Minai Utako, Gustafson Kathleen, Fiorentino Robert, Jongman Allard, Sereno Joan
aDepartment of Linguistics, University of Kansas, Lawrence bHoglund Brain Imaging Center, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, USA.
Neuroreport. 2017 Jul 5;28(10):561-564. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000794.
Using fetal biomagnetometry, this study measured changes in fetal heart rate to assess discrimination of two rhythmically different languages (English and Japanese). Two-minute passages in English and Japanese were read by the same female bilingual speaker. Twenty-four mother-fetus pairs (mean gestational age=35.5 weeks) participated. Fetal magnetocardiography was recorded while the participants were presented first with passage 1, a passage in English, and then, following an 18 min interval, with passage 2, either a different passage in English (English-English condition: N=12) or in Japanese (English-Japanese condition: N=12). The fetal magnetocardiogram was reconstructed following independent components analysis decomposition. The mean interbeat intervals were calculated for a 30 s baseline interval directly preceding each passage and for the first 30 s of each passage. We then subtracted the mean interbeat interval of the 30 s baseline interval from that of the first 30 s interval, yielding an interbeat interval change value for each passage. A significant interaction between condition and passage indicated that the English-Japanese condition elicited a more robust interbeat interval change for passage 2 (novelty phase) than for passage 1 (familiarity phase), reflecting a faster heart rate during passage 2, whereas the English-English condition did not. This effect indicates that fetuses are sensitive to the change in language from English to Japanese. These findings provide the first evidence for fetal language discrimination as assessed by fetal biomagnetometry and support the hypothesis that rhythm constitutes a prenatally available building block in language acquisition.
本研究利用胎儿生物磁测量法测量胎儿心率变化，以评估对两种节奏不同的语言（英语和日语）的辨别能力。同一位双语女性朗读两分钟的英语和日语段落。24对母婴（平均孕周 = 35.5周）参与了研究。在参与者先听段落1（一段英语段落），然后在间隔18分钟后，再听段落2（要么是另一段英语段落，即英语 - 英语条件：N = 12；要么是日语段落，即英语 - 日语条件：N = 12）时，记录胎儿心电图。通过独立成分分析分解重建胎儿心电图。计算每个段落之前30秒基线间隔以及每个段落开头30秒的平均心跳间期。然后，我们用每个段落开头30秒的平均心跳间期减去30秒基线间隔的平均心跳间期，得出每个段落的心跳间期变化值。条件和段落之间的显著交互作用表明，与段落1（熟悉阶段）相比，英语 - 日语条件下段落2（新奇阶段）引起的心跳间期变化更强烈，这反映出段落2期间心率更快，而英语 - 英语条件下则不然。这种效应表明胎儿对从英语到日语的语言变化敏感。这些发现为通过胎儿生物磁测量法评估胎儿语言辨别能力提供了首个证据，并支持了节奏构成语言习得中一种产前可用构建模块的假设。
