Influence of early experience of speech and language on their processing and neural representation: A study of hearing infants with deaf mothers

早期言语和语言经历对其处理和神经表征的影响：对聋哑母亲的听力婴儿的研究

• 批准号: ES/K001329/1
• 负责人: Evelyne Mercure
• 金额: $ 21.86万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK001329%2F1
• 关键词: Influence; early; experience; speech; language

This project aims to determine the impact of early speech and language experience on language processing and representation in the brain. I will study hearing infants of deaf mothers who use a sign language as their dominant language (HoD infants) in comparison to hearing infants of hearing mothers (HoH infants). Despite normal hearing, HoD infants have a different early experience of speech and language to that of HoH infants. First, since deaf signing mothers are less likely to use auditory speech than hearing mothers, their infants are likely to have reduced exposure to auditory spoken language. Second, the experience of HoD infants includes both a language in the visual modality, e.g. British Sign Language (BSL), and one in the auditory modality, e.g. English (used by the mother, as well as by hearing relatives and the rest of the hearing community). Since HoD infants are exposed to two languages, they will be compared to HoH individuals who are exposed to two spoken languages. I hypothesise that the experience of HoD infants will influence their neural representation of language, their patterns of eye gaze during spoken and signed language perception and their audio-visual speech integration. Three groups of hearing infants will be recruited: 30 infants from a monolingual English speaking environment, 30 infants from a bilingual environment in which two spoken languages are frequently used by the mother, 30 infants with a deaf mother for whom BSL is the dominant language. Experiment 1- Neural representation of spoken language: I will use near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to study brain activation during spoken language perception. In infancy, spoken language activates similar areas of the left temporal hemisphere as in adulthood. It has been hypothesised that this pattern develops prenatally while receiving the input of the mother's spoken language. I will test this hypothesis by studying HoD infants with reduced early experience of auditory spoken language. Auditory sentences will be presented in English and an unfamiliar language. I predict that reduced early experience of auditory spoken language leads to a reduction in language activation in the temporal lobe.Experiment 2- Neural representation of signed language: I will use NIRS to study brain activation while infants are presented with sentences in BSL and an unfamiliar signed language. Adult neuroimaging studies demonstrate that signed language is processed in a similar brain network as spoken language, but this network has never been studied in infancy. I hypothesise that HoD infants will show increased brain activity in the temporal cortex for BSL compared to unfamiliar gestures. I will compare any preferential activation for BSL with that for a familiar spoken language in Experiment 1.Experiment 3- Signed and spoken language perception: I will use eye tracking to study infants' eye gaze while watching sentences presented either in audio-visual English or BSL. Unlike spoken languages, signed languages require visual attention to the speaker, and adult native signers focus on the signer's face and not their hands while perceiving signed language. I hypothesise that HoD infants will spend more time than HoH infants looking at the speaker's face during signed and spoken language perception. Experiment 4- Audio-visual speech integration: I will use eye tracking and an established audio-visual speech perception paradigm to compare how HoD and HoH infants use visual cues of articulation to discriminate speech sounds. Infants as young as two months can integrate the audio-visual aspects of speech. HoD adults outperform HoH adults in lip-reading, suggesting that they extract more information from visual cues of articulation. I hypothesise that HoD infants will rely more on the visual cues of articulation in speech perception.Together, the results of this study will shed light on the role of early experience in shaping brain development and language learning.

该项目旨在确定早期言语和语言经验对大脑中语言处理和表征的影响。我将研究使用手语作为主要语言的失聪母亲的听力婴儿（HoD婴儿）与听力母亲的听力婴儿（HoH婴儿）的比较。尽管听力正常，HoD婴儿有不同的语言和语言的早期经验，HoH婴儿。首先，由于失聪的母亲比听力正常的母亲更不可能使用听觉语言，他们的婴儿可能会减少听觉语言的接触。第二，HoD婴儿的经验包括视觉形式的语言，例如英国手语（BSL），以及听觉形式的语言，例如英语（由母亲以及听力亲属和听力社区的其他人使用）。由于HoD婴儿接触两种语言，他们将与接触两种口语的HoH个体进行比较。我假设，HoD婴儿的经验会影响他们的语言的神经表征，他们的眼睛注视的模式，在口语和手语的感知和他们的视听语音整合。将招募三组听力正常的婴儿：30名来自单语英语环境的婴儿，30名来自双语环境的婴儿，其中母亲经常使用两种口语，30名母亲失聪的婴儿，BSL是主要语言。实验1-口语的神经表征：我将使用近红外光谱（NIRS）来研究口语感知过程中的大脑激活。在婴儿期，口语激活了与成年期相似的左颞半球区域。据推测，这种模式是在产前接受母亲的口头语言输入时发展起来的。我将通过研究早期听觉口语经验减少的HoD婴儿来验证这一假设。听觉句子将以英语和一种不熟悉的语言呈现。我预测，减少早期经验的听觉口语导致减少语言激活的颞叶。实验2-神经表征的手语：我将使用近红外光谱研究大脑激活，而婴儿提出的句子在BSL和一个陌生的手语。成人神经影像学研究表明，手语在一个类似于口语的大脑网络中进行处理，但这个网络从未在婴儿期进行过研究。我假设，与不熟悉的手势相比，HoD婴儿在BSL时颞叶皮层的大脑活动会增加。实验三：手语和口语知觉：采用眼动追踪技术研究婴幼儿在视听英语和手语中观看句子时的眼动。与口语不同，手语需要对说话者的视觉关注，成年的本地手语者在感知手语时会关注手语者的脸而不是他们的手。我假设，HoD婴儿会花更多的时间比HoH婴儿在说话者的脸在签署和口头语言的感知。实验4-视听言语整合：我将使用眼动追踪和一个既定的视听言语感知范式来比较HoD和HoH婴儿如何使用清晰度的视觉线索来区分言语声音。两个月大的婴儿就可以整合语言的视听方面。HoD成年人在唇读方面优于HoH成年人，这表明他们从发音的视觉线索中提取更多的信息。我假设HoD婴儿在言语感知中更依赖于清晰度的视觉线索。总之，这项研究的结果将揭示早期经验在塑造大脑发育和语言学习中的作用。

项目成果

Influence of early language experience on brain activation to language: A study of hearing infants with Deaf mothers

早期语言体验对大脑语言激活的影响：对聋哑母亲的听力婴儿的研究

• 发表时间: 2014
• 期刊: fNIRS 2014
• 作者: Mercure E

Audio-visual speech perception: a developmental ERP investigation.

• DOI: 10.1111/desc.12098
• 发表时间: 2014-01
• 期刊: Developmental science
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Knowland VC;Mercure E;Karmiloff-Smith A;Dick F;Thomas MS
• 通讯作者: Thomas MS

Convergent and Divergent fMRI Responses in Children and Adults to Increasing Language Production Demands.

• DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhu120
• 发表时间: 2015-10
• 期刊: Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
• 作者: Krishnan S;Leech R;Mercure E;Lloyd-Fox S;Dick F
• 通讯作者: Dick F

Articulating novel words: children's oromotor skills predict nonword repetition abilities.

清晰表达新单词：儿童的口部运动技能预测非单词重复能力。

• DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2013/12-0206
• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: JSLHR
• 作者: Krishnan S

Language experience influences audiovisual speech integration in unimodal and bimodal bilingual infants.

语言经验影响单形和双峰双语婴儿的视听语音整合。

• DOI: 10.1111/desc.12701
• 发表时间: 2019-01
• 期刊: Developmental science
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Mercure E;Kushnerenko E;Goldberg L;Bowden-Howl H;Coulson K;Johnson MH;MacSweeney M
• 通讯作者: MacSweeney M