Language Acquisition
• The role of statistics on language acquisition
• The role of biology and experience on early development
• Promoting early learning with interactive media
LSCP
Franck Ramus
Emmanuel Dupoux
Christophe Pallier
Anne Christophe
Infant mind?
Luca Bonatti
Ghislaine Dehaene
Marina Nespor
• The role of statistics on language acquisition
Adjacent syllables TP
…pabikutibudopabikutudaropabikupigolapabiku… Saffran, Newport & Aslin, Science
1996
Generalization
kuLebi nafidu lifife
kufibi naLedu liLefe
kugobi nagodu ligofe
Online - Learning
Buiatti, Peña,, Dehaene-Lambertz, Neuroimage 2008
Peña, Bonatti, Nespor & Mehler, Science 2002
• The role of statistics on language acquisition
The brain of both Corrected and Chronologic 8 months old preterm infants resonantes with the
stimulus and correlate with the performance (Kabdebon, Peña,, Buiatti, Dehaene-Lambertz, Brain &
Language, 2015)
• The role of biology on early language acquisition
Are humans born with networks specially tuned to process language?
LEFT
• Pena, Maki, Kovacić, Dehaene-Lambertz, Koizumi,
Bouquet, Mehler J, PNAS, 2003
• Kotilahti, Nissilä, Näsi, Lipiäinen, Noponen, Meriläinen,
Huotilainen & Fellman, Hum Brain Mapp. 2010
• Sato, Hirabayashi, Tsubokura, Kanai, Ashida, Konishi,
Uchida-Ota, Konishi, Maki Hum Brain Mapp. 2012
RIGHT
Perani, Saccuman, Scifo, Anwander,
Spada, Baldoli, Poloniato, Lohmann
& Friederici., PNAS, 2011
YES!
• The role of biology and experience on language acquisition
MODEL: THE HEALTHY PRETERM
3 months before term age (40 weeks)
Taken from Jando et al, PNAS 2012
• The role of biology and experience on language acquisition
… between others, we wanted to explore the role of biology
and experience on the open and closure of critical periods
Takao Hensh 2005
Review de Sale et al, Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 2010
• The role of biology and experience on language acquisition
LANGUAGE RHYTHMIC CLASS
• Syllabic rhythm such as Portugues, Spanish
• Stress rhythm such as English
• Morae rhythm such as Japanes
NATIVE PHONEMES
• Consonants /p/, /t/ and /th/
FT
PT
• The role of biology and experience on language acquisition
FETUSES:
RYTHMIC CLASSES
-Discriminate languages from different rhythmic classes
and recognize the prosody of the mother language
(Kisilevsky et al, 2008-2009)
FUL TERM NEWBORNS:
-Cry with mother language prosody Mampe, Christophe et al, 2009)
-Discriminate languages from different rhythmic classes
(Ramus et al, 2000)
4.5 months old infants,
fullterm at birth
-Discriminate languages from the
same rhythmic class (Bosh et al, 2007);
including dialects (Nazzi et al, 2007)
≠
• The role of biology and experience on language acquisition
LANGUAGE RHYTHMIC CLASS
MATURATION
EXPERIENCE
• The role of biology and experience on language acquisition
NATIVE PHONEME ACQUISITION
FULLTERM evaluated at 11- 12 m: discriminates better
native phonemes
Werker y Lalonde,
JASA, 1988
• The role of biology and experience on language acquisition
LANGUAGE RHYTHMIC CLASS
MATURATION
EXPERIENCE
NATIVE PHONEMES: ConsonantS /p/, /t/ and /th/
9
FT12
FT9
PT12
PT15
• The role of biology and experience on language acquisition
PRETERM INFANTS DO NOT ACCELERATE THE LEARNING OF THESE TWO
BASIC PROPERTIES OF NATIVE LANGUAGE
RHYTHM
NATIVE PHONEME
FT9
PT12
FT12
PT15
Peña, Werker & Dehaene-Lambertz, J. Neuroscience, 2012
Peña , Pittaluga, Mehler, PNAS 2010
 THERE IS AN ONSET OF THE CRITICAL PERIOD FOR PHONEME AND RYHTHM
ACQUISITION
• The role of biology and experience on language acquisition
However, for some specific property of
the native language, preterms are
influenced by experience: Phonotactics
Labial coronal
Coronal labial
Does not accelerate vocalization
Gonzalez-Gomez & Nazzi, Developmnetal Science, 2012
• The role of biology and
experience on early communication
PREMATURO
Caskey et al, Pediatrics 2011
Peña, Arias & Dehaene-Lambertz, Psy. Science, 2014
SOCIAL COGNICION IS ACCELEATED BY EXPERIENCE
• The role of biology and experience on early communication
PRETERM
VISUAL SYSTEM: STEREOACUITY
STEREOACUITY IN HUMAN PRETERM IS ACCELERATED BY
VISUAL STIMULATION (Jando et al, PNAS, 2012), VEP
• The role of biology and experience on early communication
OPEN / CLOSURE OF CRITICAL PERIODS
ADJUSTED ANIMAL MODEL
Takao Hensh 2005
VISUAL
SOCIAL
•ANTIDEPRESIVES IN FETUS
•SENSORIAL DEPRIVATION
BASIC UNITS
FOR LANGUAGE
AQCUISTION
• Promoting early learning with interactive media
HEALTHY TODDLER
Meltzoff et al , 2010
AUTISM
Kim et al , 2013
Scassellati et al, 2013
CONCLUSION
• INFANT BRAIN CAN EXPLOIT STATISTICS AND OTHER PROPERTIES OF THE
STIMULI TO AQCUIRE NATIVE LANGUAGE
• BIOLOGY MODULATES THE ACQUISITION OF SOME COGNITIVE SKILLS IN
HEALTHY PRETERM INFANT
• HOWEVER, OTHER COGNITIVE SKILLS SUCH AS NATIVE LANGUAGE
SPECIFIC PROPERTIES (PHONOTACTICS), VISUAL STEREOACUITY AND
SOCIAL SKILLS (GAZE FOLLOWING AND FACE-TO-FACE IMITATION) ARE
SENSITIVE TO EXTERNAL STIMULATION
• JACQUES MEHLER HAS INFLUENCED THE SCIENTIFC CARRIER OF MANY
PEOPLE, INCLUDING MINE
… THANKS JACQUES !
Janet Werker
UBC
Canada
Ghislaine Dehaene
CNRS INSERM
Francia
Jacques Mehler &
Marina Nespor
SISSA Italia
Enrica Pittaluga
Hosp Sotero del Río
CHILE
Esteban Pino
Pamela Guevara
Camilo Gouet
Diana Arias
Enrique Germani
Departamento de Ingenieria Biomédica,
Universidad de Concepción, Chile
Laboratorio de
Neurociencias
Cognitivas – PUC
Diana Arias
Pamela Franco
Severin Lions
Camilo Guet
Cristina Jara
Pamela
Franco
Cristina
Jara
Severin
Lions