Using magnetoencephalography to examine word recognition, lateralization, and future language skills in 14-month-old infants

Alexis N. Bosseler · Maggie D. Clarke · Kambiz Tavabi · Daniel S. Hippe · Samu Taulu · Patricia K. Kuhl

21 citations0/0 files storedDevelopmental Cognitive Neuroscience

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Language Development and Disorders Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience

Abstract

Word learning is a significant milestone in language acquisition. The second year of life marks a period of dramatic advances in infants' expressive and receptive word-processing abilities. Studies show that in adulthood, language processing is left-hemisphere dominant. However, adults learning a second language activate right-hemisphere brain functions. In infancy, acquisition of a first language involves recruitment of bilateral brain networks, and strong left-hemisphere dominance emerges by the third year. In the current study we focus on 14-month-old infants in the earliest stages of word learning using infant magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain imagining to characterize neural activity in response to familiar and unfamiliar words. Specifically, we examine the relationship between right-hemisphere brain responses and prospective measures of vocabulary growth. As expected, MEG source modeling revealed a broadly distributed network in frontal, temporal and parietal cortex that distinguished word classes between 150-900 ms after word onset. Importantly, brain activity in the right frontal cortex in response to familiar words was highly correlated with vocabulary growth at 18, 21, 24, and 27 months. Specifically, higher activation to familiar words in the 150-300 ms interval was associated with faster vocabulary growth, reflecting processing efficiency, whereas higher activation to familiar words in the 600-900 ms interval was associated with slower vocabulary growth, reflecting cognitive effort. These findings inform research and theory on the involvement of right frontal cortex in specific cognitive processes and individual differences related to attention that may play an important role in the development of left-lateralized word processing.

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References

1996Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants 2004Early language acquisition: cracking the speech code 2002Infant sensitivity to distributional information can affect phonetic discrimination 2003Foreign-language experience in infancy: Effects of short-term exposure and social interaction on phonetic learning 2002Functional Neuroimaging of Speech Perception in Infants 2007Phonetic learning as a pathway to language: new data and native language magnet theory expanded (NLM-e)2010Brain Mechanisms in Early Language Acquisition 2006Picking up speed in understanding: Speech processing efficiency and vocabulary growth across the 2nd year.

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