Examining developmental patterns of neural activation during the discrimination of native and non-native speech contrasts by American–English adults and children

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2002-11, Vol.112 (5_Supplement), p.2387-2387
• Main Authors: Pruitt, Jesica C., Nelson, Tobey L., Pruitt, John S., Kuhl, Patricia K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4779715

To better understand the effects of language experience on speech perception, the present study examined developmental differences in the neural processes underlying the perception of native and non-native speech contrasts. Native American-English speaking adults and pre- and post-pubescent children participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which they discriminated non-native consonants from Hindi, Spanish, and Mandarin. The non-native contrasts differed in place of articulation, voicing, and manner. For comparison with the neural data, behavioral data were collected outside the scanner for the non-native and a native contrast (AE r/l) using a child-friendly computer-based testing method that presented the same contrasts to all subject groups. Results are discussed with regard to developmental differences in the location and extent of activation patterns for the native and non-native contrasts and the level of difficulty for the individual contrasts. [Work supported by NICHD grant HD37943 to Patricia K. Kuhl and Talaris Research Institute.]