Archive for June 2017
Many factors remain unknown on how infants acquire language and speech information in their formative years. In a study, researchers Leong et al., addressed the question of what “neural mechanism” infants use when first being introduced to language that allows for their unique “boot-strap language learning” style (Leong et al, 2017). When identifying the neurological workings of language acquisition in adults, it’s believed adults focus on certain aspects of speech, specifically the syllables and phonemes of general speech. In understanding if infants use this same focus (known as multi-time oscillatory analysis) when speech is directed to them, researchers used and compared wireless electroencephalography (EEG) speech frequency measurements between infants and adults by calculating “Phase-locking values” (PLVs). The findings were categorized based on the different speech rates being received by participants.
The method consisted of 58 participants made up of 29 infants and their mothers, but when testing, 19 of the infant’s researched provided sufficient data. The stimuli participants were processing during the experiment consisted of seven nursery rhymes familiar to both the child and parent. Since this study was to understand if adults and infants use similar neurological mechanisms, the mothers’ and infants’ EEG were recorded simultaneously and later compared results would reflect infant language processing relative to that of adult.
It was recognized that wireless research systems would benefit the accuracy of the study by eliminating uncomfortable, potentially distracting wires around the infants. Utilizing BIOPAC’s BioNomadix dual-channel wireless EEG amplifier paired with MP Research Acquisition System, data from the wireless EEG transmitter was then gathered through AcqKnowledge software, allowing for measurement of the PLVs while participants were processing nursery rhymes.
The results found evidence that infants were actually able to neurologically entrain speech better than adults when the rate was 9.3 Hz and 4.5 Hz, almost equally at 1-2 Hz, and less accurately with lower speech rates 0.5 Hz. The researchers specified that due to the results, future findings could further the understanding of the relationship between neural entrainment and language processing in early infants.
Many factors remain unknown on how infants acquire language and speech information in their formative years. In a study, researchers Leong et al., addressed the question of what “neural mechanism” infants use when first being introduced to language that allows for their unique “boot-strap language learning” style (Leong et al, 2017). When identifying the neurological workings of language acquisition in adults, it’s believed adults focus on certain aspects of speech, specifically the syllables and phonemes of general speech. In understanding if infants use this same focus (known as multi-time oscillatory analysis) when speech is directed to them, researchers used and compared wireless electroencephalography (EEG) speech frequency measurements between infants and adults by calculating “Phase-locking values” (PLVs). The findings were categorized based on the different speech rates being received by participants.
The method consisted of 58 participants made up of 29 infants and their mothers, but when testing, 19 of the infant’s researched provided sufficient data. The stimuli participants were processing during the experiment consisted of seven nursery rhymes familiar to both the child and parent. Since this study was to understand if adults and infants use similar neurological mechanisms, the mothers’ and infants’ EEG were recorded simultaneously and later compared results would reflect infant language processing relative to that of adult.
It was recognized that wireless research systems would benefit the accuracy of the study by eliminating uncomfortable, potentially distracting wires around the infants. Utilizing BIOPAC’s BioNomadix dual-channel wireless EEG amplifier paired with MP Research Acquisition System, data from the wireless EEG transmitter was then gathered through AcqKnowledge software, allowing for measurement of the PLVs while participants were processing nursery rhymes.
The results found evidence that infants were actually able to neurologically entrain speech better than adults when the rate was 9.3 Hz and 4.5 Hz, almost equally at 1-2 Hz, and less accurately with lower speech rates 0.5 Hz. The researchers specified that due to the results, future findings could further the understanding of the relationship between neural entrainment and language processing in early infants.