Developmental changes in auditory-evoked neural activity underlie infants' links between language and cognition.

ABSTRACT: The power and precision with which humans link language to cognition is unique to our species. By 3-4 months of age, infants have already established this link: simply listening to human language facilitates infants' success in fundamental cognitive processes. Initially, this link to cognition is also engaged by a broader set of acoustic stimuli, including non-human primate vocalizations (but not other sounds, like backwards speech). But by 6 months, non-human primate vocalizations no longer confer this cognitive advantage that persists for speech. What remains unknown is the mechanism by which these sounds influence infant cognition, and how this initially broader set of privileged sounds narrows to only human speech between 4 and 6 months. Here, we recorded 4- and 6-month-olds' EEG respo

SUBMITTER: Woodruff Carr K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9422996 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature