Abstract
Non-adjacent dependencies (NADs) are important building blocks for language and extracting them from the input is a fundamental part of language acquisition. Prior event-related potential (ERP) studies revealed changes in the neural signature of NAD learning between infancy and adulthood, suggesting a developmental shift in the learning route for NADs. The present study aimed to specify which brain regions are involved in this developmental shift and whether this shift extends to NAD learning in the non-linguistic domain. In two experiments, 2- and 3-year-old German-learning children were familiarized with either Italian sentences or tone sequences containing NADs and subsequently tested with NAD violations, while functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data were recorded. Results showed increased hemodynamic responses related to the detection of linguistic NAD violations in the left temporal, inferior frontal, and parietal regions in 2-year-old children, but not in 3-year-old children. A different developmental trajectory was found for non-linguistic NADs, where 3-year-old, but not 2-year-old children showed evidence for the detection of non-linguistic NAD violations. These results confirm a developmental shift in the NAD learning route and point to distinct mechanisms underlying NAD learning in the linguistic and the non-linguistic domain.
Highlights
Ro Keywords: Non-adjacent dependencies, associative learning, infants, functional Near-Infrared p Spectroscopy, development - 1
Results r 3.1 non-adjacent dependencies (NADs) processing in the linguistic domain P The Linear Mixed Effects analysis for the linguistic experiment revealed a statistically significant l 3-way interaction between the effects of Condition, Age and Regions of interest (ROIs) on HbO and HbR concentration changes a (HbO: χ2 = 34.9, p = 0.04; HbR: χ2 = 42.9, p = 0.005). These results suggest that activation differences between Alternating and Non-Alternating blocks in the test phase are modulated by age and ROI in the n linguistic domain. r Planned comparisons (Tukey’s method) for the effect of Condition for each Age and ROI for the u linguistic experiment revealed significantly larger HbO concentration changes for A o blocks compared to non-alternating blocks (NA) blocks in left-hemispheric inferior J frontal, temporal, and parietal regions at 2 years, but no significant HbO concentration changes at 3 years of age
N this study is the first to directly compare NAD learning in the linguistic and the non-linguistic domain at r this age. u Our data showed neural evidence of linguistic NAD learning in 2-year-old, but not in 3-year-old o children, which might be explained by a developmental shift in the mechanisms for NAD learning in the J linguistic domain, taking place during the third year of life
Summary
Ro Keywords: Non-adjacent dependencies, associative learning, infants, functional Near-Infrared p Spectroscopy, development - 1. Neurophysiological measures have provided evidence for even earlier NAD learning, namely in 3-8-month-old German-learning and French-learning infants (Friederici et al, 2011; Kabdebon et al, 2015; Mueller et al, 2012).
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