Atypical perceptual narrowing in prematurely born infants is associated with compromised language acquisition at 2 years of age

Article


Jansson-Verkasalo, E., Ruusuvirta, T., Huotilainen, M., Alku, P., Kushnerenko, E., Suominen, K., Rytky, S., Luotonen, M., Kaukola, T., Tolonen, U. and Hallman, M. 2010. Atypical perceptual narrowing in prematurely born infants is associated with compromised language acquisition at 2 years of age. BMC Neuroscience. 11 (1), p. 88.
AuthorsJansson-Verkasalo, E., Ruusuvirta, T., Huotilainen, M., Alku, P., Kushnerenko, E., Suominen, K., Rytky, S., Luotonen, M., Kaukola, T., Tolonen, U. and Hallman, M.
Abstract

Background: Early auditory experiences are a prerequisite for speech and language acquisition. In healthy children,
phoneme discrimination abilities improve for native and degrade for unfamiliar, socially irrelevant phoneme
contrasts between 6 and 12 months of age as the brain tunes itself to, and specializes in the native spoken
language. This process is known as perceptual narrowing, and has been found to predict normal native language
acquisition. Prematurely born infants are known to be at an elevated risk for later language problems, but it
remains unclear whether these problems relate to early perceptual narrowing. To address this question, we
investigated early neurophysiological phoneme discrimination abilities and later language skills in prematurely born
infants and in healthy, full-term infants.
Results: Our follow-up study shows for the first time that perceptual narrowing for non-native phoneme contrasts
found in the healthy controls at 12 months was not observed in very prematurely born infants. An electric
mismatch response of the brain indicated that whereas full-term infants gradually lost their ability to discriminate
non-native phonemes from 6 to 12 months of age, prematurely born infants kept on this ability. Language
performance tested at the age of 2 years showed a significant delay in the prematurely born group. Moreover,
those infants who did not become specialized in native phonemes at the age of one year, performed worse in the
communicative language test (MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories) at the age of two years. Thus,
decline in sensitivity to non-native phonemes served as a predictor for further language development.
Conclusion: Our data suggest that detrimental effects of prematurity on language skills are based on the low
degree of specialization to native language early in development. Moreover, delayed or atypical perceptual
narrowing was associated with slower language acquisition. The results hence suggest that language problems
related to prematurity may partially originate already from this early tuning stage of language acquisition.

Keywordslanguage acquisition; premature infants
JournalBMC Neuroscience
Journal citation11 (1), p. 88
Year2010
Publisher's version
License
CC BY-ND
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10552/1351
Publication dates
Print30 Jul 2010
Publication process dates
Deposited23 Nov 2011
Additional information

Citation:
Jansson-Verkasalo, E., Ruusuvirta, T., Huotilainen, M., Alku, P., Kushnerenko, E., Suominen, K., Rytky, S., Luotonen, M., Kaukola, T., Tolonen, U. and Hallman, M. (2010) 'Atypical perceptual narrowing in prematurely born infants is associated with compromised language acquisition at 2 years of age' BMC Neuroscience, 11(1) p. 88.

Permalink -

https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/86205

Download files


Publisher's version
1471-2202-11-88.pdf
License: CC BY-ND

  • 148
    total views
  • 189
    total downloads
  • 0
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

Applying gaze-contingent training within community settings to infants from diverse SES backgrounds
Ballieux, H., Wass, Sam V., Tomalski, Przemyslaw, Kushnerenko, E., Karmiloff-Smith, Annette, Johnson, Mark H. and Moore, D. 2016. Applying gaze-contingent training within community settings to infants from diverse SES backgrounds. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 43, pp. 8-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2015.12.005
Separating the effects of ethnicity and socio-economic status on sleep practices of 6- to 7-month-old infants
Tomalski, Przemyslaw, Moore, D., Ballieux, H., Kushnerenko, E., Johnson, Mark H. and Karmiloff-Smith, Annette 2016. Separating the effects of ethnicity and socio-economic status on sleep practices of 6- to 7-month-old infants. Learning and Individual Differences. 46, pp. 64-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.12.028
Differences between human auditory event-related potentials (AERP) measured at 2 and 4 months after birth
van den Heuvel, Marion I., Otte, Renée A., Braeken, Marijke A.K.A., Winkler, István, Kushnerenko, E. and Van den Bergh, Bea R. H. 2015. Differences between human auditory event-related potentials (AERP) measured at 2 and 4 months after birth. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 97 (1), pp. 75-83.
Brain responses to audiovisual speech mismatch in infants are associated with individual differences in looking behaviour
Kushnerenko, E., Tomalski, P., Ballieux, H., Ribeiro, Helena, Potton, A., Axelsson, Emma L., Murphy, Elizabeth and Moore, D. 2013. Brain responses to audiovisual speech mismatch in infants are associated with individual differences in looking behaviour. European Journal of Neuroscience. 38 (9), pp. 3363-3369.
Socioeconomic status and functional brain development - associations in early infancy
Tomalski, P., Moore, D., Ribeiro, Helena, Axelsson, Emma L., Murphy, Elizabeth, Karmiloff-Smith, Annette, Johnson, Mark H. and Kushnerenko, E. 2013. Socioeconomic status and functional brain development - associations in early infancy. Developmental Science. 16 (5), pp. 676-687.
Exploring early developmental changes in face scanning patterns during the perception of audiovisual mismatch of speech cues
Tomalski, P., Ribeiro, Helena, Ballieux, H., Axelsson, Emma L., Murphy, Elizabeth, Moore, D. and Kushnerenko, E. 2013. Exploring early developmental changes in face scanning patterns during the perception of audiovisual mismatch of speech cues. European Journal of Developmental Psychology. 10 (5), pp. 611-624.
Brain responses and looking behavior during audiovisual speech integration in infants predict auditory speech comprehension in the second year of life
Kushnerenko, E., Tomalski, P., Ballieux, H., Potton, A., Birtles, D., Frostick, C. and Moore, D. 2013. Brain responses and looking behavior during audiovisual speech integration in infants predict auditory speech comprehension in the second year of life. Frontiers in Psychology. 4 (432).
Separating acoustic deviance from novelty during the first year of life: a review of event-related potential evidence
Kushnerenko, E., Van den Bergh, Bea R. H. and Winkler, István 2013. Separating acoustic deviance from novelty during the first year of life: a review of event-related potential evidence. Frontiers in Psychology. 4 (595).
Differential habituation to repeated sounds in infants at high risk for autism
Guiraud, Jeanne A., Kushnerenko, E., Tomalski, P., Davies, Kim, Ribeiro, Helena and Johnson, Mark H. 2011. Differential habituation to repeated sounds in infants at high risk for autism. NeuroReport. 22 (16), pp. 845-849.
Electrophysiological methods in studying infant cognitive development
Csibra, G., Kushnerenko, E. and Grossmann, T. 2008. Electrophysiological methods in studying infant cognitive development. in: Nelson, C. A. and Luciana, M. (ed.) Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Cambridge, MA MIT Press. pp. 247-262