Abstract
Recent studies demonstrated neural systems in bilateral fronto-temporal brain areas in newborns specialized to extract linguistic structure from speech. We hypothesized that these mechanisms show additional sensitivity when identically structured different pseudowords are used communicatively in a turn-taking exchange by two speakers. In an fNIRS experiment newborns heard pseudowords sharing ABB repetition structure in three conditions: two voices turn-takingly exchanged different pseudowords (Communicative); the different pseudowords were produced by a (Single Speaker); two voices turn-takingly repeated identical pseudowords (Echoing). Here we show that left fronto-temporal regions (including Broca’s area) responded more to the Communicative than the other conditions. The results demonstrate that newborns’ left hemisphere brain areas show additional activation when various pseudowords sharing identical structure are exchanged in turn-taking alternation by two speakers. This indicates that language processing brain areas at birth are not only sensitive to the structure but to the functional use of language: communicative information transmission. Newborns appear to be equipped not only with innate systems to identify the structural properties of language but to identify its use, communication itself, that is, information exchange between third party social agents—even outside of the mother–infant dyad.
Highlights
(e.g., female: “ze-pi-pi”—male: “pe-na-na”; male: “sa-lu-lu”—female: “bi-pe-pe”)
Stronger activity was found for the Single Speaker than for the Echoing condition over the RH channel cluster 14 and 17 (p < .001), whereas the opposite pattern was observed in RH channel 19 (p < .001), neither differed from the Communicative condition
In an fNIRS experiment we demonstrated that left fronto-temporal areas of the newborn brain show increased activation to structured speech when it is communicatively exchanged by two voices in turn-taking alternation, with the potential for information transmission
Summary
(e.g., female: “ze-pi-pi”—male: “pe-na-na”; male: “sa-lu-lu”—female: “bi-pe-pe”). In the Single Speaker control condition, in each block either a male or a female voice uttered various ABB sequences (e.g., female: “ze-pi-pi”— “pe-na-na”—“mu-fe-fe”), providing the same amount of syllabic variability as the Communicative condition. In the Echoing condition, a male and a female speaker took turns in repeating identical pseudowords continuously (e.g., female: “ze-pi-pi”—male: “ze-pi-pi”; male: “lu-fe-fe”—female: “lu-fe-fe”). We predicted that if newborns are sensitive to both criteria of communicative information exchange, that is, the presence of two speakers and the variability of exchanged tokens, they should respond more strongly to the Communicative condition than to the two control conditions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
