Reading instruction causes changes in category-selective visual cortex

Education sculpts specialized neural circuits for skills like reading that are critical to success in modern society but were not anticipated by the selective pressures of evolution. Does the emergence of brain regions that selectively process novel visual stimuli like words occur at the expense of cortical representations of other stimuli like faces and objects? "Neuronal Recycling" predicts that learning to read should enhance the response to words in ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) and decrease the response to other visual categories such as faces and objects. To test this hypothesis, and more broadly to understand the changes that are induced by the early stages of literacy instruction, we conducted a randomized controlled trial with pre-school children (five years of age). Children were randomly assigned to intervention programs focused on either reading skills or oral language skills and magnetoencephalography (MEG) data collected before and after the intervention was used to measure visual responses to images of text, faces, and objects. We found that being taught reading versus oral language skills induced different patterns of change in category-selective regions of visual cortex, but that there was not a clear tradeoff between the response to words versus other categories. Within a predefined region of VOTC corresponding to the visual word form area (VWFA) we found that the relative amplitude of responses to text, faces, and objects changed, but increases in the response to words were not linked to decreases in the response to faces or objects. How these changes play out over a longer timescale is still unknown but, based on these data, we can surmise that high-level visual cortex undergoes rapid changes as children enter school and begin establishing new skills like literacy.

Infants' brain responses to social interaction predict future language growth

In face-to-face interactions with infants, human adults exhibit a species-specific communicative signal. Adults present a distinctive "social ensemble": they use infant-directed speech (parentese), respond contingently to infants' actions and vocalizations, and react positively through mutual eye-gaze and smiling. Studies suggest that this social ensemble is essential for initial language learning. Our hypothesis is that the social ensemble attracts attentional systems to speech and that sensorimotor systems prepare infants to respond vocally, both of which advance language learning. Using infant magnetoencephalography (MEG), we measure 5-month-old infants' neural responses during live verbal face-to-face (F2F) interaction with an adult (social condition) and during a control (nonsocial condition) in which the adult turns away from the infant to speak to another person. Using a longitudinal design, we tested whether infants' brain responses to these conditions at 5 months of age predicted their language growth at five future time points. Brain areas involved in attention (right hemisphere inferior frontal, right hemisphere superior temporal, and right hemisphere inferior parietal) show significantly higher theta activity in the social versus nonsocial condition. Critical to theory, we found that infants' neural activity in response to F2F interaction in attentional and sensorimotor regions significantly predicted future language development into the third year of life, more than 2 years after the initial measurements. We develop a view of early language acquisition that underscores the centrality of the social ensemble, and we offer new insight into the neurobiological components that link infants' language learning to their early brain functioning during social interaction.

Mother-infant social and language interactions at 3 months are associated with infants' productive language development in the third year of life

Previous studies underscore the importance of social interactions for child language development-particularly interactions characterized by maternal sensitivity, infant-directed speech (IDS), and conversational turn-taking (CT) in one-on-one contexts. Although infants engage in such interactions from the third month after birth, the prospective link between speech input and maternal sensitivity in the first half year of life and later language development has been understudied. We hypothesized that social interactions embodying maternal sensitivity, IDS and CTs in the first 3 months of life, are significantly associated with later language development and tested this using a longitudinal design. Using a sample of 40 3-month-old infants, we assessed maternal sensitivity during a structured mother-infant one-on-one (1:1) interaction based on a well-validated scoring system (the Coding Interactive Behavior system). Language input (IDS, CT) was assessed during naturally occurring interactions at home using the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system. Language outcome measures were obtained from 18 to 30 months of age using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory. Three novel findings emerged. First, maternal sensitivity at 3 months was significantly associated with infants' productive language scores at 18, 21, 24, 27, and 30 months of age. Second, LENA-recorded IDS during mother-infant 1:1 interaction in the home environment at 3 months of age was positively correlated with productive language scores at 24, 27, and 30 months of age. Third, mother-infant CTs during 1:1 interaction was significantly associated with infants' productive language scores at 27 and 30 months of age. We propose that infants' social attention to speech during this early period-enhanced by sensitive maternal one-on-one interactions and IDS-are potent factors in advancing language development.

Parentese in infancy predicts 5-year language complexity and conversational turns

Parental input is considered a key predictor of language achievement during the first years of life, yet relatively few studies have assessed its effects on longer-term outcomes. We assess the effects of parental quantity of speech, use of parentese (the acoustically exaggerated, clear, and higher-pitched speech), and turn-taking in infancy, on child language at 5 years. Using a longitudinal dataset of daylong LENA recordings collected with the same group of English-speaking infants (N=44) at 6, 10, 14, 18, 24 months and then again at 5 years, we demonstrate that parents' consistent (defined as stable and high) use of parentese in infancy was a potent predictor of lexical diversity, mean length of utterance, and frequency of conversational turn-taking between children and adults at Kindergarten entry. Together, these findings highlight the potential importance of a high-quality language learning environment in infancy for success at the start of formal schooling.

A comparison of automatic and manual measures of turn-taking in monolingual and bilingual contexts

The Language ENvironment Analysis system (LENA) records children's language environment and provides an automatic estimate of adult-child conversational turn count (CTC) by automatically identifying adult and child speech in close temporal proximity. To assess the reliability of this measure, we examine correlation and agreement between LENA's CTC estimates and manual measurement of adult-child turn-taking in two corpora collected in the USA: a bilingual corpus of Spanish-English-speaking families with infants between 4 and 22 months (n = 37), and a corpus of monolingual families with English-speaking 5-year-olds (n = 56). In each corpus for each child, 100 30-second segments were extracted from daylong recordings in two ways, yielding a total of 9300 minutes of manually annotated audio. LENA's CTC estimate for the same segments was obtained through the LENA software. The two measures of CTC had low correlations for the segments from the monolingual 5-year-olds sampled in both ways, and somewhat higher correlations for the bilingual samples. LENA substantially overestimated CTC on average, relative to manual measurement, for three out of four analysis conditions, and limits of agreement were wide in all cases. Segment-level analyses demonstrated that accidental contiguity had the largest individual impact on LENA's average CTC error, affecting 12-17% of analyzed segments. Other factors significantly contributing to CTC error were speech from other children, presence of multiple adults, and presence of electronic media. These results indicate wide discrepancies between LENA's CTC estimates and manual CTCs, and call into question the comparability of LENA's CTC measure across participants, conditions, and developmental time points.

Parent coaching from 6 to 18 months improves child language outcomes through 30 months of age

Interventions focused on the home language environment have been shown to improve a number of child language outcomes in the first years of life. However, data on the longer-term effects of the intervention are still somewhat limited. The current study examines child vocabulary and complex speech outcomes (N = 59) during the year following completion of a parent-coaching intervention, which was previously found to increase the quantity of parent-child conversational turns and to improve child language outcomes through 18 months of age. Measures of parental language input, child speech output, and parent-child conversational turn-taking were manually coded from naturalistic home recordings (Language Environment Analysis System, LENA) at regular 4-month intervals when children were 6- to 24-months old. Child language skills were assessed using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) at four time-points following the final intervention session (at 18, 24, 27, and 30 months). Vocabulary size and growth from 18 to 30 months was greater in the intervention group, even after accounting for differences in child language ability during the intervention period. The intervention group also scored higher on measures of speech length and grammatical complexity, and these effects were mediated by 18-month vocabulary. Intervention was associated with increased parent-child conversational turn-taking in home recordings at 14 months, and mediation analysis suggested that 14-month conversational turn-taking accounted for intervention-related differences in subsequent vocabulary. Together, the results suggest enduring, positive effects of parental language intervention and underscore the importance of interactive, conversational language experience during the first 2 years of life. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Parent coaching was provided as part of a home language intervention when children were 6-18 months of age. Naturalistic home language recordings showed increased parent-child conversational turn-taking in the intervention group at 14 months of age. Measures of productive vocabulary and complex speech indicated more advanced expressive language skills in the intervention group through 30 months of age, a full year after the final intervention session. Conversational turn-taking at 14 months predicted subsequent child vocabulary and accounted for differences in vocabulary size across the intervention and control groups.

Language Experience during Infancy Predicts White Matter Myelination at Age 2 Years

Parental input is considered a key predictor of language achievement during the first years of life, yet relatively few studies have assessed the effects of parental language input and parent-infant interactions on early brain development. We examined the relationship between measures of parent and child language, obtained from naturalistic home recordings at child ages 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, and estimates of white matter myelination, derived from quantitative MRI at age 2 years (mean = 26.30 months, SD = 1.62, N = 22). Analysis of the white matter focused on dorsal pathways associated with expressive language development and long-term language ability, namely, the left arcuate fasciculus (AF) and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). Frequency of parent-infant conversational turns (CT) uniquely predicted myelin density estimates in both the AF and SLF. Moreover, the effect of CT remained significant while controlling for total adult speech and child speech-related utterances, suggesting a specific role for interactive language experience, rather than simply speech exposure or production. An exploratory analysis of 18 additional tracts, including the right AF and SLF, indicated a high degree of anatomic specificity. Longitudinal analyses of parent and child language variables indicated an effect of CT as early as 6 months of age, as well as an ongoing effect over infancy. Together, these results link parent-infant conversational turns to white matter myelination at age 2 years, and suggest that early, interactive experiences with language uniquely contribute to the development of white matter associated with long-term language ability.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Children's earliest experiences with language are thought to have profound and lasting developmental effects. Recent studies suggest that intervention can increase the quality of parental language input and improve children's learning outcomes. However, important questions remain about the optimal timing of intervention, and the relationship between specific aspects of language experience and brain development. We report that parent-infant turn-taking during home language interactions correlates with myelination of language related white matter pathways through age 2 years. Effects were independent of total speech exposure and infant vocalizations and evident starting at 6 months of age, suggesting that structured language interactions throughout infancy may uniquely support the ongoing development of brain systems critical to long-term language ability.

Language input in late infancy scaffolds emergent literacy skills and predicts reading related white matter development

Longitudinal studies provide the unique opportunity to test whether early language provides a scaffolding for the acquisition of the ability to read. This study tests the hypothesis that parental language input during the first 2 years of life predicts emergent literacy skills at 5 years of age, and that white matter development observed early in the 3rd year (at 26 months) may help to account for these effects. We collected naturalistic recordings of parent and child language at 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months using the Language ENvironment Analysis system (LENA) in a group of typically developing infants. We then examined the relationship between language measures during infancy and follow-up measures of reading related skills at age 5 years, in the same group of participants (N = 53). A subset of these children also completed diffusion and quantitative MRI scans at age 2 years (N = 20). Within this subgroup, diffusion tractography was used to identify white matter pathways that are considered critical to language and reading development, namely, the arcuate fasciculus (AF), superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi, and inferior occipital-frontal fasciculus. Quantitative macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) mapping was used to characterize myelin density within these separately defined regions of interest. The longitudinal data were then used to test correlations between early language input and output, white matter measures at age 2 years, and pre-literacy skills at age 5 years. Parental language input, child speech output, and parent-child conversational turns correlated with pre-literacy skills, as well as myelin density estimates within the left arcuate and superior longitudinal fasciculus. Mediation analyses indicated that the left AF accounted for longitudinal relationships between infant home language measures and 5-year letter identification and letter-sound knowledge, suggesting that the left AF myelination at 2 years may serve as a mechanism by which early language experience supports emergent literacy.

Brain myelination at 7 months of age predicts later language development

Between 6 and 12 months of age there are dramatic changes in infants' processing of language. The neurostructural underpinnings of these changes are virtually unknown. The objectives of this study were to (1) examine changes in brain myelination during this developmental period and (2) examine the relationship between myelination during this period and later language development. Macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) was used as a marker of myelination. Whole-brain MPF maps were obtained with 1.25 mm3 isotropic spatial resolution from typically developing children at 7 and 11 months of age. Effective myelin density was calculated from MPF based on a linear relationship known from the literature. Voxel-based analyses were used to identify longitudinal changes in myelin density and to calculate correlations between myelin density at these ages and later language development. Increases in myelin density were more predominant in white matter than in gray matter. A strong predictive relationship was found between myelin density at 7 months of age, language production at 24 and 30 months of age, and rate of language growth. No relationships were found between myelin density at 11 months, or change in myelin density between 7 and 11 months of age, and later language measures. Our findings suggest that critical changes in brain structure may precede periods of pronounced change in early language skills.

Development of executive function-relevant skills is related to both neural structure and function in infants

The development of skills related to executive function (EF) in infancy, including their emergence, underlying neural mechanisms, and interconnections to other cognitive skills, is an area of increasing research interest. Here, we report on findings from a multidimensional dataset demonstrating that infants' behavioral performance on a flexible learning task improved across development and that the task performance is highly correlated with both neural structure and neural function. The flexible learning task probed infants' ability to learn two different associations, concurrently, over 16 trials, requiring multiple skills relevant to EF. We examined infants' neural structure by measuring myelin density in the brain, using a novel macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) mapping method. We further examined an important neural function of speech processing by characterizing the mismatch response (MMR) to speech contrasts using magnetoencephalography (MEG). All measurements were performed longitudinally in monolingual English-learning infants at 7- and 11-months of age. At the group level, 11-month-olds, but not 7-month-olds, demonstrated evidence of learning both associations in the behavioral task. Myelin density in the prefrontal region at 7 months of age was found to be highly predictive of behavioral task performance at 11 months of age, suggesting that myelination may support the development of these skills. Furthermore, a machine-learning regression analysis revealed that individual differences in the behavioral task are predicted by concurrent neural speech processing at both ages, suggesting that these skills do not develop in isolation. Together, these cross-modality results revealed novel insights into EF-related skills. HIGHLIGHT: Monolingual infants demonstrated flexible learning on a task requiring executive function skills at 11 months, but not at 7 months. Infants' myelin density at 7 months is highly predictive of their behavioral performance in the flexible learning task at 11 months of age. Individual differences in the flexible learning task performance are also correlated with concurrent neural processing of speech at both ages.

Dual-MEG interbrain synchronization during turn-taking verbal interactions between mothers and children

Verbal interaction and imitation are essential for language learning and development in young children. However, it is unclear how mother-child dyads synchronize oscillatory neural activity at the cortical level in turn-based speech interactions. Our study investigated interbrain synchrony in mother-child pairs during a turn-taking paradigm of verbal imitation. A dual-MEG (magnetoencephalography) setup was used to measure brain activity from interactive mother-child pairs simultaneously. Interpersonal neural synchronization was compared between socially interactive and noninteractive tasks (passive listening to pure tones). Interbrain networks showed increased synchronization during the socially interactive compared to noninteractive conditions in the theta and alpha bands. Enhanced interpersonal brain synchrony was observed in the right angular gyrus, right triangular, and left opercular parts of the inferior frontal gyrus. Moreover, these parietal and frontal regions appear to be the cortical hubs exhibiting a high number of interbrain connections. These cortical areas could serve as a neural marker for the interactive component in verbal social communication. The present study is the first to investigate mother-child interbrain neural synchronization during verbal social interactions using a dual-MEG setup. Our results advance our understanding of turn-taking during verbal interaction between mother-child dyads and suggest a role for social "gating" in language learning.

Development of infants' neural speech processing and its relation to later language skills: A MEG study

The 'sensitive period' for phonetic learning (∼6-12 months) is one of the earliest milestones in language acquisition where infants start to become specialized in processing speech sounds in their native language. In the last decade, advancements in neuroimaging technologies for infants are starting to shed light on the underlying neural mechanisms supporting this important learning period. The current study reports on a large longitudinal dataset with the aim to replicate and extend on two important questions: 1) what are the developmental changes during the 'sensitive period' for native and nonnative speech processing? 2) how does native and nonnative speech processing in infants predict later language outcomes? Fifty-four infants were recruited at 7 months of age and their neural processing of speech was measured using Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Specifically, the neural sensitivity to a native and a nonnative speech contrast was indexed by the mismatch response (MMR). They repeated the measurement again at 11 months of age and their language development was further tracked from 12 months to 30 months of age using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI). Using an a priori Region-of-Interest (ROI) approach, we observed significant increases for the Native MMR in the left inferior frontal region (IF) and superior temporal region (ST) from 7 to 11 months, but not for the Nonnative MMR. Complementary whole brain comparison revealed more widespread developmental changes for both contrasts. However, only individual differences in the left IF and ST for the Nonnative MMR at 11 months of age were significant predictors of individual vocabulary growth up to 30 months of age. An exploratory machine-learning based analysis further revealed that whole brain time series for both Native and Nonnative contrasts can robustly predict later outcomes, but with very different underlying spatial-temporal patterns. The current study extends our current knowledge and suggests that native and nonnative speech processing may follow different developmental trajectories and utilize different mechanisms that are relevant for later language skills.

Language experience during the sensitive period narrows infants' sensory encoding of lexical tones-Music intervention reverses it

The sensitive period for phonetic learning (6∼12 months), evidenced by improved native speech processing and declined non-native speech processing, represents an early milestone in language acquisition. We examined the extent that sensory encoding of speech is altered by experience during this period by testing two hypotheses: (1) early sensory encoding of non-native speech declines as infants gain native-language experience, and (2) music intervention reverses this decline. We longitudinally measured the frequency-following response (FFR), a robust indicator of early sensory encoding along the auditory pathway, to a Mandarin lexical tone in 7- and 11-months-old monolingual English-learning infants. Infants received either no intervention (language-experience group) or music intervention (music-intervention group) randomly between FFR recordings. The language-experience group exhibited the expected decline in FFR pitch-tracking accuracy to the Mandarin tone, while the music-intervention group did not. Our results support both hypotheses and demonstrate that both language and music experiences alter infants' speech encoding.

The emergence of idiosyncratic patterns in the frequency-following response during the first year of life

The frequency-following response (FFR) is a scalp-recorded signal that reflects phase-locked activity from neurons across the auditory system. In addition to capturing information about sounds, the FFR conveys biometric information, reflecting individual differences in auditory processing. To investigate the development of FFR biometric patterns, we trained a pattern recognition model to recognize infants (N = 16) from FFRs collected at 7 and 11 months. Model recognition scores were used to index the robustness of FFR biometric patterns at each time. Results showed better recognition scores at 11 months, demonstrating the emergence of robust FFR idiosyncratic patterns during this first year of life.

Reduced Glx and GABA Inductions in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Caudate Nucleus Are Related to Impaired Control of Attention in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impairs the control of attention and behavioral inhibition in affected individuals. Recent genome-wide association findings have revealed an association between glutamate and GABA gene sets and ADHD symptoms. Consistently, people with ADHD show altered glutamate and GABA content in the brain circuitry that is important for attention control function. Yet, it remains unknown how glutamate and GABA content in the attention control circuitry change when people are controlling their attention, and whether these changes can predict impaired attention control in people with ADHD. To study these questions, we recruited 18 adults with ADHD (31-51 years) and 16 adults without ADHD (28-54 years). We studied glutamate + glutamine (Glx) and GABA content in the fronto-striatal circuitry while participants performed attention control tasks. We found that Glx and GABA concentrations at rest did not differ between participants with ADHD or without ADHD. However, while participants were performing the attention control tasks, participants with ADHD showed smaller Glx and GABA increases than participants without ADHD. Notably, smaller GABA increases in participants with ADHD significantly predicted their poor task performance. Together, these findings provide the first demonstration showing that attention control deficits in people with ADHD may be related to insufficient responses of the GABAergic system in the fronto-striatal circuitry.

Infant brain imaging using magnetoencephalography: Challenges, solutions, and best practices

The excellent temporal resolution and advanced spatial resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) makes it an excellent tool to study the neural dynamics underlying cognitive processes in the developing brain. Nonetheless, a number of challenges exist when using MEG to image infant populations. There is a persistent belief that collecting MEG data with infants presents a number of limitations and challenges that are difficult to overcome. Due to this notion, many researchers either avoid conducting infant MEG research or believe that, in order to collect high-quality data, they must impose limiting restrictions on the infant or the experimental paradigm. In this article, we discuss the various challenges unique to imaging awake infants and young children with MEG, and share general best-practice guidelines and recommendations for data collection, acquisition, preprocessing, and analysis. The current article is focused on methodology that allows investigators to test the sensory, perceptual, and cognitive capacities of awake and moving infants. We believe that such methodology opens the pathway for using MEG to provide mechanistic explanations for the complex behavior observed in awake, sentient, and dynamically interacting infants, thus addressing core topics in developmental cognitive neuroscience.

Can an Online Reading Camp Teach 5-Year-Old Children to Read?

Literacy is an essential skill. Learning to read is a requirement for becoming a self-providing human being. However, while spoken language is acquired naturally with exposure to language without explicit instruction, reading and writing need to be taught explicitly. Decades of research have shown that well-structured teaching of phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and letter-to-sound mapping is crucial in building solid foundations for the acquisition of reading. During the COVID-19 pandemic, children worldwide did not have access to consistent and structured teaching and are, as a consequence, predicted to be behind in the development of their reading skills. Subsequent evidence confirms this prediction. With the best evidence-based practice in mind, we developed an online version of a well-structured early literacy training program (Reading Camp) for 5-year-old children. This 2-week online Reading Camp program is designed for pre-K children. It incorporates critical components of the fundamental skills essential to learning to read and is taught online in an interactive, multi-sensory, and peer-learning environment. We measure the participants' literacy skills and other related skills before and after participating in the online Reading Camp and compare the results to no-treatment controls. Results show that children who participated in the online Reading Camp improved significantly on all parameters in relation to controls. Our results demonstrate that a well-structured evidence-based reading instruction program, even if online and short-term, benefits 5-year-old children in learning to read. With the potential to scale up this online program, the evidence presented here, alongside previous evidence for the efficacy of the in-person program, indicates that the online Reading Camp program is effective and can be used to tackle a variety of questions regarding structural and functional plasticity in the early stages of reading acquisition.

Reduced Theta Sampling in Infants at Risk for Dyslexia across the Sensitive Period of Native Phoneme Learning

Research on children and adults with developmental dyslexia-a specific difficulty in learning to read and spell-suggests that phonological deficits in dyslexia are linked to basic auditory deficits in temporal sampling. However, it remains undetermined whether such deficits are already present in infancy, especially during the sensitive period when the auditory system specializes in native phoneme perception. Because dyslexia is strongly hereditary, it is possible to examine infants for early predictors of the condition before detectable symptoms emerge. This study examines low-level auditory temporal sampling in infants at risk for dyslexia across the sensitive period of native phoneme learning. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found deficient auditory sampling at theta in at-risk infants at both 6 and 12 months, indicating atypical auditory sampling at the syllabic rate in those infants across the sensitive period for native-language phoneme learning. This interpretation is supported by our additional finding that auditory sampling at theta predicted later vocabulary comprehension, nonlinguistic communication and the ability to combine words. Our results indicate a possible early marker of risk for dyslexia.

Designing Virtual, Moderated Studies of Early Childhood Development

With increased public access to the Internet and digital tools, web-based research has gained prevalence over the past decades. However, digital adaptations for developmental research involving children have received relatively little attention. In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic led to reduced social contact, causing many developmental university research laboratories to close, the scientific community began to investigate online research methods that would allow continued work. Limited resources and documentation of factors that are essential for developmental research (e.g., caregiver involvement, informed assent, controlling environmental distractions at home for children) make the transition from in-person to online research especially difficult for developmental scientists. Recognizing this, we aim to contribute to the field by describing three separate moderated virtual behavioral assessments in children ranging from 4 to 13years of age that were highly successful. The three studies encompass speech production, speech perception, and reading fluency. However varied the domains we chose, the different age groups targeted by each study and different methodological approaches, the success of our virtual adaptations shared certain commonalities with regard to how to achieve informed consent, how to plan parental involvement, how to design studies that attract and hold children's attention and valid data collection procedures. Our combined work suggests principles for future facilitation of online developmental work. Considerations derived from these studies can serve as documented points of departure that inform and encourage additional virtual adaptations in this field.

Quantitative Assessment of the Intracranial Vasculature of Infants and Adults Using iCafe (Intracranial Artery Feature Extraction)

Comprehensive quantification of intracranial artery features may help to assess and understand regional variations of blood supply during early brain development and aging. We analyzed vasculature features of 27 healthy infants during natural sleep, 13 infants at 7-months (7.3 ± 1.0 month), and 14 infants at 12-months (11.7 ± 0.4 month), and 13 older healthy, awake adults (62.8 ± 8.7 years) to investigate age-related vascular differences as a preliminary study of vascular changes associated with brain development. 3D time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) acquisitions were processed in iCafe, a technique to quantify arterial features (http://icafe.clatfd.cn), to characterize intracranial vasculature. Overall, adult subjects were found to have increased ACA length, tortuosity, and vasculature density compared to both 7-month-old and 12-month-old infants, as well as MCA length compared to 7-month-old infants. No brain laterality differences were observed for any vascular measures in either infant or adult age groups. Reduced skull and brain sharpness, indicative of increased head motion and brain/vascular pulsation, respectively, were observed in infants but not correlated with length, tortuosity, or vasculature density measures. Quantitative analysis of TOF MRA using iCafe may provide an objective approach for systematic study of infant brain vascular development and for clinical assessment of adult and pediatric brain vascular diseases.

Infants' neural speech discrimination predicts individual differences in grammar ability at 6 years of age and their risk of developing speech-language disorders

The 'sensitive period' for phonetic learning posits that between 6 and 12 months of age, infants' discrimination of native and nonnative speech sounds diverge. Individual differences in this dynamic processing of speech have been shown to predict later language acquisition up to 30 months of age, using parental surveys. Yet, it is unclear whether infant speech discrimination could predict longer-term language outcome and risk for developmental speech-language disorders, which affect up to 16 % of the population. The current study reports a prospective prediction of speech-language skills at a much later age-6 years-old-from the same children's nonnative speech discrimination at 11 months-old, indexed by MEG mismatch responses. Children's speech-language skills at 6 were comprehensively evaluated by a speech-language pathologist in two ways: individual differences in spoken grammar, and the presence versus absence of speech-language disorders. Results showed that the prefrontal MEG mismatch response at 11 months not only significantly predicted individual differences in spoken grammar skills at 6 years, but also accurately identified the presence versus absence of speech-language disorders, using a machine-learning classification. These results represent new evidence that advance our theoretical understanding of the neurodevelopmental trajectory of language acquisition and early risk factors for developmental speech-language disorders.

Auditory deficits in infants at risk for dyslexia during a linguistic sensitive period predict future language

Developmental dyslexia, a specific difficulty in learning to read and spell, has a strong hereditary component, which makes it possible to examine infants for early predictors of the condition even prior to the emergence of detectable symptoms. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found smaller and shorter neural responses to simple sounds in infants at risk for dyslexia at 6 as compared to 12 months of age, a pattern that was reversed in age-matched controls. The findings indicate atypical auditory processing in at-risk infants across the sensitive period for native-language phoneme learning. This pattern was robust and localized to the same cortical areas regardless of the modeling parameters/algorithms used to estimate the current distribution underlying the measured activity. Its localization to left temporal and left frontal brain regions indicates a potential impact of atypical auditory processing on early language learning and later language skills because language functions are typically lateralized to the left hemisphere. This interpretation is supported by our further finding that atypical auditory responses in at-risk infants consistently predicted syntactic processing between 18 and 30 months and word production at 18 and 21 months of age. These results suggest a possible early marker of risk for dyslexia in at-risk infants.

Comparing Automatic and Manual Measures of Parent-Infant Conversational Turns: A Word of Caution

The Language ENvironment Analysis system (LENA) records children’s language environment and provides an automatic estimate of adult–child conversational turn count (CTC). The present study compares LENA’s CTC estimate to manually coded CTC on a sample of 70 English‐speaking infants recorded longitudinally at 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months of age. At each age, LENA’s CTC was significantly higher than manually coded CTC (all ps < .001, Cohen’s ds: 0.9–2.05), with the largest discrepancies between the two methods observed at younger ages. The Limits of Agreement Analyses confirm wide disagreements between the two methods, highlighting potential problems with automatic measurement of parent–infant verbal interaction. These findings suggest that future studies should validate LENA’s CTC estimates with manual coding.

Myelin development in cerebral gray and white matter during adolescence and late childhood

Myelin development during adolescence is becoming an area of growing interest in view of its potential relationship to cognition, behavior, and learning. While recent investigations suggest that both white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) undergo protracted myelination during adolescence, quantitative relations between myelin development in WM and GM have not been previously studied. We quantitatively characterized the dependence of cortical GM, WM, and subcortical myelin density across the brain on age, gender, and puberty status during adolescence with the use of a novel macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) mapping method. Whole-brain MPF maps from a cross-sectional sample of 146 adolescents (age range 9–17 years) were collected. Myelin density was calculated from MPF values in GM and WM of all brain lobes, as well as in subcortical structures. In general, myelination of cortical GM was widespread and more significantly correlated with age than that of WM. Myelination of GM in the parietal lobe was found to have a significantly stronger age dependence than that of GM in the frontal, occipital, temporal and insular lobes. Myelination of WM in the temporal lobe had the strongest association with age as compared to WM in other lobes. Myelin density was found to be higher in males as compared to females when averaged across all cortical lobes, as well as in a bilateral subcortical region. Puberty stage was significantly correlated with myelin density in several cortical areas and in the subcortical GM. These findings point to significant differences in the trajectories of myelination of GM and WM across brain regions and suggest that cortical GM myelination plays a dominant role during adolescent development.

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

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.

Exposure to a second language in infancy alters speech production

We evaluated the impact of exposure to a second language on infants' emerging speech production skills. We compared speech produced by three groups of 12-month-old infants while they interacted with interlocutors who spoke to them in Spanish and English: monolingual English-learning infants who had previously received 5 hours of exposure to a second language (Spanish), English- and Spanish-learning simultaneous bilinguals, and monolingual English-learning infants without any exposure to Spanish. Our results showed that the monolingual English-learning infants with short-term exposure to Spanish and the bilingual infants, but not the monolingual English-learning infants without exposure to Spanish, flexibly matched the prosody of their babbling to that of a Spanish- or English-speaking interlocutor. Our findings demonstrate the nature and extent of benefits for language learning from early exposure to two languages. We discuss the implications of these findings for language organization in infants learning two languages.

Neural and physiological relations observed in musical beat and meter processing

INTRODUCTION

Music is ubiquitous and powerful in the world's cultures. Music listening involves abundant information processing (e.g., pitch, rhythm) in the central nervous system and can also induce changes in the physiology, such as heart rate and perspiration. Yet, previous studies tended to examine music information processing in the brain separately from physiological changes. In the current study, we focused on the temporal structure of music (i.e., beat and meter) and examined the physiology, neural processing, and, most importantly, the relation between the two areas.

METHODS

Simultaneous MEG and ECG data were collected from a group of adults (N = 15) while they passively listened to duple and triple rhythmic patterns. To characterize physiology, we measured heart rate variability (HRV), indexing the parasympathetic nervous system function (PSNS). To characterize neural processing of beat and meter, we examined the neural entertainment and calculated the beat-to-meter ratio to index the relation between beat-level and meter-level entrainment. Specifically, the current study investigated three related questions: (a) whether listening to musical rhythms affects HRV; (b) whether the neural beat-to-meter ratio differed between metrical conditions, and (c) whether neural beat-to-meter ratio is related to HRV.

RESULTS

Results suggest that while at the group level, both HRV and neural processing are highly similar across metrical conditions, at the individual level, neural beat-to-meter ratio significantly predicts HRV, establishing a neural-physiological link.

CONCLUSION

This observed link is discussed under the theoretical "neurovisceral integration model," and it provides important new perspectives in music cognition and auditory neuroscience research.

Parent coaching increases conversational turns and advances infant language development

Parental language input is one of the best predictors of children's language achievement. Parentese, a near-universal speaking style distinguished by higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation, has been documented in speech directed toward young children in many countries. Previous research shows that the use of parentese and parent-child turn-taking are both associated with advances in children's language learning. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether a parent coaching intervention delivered when the infants are 6, 10, and 14 mo of age can enhance parental language input and whether this, in turn, changes the trajectory of child language development between 6 and 18 mo of age. Families of typically developing 6-mo-old infants (n = 71) were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Naturalistic first-person audio recordings of the infants' home language environment and vocalizations were recorded when the infants were 6, 10, 14, and 18 mo of age. After the 6-, 10-, and 14-mo recordings, intervention, but not control parents attended individual coaching appointments to receive linguistic feedback, listen to language input in their own recordings, and discuss age-appropriate activities that promote language growth. Intervention significantly enhanced parental use of parentese and parent-child turn-taking between 6 and 18 mo. Increases in both variables were significantly correlated with children's language growth during the same period, and children's language outcomes at 18 mo. Using parentese, a socially and linguistically enhanced speaking style, improves children's social language turn-taking and language skills. Research-based interventions targeting social aspects of parent-child interactions can enhance language outcomes.

Strength of Ventral Tegmental Area Connections With Left Caudate Nucleus Is Related to Conflict Monitoring

Successful learning requires the control of attention to monitor performance and compare actual versus expected outcomes. Neural activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) has been linked to attention control in animals. However, it is unknown whether the strength of VTA connections is related to conflict monitoring in humans. To study the relationship between VTA connections and conflict monitoring, we acquired diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data on 50 second language learners who we have previously studied. We performed probabilistic tractography to document VTA connections with the dorsal striatum and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and administered the Flanker task in which subjects were required to monitor and report conflicts in visual stimuli. Reaction times (RTs) indexed students’ conflict monitoring. Probabilistic tractography revealed distinct neural connections between the VTA and the dorsal striatum and ACC. Correlational analyses between tractography and flanker RTs revealed that the strength of VTA connections with the left caudate nucleus was negatively correlated with RTs recorded in the presence of conflicts. This provides the first evidence to suggest that VTA connections with the left caudate nucleus are related to conflict monitoring in humans.

Effects of formant proximity and stimulus prototypicality on the neural discrimination of vowels: Evidence from the auditory frequency-following response

Cross-language speech perception experiments indicate that for many vowel contrasts, discrimination is easier when the same pair of vowels is presented in one direction compared to the reverse direction. According to one account, these directional asymmetries reflect a universal bias favoring "focal" vowels (i.e., vowels with prominent spectral peaks formed by the convergence of adjacent formants). An alternative account is that such effects reflect an experience-dependent bias favoring prototypical exemplars of native-language vowel categories. Here, we tested the predictions of these accounts by recording the auditory frequency-following response in English-speaking listeners to two synthetic variants of the vowel /u/ that differed in the proximity of their first and second formants and prototypicality, with stimuli arranged in oddball and reversed-oddball blocks. Participants showed evidence of neural discrimination when the more-focal/less-prototypic /u/ served as the deviant stimulus, but not when the less-focal/more-prototypic /u/ served as the deviant, consistent with the focalization account.

Neuroplasticity, bilingualism, and mental mathematics: A behavior-MEG study

Bilingual experience alters brain structure and enhances certain cognitive functions. Bilingualism can also affect mathematical processing. Reduced accuracy is commonly reported when arithmetic problems are presented in bilinguals' second (L2) vs. first (L1) language. We used MEG brain imaging during mental addition to characterize spatiotemporal dynamics during mental addition in bilingual adults. Numbers were presented auditorally and sequentially in bilinguals' L1 and L2, and brain and behavioral data were collected simultaneously. Behaviorally, bilinguals showed lower accuracy for two-digit addition in L2 compared to L1. Brain data showed stronger response magnitude in L2 versus L1 prior to calculation, especially when two-digit numbers were involved. Brain and behavioral data were significantly correlated. Taken together, our results suggest that differences between languages emerge prior to mathematical calculation, with implications for the role of language in mathematics.

Parent coaching at 6 and 10 months improves language outcomes at 14 months: A randomized controlled trial

Previous studies reveal an association between particular features of parental language input and advances in children's language learning. However, it is not known whether parent coaching aimed to enhance specific input components would (a) successfully increase these components in parents' language input and (b) result in concurrent increases in children's language development. The present randomized controlled trial assigned families of typically developing 6-month-old infants to Intervention (parent coaching) and Control (no coaching) groups. Families were equivalent on socioeconomic status, infants' gender, and infants' age. Parent coaching took place when infants were 6 and 10 months of age, and included quantitative and qualitative linguistic feedback on the amount of child-directed speech, back-and-forth interactions, and parentese speech style. These variables were derived from each family's first-person LENA recordings at home. Input variables and infant language were measured at 6, 10, and 14 months. Parent coaching significantly enhanced language input as measured by two social interaction variables: percentage of speech directed to the child and percentage of parentese speech. These two variables were correlated, and were both related to growth in infant babbling between 6 and 14 months. Intervention infants showed greater growth in babbling than Control infants. Furthermore, at 14 months, Intervention infants produced significantly more words than Control infants, as indicated by LENA recordings and parent report via the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory. Together, these results indicate that parent coaching can enrich specific aspects of parental language input, and can immediately and positively impact child language outcomes. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/7wqR28gPiwo.

Right Forceps Minor and Anterior Thalamic Radiation Predict Executive Function Skills in Young Bilingual Adults

Executive function (EF) skills enhance learning across domains, and are particularly linked to the acquisition of a second language. Previous studies have shown that bilingual individuals show enhanced EF skills in cognitive tasks where they attended a targeted dimension of a stimulus while inhibiting other competing cues. Brain imaging revealed that bilingual young adults’ performances in the Stroop color-naming task were related to the volume of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and inferior frontal lobe. Subjects who had greater white-matter in the frontal cortex showed enhanced performances in the same task, suggesting that brain fiber pathways connecting ACC to the frontal region may be related to the Stroop color-naming task. No studies to date have examined the tissue properties of brain fiber pathways connecting these brain regions and their association with subjects’ EF performances. Importantly, there are no data establishing whether bilingual subjects exhibit different reaction times when words are presented in their first versus second language. To study these questions, we used behavioral and unbiased whole-brain analyses, recruiting 21 Chinese students. Using the Stroop color-naming task, we measured subjects’ reaction times (RTs) in which color names were displayed using fonts that matched the named color (congruent task) or mismatched the color (incongruent task). Students performed the task twice, first in English, the subjects’ second language, then in Chinese, the subjects’ primary language. Results from whole-brain analysis showed that students’ RTs in both the English and Chinese tasks were significantly correlated with the mode of anisotropy (MO) in a brain cluster containing the forceps minor and anterior thalamic radiation in the right hemisphere. We also found that fractional anisotropy (FA) significantly predicted students’ RTs, with higher FA predicting shorter RT. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that right forceps minor and anterior thalamic radiation predict EF skills, suggesting that this brain feature may be important for young bilingual adults using their first and second languages to direct their attention when conflicting cues are present.

Look Who's Talking NOW! Parentese Speech, Social Context, and Language Development Across Time

In previous studies, we found that the social interactions infants experience in their everyday lives at 11- and 14-months of age affect language ability at 24 months of age. These studies investigated relationships between the speech style (i.e., parentese speech vs. standard speech) and social context [i.e., one-on-one (1:1) vs. group] of language input in infancy and later speech development (i.e., at 24 months of age), controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). Results showed that the amount of exposure to parentese speech-1:1 in infancy was related to productive vocabulary at 24 months. The general goal of the present study was to investigate changes in (1) the pattern of social interactions between caregivers and their children from infancy to childhood and (2) relationships among speech style, social context, and language learning across time. Our study sample consisted of 30 participants from the previously published infant studies, evaluated at 33 months of age. Social interactions were assessed at home using digital first-person perspective recordings of the auditory environment. We found that caregivers use less parentese speech-1:1, and more standard speech-1:1, as their children get older. Furthermore, we found that the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on later language development at 24 months persist at 33 months of age. Finally, we found that exposure to standard speech-1:1 in childhood was the only social interaction that related to concurrent word production/use. Mediation analyses showed that standard speech-1:1 in childhood fully mediated the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on language development in childhood, controlling for SES. This study demonstrates that engaging in one-on-one interactions in infancy and later in life has important implications for language development.

Neuroimaging of the bilingual brain: Structural brain correlates of listening and speaking in a second language

Diffusion tensor imaging was used to compare white matter structure between American monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual adults living in the United States. In the bilingual group, relationships between white matter structure and naturalistic immersive experience in listening to and speaking English were additionally explored. White matter structural differences between groups were found to be bilateral and widespread. In the bilingual group, experience in listening to English was more robustly correlated with decreases in radial and mean diffusivity in anterior white matter regions of the left hemisphere, whereas experience in speaking English was more robustly correlated with increases in fractional anisotropy in more posterior left hemisphere white matter regions. The findings suggest that (a) foreign language immersion induces neuroplasticity in the adult brain, (b) the degree of alteration is proportional to language experience, and (c) the modes of immersive language experience have more robust effects on different brain regions and on different structural features.

Social Interaction in Infants' Learning of Second-Language Phonetics: An Exploration of Brain-Behavior Relations

Infants learn phonetic information from a second language with live-person presentations, but not television or audio-only recordings. To understand the role of social interaction in learning a second language, we examined infants' joint attention with live, Spanish-speaking tutors and used a neural measure of phonetic learning. Infants' eye-gaze behaviors during Spanish sessions at 9.5-10.5 months of age predicted second-language phonetic learning, assessed by an event-related potential measure of Spanish phoneme discrimination at 11 months. These data suggest a powerful role for social interaction at the earliest stages of learning a new language.

Higher-level linguistic categories dominate lower-level acoustics in lexical tone processing

Native tonal-language speakers exhibit reduced sensitivity to lexical tone differences within, compared to across, categories (higher-level linguistic category influence). Yet, sensitivity is enhanced among musically trained, non-tonal-language-speaking individuals (lower-level acoustics processing influence). The current study investigated the relative contribution of higher- and lower-level influences when both are present. Seventeen Mandarin musicians completed music pitch and lexical tone discrimination tasks. Similar to English musicians [Zhao and Kuhl (2015). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 137(3), 1452-1463], Mandarin musicians' overall sensitivity to lexical tone differences was associated with music pitch score, suggesting lower-level contributions. However, the musician's sensitivities to lexical tone pairs along a continuum were similar to Mandarin non-musicians, reflecting dominant higher-level influences.

Early Language Learning and the Social Brain

Explaining how every typically developing child acquires language is one of the grand challenges of cognitive neuroscience. Historically, language learning provoked classic debates about the contributions of innately specialized as opposed to general learning mechanisms. Now, new data are being brought to bear from studies that employ magnetoencephalograph (MEG), electroencephalograph (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies on young children. These studies examine the patterns of association between brain and behavioral measures. The resulting data offer both expected results and surprises that are altering theory. As we uncover what it means to be human through the lens of young children, and their ability to speak, what we learn will not only inform theories of human development, but also lead to the discovery of neural biomarkers, early in life, that indicate risk for language impairment and allow early intervention for children with developmental disabilities involving language.

Mothers say "baby" and their newborns do not choose to listen: a behavioral preference study to compare with ERP results

Previously published results from neonatal brain evoked response potential (ERP) experiments revealed different brain responses to the single word “baby” depending on whether it was recorded by the mother or an unfamiliar female. These results are consistent with behavioral preference studies in which infants altered pacifier sucking to contingently activate recordings of the maternal vs. an unfamiliar female voice, but the speech samples were much longer and information-rich than in the ERP studies. Both types of neonatal voice recognition studies imply postnatal retention of prenatal learning. The preference studies require infant motor and motivation systems to mount a response in addition to voice recognition. The current contingent sucking preference study was designed to test neonatal motivation to alter behavior when the reward is the single word “baby” recorded by the mother or an unfamiliar speaker. Results showed an absent or weak contingent sucking response to the brief maternal voice sample, and they demonstrate the complementary value of electrophysiological and behavioral studies for very early development. Neonates can apparently recognize the maternal voice in brief recorded sample (previous ERP results) but they are not sufficiently motivated by it to alter sucking behavior.

Effect of musical experience on learning lexical tone categories

Previous studies suggest that musicians show an advantage in processing and encoding foreign-language lexical tones. The current experiments examined whether musical experience influences the perceptual learning of lexical tone categories. Experiment I examined whether musicians with no prior experience of tonal languages differed from nonmusicians in the perception of a lexical tone continuum. Experiment II examined whether short-term perceptual training on lexical tones altered the perception of the lexical tone continuum differentially in English-speaking musicians and nonmusicians. Results suggested that (a) musicians exhibited higher sensitivity overall to tonal changes, but perceived the lexical tone continuum in a manner similar to nonmusicians (continuously), in contrast to native Mandarin speakers (categorically); and (b) short-term perceptual training altered perception; however, there were no significant differences between the effects of training on musicians and nonmusicians.

Look who's talking: speech style and social context in language input to infants are linked to concurrent and future speech development

Language input is necessary for language learning, yet little is known about whether, in natural environments, the speech style and social context of language input to children impacts language development. In the present study we investigated the relationship between language input and language development, examining both the style of parental speech, comparing 'parentese' speech to standard speech, and the social context in which speech is directed to children, comparing one-on-one (1:1) to group social interactions. Importantly, the language input variables were assessed at home using digital first-person perspective recordings of the infants' auditory environment as they went about their daily lives (N =26, 11- and 14-months-old). We measured language development using (a) concurrent speech utterances, and (b) word production at 24 months. Parentese speech in 1:1 contexts is positively correlated with both concurrent speech and later word production. Mediation analyses further show that the effect of parentese speech-1:1 on infants' later language is mediated by concurrent speech. Our results suggest that both the social context and the style of speech in language addressed to children are strongly linked to a child's future language development.

Look who's talking: speech style and social context in language input to infants are linked to concurrent and future speech development

Language input is necessary for language learning, yet little is known about whether, in natural environments, the speech style and social context of language input to children impacts language development. In the present study we investigated the relationship between language input and language development, examining both the style of parental speech, comparing 'parentese' speech to standard speech, and the social context in which speech is directed to children, comparing one-on-one (1:1) to group social interactions. Importantly, the language input variables were assessed at home using digital first-person perspective recordings of the infants' auditory environment as they went about their daily lives (N =26, 11- and 14-months-old). We measured language development using (a) concurrent speech utterances, and (b) word production at 24 months. Parentese speech in 1:1 contexts is positively correlated with both concurrent speech and later word production. Mediation analyses further show that the effect of parentese speech-1:1 on infants' later language is mediated by concurrent speech. Our results suggest that both the social context and the style of speech in language addressed to children are strongly linked to a child's future language development.

Theta brain rhythms index perceptual narrowing in infant speech perception

The development of speech perception shows a dramatic transition between infancy and adulthood. Between 6 and 12 months, infants' initial ability to discriminate all phonetic units across the world's languages narrows-native discrimination increases while non-native discrimination shows a steep decline. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine whether brain oscillations in the theta band (4-8 Hz), reflecting increases in attention and cognitive effort, would provide a neural measure of the perceptual narrowing phenomenon in speech. Using an oddball paradigm, we varied speech stimuli in two dimensions, stimulus frequency (frequent vs. infrequent) and language (native vs. non-native speech syllables) and tested 6-month-old infants, 12-month-old infants, and adults. We hypothesized that 6-month-old infants would show increased relative theta power (RTP) for frequent syllables, regardless of their status as native or non-native syllables, reflecting young infants' attention and cognitive effort in response to highly frequent stimuli ("statistical learning"). In adults, we hypothesized increased RTP for non-native stimuli, regardless of their presentation frequency, reflecting increased cognitive effort for non-native phonetic categories. The 12-month-old infants were expected to show a pattern in transition, but one more similar to adults than to 6-month-old infants. The MEG brain rhythm results supported these hypotheses. We suggest that perceptual narrowing in speech perception is governed by an implicit learning process. This learning process involves an implicit shift in attention from frequent events (infants) to learned categories (adults). Theta brain oscillatory activity may provide an index of perceptual narrowing beyond speech, and would offer a test of whether the early speech learning process is governed by domain-general or domain-specific processes.

Age-specific average head template for typically developing 6-month-old infants

Due to the rapid anatomical changes that occur within the brain structure in early human development and the significant differences between infant brains and the widely used standard adult templates, it becomes increasingly important to utilize appropriate age- and population-specific average templates when analyzing infant neuroimaging data. In this study we created a new and highly detailed age-specific unbiased average head template in a standard MNI152-like infant coordinate system for healthy, typically developing 6-month-old infants by performing linear normalization, diffeomorphic normalization and iterative averaging processing on 60 subjects' structural images. The resulting age-specific average templates in a standard MNI152-like infant coordinate system demonstrate sharper anatomical detail and clarity compared to existing infant average templates and successfully retains the average head size of the 6-month-old infant. An example usage of the average infant templates transforms magnetoencephalography (MEG) estimated activity locations from MEG's subject-specific head coordinate space to the standard MNI152-like infant coordinate space. We also created a new atlas that reflects the true 6-month-old infant brain anatomy. Average templates and atlas are publicly available on our website (http://ilabs.washington.edu/6-m-templates-atlas).

Brain responses to words in 2-year-olds with autism predict developmental outcomes at age 6

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that affects social behavior and language acquisition. ASD exhibits great variability in outcomes, with some individuals remaining nonverbal and others exhibiting average or above average function. Cognitive ability contributes to heterogeneity in autism and serves as a modest predictor of later function. We show that a brain measure (event-related potentials, ERPs) of word processing in children with ASD, assessed at the age of 2 years (N = 24), is a broad and robust predictor of receptive language, cognitive ability, and adaptive behavior at ages 4 and 6 years, regardless of the form of intensive clinical treatment during the intervening years. The predictive strength of this brain measure increases over time, and exceeds the predictive strength of a measure of cognitive ability, used here for comparison. These findings have theoretical implications and may eventually lead to neural measures that allow early prediction of developmental outcomes as well as more individually tailored clinical interventions, with the potential for greater effectiveness in treating children with ASD.

Language experienced in utero affects vowel perception after birth: a two-country study

AIMS

To test the hypothesis that exposure to ambient language in the womb alters phonetic perception shortly after birth. This two-country study aimed to see whether neonates demonstrated prenatal learning by how they responded to vowels in a category from their native language and another non-native language, regardless of how much postnatal experience the infants had.

METHOD

A counterbalanced experiment was conducted in Sweden (n = 40) and the USA (n = 40) using Swedish and English vowel sounds. The neonates (mean postnatal age = 33 h) controlled audio presentation of either native or non-native vowels by sucking on a pacifier, with the number of times they sucked their pacifier being used to demonstrate what vowel sounds attracted their attention. The vowels were either the English/i/or Swedish/y/in the form of a prototype plus 16 variants of the prototype.

RESULTS

The infants in the native and non-native groups responded differently. As predicted, the infants responded to the unfamiliar non-native language with higher mean sucks. They also sucked more to the non-native prototype. Time since birth (range: 7-75 h) did not affect the outcome.

CONCLUSION

The ambient language to which foetuses are exposed in the womb starts to affect their perception of their native language at a phonetic level. This can be measured shortly after birth by differences in responding to familiar vs. unfamiliar vowels.