Abstract
Individual differences in second language (L2) phoneme perception (within the normal population) have been related to speech perception abilities, also observed in the native language, in studies assessing the electrophysiological response mismatch negativity (MMN). Here, we investigate the brain oscillatory dynamics in the theta band, the spectral correlate of the MMN, that underpin success in phoneme learning. Using previous data obtained in an MMN paradigm, the dynamics of cortical oscillations while perceiving native and unknown phonemes and nonlinguistic stimuli were studied in two groups of participants classified as good and poor perceivers (GPs and PPs), according to their L2 phoneme discrimination abilities. The results showed that for GPs, as compared to PPs, processing of a native phoneme change produced a significant increase in theta power. Stimulus time-locked analysis event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) showed differences for the theta band within the MMN time window (between 70 and 240 ms) for the native deviant phoneme. No other significant difference between the two groups was observed for the other phoneme or nonlinguistic stimuli. The dynamic patterns in the theta-band may reflect early automatic change detection for familiar speech sounds in the brain. The behavioral differences between the two groups may reflect individual variations in activating brain circuits at a perceptual level.
Highlights
A challenging theoretical question in the field of language learning is addressing the large individual differences in second language (L2) mastery
Since spectral analyses may depend on the number of epochs, a sub-set of epochs for the poor perceivers (PPs) that matched the number of segments for good perceivers (GPs) were randomly selected to be analyzed for the phoneme stimuli
event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) The analysis of the native deviant trials showed an increase in oscillation power at theta frequency for GPs, when compared to PPs, at the F3 (74–246 ms), F4 (134–228 ms), Fz (168–236 ms), C3 (90–150 ms), C4 (142–202 ms), and Cz (56–152 ms) electrodes
Summary
A challenging theoretical question in the field of language learning is addressing the large individual differences in second language (L2) mastery. Even when controlling for all of these variables, substantial individual differences persist, in particular in the perception and production of speech sounds. With the advent of new neurophysiological and imaging methods, the inquiry into individual differences in second language learning has moved to a new level of analysis in terms of how individual brains work [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. One of the most widely used measures of second-language speech perception is the event-related response (ERP) mismatch negativity (MMN) that is measured during passive listening and signals auditory discrimination sensitivity. The present study investigates the oscillatory neural patterns related to success in phoneme learning by analyzing the spectral dynamics underneath the MMN responses of individuals with different levels of mastery of L2 phonemes
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