School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Australia; The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Australia; Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Australia; Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, University of Oslo, Norway.
School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Australia; School of Health, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia.
Brain Lang. 2023 Jul;242:105279. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105279. Epub 2023 May 24.
Though perceptual narrowing has been widely recognized as a process guiding cognitive development and category learning in infancy and early childhood, its neural mechanisms and traits at a cortical level remain unclear. Using an electroencephalography (EEG) abstract mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm, Australian infants' neural sensitivity to (native) English and (non-native) Nuu-Chah-Nulth speech contrasts was examined in a cross-sectional design at the onset (5-6 months) and offset (11-12 months) of perceptual narrowing. Immature mismatch responses (MMR) were observed among younger infants for both contrasts, while older infants showed MMR response to the non-native contrast, and both MMR and MMN to the native contrast. Sensitivity to the Nuu-Chah-Nulth contrast at perceptual narrowing offset was retained yet stayed immature. Findings conform to perceptual assimilation theories, reflecting plasticity in early speech perception and development. Compared to behavioural paradigms, neural examination effectively reveals experience-induced processing differences to subtle contrasts at the offset of perceptual narrowing.
尽管知觉狭窄已被广泛认为是指导婴儿期和幼儿期认知发展和类别学习的过程，但在皮质水平上，其神经机制和特征仍不清楚。本研究使用脑电图 (EEG) 抽象失匹配负波 (MMN) 范式，在知觉狭窄开始（5-6 个月）和结束（11-12 个月）时，采用横断面设计，考察了澳大利亚婴儿对（母语）英语和（非母语）努查努尔特语语音对比的神经敏感性。对于两种对比，年龄较小的婴儿都出现了不成熟的失匹配反应（MMR），而年龄较大的婴儿则对非母语对比出现了 MMR 反应，对母语对比则出现了 MMR 和 MMN 反应。在知觉狭窄结束时，对努查努尔特语对比的敏感性保持不变，但仍不成熟。这些发现符合知觉同化理论，反映了早期言语感知和发展的可塑性。与行为范式相比，神经检查有效地揭示了在知觉狭窄结束时对细微对比的经验诱导处理差异。
