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Brodbeck C, Kandylaki KD, Scharenborg O. Neural Representations of Non-native Speech Reflect Proficiency and Interference from Native Language Knowledge. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e0666232023. [PMID: 37963763 PMCID: PMC10851685 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0666-23.2023] [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: 04/14/2023] [Revised: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Learning to process speech in a foreign language involves learning new representations for mapping the auditory signal to linguistic structure. Behavioral experiments suggest that even listeners that are highly proficient in a non-native language experience interference from representations of their native language. However, much of the evidence for such interference comes from tasks that may inadvertently increase the salience of native language competitors. Here we tested for neural evidence of proficiency and native language interference in a naturalistic story listening task. We studied electroencephalography responses of 39 native speakers of Dutch (14 male) to an English short story, spoken by a native speaker of either American English or Dutch. We modeled brain responses with multivariate temporal response functions, using acoustic and language models. We found evidence for activation of Dutch language statistics when listening to English, but only when it was spoken with a Dutch accent. This suggests that a naturalistic, monolingual setting decreases the interference from native language representations, whereas an accent in the listener's own native language may increase native language interference, by increasing the salience of the native language and activating native language phonetic and lexical representations. Brain responses suggest that such interference stems from words from the native language competing with the foreign language in a single word recognition system, rather than being activated in a parallel lexicon. We further found that secondary acoustic representations of speech (after 200 ms latency) decreased with increasing proficiency. This may reflect improved acoustic-phonetic models in more proficient listeners.Significance Statement Behavioral experiments suggest that native language knowledge interferes with foreign language listening, but such effects may be sensitive to task manipulations, as tasks that increase metalinguistic awareness may also increase native language interference. This highlights the need for studying non-native speech processing using naturalistic tasks. We measured neural responses unobtrusively while participants listened for comprehension and characterized the influence of proficiency at multiple levels of representation. We found that salience of the native language, as manipulated through speaker accent, affected activation of native language representations: significant evidence for activation of native language (Dutch) categories was only obtained when the speaker had a Dutch accent, whereas no significant interference was found to a speaker with a native (American) accent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Brodbeck
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269
| | - Katerina Danae Kandylaki
- Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Maastricht University, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Odette Scharenborg
- Multimedia Computing Group, Delft University of Technology, 2628 XE, Delft, The Netherlands
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Kreidler K, Vuolo J, Goffman L. Children With Developmental Language Disorder Show Deficits in the Production of Musical Rhythmic Groupings. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:4481-4496. [PMID: 37748025 PMCID: PMC10715845 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-23-00197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2023] [Revised: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/27/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) show evidence of domain-general deficits in sequentially patterned motor skills. This study focuses on the production of rhythmically grouped sequences drawn from a music task, with the hypothesis that children with DLD will show a sequential pattern learning deficit that crosses language and action domains. METHOD Fifty-seven 4- to 5-year-old children (36 with DLD) drummed and clapped a developmentally appropriate musical rhythmic sequence 24 times (clapped 12 times, drummed 12 times). The accuracy of rhythmic events (markings of claps, drums, and pauses in a target sequence) was assessed through a modification of classic speech and language transcription procedures. The variability and prosodic structure of the rhythmic groupings were also measured. RESULTS Children with DLD produced less accurate and more variable rhythmic groupings compared to their typically developing (TD) peers. While the final-position grouping of the sequence was especially vulnerable for all children, those with DLD included more co-occurring errors in initial and final groupings of the same rhythmic sequence. Both TD children and children with DLD were less accurate in the clapping than the drumming task. Neither rhythmic drumming nor clapping accuracy correlated with motor skill in either group of children. CONCLUSIONS This study provides novel evidence of a manual rhythmic grouping deficit in DLD, one that is motivated by language-not motor or speech-factors. Cognitive abilities necessary to organize rhythmic events into higher order groupings are impaired across music and language in children with DLD. Rhythmic organization and sequencing may serve an important role in diagnosis and intervention in this population. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24158745.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn Kreidler
- Callier Center for Communication Disorders, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas
| | - Janet Vuolo
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus
| | - Lisa Goffman
- Callier Center for Communication Disorders, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas
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Persici V, Blain SD, Iversen JR, Key AP, Kotz SA, Devin McAuley J, Gordon RL. Individual differences in neural markers of beat processing relate to spoken grammar skills in six-year-old children. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2023; 246:105345. [PMID: 37994830 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Revised: 10/05/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/24/2023]
Abstract
Based on the idea that neural entrainment establishes regular attentional fluctuations that facilitate hierarchical processing in both music and language, we hypothesized that individual differences in syntactic (grammatical) skills will be partly explained by patterns of neural responses to musical rhythm. To test this hypothesis, we recorded neural activity using electroencephalography (EEG) while children (N = 25) listened passively to rhythmic patterns that induced different beat percepts. Analysis of evoked beta and gamma activity revealed that individual differences in the magnitude of neural responses to rhythm explained variance in six-year-olds' expressive grammar abilities, beyond and complementarily to their performance in a behavioral rhythm perception task. These results reinforce the idea that mechanisms of neural beat entrainment may be a shared neural resource supporting hierarchical processing across music and language and suggest a relevant marker of the relationship between rhythm processing and grammar abilities in elementary-school-age children, previously observed only behaviorally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Persici
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Milano - Bicocca, Milan, Italy; Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
| | - Scott D Blain
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - John R Iversen
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Alexandra P Key
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Sonja A Kotz
- Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - J Devin McAuley
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Reyna L Gordon
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
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Nitin R, Gustavson DE, Aaron AS, Boorom OA, Bush CT, Wiens N, Vaughan C, Persici V, Blain SD, Soman U, Hambrick DZ, Camarata SM, McAuley JD, Gordon RL. Exploring individual differences in musical rhythm and grammar skills in school-aged children with typically developing language. Sci Rep 2023; 13:2201. [PMID: 36750727 PMCID: PMC9905575 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-21902-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/05/2022] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
Abstract
A growing number of studies have shown a connection between rhythmic processing and language skill. It has been proposed that domain-general rhythm abilities might help children to tap into the rhythm of speech (prosody), cueing them to prosodic markers of grammatical (syntactic) information during language acquisition, thus underlying the observed correlations between rhythm and language. Working memory processes common to task demands for musical rhythm discrimination and spoken language paradigms are another possible source of individual variance observed in musical rhythm and language abilities. To investigate the nature of the relationship between musical rhythm and expressive grammar skills, we adopted an individual differences approach in N = 132 elementary school-aged children ages 5-7, with typical language development, and investigated prosodic perception and working memory skills as possible mediators. Aligning with the literature, musical rhythm was correlated with expressive grammar performance (r = 0.41, p < 0.001). Moreover, musical rhythm predicted mastery of complex syntax items (r = 0.26, p = 0.003), suggesting a privileged role of hierarchical processing shared between musical rhythm processing and children's acquisition of complex syntactic structures. These relationships between rhythm and grammatical skills were not mediated by prosodic perception, working memory, or non-verbal IQ; instead, we uncovered a robust direct effect of musical rhythm perception on grammatical task performance. Future work should focus on possible biological endophenotypes and genetic influences underlying this relationship.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachana Nitin
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
| | - Daniel E Gustavson
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Institute for Behavioural Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Allison S Aaron
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Olivia A Boorom
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
| | - Catherine T Bush
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Natalie Wiens
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Ascension Via Christi St Teresa Hospital, Wichita, KS, USA
| | - Chloe Vaughan
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Valentina Persici
- Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Scott D Blain
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Uma Soman
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Communication Disorders and Deaf Education, Fontbonne University, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - David Z Hambrick
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Stephen M Camarata
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - J Devin McAuley
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Reyna L Gordon
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
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