Cortical systems that process language, as revealed by non-native speech sound perception

Abstract

Over the course of language acquisition, the brain becomes specialized in the perception of native language speech sounds or phonemes. As a result, adult speakers are highly efficient at processing their native language, but may struggle to perceive some non-native phonemes. This specialization is thought to arise from changes that occur in a person's brain as a result of maturation and language experience. In this study, adult native speakers of English were asked to discriminate between phonemes of varying degrees of difference from English (similar to English: Tagalog /na/-/ŋa/; different from English: Ndebele /k||i/-/k!i/), as their brain activity was measured using functional near infrared spectroscopy imaging. The left inferior frontal region showed activation only during the native condition; this finding is discussed in the context of developmental and adult neuroimaging work and suggests that the left inferior frontal region is critical for perceiving native phoneme contrasts during development and in adulthood.

Bilingual Infants Demonstrate Advantages in Learning Words in a Third Language

“…Findings from Experiment 1 support the notion of a prolonged sensitivity to non native phonological contrasts in bilingual infants and, furthermore, suggest that this sensitivity can be harnessed to learn novel words contrasted by unfamiliar phonological variation. Click contrasts are particularly intriguing to psycholinguists as they are thought to be processed nonlinguistically by the non native ear even though they are clearly linguistic contrasts in particular languages (Best & Avery, ; Kovelman, Yip, & Beck, ). This raise the question as to how generalizable bilingual infants' sensitivity to acoustic–phonetic contrast might be and, in particular, whether bilingual infants retain sensitivity to true nonlinguistic contrasts as possible determinants of word meanings.…”

Children’s belief- and desire-reasoning in the temporoparietal junction: evidence for specialization from functional near-infrared spectroscopy

“…Functional near-infrared spectroscopy data were exported and analyzed using custom software in Matlab (The MathWorks, Inc.) validated in previous fNIRS studies (e.g., Kovelman et al, 2009 , 2011 , 2012 , 2014 ; Shalinsky et al, 2009 ), and in line with diffuse optical imaging principles ( Boas et al, 2004 ; Huppert et al, 2009 ). In brief, after the recording session, data were exported and analyzed using MATLAB-based software (we thank Dr. Laura Ann Petitto for making this software available to us, for details see Kovelman et al, 2009 ).…”

From emergent literacy to reading: how learning to read changes a child's brain

“…Utilising a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task involving accelerated presentation of sentences compared to letters, fluent reading was found to be supported by executive function areas, including several key‐brain regions in the frontal lobe [left inferior frontal (BA 44, 45) and superior frontal/sensorimotor gyri (BA 6)] in both adults and 8–12‐year‐old children . Increased need for cognitive control and working memory via activation of frontal regions [dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 10, 46)] attributed to resources required to search for meaning have also been observed during a phonological judgement task in children . Reading comprehension has been shown to involve executive function, with increased activation in frontal cortices [inferior and superior frontal gyri (BA 45, 47)] contrasting meaningful versus nonmeaningful sentence reading in 9–14‐year‐old children .…”