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Segmental and suprasegmental features in speech perception in C antonese‐speaking second graders: An ERP study
Author(s) -
Tong Xiuhong,
McBride Catherine,
Lee ChiaYing,
Zhang Juan,
Shuai Lan,
Maurer Urs,
Chung Kevin K. H.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/psyp.12257
Subject(s) - psychology , mismatch negativity , audiology , tone (literature) , perception , speech perception , voice onset time , developmental psychology , electroencephalography , linguistics , neuroscience , medicine , philosophy
Using a multiple‐deviant oddball paradigm, this study examined second graders' brain responses to C antonese speech. We aimed to address the question of whether a change in a consonant or lexical tone could be automatically detected by children. We measured auditory mismatch responses to place of articulation and voice onset time ( VOT ), reflecting segmental perception, as well as C antonese lexical tones including level tone and contour tone, reflecting suprasegmental perception. The data showed that robust mismatch negativities ( MMNs ) were elicited by all deviants in the time window of 300–500 ms in second graders. Moreover, relative to the standard stimuli, the VOT deviant elicited a robust positive mismatch response, and the level tone deviant elicited a significant MMN in the time window of 150–300 ms. The findings suggest that H ong K ong second graders were sensitive to neural discriminations of speech sounds both at the segmental and suprasegmental levels.