Work

Prerequisites of language acquisition in the newborn brain

Year: 2023

Type: review

Abstract: Learning to decode and produce speech is one of the most demanding tasks faced by infants. Nevertheless, infants typically utter their first words within a year, and phrases soon follow. Here we review cognitive abilities of newborn infants that promote language acquisition, focusing primarily on studies tapping neural activity. The results of these studies indicate that infants possess core adult auditory abilities already at birth, including statistical learning and rule extraction from variable speech input. Thus, the neonatal brain is ready to categorize sounds, detect word boundaries, learn words, and separate speech streams: in short, to acquire language quickly and efficiently from everyday linguistic input.

Source: Trends in Neurosciences

DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2023.05.011

Authors: Teija Kujala, Eino Partanen, Paula Virtala, István Winkler

Institutions: University of Helsinki, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Language Development and Disorders

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $6,830

Funders: Helsingin Yliopisto, Academy of Finland, National Research, Development and Innovation Office