TY - JOUR
T1 - Cerebral responses to infant-directed speech and the effect of talker familiarity
AU - Naoi, Nozomi
AU - Minagawa-Kawai, Yasuyo
AU - Kobayashi, Ai
AU - Takeuchi, Koji
AU - Nakamura, Katsuki
AU - Yamamoto, Jun ichi
AU - Kojima, Shozo
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows ( 16·7608 ), Japan Agency of Science and Technology (JST)/CREST, and the Global Center of Excellence (GCOE) program at Keio University. This work was part of the doctoral dissertation of the first author. We would like to thank all the children and their parents who participated in this research. We also thank Y. Fuchino for the helpful suggestions on data analysis, and N. Kikuchi and Y. Hara for assistance with the experiments.
PY - 2012/1/16
Y1 - 2012/1/16
N2 - A number of behavioral studies suggest that infant-directed speech (IDS) plays a more important role in facilitating both: a) speech perception, and b) adult-infant social interactions than does adult-directed speech (ADS), and hence that IDS contributes to subsequent social and language development. However neural substrates that may underlie these IDS functions have not been examined. The present study examined cerebral hemodynamic responses to IDS in 48 infants (4-13. months of age) using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Japanese sentences uttered by the infants' own mothers and by unfamiliar mothers were used to record activations in temporal and frontal area separately. Increased activations were observed predominantly in infants' left and right temporal areas when they listened to IDS rather than to ADS when both involved voices of their own and unfamiliar mothers. In contrast, significantly greater activations were observed in the frontal area when infants listened to IDS produced by their own mothers, not when IDS arose from unfamiliar mothers. Furthermore, the present results indicate that responses to IDS do vary as a function of the infant's age and the talker familiarity. These findings suggest a differential function for frontal and temporal areas in processing infant-directed speech by the different speakers.
AB - A number of behavioral studies suggest that infant-directed speech (IDS) plays a more important role in facilitating both: a) speech perception, and b) adult-infant social interactions than does adult-directed speech (ADS), and hence that IDS contributes to subsequent social and language development. However neural substrates that may underlie these IDS functions have not been examined. The present study examined cerebral hemodynamic responses to IDS in 48 infants (4-13. months of age) using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Japanese sentences uttered by the infants' own mothers and by unfamiliar mothers were used to record activations in temporal and frontal area separately. Increased activations were observed predominantly in infants' left and right temporal areas when they listened to IDS rather than to ADS when both involved voices of their own and unfamiliar mothers. In contrast, significantly greater activations were observed in the frontal area when infants listened to IDS produced by their own mothers, not when IDS arose from unfamiliar mothers. Furthermore, the present results indicate that responses to IDS do vary as a function of the infant's age and the talker familiarity. These findings suggest a differential function for frontal and temporal areas in processing infant-directed speech by the different speakers.
KW - Development
KW - Infant-directed speech
KW - Infants
KW - Mother's voice
KW - Near-infrared spectroscopy
KW - Talker familiarity
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.07.093
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.07.093
M3 - Article
C2 - 21867764
AN - SCOPUS:83055188149
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 59
SP - 1735
EP - 1744
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
IS - 2
ER -