Graduate Institute of Behavioral Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Department of Clinical Psychology, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Dev Sci. 2024 Nov;27(6):e13553. doi: 10.1111/desc.13553. Epub 2024 Aug 7.
This study examined how Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with and without a history of late talking (LT) process familiar monosyllabic words with unexpected lexical tones, focusing on both phonological and semantic violations. This study initially enrolled 64 Mandarin-speaking toddlers: 31 with a history of LT (mean age: 27.67 months) and 33 without a history of LT (non-LT) (mean age: 27.85 months). Event-related potentials were recorded at the age of 4 years during a picture-word mismatch task (LT mean age: 51.36 months; non-LT mean age: 51.20 months); in this task, the participants were presented with auditory words either matching (Tone 3) or mismatching with images in terms of their lexical tones; the mismatches encompassed acoustically dissimilar (Tone 1) and similar (Tone 2) mismatches. A significant difference in the phonological mapping negativity (PMN) responses to Tones 1 and 3 was observed only in the non-LT group. However, differences in the N400 responses to Tones 1 and 3 remained consistent across both groups. In addition, greater differences in the PMN responses between Tones 1 and 3 were associated with higher language proficiency during the preschool period. The PMN response serves as an indicator of neural correlates in lexical tone processing, reflecting challenges encountered by preschoolers with a history of LT when processing the lexical tones of familiar words. Furthermore, the PMN response was correlated with concurrent language abilities. These findings indicate the importance of early tonal perception development for Mandarin speakers with a history of LT. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Preschoolers with a history of late talking (LT), similar to preschoolers without such a history, can establish word expectations and detect the lexical tone violation in real time. However, those with a history of LT require additional time to process acoustic cues and differentiate between word semantics based on lexical tone information. The phonological mapping negativity response serves as an indicator of neural correlates in lexical tone processing, reflecting challenges encountered by preschoolers with a history of LT when processing the lexical tones of familiar words. The present findings indicate the importance of early intervention for Mandarin speakers with a history of LT, with an emphasis on lexical tone processing from toddlerhood.
本研究考察了有无晚说话史的普通话学龄前儿童如何处理具有意外词汇声调的单音节词，重点关注语音和语义违反。本研究最初招募了 64 名讲普通话的幼儿：31 名有晚说话史（平均年龄：27.67 个月）和 33 名无晚说话史（非 LT）（平均年龄：27.85 个月）。在 4 岁时，在图片-词不匹配任务中记录了事件相关电位（LT 平均年龄：51.36 个月；非 LT 平均年龄：51.20 个月）；在该任务中，参与者听到的听觉词与图像匹配（声调 3）或不匹配，其声调不匹配包括听上去不相似（声调 1）和相似（声调 2）的不匹配。仅在非 LT 组中观察到对声调 1 和 3 的语音映射负向（PMN）反应存在显著差异。然而，对声调 1 和 3 的 N400 反应的差异在两组中保持一致。此外，PMN 对声调 1 和 3 的反应之间的差异越大，表明在学龄前期间语言能力越高。PMN 反应是词汇声调处理中神经相关的指标，反映了有晚说话史的学龄前儿童在处理熟悉单词的词汇声调时所遇到的挑战。此外，PMN 反应与同期语言能力相关。这些发现表明，对于有晚说话史的普通话使用者来说，早期的声调感知发展非常重要。研究亮点：有晚说话史（LT）的学龄前儿童与没有此类历史的学龄前儿童一样，可以建立单词期望并实时检测词汇音高违规。然而，那些有晚说话史的人需要额外的时间来处理声音线索，并根据词汇声调信息区分单词语义。语音映射负向反应是词汇声调处理中神经相关的指标，反映了有晚说话史的学龄前儿童在处理熟悉单词的词汇声调时所遇到的挑战。本研究结果表明，对于有晚说话史的普通话使用者来说，早期干预非常重要，尤其是从幼儿期开始重视词汇声调处理。
