Developmental trajectory of the frequency-following response during the first 6 months of life
Publication date
2023-12-11
Document type
Research article
Author
Ribas-Prats, Teresa
Cordero, Gaël
Lip-Sosa, Diana Lucia
Costa-Faidella, Jordi
Gómez-Roig, María Dolores
Escera, Carles
Organisational unit
Brainlab – Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, Spain
Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Spain
Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu (IRSJD), Barcelona, Spain
BCNatal – Barcelona Center for Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine (Hospital Sant Joan de Déu and Hospital Clínic), University of Barcelona, Spain
Publisher
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Series or journal
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
ISSN
Periodical volume
66
Periodical issue
12
First page
4785
Last page
4800
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
Nein
Language
English
Abstract
Purpose: The aim of the present study is to characterize the maturational changes during the first 6 months of life in the neural encoding of two speech sound features relevant for early language acquisition: the stimulus fundamental frequency (F0), related to stimulus pitch, and the vowel formant composition, particularly F1. The frequency-following response (FFR) was used as a snapshot into the neural encoding of these two stimulus attributes.
Method: FFRs to a consonant–vowel stimulus /da/ were retrieved from electro-encephalographic recordings in a sample of 80 healthy infants (45 at birth and 35 at the age of 1 month). Thirty-two infants (16 recorded at birth and 16 recorded at 1 month) returned for a second recording at 6 months of age.
Results: Stimulus F0 and F1 encoding showed improvements from birth to 6 months of age. Most remarkably, a significant improvement in the F1 neural encoding was observed during the first month of life.
Conclusion: Our results highlight the rapid and sustained maturation of the basic neural machinery necessary for the phoneme discrimination ability during the first 6 months of age.
Method: FFRs to a consonant–vowel stimulus /da/ were retrieved from electro-encephalographic recordings in a sample of 80 healthy infants (45 at birth and 35 at the age of 1 month). Thirty-two infants (16 recorded at birth and 16 recorded at 1 month) returned for a second recording at 6 months of age.
Results: Stimulus F0 and F1 encoding showed improvements from birth to 6 months of age. Most remarkably, a significant improvement in the F1 neural encoding was observed during the first month of life.
Conclusion: Our results highlight the rapid and sustained maturation of the basic neural machinery necessary for the phoneme discrimination ability during the first 6 months of age.
Description
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Published version
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