Maturing brain mechanisms and developing behavioral language skills

The relation between the maturation of brain mechanisms responsible for the N400 elicitation in the event-related brain potential (ERP) and the development of behavioral language skills was investigated in 12-month-old infants. ERPs to words presented in a picture-word priming paradigm were analyzed according to the infants' production and comprehension skills as rated by their parents. Infants with high early word production displayed an N400 semantic priming effect already at 12 months. Infants with low early word production did not show this effect, not even for those words that parents rated to be comprehended by their child. The results suggest that the very early functioning of the neural mechanisms underlying N400 generation is related to the infants' state of behavioral language development. The possible functional relation of the N400 neural mechanisms and the infant's word learning ability is discussed.

[1]  A. Friederici,et al.  Lexical priming and semantic integration reflected in the event-related potential of 14-month-olds , 2005, Neuroreport.

[2]  Development patterns of brain activity reflecting semantic and syntactic processes , 2001 .

[3]  D. Swingley,et al.  Lexical exposure and word-form encoding in 1.5-year-olds. , 2007, Developmental psychology.

[4]  Manuela Friedrich.  Early word learning – Reflections on behavior, connectionist models, and brain mechanisms indexed by ERP components , 2010 .

[5]  S. Geisser,et al.  On methods in the analysis of profile data , 1959 .

[6]  Derek M. Houston,et al.  Speech Perception in Deaf Infants With Cochlear Implants , 2005 .

[7]  M. Kutas,et al.  Reading senseless sentences: brain potentials reflect semantic incongruity. , 1980, Science.

[8]  A. Friederici,et al.  Neurophysiological correlates of online word learning in 14-month-old infants , 2008, Neuroreport.

[9]  Hannelore Grimm.  Replik auf die Testbesprechung von Ulrike Willinger: Grimm, H. & Doil, H. (2000). ELFRA. Elternfragebögen für die Früherkennung von Risikokindern. Göttingen: Hogrefe. , 2002 .

[10]  P. Kuhl.  Early language acquisition: cracking the speech code , 2004, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[11]  A. Friederici,et al.  ERP correlates of processing native and non-native language word stress in infants with different language outcomes , 2009, Cortex.

[12]  P. Holcomb.  Semantic priming and stimulus degradation: implications for the role of the N400 in language processing. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[13]  E. Markman,et al.  Rapid Word Learning in 13- and 18-Month-Olds. , 1994 .

[14]  K. Plunkett,et al.  Watching the Infant Brain Learn Words: Effects of Vocabulary Size and Experience. , 2005 .

[15]  Kara D. Federmeier,et al.  Electrophysiology reveals semantic memory use in language comprehension , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[16]  Janne Mari Svangstu,et al.  Brain dynamics of word familiarization in 20-month-olds: Effects of productive vocabulary size , 2009, Brain and Language.

[17]  Ellen F. Lau,et al.  A cortical network for semantics: (de)constructing the N400 , 2008, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[18]  D. Swingley,et al.  11-month-olds' knowledge of how familiar words sound. , 2005, Developmental science.

[19]  G. Thierry,et al.  Familiar words capture the attention of 11-month-olds in less than 250 ms , 2003, Neuroreport.

[20]  Angela D. Friederici,et al.  Phonotactic Knowledge and Lexical-Semantic Processing in One-year-olds: Brain Responses to Words and Nonsense Words in Picture Contexts , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[21]  Magnus Lindgren,et al.  Productive Vocabulary Size Predicts Event-related Potential Correlates of Fast Mapping in 20-Month-Olds , 2008, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[22]  Helen J. Neville,et al.  Language Experience and the Organization of Brain Activity to Phonetically Similar Words: ERP Evidence from 14- and 20-Month-Olds , 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[23]  Helen J. Neville,et al.  Language comprehension and cerebral specialization from 13 to 20 months , 1997 .

[24]  P. D. Eimas,et al.  Speech Perception in Infants , 1971, Science.

[25]  A. Friederici.  Neurophysiological markers of early language acquisition: from syllables to sentences , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[26]  A. Friederici,et al.  N400-like Semantic Incongruity Effect in 19-Month-Olds: Processing Known Words in Picture Contexts , 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[27]  I. Moen,et al.  Brain responses to lexical-semantic priming in children at-risk for dyslexia , 2007, Brain and Language.

[28]  Anne Cutler,et al.  Electrophysiological evidence for prelinguistic infants' word recognition in continuous speech. , 2005, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[29]  Angela D. Friederici,et al.  Brain Signatures of Syntactic and Semantic Processes during Children's Language Development , 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[30]  I. Moen,et al.  Electrophysiological correlates of auditory semantic priming in 24-month-olds , 2007, Journal of Neurolinguistics.

[31]  Janet F. Werker,et al.  Cross-Language Speech Perception : Initial Capabilities and Developmental Change , 2001 .

[32]  M. Casasola,et al.  Acquisition of word-object associations by 14-month-old infants. , 1998, Developmental psychology.

[33]  Patricia K Kuhl,et al.  Sentence processing in 30-month-old children: an event-related potential study , 2005, Neuroreport.

[34]  Manuela Friedrich,et al.  Early N400 development and later language acquisition. , 2006, Psychophysiology.

[35]  K Plunkett,et al.  Rapid word learning by fifteen-month-olds under tightly controlled conditions. , 1998, Child development.

[36]  A. Friederici,et al.  Semantic sentence processing reflected in the event-related potentials of one- and two-year-old children , 2005, Neuroreport.

[37]  H. Neville,et al.  Language Acquisition and Cerebral Specialization in 20-Month-Old Infants , 1993, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[38]  H. Neville,et al.  Visual and auditory sentence processing: A developmental analysis using event‐related brain potentials , 1992 .