Developmental study of neural correlates involved in foreign speech sound imitation in children

本研究利用磁共振成像技术，研究了儿童(从儿童到青少年)在陌生语音产生过程中的脑活动及其发育变化。我们还考察了异声发音能力与脑结构的关系。结果发现，幼儿在外国语和本族语发音任务中的脑活动几乎没有差异，但随着年龄的增长，这种差异越来越明显，外国语发音的准确度随着年龄的增长而逐渐提高。此外，我们还发现，外音发音的准确度与儿童的大脑结构之间存在显著的相关性。

Using magnetic resonance imaging techniques, we explored brain activity during the speech production of unfamiliar foreign speech sounds in children (from child to adolescent), and the developmental changes. We also examined the relationship between the ability of foreign speech sound production and brain structure. In results, it was found that there were almost no difference in brain activity during speech production task between foreign and native speech sounds in younger children, however the difference became clearer withage, and that the degree of accuracy of foreign speech sound production gradually improved with age. Furthermore, we found a significant correlation between the degree of accuracy of foreign speech sound production and children's brain structure.