Development of Experience-Dependent Responses to Voice Pitch in Newborns and Infants

新生儿和婴儿对音高的经验依赖性反应的发展

• 批准号: 1250700
• 负责人: Fuh-Cherng Jeng
• 金额: $ 16.66万
• 依托单位: Ohio University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-07-15 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1250700&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Experience; Dependent; Responses; Voice

Intonation as a change in voice pitch can carry important information in communication. In non-tonal languages such as American English, differences in intonation can change a statement into a question while in tonal languages such as Mandarin Chinese, intonations can change the meaning of every single spoken word. Despite its apparent importance, it remains unclear whether and how the ability to perceive tonal difference is acquired through learning during early development. To address this important question, Dr. Fuh-Cherng Jeng of University of Ohio proposes a project to be conducted at two infant centers, one in the United State and one in Taiwan, to first investigate whether newborn babies born to a tonal (Taiwan) and atonal (US) language environments differ in their ability to perceive intonation and to then follow up 3 months later to assess whether the exposure to different language environment lead to changes in this ability. Dr. Jeng will employ non-invasive electrophysiological techniques to measure how brain activity in subcortical and cortical structures changes in response to voice pitch at each point of the development. Through this technically challenging study, Dr. Jeng expects to answer the question whether the ability to detect intonation is learned or innate and how plastic are the infant brains in response to exposure to early life language environment. The proposed study could lead to new approaches for diagnosis and possible remediation of developmental disorders of language. In particular, this research may have implications for the early detection and identification of social/communicative disorders such as autism. Furthermore, through the US-Taiwan collaboration, the PI creates exceptional opportunities for US graduate students with extensive international experience. These experiences are expected to broaden their understanding of research in a different cultural context, help students develop personal relations with Chinese researchers, and lay the foundation for initiating their own future international collaboration activity. Such experiences will also provide teaching and training opportunities for the students to deal with challenges and benefits of conducting research on a global stage. Finally, Dr. Jeng will participate in the big data effort by making the data available to support other coordinated NSF efforts that aim to make use of real data in the teaching of STEM related courses and to enable participation in discovery science by those who would otherwise have no access to such data.This project is co-funded by the International Science and Engineering Section of the NSF Office of International and Integrative Activities

语调作为语音音高的变化，在交际中能传递重要信息。在非声调语言中，如美式英语，语调的差异可以将一个陈述变成一个问题，而在有声调的语言中，如汉语普通话，语调可以改变每一个口语单词的含义。 尽管其明显的重要性，目前还不清楚是否以及如何通过学习获得感知音调差异的能力在早期发展。 为了解决这个重要的问题，俄亥俄州大学的郑福成博士提出了一个项目，在美国和台湾的两个婴儿中心进行，首先调查新生儿出生时是否有音调（台湾）和无音调（美国）不同的语言环境中，他们的能力感知语调，然后跟进3个月后，以评估是否暴露于不同的语言，环境会导致这种能力的变化。 郑博士将采用非侵入性电生理技术来测量大脑皮层下和皮层结构的活动如何在发育的每个点上响应音高而变化。 通过这项技术上具有挑战性的研究，郑博士希望回答这样一个问题：检测语调的能力是后天习得的还是先天的，以及婴儿的大脑在接触早期生活语言环境时的可塑性如何。 这项拟议的研究可能会导致新的方法来诊断和可能的补救发展障碍的语言。 特别是，这项研究可能对早期发现和识别自闭症等社交/沟通障碍有影响。 此外，通过美台合作，PI为具有丰富国际经验的美国研究生创造了特殊的机会。 这些经历有望拓宽他们对不同文化背景下研究的理解，帮助学生与中国研究人员建立个人关系，并为开展自己未来的国际合作活动奠定基础。 这些经验还将为学生提供教学和培训机会，以应对在全球舞台上进行研究的挑战和好处。最后，Jeng博士将参与大数据工作，通过提供数据来支持NSF的其他协调工作，这些工作旨在利用STEM相关课程的教学中的真实的数据，并使那些无法获得这些数据的人能够参与发现科学。该项目由NSF国际和综合活动办公室的国际科学和工程科共同资助