Abstract
Little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie tuning to the native language(s) in early infancy. Here we review language tuning through the lens of type and amount of language experience and introduce a new manner in which to conceptualize the phenomenon of language tuning: the relative speed of tuning hypothesis. This hypothesis has as its goal a characterization of the unique time course of the tuning process, given the different components (e.g., phonology, prosody, syntax, semantics) of one or more languages as they become available to infants, and biologically based maturational constraints. In this review, we first examine the established behavioral findings and integrate more recent neurophysiological data on neonatal development, which together demonstrate evidence of early language tuning given differential language exposure even in utero. Next, we examine traditional accounts of sensitive and critical periods to determine how these constructs complement current data on the neural mechanisms underlying language tuning. We then synthesize the extant infant behavioral and neurophysiological data on monolingual, bilingual, and sensory deprived tuning, thereby scrutinizing the effect of these three different language profiles on the specific timing, progression, and outcome of language tuning. Finally, we discuss future directions researchers might pursue to further understand this aspect of language development, advocating our relative speed of tuning hypothesis as a useful framework for conceptualizing the complex process by which language experience works together with biological constraints to shape language development.
Highlights
Infants tune to the specific language(s) in their environment very quickly
Do neural pathways that support tuning to a single language differ from those that support tuning to two languages? If the timing of language exposure matters, does early tuning to a single native language limit the neural mechanisms available for later acquisition of languages? This review examines data from behavioral and neurophysiological research, following the developmental timeline, to examine how biological maturation interacts with language experience/exposure to influence the underlying neural mechanisms that support language tuning
These terms identify language tuning as a phenomenon that is either constrained by biological maturation of systems important to language learning or as a period that capitalizes on the responsiveness of neural plasticity to language experience
Summary
Infants tune to the specific language(s) in their environment very quickly. Much evidence suggests that an individual infant’s early language exposure is critical to this tuning process, but we know relatively little about the underlying neural mechanisms that facilitate it. In light of the comparison between speech and non-speech auditory stimuli with comparable complexity, the increased hemodynamic activity demonstrated to be specific to speech is compelling These data have not simplified theoretical debates about the degree to which nature and nurture come into play differentially in early language development. Behavioral and Neurophysiological Evidence of Native Language Sensitivity in Neonates Given short exposure to the unfiltered speech signal, newborns demonstrate an impressive ability to process their native language In spite of this limited experience, neonates can distinguish native speech from other complex, non-speech auditory stimuli when these are controlled for spectral and temporal factors (Vouloumanos and Werker, 2007). This could be considered the key critical, or sensitive, period
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