0000000000495833
AUTHOR
Sari Ylinen
Mismatch negativity (MMN) elicited by changes in phoneme length: A cross-linguistic study
Speech sounds representing different phonetic categories are typically easier to discriminate than sounds belonging to the same category. This phenomenon is referred to as the phoneme boundary effect. We aimed to determine whether, at neural level, this effect is indeed due to crossing the phoneme boundary. The mismatch negativity (MMN) brain response was measured for across- and within-category changes in Finnish phoneme length in native speakers and second-language users of Finnish as well as non-Finnish-speaking subjects. The results showed that the MMN amplitude was enhanced in the native speakers in comparison with the two non-native groups which, in turn, did not differ from each othe…
Discriminatory Brain Processes of Native and Foreign Language in Children with and without Reading Difficulties
The association between impaired speech perception and reading difficulty has been well established in native language processing, as can be observed from brain activity. However, there has been scarce investigation of whether this association extends to brain activity during foreign language processing. The relationship between reading skills and neuronal speech representation of foreign language remains unclear. In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) with high-density EEG to investigate this question. Eleven- to 13-year-old children typically developed (CTR) or with reading difficulties (RD) were tested via a passive auditory oddball paradigm containing native (Finn…
Tietokoneavusteinen suomen kielen kvantiteetin harjoittelu: venäjänkielisen suomea opettelevan lapsen ja suomenkielisen luku- ja kirjoitushäiriöisen lapsen vertailu
Kaksi ensiluokkalaista lasta, oppimispulmaton venäjänkielinen suomenoppija ja suomenkielinen luku- ja kirjoitushäiriöinen lapsi, joilla kummallakin oli ongelmia vokaalikvantiteetin tunnistustaidossa, osallistuivat tietokonepohjaiseen kvantiteettipeli-interventioon. Tunnistustaito mitattiin jakson aikana seitsemän kertaa, ja kielelliset ja kognitiiviset taidot alku-, loppu- ja seurantamittauksessa. Venäjänkielisen lapsen tunnistustaito sekä kvantiteetin yleinen erottelutaito paranivat heti harjoittelun myötä. Myös kvantiteetin luku- ja oikeinkirjoitustarkkuus, foneemien ja grafeemien tuntemus ja fonologinen tietoisuus parantuivat. Lukuja kirjoitushäiriöisellä lapsella tunnistustaito parantui…
Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Processing of Spoken Inflected and Derived Words:A Combined EEG and MEG Study
The spatiotemporal dynamics of the neural processing of spoken morphologically complex words are still an open issue. In the current study, we investigated the time course and neural sources of spoken inflected and derived words using simultaneously recorded electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) responses. Ten participants (native speakers) listened to inflected, derived, and monomorphemic Finnish words and judged their acceptability. EEG and MEG responses were time-locked to both the stimulus onset and the critical point (suffix onset for complex words, uniqueness point for monomorphemic words). The ERP results showed that inflected words elicited a larger left-late…
Two Distinct Auditory-Motor Circuits for Monitoring Speech Production as Revealed by Content-Specific Suppression of Auditory Cortex
Speech production, both overt and covert, down-regulates the activation of auditory cortex. This is thought to be due to forward prediction of the sensory consequences of speech, contributing to a feedback control mechanism for speech production. Critically, however, these regulatory effects should be specific to speech content to enable accurate speech monitoring. To determine the extent to which such forward prediction is content-specific, we recorded the brain's neuromagnetic responses to heard multisyllabic pseudowords during covert rehearsal in working memory, contrasted with a control task. The cortical auditory processing of target syllables was significantly suppressed during rehear…
Computer game as a tool for training the identification of phonemic length.
Computer-assisted training of Finnish phonemic length was conducted with 7-year-old Russian-speaking second-language learners of Finnish. Phonemic length plays a different role in these two languages. The training included game activities with two- and three-syllable word and pseudo-word minimal pairs with prototypical vowel durations. The lowest accuracy scores were recorded for two-syllable words. Accuracy scores were higher for the minimal pairs with larger rather than smaller differences in duration. Accuracy scores were lower for long duration than for short duration. The ability to identify quantity degree was generalized to stimuli used in the identification test in two of the childr…