Giordano Vito, Alexopoulos Johanna, Spagna Alfredo, Benavides-Varela Silvia, Peganc Katja, Kothgassner Oswald D, Klebermass-Schrehof Katrin, Olischar Monika, Berger Angelika, Bartha-Doering Lisa
Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Comprehensive Center for Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Comprehensive Center for Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Brain Lang. 2021 Dec;223:105039. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.105039. Epub 2021 Oct 19.
Humans are biologically endowed with the faculty of language. However, the way neonates can crack this complex communicative code is yet not totally understood. While phonetic discrimination has been widely investigated in neonates, less is known about the role of supra-segments patterns in the recognition of native language. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate accent discrimination abilities in newborns in a sentential prosody paradigm. We used near-infared spectroscopy to investigate accent discrimination in 21 full-term born infants within the first days of life. Sentential prosody was used to investigate: (a) native accent, (b) foreign accent, and (c) flattened accent. Neonates revealed a significantly smaller hemodynamic response to native accent compared to flattened accent and foreign accent, respectively. Cluster-based permutation analysis revealed two clusters with a significant difference between the two conditions native accent and foreign accent. The first cluster covered the middle and superior frontal, middle and superior temporal, central, and parietal areas within the left hemisphere. The second cluster, located in the right hemisphere, covered inferior, middle, and superior frontal, central, middle and superior temporal areas. We therefore conclude that neonates can differentiate prosodic features like accents within the same language a few days after birth.
人类在生物学上具备语言能力。然而，新生儿破解这种复杂交流密码的方式尚未完全被理解。虽然语音辨别在新生儿中已得到广泛研究，但关于超音段模式在母语识别中的作用却知之甚少。因此，本研究的目的是在句子韵律范式中评估新生儿的口音辨别能力。我们使用近红外光谱技术在21名足月儿出生后的头几天内研究口音辨别。句子韵律被用于研究：（a）母语口音，（b）外国口音，以及（c）平淡口音。与平淡口音和外国口音相比，新生儿对母语口音的血流动力学反应明显较小。基于聚类的置换分析揭示了两个聚类，母语口音和外国口音这两种情况之间存在显著差异。第一个聚类覆盖左半球的额中回和额上回、颞中回和颞上回、中央前回和顶叶区域。位于右半球的第二个聚类覆盖额下回、额中回和额上回、中央前回、颞中回和颞上回区域。因此，我们得出结论，新生儿在出生几天后就能区分同一语言中的韵律特征，如口音。
