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Updated: May 13, 2026
Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Infants' brain responses for speech sound changes in fast multifeature MMN paradigm
Eino Partanen1, Satu Pakarinen, Teija Kujala
1Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. eino.partanen@helsinki.fi
Objective:
We investigated whether newborn speech-sound discrimination can be studied in 40 min using fast multifeature mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm and do the results differ from those obtained with the traditional oddball paradigm.
Methods:
Newborns' MMN responses to five types of changes (consonant identity, F0, intensity, vowel duration and vowel identity) were recorded in the multifeature group (N=15) and vowel duration and vowel identity changes in the oddball group (N=13), after which the MMNs from both groups were compared with each others.
Results:
Statistically significant MMNs in the 190-600 ms time range from the stimulus onset were found for most change types in both paradigms. Newborn MMN responses were predominantly positive but a small number of participants elicited negative MMNs instead. MMN amplitudes did not differ between the multifeature and oddball groups.
Conclusions:
Newborn speech-sound discrimination can be assessed in a short recording time using the fast multifeature paradigm.
Significance:
The paradigm presented here can be used to record extensive auditory discrimination profiles in newborns and assess development of speech-sound discrimination and its difficulties.
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