Integrated sentence-level speech perception evokes strengthened language networks and facilitates early speech development
Natural poetic speeches (i.e., proverbs, nursery rhymes, and commercial ads) with strong prosodic regularities are easily memorized by children and the harmonious acoustic patterns are suggested to facilitate their integrated sentence processing. Do children have specific neural pathways for perceiv...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-04-01
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| Series: | NeuroImage |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924000399 |
| _version_ | 1797303934847549440 |
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| author | Qinqin Luo Leyan Gao Zhirui Yang Sihui Chen Jingwen Yang Shuo Lu |
| author_facet | Qinqin Luo Leyan Gao Zhirui Yang Sihui Chen Jingwen Yang Shuo Lu |
| author_sort | Qinqin Luo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Natural poetic speeches (i.e., proverbs, nursery rhymes, and commercial ads) with strong prosodic regularities are easily memorized by children and the harmonious acoustic patterns are suggested to facilitate their integrated sentence processing. Do children have specific neural pathways for perceiving such poetic utterances, and does their speech development benefit from it? We recorded the task-induced hemodynamic changes of 94 children aged 2 to 12 years using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) while they listened to poetic and non-poetic natural sentences. Seventy-three adult as controls were recruited to investigate the developmental specificity of children group. The results indicated that poetic sentences perceiving is a highly integrated process featured by a lower brain workload in both groups. However, an early activated large-scale network was induced only in the child group, coordinated by hubs for connectivity diversity. Additionally, poetic speeches evoked activation in the phonological encoding regions in the children's group rather than adult controls which decreases with children's ages. The neural responses to poetic speeches were positively linked to children's speech communication performance, especially the fluency and semantic aspects. These results reveal children's neural sensitivity to integrated speech perception which facilitate early speech development by strengthening more sophisticated language networks and the perception-production circuit. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T00:00:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-75063a79cbba408cb3f6513194e6085f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1095-9572 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T00:00:49Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | NeuroImage |
| spelling | doaj.art-75063a79cbba408cb3f6513194e6085f2024-02-18T04:39:21ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722024-04-01289120544Integrated sentence-level speech perception evokes strengthened language networks and facilitates early speech developmentQinqin Luo0Leyan Gao1Zhirui Yang2Sihui Chen3Jingwen Yang4Shuo Lu5Neurolinguistics Laboratory,College of International Studies, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Department of Chinese Language and Literature, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong KongNeurolinguistics Laboratory,College of International Studies, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, ChinaNeurolinguistics Laboratory,College of International Studies, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong KongDepartment of Chinese Language and Literature, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, ChinaNeurolinguistics Laboratory,College of International Studies, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, ChinaNeurolinguistics Laboratory,College of International Studies, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Department of Clinical Neurolinguistics Research, Mental and Neurological Diseases Research Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China; Corresponding author.Natural poetic speeches (i.e., proverbs, nursery rhymes, and commercial ads) with strong prosodic regularities are easily memorized by children and the harmonious acoustic patterns are suggested to facilitate their integrated sentence processing. Do children have specific neural pathways for perceiving such poetic utterances, and does their speech development benefit from it? We recorded the task-induced hemodynamic changes of 94 children aged 2 to 12 years using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) while they listened to poetic and non-poetic natural sentences. Seventy-three adult as controls were recruited to investigate the developmental specificity of children group. The results indicated that poetic sentences perceiving is a highly integrated process featured by a lower brain workload in both groups. However, an early activated large-scale network was induced only in the child group, coordinated by hubs for connectivity diversity. Additionally, poetic speeches evoked activation in the phonological encoding regions in the children's group rather than adult controls which decreases with children's ages. The neural responses to poetic speeches were positively linked to children's speech communication performance, especially the fluency and semantic aspects. These results reveal children's neural sensitivity to integrated speech perception which facilitate early speech development by strengthening more sophisticated language networks and the perception-production circuit.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924000399Sentence-level speech perceptionIntegrated comprehensionNeural networksProsodic regularityChildren's speech ability |
| spellingShingle | Qinqin Luo Leyan Gao Zhirui Yang Sihui Chen Jingwen Yang Shuo Lu Integrated sentence-level speech perception evokes strengthened language networks and facilitates early speech development NeuroImage Sentence-level speech perception Integrated comprehension Neural networks Prosodic regularity Children's speech ability |
| title | Integrated sentence-level speech perception evokes strengthened language networks and facilitates early speech development |
| title_full | Integrated sentence-level speech perception evokes strengthened language networks and facilitates early speech development |
| title_fullStr | Integrated sentence-level speech perception evokes strengthened language networks and facilitates early speech development |
| title_full_unstemmed | Integrated sentence-level speech perception evokes strengthened language networks and facilitates early speech development |
| title_short | Integrated sentence-level speech perception evokes strengthened language networks and facilitates early speech development |
| title_sort | integrated sentence level speech perception evokes strengthened language networks and facilitates early speech development |
| topic | Sentence-level speech perception Integrated comprehension Neural networks Prosodic regularity Children's speech ability |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924000399 |
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