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Deficits in Processing of Lexical Tones in Mandarin-Speaking Children With Developmental Language Disorder: Electrophysiological Evidence
- Source :
- Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. April, 2021, Vol. 64 Issue 4, p1176, 13 p.
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Purpose: This study explored the neural marker indexing deficits in discriminating lexical tone changes in Mandarin-speaking children with developmental language disorders (DLDs) using mismatch negativity, an event-related potential component for auditory change detection. Mandarin has four lexical tones characterized by a high-level tone (T1), high-rising tone (T2), low-dipping tone (T3), and high-falling tone (T4), in which the T2/T3 contrast is acoustically less discriminable in developmental groups. Therefore, this study further examined how deficits in children with DLD would vary with tonal contrasts' acoustic saliency. Method: Event-related potentials were measured using the multideviant oddball paradigm described by Lee et al. (2012), who used Mandarin syllables [i] in t3 as the standard sound (80%), T1 as the large deviant (10%), and T2 as the small deviant (10%). Twelve children with DLD aged between 4 and 6 years participated in this study, and 12 age-matched children with typical development were selected from the data set of Lee et al. (2012) as the controls. Results: The T1/T3 change elicited adultlike mismatch negativity in both the DLD and control groups, while no group difference was revealed. The T2/T3 change elicited a robust positive mismatch response (P-MMR) in children with DLD, while the P-MMR was less significant in the control group. The group comparisons revealed a larger P-MMR in children with DLD than in the control group. Furthermore, children with lower scores in language assessments tend to reveal larger P-MMRs. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that deficits in children with DLD in discriminating subtle lexical tone changes reflect greater positivity of P-MMR to T2/T3 change. This implies that MMR to T2/T3 may serve as a neural marker for evaluating language delay in preschoolers.<br />Language skill is essential for successful communication and knowledge acquisition in the modern society. Unfortunately, approximately 5%-10% of children had oral language development that is substantially and quantifiably below what [...]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10924388
- Volume :
- 64
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Gale General OneFile
- Journal :
- Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsgcl.659950416
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-19-00392