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Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
Published on: April 19, 2017
Language acquisition in premature and full-term infants
Marcela Peña1, Enrica Pittaluga, Jacques Mehler
1Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Trieste 34014, Italy. pena@sissa.it
Summary
Both preterm and full-term infants show native language discrimination around 6 months corrected age. Neural maturation appears to be a key factor in early speech discrimination development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental neuroscience
- Infant language acquisition
- Auditory processing
Background:
- Full-term infants typically develop the ability to distinguish their native language from a rhythmically similar one around 4 months after birth.
- Preterm infants' language development trajectories may differ due to altered early life experiences and neural maturation.
- Understanding early language discrimination is crucial for identifying developmental milestones and potential delays.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the development of native language discrimination in healthy preterm and full-term infants.
- To investigate the role of neural maturation in early speech discrimination abilities.
- To examine auditory processing of native and non-native languages in infants.
Main Methods:
- Infants (preterm and full-term) were tested on their ability to discriminate between native (Spanish), rhythmically close (Italian), and rhythmically distant (Japanese) languages.
- Induced gamma-band power was measured during passive listening to assess neural responses.
- Infants were matched for neural maturation and duration of broadcast speech exposure.
Main Results:
- Both full-term and preterm infants demonstrated a neural response to native language only around 6 months corrected age.
- No significant discrimination was observed for rhythmically similar or distant languages at this stage.
- Neural maturation, rather than chronological age or speech exposure duration, appeared to be a limiting factor.
Conclusions:
- Early language discrimination, specifically for the native language, emerges around 6 months corrected age in both preterm and full-term infants.
- Neural maturation plays a critical role in constraining the development of speech discrimination abilities in the early stages of language acquisition.
- These findings highlight the importance of considering neural maturation when assessing language development in preterm infants.
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