Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Development of language-specific phoneme representations in the infant brain

  • Scientific Correspondence
  • Published:

From Nature Neuroscience

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Abstract

Studies using behavioral methods, such as head-turning experiments, in which children are conditioned to turn their heads toward the sound source when they detect a change in the sound, have shown that environment has an important effect on how infants perceive language1,2,3,4. Young infants are able to discriminate almost all phonetic contrasts, whereas older infants discriminate better between phonemes that occur in the language that they normally hear, rather than foreign-language phonemes. Here we demonstrate the development of language-specific 'memory traces' in the brains of the same group of infants between six months and one year of age.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1: Stimuli used in the experiment.
Figure 2: The MMN amplitude at the central Cz electrode (grand-average, deviant-standard difference waveform, averaged across nine infants) reflects the development of language-specific memory traces in Finnish infants.
Figure 3: The MMN peak amplitude (at Cz) as a function of the deviant stimulus.

References

  1. Kuhl, P. K., Williams, K. A. & Lacerda, F. Science 255, 606– 608 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Werker, J. F. & Tees, R. C. Infant Behav. Dev. 7 , 49–63 (1984).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Werker, J. F. & Lalonde, C. E. Dev. Psychol. 24, 672–683 (1988).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Best, T. C., McRoberts, G. W. & Sithole, N. M. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 14, 345–360 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Iivonen, A. Phonetica 52, 221–224 ( 1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Näätänen, R. et al. Nature 385, 432–434 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Näätänen, R., Gaillard, A. W. K. & Mäntysalo, S. Acta Psychol. 4, 313–329 (1978).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Näätänen, R. in Attention and Brain Function (Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Tiitinen, H., May, P., Reinikainen, K. & Näätänen, R. Nature 372, 90–92 ( 1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Kraus, N. et al. Science 273, 971–973 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Cheour, M. et al. Psychophysiology 33, 478– 481 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Cheour, M. et al. Neuroreport 8, 1785– 1787 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Polka, L. & Werker, J. F. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 20, 421–435 ( 1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Strange, W. & Dittman, S., Percept. Psychophys. 36, 131–145 (1984).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Werker, J. F. in The Development of Speech Perception (Bradford Book, Massachusetts, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland. We thank P. Alku for producing the stimuli and Sanna Kurjenluoma, Nina Penttinen and Marieke Saher for data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology University of Helsinki, Cognitive Brain Research Unit, FIN-00014, Finland

    Marie Cheour, Rita Ceponiene, Anne Lehtokoski, Kimmo Alho & Risto Näätänen

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Tartu, Estonia

    Aavo Luuk & Jüri Allik

  3. BioMag laboratory, P.O.Box 508, HYKS, 00029, Finland

    Kimmo Alho & Risto Näätänen

Authors
  1. Marie Cheour
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rita Ceponiene
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Anne Lehtokoski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Aavo Luuk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jüri Allik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Kimmo Alho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Risto Näätänen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marie Cheour.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cheour, M., Ceponiene, R., Lehtokoski, A. et al. Development of language-specific phoneme representations in the infant brain. Nat Neurosci 1, 351–353 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/1561

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1561

  • Springer Nature America, Inc.

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation