Garcia-Sierra Adrian, Ramírez-Esparza Nairan, Kuhl Patricia K
Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, University of Connecticut, 850 Bolton Road, Unit 1085, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2016 Dec;110:1-17. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2016.10.004. Epub 2016 Oct 6.
The present investigation explored the relation between the amount of language input and neural responses in English monolingual (N=18) and Spanish-English bilingual (N=19) infants. We examined the mismatch negativity (MMN); both the positive mismatch response (pMMR) and the negative mismatch response (nMMR), and identify a relationship between amount of language input and brain measures of speech discrimination for native and non-native speech sounds (i.e., Spanish, English and Chinese). Brain responses differed as a function of language input for native speech sounds in both monolinguals and bilinguals. Monolingual infants with high language input showed nMMRs to their native English contrast. Bilingual infants with high language input in Spanish and English showed pMMRs to both their native contrasts. The non-native speech contrast showed different patterns of brain activation for monolinguals and bilinguals regardless of amount of language input. Our results indicate that phonological representations of non-native speech sounds in bilingual infants are dependent on the phonetic similarities between their native languages.
本研究探讨了英语单语婴儿（N = 18）和西班牙语 - 英语双语婴儿（N = 19）的语言输入量与神经反应之间的关系。我们检测了失配负波（MMN）；包括正性失配反应（pMMR）和负性失配反应（nMMR），并确定了语言输入量与母语和非母语语音（即西班牙语、英语和汉语）语音辨别脑指标之间的关系。单语者和双语者中，母语语音的脑反应因语言输入量而异。语言输入量高的单语婴儿对其母语英语对比表现出负性失配反应。在西班牙语和英语方面语言输入量高的双语婴儿对两种母语对比均表现出正性失配反应。无论语言输入量如何，非母语语音对比在单语者和双语者中表现出不同的脑激活模式。我们的结果表明，双语婴儿中非母语语音的语音表征取决于其母语之间的语音相似性。
