Tracing the Trajectory of Sensory Plasticity across Different Stages of Speech Learning in Adulthood.

ABSTRACT: Although challenging, adults can learn non-native phonetic contrasts with extensive training [1, 2], indicative of perceptual learning beyond an early sensitivity period [3, 4]. Training can alter low-level sensory encoding of newly acquired speech sound patterns [5]; however, the time-course, behavioral relevance, and long-term retention of such sensory plasticity is unclear. Some theories argue that sensory plasticity underlying signal enhancement is immediate and critical to perceptual learning [6, 7]. Others, like the reverse hierarchy theory (RHT), posit a slower time-course for sensory plasticity [8]. RHT proposes that higher-level categorical representations guide immediate, novice learning, while lower-level sensory changes do not emerge until expert stages of learning [9]. We trai

SUBMITTER: Reetzke R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5940549 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature