Home language environment and brain functions for language

Irina Kuzmina, Amanda Hampton Wray, Eric Pakulak, Yoshiko Yamada, & Helen Neville

Brain Development Laboratory, University of Oregon Department of Psychology

Home language environment & Language Development

Home language environment has substantial effects on a child’s language development.

Language skills are important for:• academic achievement

(e.g. reading, and math abilities)

Hart & Risley, 1995; Hoff, 2003 Huttenlocher, Vasilyeva, Cymerman, & Levine, 2002, Catts, Adlof, & Weismer, 2006; Pagani, Fitzpatrick, Archambault, & Janosz, 2010

Home Language and Vocabulary Development

Hart & Risley, 1992; Hart & Risley, 2003

480 utterances per hour

300 utterances per hour

175 utterances per hour

Averaged across2.5 years of observation

Goal is to explore the relationship between:

parent language input:how much time parents spend reading to and sharing books with their children;

language proficiency: a standardized measure of receptive language;

neurophysiological measure: event-related brain potentials (ERPs)

What are event-related potentials (ERPs)?

Continuous brain electrical activity

Time-locked to the presentation of stimuli of interest

Online, non-invasive

index of cognitive processes

Temporal resolution of milliseconds

Electro-Cap

32-channel;gel for conduction

Collecting ERP data

Amplifier

EEG: Electroencephalogram

s21s11 s12 s13... s22

ERPs time locked to the onset of critical words

Brain Organization for Language

Language has different components and ERPs are sensitive to different subcomponents of language: • Phonology• Syntax• Semantics

Canonical: She claps her hands happily.

Violation: She claps her ball happily.

Focus on Semantics Processing

Negatively going wave Response to violations of semantic expectations Largest over central and parietal electrode sites

N400

ERPs and language processing “Mature” N400 (adults): shorter duration, focal

distribution

N400 (young children): prolonged latency, more spread

Current Project

Brain organization and processing for language are related to experience and language proficiency.

Research question:How does parent and child joint reading relate to neural processing for semantics?

Hypothesis:Children with higher reading input will display more mature N400. Pakulak & Neville, 2010; Yamada, Harris, Pakulak, Schachter, Neville, 2002, Hampton Wray & Weber-Fox, under revision

Method

ERPs were recorded for 3-5 year-old children (N = 35)

Questionnaires completed by parents: self-report of parent reading and sharing books with their children

Median split: high and low reading input groups

Groups were matched on receptive language proficiency.

Paradigm for assessing brain functions for language using ERPs

child-friendlyecologically validhighly engaging

ResultsParadigm validity:

Children (3-5 year old)

Adults

Replicated previous resultsSignificant N400 in time windows 350-950 ms

and 950-1600 ms

N400 N400

Group Differences

High Reading Input

Low Reading Input

No differences in mean amplitudes in time windows 350-950 ms or 950-1600 ms

Late time window (1600-2300 ms): distribution difference

Results: distribution difference

Low reading group shows a negativity that is more broadly distributed in the late time window

High reading group: negativity only over right hemisphere (condition by hemisphere interaction, p = ,03)

Low reading group: negativity over both hemispheres (no condition by hemisphere interaction, p = .43)

Discussion

We may not see differences in the earlier time windows because groups were matched for language proficiency.

Right-lateralized pattern, observed in the high reading input group in the late time window resembles the N400 distribution typically found in adults.

The bilateral distribution observed in the low reading input group may suggest recruitment of additional systems for language processing, that usually are not related to semantic processing.

Acknowledgments

Brain Development Laboratory UO Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) NIH/NIDCD R01 DC00481-21