Wu Han, Zhang Yixiao, Liu Yiru, Zhang Shijun, Zhang Linjun, Shu Hua, Zhang Yang
Institute on Education Policy and Evaluation of International Students, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing 100083, China.
School of Biomedical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116038, China.
Brain Sci. 2025 Jan 19;15(1):93. doi: 10.3390/brainsci15010093.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: In a tonal language like Chinese, phonologically contrasting tones signify word meanings at the syllable level. Although the development of lexical tone perception ability has been examined in many behavioral studies, its developmental trajectory from childhood to adulthood at the neural level remains unclear. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the issue by measuring the mismatch negativity (MMN) response to a Chinese lexical tonal contrast in three groups.
The MMN response to a flat-falling tonal contrast (Tone1 versus Tone4) were recorded from children (25 participants aged 6-8), adolescents (26 participants aged 12-14), and young adults (20 participants aged 18-24). Nonsense speech stimuli were also used by superimposing Tone1 and Tone4 on an English syllable.
All three groups demonstrated typical early MMN responses in both the meaningful and nonsense syllable conditions. However, the MMN amplitudes varied significantly across groups, with the child group showing smaller responses compared to the adolescent and adult groups, while the latter two groups had similar MMN amplitudes.
Neural sensitivity to tonal contrasts is not fully mature in children and reaches a more adult-like level during adolescence, with no significant difference in sensitivity to meaningful versus nonsense syllables. These results provide new insights into the neural development of lexical tone perception in a tonal language, highlighting its maturation during adolescence in this process.
背景/目的：在像中文这样的声调语言中，在音节层面上，语音上有区别的声调表示不同的词义。尽管在许多行为研究中已经考察了词汇声调感知能力的发展，但从儿童到成人其在神经层面的发展轨迹仍不清楚。这项横断面研究旨在通过测量三组人群对汉语词汇声调对比的失匹配负波（MMN）反应来探讨这个问题。
记录了儿童（25名6 - 8岁参与者）、青少年（26名12 - 14岁参与者）和青年成年人（20名18 - 24岁参与者）对平降调对比（一声与四声）的MMN反应。还通过将一声和四声叠加在一个英语音节上来使用无意义语音刺激。
在有意义和无意义音节条件下，所有三组人群均表现出典型的早期MMN反应。然而，MMN波幅在三组人群中存在显著差异，儿童组的反应比青少年组和成年组小，而后两组的MMN波幅相似。
儿童对声调对比的神经敏感性尚未完全成熟，在青少年时期达到更接近成人的水平，对有意义和无意义音节的敏感性没有显著差异。这些结果为声调语言中词汇声调感知的神经发育提供了新的见解，突出了其在这一过程中青少年时期的成熟情况。
