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Pinto D, Prior A, Zion Golumbic E. Assessing the Sensitivity of EEG-Based Frequency-Tagging as a Metric for Statistical Learning. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2022; 3:214-234. [PMID: 37215560 PMCID: PMC10158570 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Statistical learning (SL) is hypothesized to play an important role in language development. However, the measures typically used to assess SL, particularly at the level of individual participants, are largely indirect and have low sensitivity. Recently, a neural metric based on frequency-tagging has been proposed as an alternative measure for studying SL. We tested the sensitivity of frequency-tagging measures for studying SL in individual participants in an artificial language paradigm, using non-invasive electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings of neural activity in humans. Importantly, we used carefully constructed controls to address potential acoustic confounds of the frequency-tagging approach, and compared the sensitivity of EEG-based metrics to both explicit and implicit behavioral tests of SL. Group-level results confirm that frequency-tagging can provide a robust indication of SL for an artificial language, above and beyond potential acoustic confounds. However, this metric had very low sensitivity at the level of individual participants, with significant effects found only in 30% of participants. Comparison of the neural metric to previously established behavioral measures for assessing SL showed a significant yet weak correspondence with performance on an implicit task, which was above-chance in 70% of participants, but no correspondence with the more common explicit 2-alternative forced-choice task, where performance did not exceed chance-level. Given the proposed ubiquitous nature of SL, our results highlight some of the operational and methodological challenges of obtaining robust metrics for assessing SL, as well as the potential confounds that should be taken into account when using the frequency-tagging approach in EEG studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danna Pinto
- The Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Anat Prior
- Department of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Elana Zion Golumbic
- The Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
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2
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Language statistical learning responds to reinforcement learning principles rooted in the striatum. PLoS Biol 2021; 19:e3001119. [PMID: 34491980 PMCID: PMC8448350 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Revised: 09/17/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Statistical learning (SL) is the ability to extract regularities from the environment. In the domain of language, this ability is fundamental in the learning of words and structural rules. In lack of reliable online measures, statistical word and rule learning have been primarily investigated using offline (post-familiarization) tests, which gives limited insights into the dynamics of SL and its neural basis. Here, we capitalize on a novel task that tracks the online SL of simple syntactic structures combined with computational modeling to show that online SL responds to reinforcement learning principles rooted in striatal function. Specifically, we demonstrate—on 2 different cohorts—that a temporal difference model, which relies on prediction errors, accounts for participants’ online learning behavior. We then show that the trial-by-trial development of predictions through learning strongly correlates with activity in both ventral and dorsal striatum. Our results thus provide a detailed mechanistic account of language-related SL and an explanation for the oft-cited implication of the striatum in SL tasks. This work, therefore, bridges the long-standing gap between language learning and reinforcement learning phenomena. Statistical learning is the ability to extract regularities from the environment; in the domain of language, this ability is fundamental in the learning of words and structural rules. This study uses a combination of computational modelling and functional MRI to reveal a fundamental link between online language statistical learning and reinforcement learning at the algorithmic and implementational levels.
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Elmer S, Valizadeh SA, Cunillera T, Rodriguez-Fornells A. Statistical learning and prosodic bootstrapping differentially affect neural synchronization during speech segmentation. Neuroimage 2021; 235:118051. [PMID: 33848624 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Revised: 03/12/2021] [Accepted: 04/05/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Neural oscillations constitute an intrinsic property of functional brain organization that facilitates the tracking of linguistic units at multiple time scales through brain-to-stimulus alignment. This ubiquitous neural principle has been shown to facilitate speech segmentation and word learning based on statistical regularities. However, there is no common agreement yet on whether speech segmentation is mediated by a transition of neural synchronization from syllable to word rate, or whether the two time scales are concurrently tracked. Furthermore, it is currently unknown whether syllable transition probability contributes to speech segmentation when lexical stress cues can be directly used to extract word forms. Using Inter-Trial Coherence (ITC) analyses in combinations with Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), we showed that speech segmentation based on both statistical regularities and lexical stress cues was accompanied by concurrent neural synchronization to syllables and words. In particular, ITC at the word rate was generally higher in structured compared to random sequences, and this effect was particularly pronounced in the flat condition. Furthermore, ITC at the syllable rate dynamically increased across the blocks of the flat condition, whereas a similar modulation was not observed in the stressed condition. Notably, in the flat condition ITC at both time scales correlated with each other, and changes in neural synchronization were accompanied by a rapid reconfiguration of the P200 and N400 components with a close relationship between ITC and ERPs. These results highlight distinct computational principles governing neural synchronization to pertinent linguistic units while segmenting speech under different listening conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Elmer
- Auditory Research Group Zurich (ARGZ), Division Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/25, Zurich 8050, Switzerland; Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona 08097, Spain.
| | - Seyed Abolfazl Valizadeh
- Auditory Research Group Zurich (ARGZ), Division Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/25, Zurich 8050, Switzerland; Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich 8091, Switzerland; University Research Priority Program, "Dynamics of Healthy Aging", University of Zurich, Zurich 8050, Switzerland.
| | - Toni Cunillera
- Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Barcelona 08035, University of Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells
- Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, 5L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona 08097, Spain; Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona 08097, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, ICREA, Barcelona 08010, Spain.
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4
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Orpella J, Ripollés P, Ruzzoli M, Amengual JL, Callejas A, Martinez-Alvarez A, Soto-Faraco S, de Diego-Balaguer R. Integrating when and what information in the left parietal lobe allows language rule generalization. PLoS Biol 2020; 18:e3000895. [PMID: 33137084 PMCID: PMC7660506 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2019] [Revised: 11/12/2020] [Accepted: 09/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
A crucial aspect when learning a language is discovering the rules that govern how words are combined in order to convey meanings. Because rules are characterized by sequential co-occurrences between elements (e.g., “These cupcakes are unbelievable”), tracking the statistical relationships between these elements is fundamental. However, purely bottom-up statistical learning alone cannot fully account for the ability to create abstract rule representations that can be generalized, a paramount requirement of linguistic rules. Here, we provide evidence that, after the statistical relations between words have been extracted, the engagement of goal-directed attention is key to enable rule generalization. Incidental learning performance during a rule-learning task on an artificial language revealed a progressive shift from statistical learning to goal-directed attention. In addition, and consistent with the recruitment of attention, functional MRI (fMRI) analyses of late learning stages showed left parietal activity within a broad bilateral dorsal frontoparietal network. Critically, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on participants’ peak of activation within the left parietal cortex impaired their ability to generalize learned rules to a structurally analogous new language. No stimulation or rTMS on a nonrelevant brain region did not have the same interfering effect on generalization. Performance on an additional attentional task showed that this rTMS on the parietal site hindered participants’ ability to integrate “what” (stimulus identity) and “when” (stimulus timing) information about an expected target. The present findings suggest that learning rules from speech is a two-stage process: following statistical learning, goal-directed attention—involving left parietal regions—integrates “what” and “when” stimulus information to facilitate rapid rule generalization. This study uses repetitive transcranial stimulation to show that learning language rules from speech is a two-stage process; following statistical learning, goal-directed attention (involving left parietal regions) integrates "what" and "when" stimulus information to facilitate rapid rule generalization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joan Orpella
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
- Dept of Cognition Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Pablo Ripollés
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, United States of America
- Music and Auditory Research Laboratory (MARL), New York University, New York, New York, United States of America
- Center for Language, Music and Emotion (CLaME), New York University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Manuela Ruzzoli
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Departament de Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacions, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Julià L. Amengual
- Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive Marc Jeannerod, CNRS UMR 5229, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, Bron, France
| | - Alicia Callejas
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
- Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Facultad de Psicología y Centro de Investigación Mente, Cerebro y Comportamiento, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Anna Martinez-Alvarez
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
- Dept of Cognition Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padua, Italy
| | - Salvador Soto-Faraco
- Music and Auditory Research Laboratory (MARL), New York University, New York, New York, United States of America
- ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ruth de Diego-Balaguer
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
- Dept of Cognition Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
- * E-mail:
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van der Kant A, Männel C, Paul M, Friederici AD, Höhle B, Wartenburger I. Linguistic and non-linguistic non-adjacent dependency learning in early development. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2020; 45:100819. [PMID: 32828032 PMCID: PMC7451682 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100819] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2019] [Revised: 05/27/2020] [Accepted: 06/29/2020] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Non-adjacent dependencies (NADs) are important building blocks for language and extracting them from the input is a fundamental part of language acquisition. Prior event-related potential (ERP) studies revealed changes in the neural signature of NAD learning between infancy and adulthood, suggesting a developmental shift in the learning route for NADs. The present study aimed to specify which brain regions are involved in this developmental shift and whether this shift extends to NAD learning in the non-linguistic domain. In two experiments, 2- and 3-year-old German-learning children were familiarized with either Italian sentences or tone sequences containing NADs and subsequently tested with NAD violations, while functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data were recorded. Results showed increased hemodynamic responses related to the detection of linguistic NAD violations in the left temporal, inferior frontal, and parietal regions in 2-year-old children, but not in 3-year-old children. A different developmental trajectory was found for non-linguistic NADs, where 3-year-old, but not 2-year-old children showed evidence for the detection of non-linguistic NAD violations. These results confirm a developmental shift in the NAD learning route and point to distinct mechanisms underlying NAD learning in the linguistic and the non-linguistic domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne van der Kant
- Cognitive Sciences, Department Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Germany.
| | - Claudia Männel
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Audiology and Phoniatrics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
| | - Mariella Paul
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Leipzig, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
| | - Angela D Friederici
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Leipzig, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
| | - Barbara Höhle
- Cognitive Sciences, Department Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Germany
| | - Isabell Wartenburger
- Cognitive Sciences, Department Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
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7
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Gudi-Mindermann H, Rimmele JM, Bruns P, Kloosterman NA, Donner TH, Engel AK, Röder B. Post-training Load-Related Changes of Auditory Working Memory - An EEG Study. Front Hum Neurosci 2020; 14:72. [PMID: 32256326 PMCID: PMC7092637 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2019] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Working memory (WM) refers to the temporary retention and manipulation of information, and its capacity is highly susceptible to training. Yet, the neural mechanisms that allow for increased performance under demanding conditions are not fully understood. We expected that post-training efficiency in WM performance modulates neural processing during high load tasks. We tested this hypothesis, using electroencephalography (EEG) (N = 39), by comparing source space spectral power of healthy adults performing low and high load auditory WM tasks. Prior to the assessment, participants either underwent a modality-specific auditory WM training, or a modality-irrelevant tactile WM training, or were not trained (active control). After a modality-specific training participants showed higher behavioral performance, compared to the control. EEG data analysis revealed general effects of WM load, across all training groups, in the theta-, alpha-, and beta-frequency bands. With increased load theta-band power increased over frontal, and decreased over parietal areas. Centro-parietal alpha-band power and central beta-band power decreased with load. Interestingly, in the high load condition a tendency toward reduced beta-band power in the right medial temporal lobe was observed in the modality-specific WM training group compared to the modality-irrelevant and active control groups. Our finding that WM processing during the high load condition changed after modality-specific WM training, showing reduced beta-band activity in voice-selective regions, possibly indicates a more efficient maintenance of task-relevant stimuli. The general load effects suggest that WM performance at high load demands involves complementary mechanisms, combining a strengthening of task-relevant and a suppression of task-irrelevant processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helene Gudi-Mindermann
- Department of Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Johanna M Rimmele
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.,Department of Neuroscience, Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Patrick Bruns
- Department of Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Niels A Kloosterman
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Tobias H Donner
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Andreas K Engel
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Brigitte Röder
- Department of Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
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8
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Right Structural and Functional Reorganization in Four-Year-Old Children with Perinatal Arterial Ischemic Stroke Predict Language Production. eNeuro 2019; 6:ENEURO.0447-18.2019. [PMID: 31383726 PMCID: PMC6749144 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0447-18.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2018] [Revised: 04/24/2019] [Accepted: 06/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Brain imaging methods have contributed to shed light on the mechanisms of recovery after early brain insult. The assumption that the unaffected right hemisphere can take over language functions after left perinatal stroke is still under debate. Here, we report how patterns of brain structural and functional reorganization were associated with language outcomes in a group of four-year-old children with left perinatal arterial ischemic stroke (PAIS). Specifically, we gathered specific fine-grained developmental measures of receptive and productive aspects of language as well as standardized measures of cognitive development. We also collected structural neuroimaging data as well as functional activations during a passive listening story-telling fMRI task and a resting state session (rs-fMRI). Children with a left perinatal stroke showed larger lateralization indices of both structural and functional connectivity of the dorsal language pathway towards the right hemisphere that, in turn, were associated with better language outcomes. Importantly, the pattern of structural asymmetry was significantly more right-lateralized in children with a left perinatal brain insult than in a group of matched healthy controls. These results strongly suggest that early lesions of the left dorsal pathway and the associated perisylvian regions can induce the interhemispheric transfer of language functions to right homolog regions. This study provides combined evidence of structural and functional brain reorganization of language networks after early stroke with strong implications for neurobiological models of language development.
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Faught GG, Conners FA. Modeling the Relations Among Sustained Attention, Short-Term Memory, and Language in Down Syndrome. AMERICAN JOURNAL ON INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2019; 124:293-308. [PMID: 31199686 DOI: 10.1352/1944-7558-124.4.293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Sustained attention (SA) and short-term memory (STM) contribute to language function in Down syndrome (DS). We proposed models in which relations of SA to language in DS are mediated by STM. Thirty-seven youth with DS aged 10-22 years (M = 15.59) completed SA, STM, and language tasks. Cross-sectional mediation analyses were run with the bootstrapping method. We found significant indirect effects of SA separately on vocabulary and syntax through auditory STM with point estimates of -.30 and -.31, respectively. Results suggest lapses in SA compromise auditory STM, which in turn impacts vocabulary and syntax in youth with DS; however, further research is needed to confirm causality. Addressing SA and STM in language therapy with youth with DS could lead to improved outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gayle G Faught
- Gayle G. Faught, University of South Carolina Aiken; and Frances A. Conners, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
| | - Frances A Conners
- Gayle G. Faught, University of South Carolina Aiken; and Frances A. Conners, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
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10
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François C, Teixidó M, Takerkart S, Agut T, Bosch L, Rodriguez-Fornells A. Enhanced Neonatal Brain Responses To Sung Streams Predict Vocabulary Outcomes By Age 18 Months. Sci Rep 2017; 7:12451. [PMID: 28963569 PMCID: PMC5622081 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-12798-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2017] [Accepted: 09/15/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Words and melodies are some of the basic elements infants are able to extract early in life from the auditory input. Whether melodic cues contained in songs can facilitate word-form extraction immediately after birth remained unexplored. Here, we provided converging neural and computational evidence of the early benefit of melodies for language acquisition. Twenty-eight neonates were tested on their ability to extract word-forms from continuous flows of sung and spoken syllabic sequences. We found different brain dynamics for sung and spoken streams and observed successful detection of word-form violations in the sung condition only. Furthermore, neonatal brain responses for sung streams predicted expressive vocabulary at 18 months as demonstrated by multiple regression and cross-validation analyses. These findings suggest that early neural individual differences in prosodic speech processing might be a good indicator of later language outcomes and could be considered as a relevant factor in the development of infants' language skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clément François
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.
- Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
- Institut de Recerca Pediàtrica Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Maria Teixidó
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Sylvain Takerkart
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, INT, Inst Neurosci Timone, Marseille, France
| | - Thaïs Agut
- Institut de Recerca Pediàtrica Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Neonatalogy, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Laura Bosch
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Institut de Recerca Pediàtrica Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain
- Institut de Neurociències, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
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Lusk LG, Mitchel AD. Differential Gaze Patterns on Eyes and Mouth During Audiovisual Speech Segmentation. Front Psychol 2016; 7:52. [PMID: 26869959 PMCID: PMC4735377 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2015] [Accepted: 01/11/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Speech is inextricably multisensory: both auditory and visual components provide critical information for all aspects of speech processing, including speech segmentation, the visual components of which have been the target of a growing number of studies. In particular, a recent study (Mitchel and Weiss, 2014) established that adults can utilize facial cues (i.e., visual prosody) to identify word boundaries in fluent speech. The current study expanded upon these results, using an eye tracker to identify highly attended facial features of the audiovisual display used in Mitchel and Weiss (2014). Subjects spent the most time watching the eyes and mouth. A significant trend in gaze durations was found with the longest gaze duration on the mouth, followed by the eyes and then the nose. In addition, eye-gaze patterns changed across familiarization as subjects learned the word boundaries, showing decreased attention to the mouth in later blocks while attention on other facial features remained consistent. These findings highlight the importance of the visual component of speech processing and suggest that the mouth may play a critical role in visual speech segmentation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laina G Lusk
- Neuroscience Program, Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA, USA
| | - Aaron D Mitchel
- Neuroscience Program, Bucknell UniversityLewisburg, PA, USA; Department of Psychology, Bucknell UniversityLewisburg, PA, USA
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de Diego-Balaguer R, Martinez-Alvarez A, Pons F. Temporal Attention as a Scaffold for Language Development. Front Psychol 2016; 7:44. [PMID: 26869953 PMCID: PMC4735410 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2015] [Accepted: 01/11/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Language is one of the most fascinating abilities that humans possess. Infants demonstrate an amazing repertoire of linguistic abilities from very early on and reach an adult-like form incredibly fast. However, language is not acquired all at once but in an incremental fashion. In this article we propose that the attentional system may be one of the sources for this developmental trajectory in language acquisition. At birth, infants are endowed with an attentional system fully driven by salient stimuli in their environment, such as prosodic information (e.g., rhythm or pitch). Early stages of language acquisition could benefit from this readily available, stimulus-driven attention to simplify the complex speech input and allow word segmentation. At later stages of development, infants are progressively able to selectively attend to specific elements while disregarding others. This attentional ability could allow them to learn distant non-adjacent rules needed for morphosyntactic acquisition. Because non-adjacent dependencies occur at distant moments in time, learning these dependencies may require correctly orienting attention in the temporal domain. Here, we gather evidence uncovering the intimate relationship between the development of attention and language. We aim to provide a novel approach to human development, bridging together temporal attention and language acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruth de Diego-Balaguer
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis AvançatsBarcelona, Spain
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de BellvitgeBarcelona, Spain
- Department of Basic Psychology, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, Spain
| | - Anna Martinez-Alvarez
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de BellvitgeBarcelona, Spain
- Department of Basic Psychology, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, Spain
| | - Ferran Pons
- Department of Basic Psychology, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, Spain
- Department of Basic Psychology, Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior (IR3C), University of BarcelonaBarcelona, Spain
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Cunillera T, Laine M, Rodríguez-Fornells A. Headstart for speech segmentation: a neural signature for the anchor word effect. Neuropsychologia 2016; 82:189-199. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.01.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2015] [Revised: 01/07/2016] [Accepted: 01/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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