Event Abstract Back to Event Deviant standards: Effects of stimuli and oddball status on the MMN in speech sound discrimination of monolingual and bilingual speakers Monika Molnar1* and K. Steinhauer1 1 McGill University, Canada Vowel perception patterns of monolingual (English and French) and simultaneous bilingual (English/French) adults were investigated using an unattended auditory oddball paradigm. The discrimination abilities of each language group were measured in response to four vowels whose phonemic status varied between languages: French [u], English [u], French [y], and an acoustically distinct non-phonemic control [y]. Stimuli were created using the Variable Linear Articulatory Model (VLAM) (Boë & Maeda, 1998) which simulates realistic vowels in terms of articulatory-to-acoustic relationships. ERPs were collected in four experimental blocks. Every block contained one of the vowels as a standard and the remaining three vowels as deviants; in this way, each token served both as a standard and as a deviant (three times) within the same paradigm. The overall results are in line with previous electrophysiological and behavioral findings: monolingual speakers exhibited increased sensitivity to the phonemic status of the vowels compared to the acoustic properties differentiating the sounds. Bilingual speakers demonstrated a slower response but seemed more sensitive to acoustic patterns than monolinguals. In addition to the effect of language experience on the MMN, the oddball status (standard or deviant) of the vowels was also considered. Since each sound served as a standard and as a deviant in comparison to all the other sounds, not only the MMN triggered by the acoustic/phonemic changes in the stimuli were measured but also the MMN elicited purely based on the oddball status of the same tokens was examined. Possible methodological implications of such a design will be discussed. Conference: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Apr - 7 Apr, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Presentations Citation: Molnar M and Steinhauer K (2009). Deviant standards: Effects of stimuli and oddball status on the MMN in speech sound discrimination of monolingual and bilingual speakers. Conference Abstract: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.112 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Mar 2009; Published Online: 26 Mar 2009. * Correspondence: Monika Molnar, McGill University, Montréal, Canada, monika.molnar@mcgill.ca Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Monika Molnar K. Steinhauer Google Monika Molnar K. Steinhauer Google Scholar Monika Molnar K. Steinhauer PubMed Monika Molnar K. Steinhauer Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.