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Language Development

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
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Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition marked by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction alongside restrictive and repetitive behaviors or interests. ASD is sometimes accompanied by intellectual impairment.
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The nativist approach to infant cognitive development proposes that infants are born with inherent knowledge structures that allow them to interpret the world almost immediately. This perspective contrasts with earlier developmental theories, such as those proposed by Jean Piaget, which emphasized a more gradual acquisition of cognitive abilities through interaction with the environment. One key concept in this approach is object permanence — the understanding that objects continue to...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 5, 2025

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

Atypical Neural Responses to Native and Non-Native Language in Infants at High Likelihood for Developing Autism.

Lauren Wagner¹, Megan Banchik¹, Tawny Tsang²

¹University of California, Los Angeles.

Research Square

|December 16, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Infants at high familial risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show atypical brain responses to speech, including reduced processing and rightward lateralization. These early differences in language development may inform future interventions.

Keywords:

Infant autism fMRI language native language

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A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants

A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants

Published on: October 4, 2015

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Psychology
Genetics

Background:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social communication impairments and restricted behaviors.
Language difficulties are common in ASD, with many infant siblings of diagnosed children also exhibiting delays.
Infant siblings of children with ASD have a higher likelihood of developing the condition themselves.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate neural differences in language processing in infants with high (HL) versus typical (TL) familial likelihood for ASD.
To examine how infants process native (English) and novel (Japanese) speech using fMRI.
To identify early neurodevelopmental markers associated with ASD-related language atypicalities.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used on 9-month-old infants.
Infants were exposed to native and novel speech stimuli while sleeping.
Whole-brain and region-of-interest analyses evaluated neural responses to speech.

Main Results:

HL infants exhibited attenuated speech responses, particularly in left temporal language areas.
HL infants did not show neural discrimination between native and novel languages compared to TL infants.
Atypical rightward lateralization for speech processing was observed in HL infants.

Conclusions:

This is the first fMRI study to measure autism-associated atypicalities in infant native language uptake.
Findings enhance understanding of the neurodevelopmental basis of language delay in ASD.
Early identification of language atypicalities can inform interventions for at-risk infants and children.