Segmental and suprasegmental features in speech perception in Cantonese-speaking second graders: An ERP study

Using a multiple‐deviant oddball paradigm, this study examined second graders' brain responses to Cantonese speech. We aimed to address the question of whether a change in a consonant or lexical tone could be automatically detected by children. We measured auditory mismatch responses to place o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychophysiology 2014-11, Vol.51 (11), p.1158-1168
Main Authors: Tong, Xiuhong, McBride, Catherine, Lee, Chia-Ying, Zhang, Juan, Shuai, Lan, Maurer, Urs, Chung, Kevin K. H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain
Cantonese
Child
Chinese languages
Elementary school students
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Evoked Potentials, Auditory - physiology
Female
Hong Kong
Humans
Male
MMN
Neuropsychology
p-MMR
Perceptions
Segmental
Speech
Speech perception
Speech Perception - physiology
Suprasegmental
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Summary:Using a multiple‐deviant oddball paradigm, this study examined second graders' brain responses to Cantonese speech. We aimed to address the question of whether a change in a consonant or lexical tone could be automatically detected by children. We measured auditory mismatch responses to place of articulation and voice onset time (VOT), reflecting segmental perception, as well as Cantonese lexical tones including level tone and contour tone, reflecting suprasegmental perception. The data showed that robust mismatch negativities (MMNs) were elicited by all deviants in the time window of 300–500 ms in second graders. Moreover, relative to the standard stimuli, the VOT deviant elicited a robust positive mismatch response, and the level tone deviant elicited a significant MMN in the time window of 150–300 ms. The findings suggest that Hong Kong second graders were sensitive to neural discriminations of speech sounds both at the segmental and suprasegmental levels.
ISSN:0048-5772
1469-8986
1540-5958
DOI:10.1111/psyp.12257