of the N400. One limitation of the current review is that we compared studies that widely differed in choice of EEG recordings, pre-processing steps and quantification of the N400, all of which could affect the characteristics of the infant N400. The field is still missing research that systematically tests development of the N400 using the same paradigm across infancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Junge
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Marlijne Boumeester
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Debra L. Mills
- School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom
| | - Mariella Paul
- Psychology of Language Research Group, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Samuel H. Cosper
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany
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Çetinçelik M, Rowland CF, Snijders TM. Do the Eyes Have It? A Systematic Review on the Role of Eye Gaze in Infant Language Development. Front Psychol 2021; 11:589096. [PMID: 33584424 PMCID: PMC7874056 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.589096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2020] [Accepted: 11/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Eye gaze is a ubiquitous cue in child–caregiver interactions, and infants are highly attentive to eye gaze from very early on. However, the question of why infants show gaze-sensitive behavior, and what role this sensitivity to gaze plays in their language development, is not yet well-understood. To gain a better understanding of the role of eye gaze in infants' language learning, we conducted a broad systematic review of the developmental literature for all studies that investigate the role of eye gaze in infants' language development. Across 77 peer-reviewed articles containing data from typically developing human infants (0–24 months) in the domain of language development, we identified two broad themes. The first tracked the effect of eye gaze on four developmental domains: (1) vocabulary development, (2) word–object mapping, (3) object processing, and (4) speech processing. Overall, there is considerable evidence that infants learn more about objects and are more likely to form word–object mappings in the presence of eye gaze cues, both of which are necessary for learning words. In addition, there is good evidence for longitudinal relationships between infants' gaze following abilities and later receptive and expressive vocabulary. However, many domains (e.g., speech processing) are understudied; further work is needed to decide whether gaze effects are specific to tasks, such as word–object mapping or whether they reflect a general learning enhancement mechanism. The second theme explored the reasons why eye gaze might be facilitative for learning, addressing the question of whether eye gaze is treated by infants as a specialized socio-cognitive cue. We concluded that the balance of evidence supports the idea that eye gaze facilitates infants' learning by enhancing their arousal, memory, and attentional capacities to a greater extent than other low-level attentional cues. However, as yet, there are too few studies that directly compare the effect of eye gaze cues and non-social, attentional cues for strong conclusions to be drawn. We also suggest that there might be a developmental effect, with eye gaze, over the course of the first 2 years of life, developing into a truly ostensive cue that enhances language learning across the board.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melis Çetinçelik
- Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Caroline F Rowland
- Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Tineke M Snijders
- Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
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Holler J, Kokal I, Toni I, Hagoort P, Kelly SD, Özyürek A. Eye'm talking to you: speakers' gaze direction modulates co-speech gesture processing in the right MTG. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2014; 10:255-61. [PMID: 24652857 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsu047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Recipients process information from speech and co-speech gestures, but it is currently unknown how this processing is influenced by the presence of other important social cues, especially gaze direction, a marker of communicative intent. Such cues may modulate neural activity in regions associated either with the processing of ostensive cues, such as eye gaze, or with the processing of semantic information, provided by speech and gesture. Participants were scanned (fMRI) while taking part in triadic communication involving two recipients and a speaker. The speaker uttered sentences that were and were not accompanied by complementary iconic gestures. Crucially, the speaker alternated her gaze direction, thus creating two recipient roles: addressed (direct gaze) vs unaddressed (averted gaze) recipient. The comprehension of Speech&Gesture relative to SpeechOnly utterances recruited middle occipital, middle temporal and inferior frontal gyri, bilaterally. The calcarine sulcus and posterior cingulate cortex were sensitive to differences between direct and averted gaze. Most importantly, Speech&Gesture utterances, but not SpeechOnly utterances, produced additional activity in the right middle temporal gyrus when participants were addressed. Marking communicative intent with gaze direction modulates the processing of speech-gesture utterances in cerebral areas typically associated with the semantic processing of multi-modal communicative acts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judith Holler
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Geert Grooteplein Noord 21, 6525EZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Psychology Department, Center for Language and Brain, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, 13346 Hamilton, NY, USA, and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Idil Kokal
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Geert Grooteplein Noord 21, 6525EZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Psychology Department, Center for Language and Brain, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, 13346 Hamilton, NY, USA, and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Ivan Toni
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Geert Grooteplein Noord 21, 6525EZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Psychology Department, Center for Language and Brain, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, 13346 Hamilton, NY, USA, and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Peter Hagoort
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Geert Grooteplein Noord 21, 6525EZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Psychology Department, Center for Language and Brain, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, 13346 Hamilton, NY, USA, and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Geert Grooteplein Noord 21, 6525EZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Psychology Department, Center for Language and Brain, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, 13346 Hamilton, NY, USA, and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Spencer D Kelly
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Geert Grooteplein Noord 21, 6525EZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Psychology Department, Center for Language and Brain, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, 13346 Hamilton, NY, USA, and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Aslı Özyürek
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Geert Grooteplein Noord 21, 6525EZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Psychology Department, Center for Language and Brain, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, 13346 Hamilton, NY, USA, and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Geert Grooteplein Noord 21, 6525EZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Psychology Department, Center for Language and Brain, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, 13346 Hamilton, NY, USA, and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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