Abstract
The goal of the study is to investigate a correlation between different levels of speech organization, indicating the physiological processes of maturation of the vocal tract structures and brain regions associated with speech and language, and basic electroencephalogram (EEG) rhythms, reflecting the age-related dynamics of maturation of brain structures in children aged 4–11 years. The complex method of analysis, including EEG registration, clinical and spectral analysis of EEG; dichotic listening, identifying the profile of functional lateral asymmetry (PFLA), and phonemic hearing of the child; recording, linguistic, and acoustic analysis of child speech; and identification of speech characteristics reflecting the formation of its different levels, was used. Two complementary experimental series were conducted: the correlation between EEG parameters, speech features, dichotic listening, the PFLA, and phonemic hearing of the child in the age dynamics of 4–11 years (first); the specificity of EEG patterns in children at different stages of reading skills formation (second). The result of this study showed the correlation between acoustic and linguistic features of child speech and brain activity. The analysis of EEG and acoustic features of child speech revealed the correlation between pitch and pitch range values in spontaneous speech and theta-rhythm intensity in EEG. High values of pitch and its variation in younger children (4–6 years) are related to the intensity of theta rhythm in the EEG pattern, as this rhythm is most expressed in younger children. It was revealed that the alpha rhythm is asymmetrically localized in children with clear pronunciation of words (which determines the intelligibility of their speech) that is typical for 6.5- to 11-year-old children. The formation of reading skills in a child is associated with a change in the characteristics of the alpha rhythm—from irregular, unstable, low frequency, and low amplitude in children at the beginning of reading skills mastering to medium and low amplitude, regular, asymmetrically localized in children reading words and phrases. The specifics of the relation between brain activity and different levels of speech formation at different child’s age periods are discussed.
Highlights
The process of normative development of a child is associated with anatomical and physiological changes in various organs and structures that have the specificity in the age dynamics, and with social and environmental factors that determine the realization of the biological basis.A physiological indicator characterizing the child’s willingness for information perception and processing is the maturation of brain structures and, as a result, the formation in the restingstate electroencephalogram (EEG) of the regular alpha as a dominant form of brain activity (Farber and Njiokiktjien, 1993; Farber et al, 2000).Within 3 months after birth in newborns, rhythmic activity is gradually forming
The goal of our study is to investigate a correlation between different levels of speech organization, indicating the physiological processes of maturation of the vocal tract structures and brain regions associated with speech and language, and basic EEG rhythms, reflecting the age-related dynamics of maturation of brain structures in children aged 4–11 years
The results of the study showed the link between characteristics of speech of children such as pitch and its variation, articulation accuracy of vowels in words, complexity of replicas in dialogues with adults, the profile of functional lateral asymmetry (PFLA), and brain activity in children at the age of 4–11 years
Summary
The process of normative development of a child is associated with anatomical and physiological changes in various organs and structures that have the specificity in the age dynamics, and with social and environmental factors that determine the realization of the biological basis.A physiological indicator characterizing the child’s willingness for information perception and processing is the maturation of brain structures and, as a result, the formation in the restingstate electroencephalogram (EEG) of the regular alpha as a dominant form of brain activity (Farber and Njiokiktjien, 1993; Farber et al, 2000).Within 3 months after birth in newborns, rhythmic activity is gradually forming. A physiological indicator characterizing the child’s willingness for information perception and processing is the maturation of brain structures and, as a result, the formation in the restingstate electroencephalogram (EEG) of the regular alpha as a dominant form of brain activity (Farber and Njiokiktjien, 1993; Farber et al, 2000). The irregular diffuse activity of medium voltage, which is present in the neonatal period, is gradually replaced by more rhythmic theta waves to the end of the first year of life (Eisermann et al, 2013). In wakingstate EEG in 1–3 year olds, the posterior basic rhythm increases from theta frequencies to lower alpha range with high individual variability (Eisermann et al, 2013). Theta, and alpha rhythms, maturation begins in posterior regions and ends in anterior regions (Barriga-Paulino et al, 2011; Perone et al, 2018b)
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