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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 1, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
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Language universals at birth.

David Maximiliano Gómez1, Iris Berent, Silvia Benavides-Varela

  • 1Language, Cognition, and Development Laboratory, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, 34136 Trieste, Italy.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|April 8, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Newborns show brain activity differences when hearing specific syllable structures, suggesting innate linguistic biases influence language acquisition. These early, experience-independent preferences shape how infants perceive and learn language.

Keywords:
NIRShuman newbornsphonologysonorityspeech perception

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Linguistics
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Human language evolution involves sensorimotor biases and cultural transmission.
  • The role of innate linguistic biological biases in shaping the language faculty is debated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if neonates' brain activity reveals sensitivity to a universal phonological constraint.
  • To determine if early linguistic biases exist independently of experience.

Main Methods:

  • Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to measure brain activity in newborns (2-5 days old).
  • Infants were exposed to three types of syllables: blif, lbif, and bdif.
  • Hemodynamic responses in left-hemisphere temporal-perisylvian areas were analyzed.

Main Results:

  • Neonates exhibited distinct hemodynamic responses to the different syllable types.
  • Brain activity changes correlated with cross-linguistic syllable preferences.
  • Neural responses mirrored adult behavioral preferences for syllable structures.

Conclusions:

  • Humans possess early, experience-independent biases related to syllable structure.
  • These innate biases influence language perception and acquisition in infants.
  • Findings support the existence of biological underpinnings for universal phonological constraints.