Cerebral asymmetry for speech in neonates: A behavioral measure

This paper reports a finding of hemispheric brain asymmetry for speech in short-gestation infants (mean gestational age = 36 weeks). Using a new measure—degree of reduction in limb tremors following exposure to speech stimuli compared to two control groups, one hearing orchestral music, the other no...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain and language 1980-03, Vol.9 (2), p.281-288
Main Authors: Segalowitz, S.J, Chapman, J.S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Auditory Perception - physiology
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Female
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature - psychology
Male
Movement
Music
Speech Perception - physiology
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Summary:This paper reports a finding of hemispheric brain asymmetry for speech in short-gestation infants (mean gestational age = 36 weeks). Using a new measure—degree of reduction in limb tremors following exposure to speech stimuli compared to two control groups, one hearing orchestral music, the other no patterned stimuli—we found that speech disproportionately affected right limb movements. It is not clear whether the effect is due to asymmetries in cortical or subcortical processing. This provides evidence against the notion that brain specialization for language functions necessarily appears over time; rather, specialization for some functions (e.g., speech reception) must be present at birth.
ISSN:0093-934X
1090-2155
DOI:10.1016/0093-934X(80)90147-9