@article{TelkemeyerRossiNierhausetal.2011,
  author    = {Telkemeyer, Silke and Rossi, Sonja and Nierhaus, Till and Steinbrink, Jens and Obrig, Hellmuth and Wartenburger, Isabell},
  title     = {Acoustic processing of temporally modulated sounds in infants evidence from a combined near-infrared spectroscopy and EEG study},
  series = {Frontiers in psychology},
  volume    = {2},
  journal   = {Frontiers in psychology},
  number    = {2},
  publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation},
  address   = {Lausanne},
  issn      = {1664-1078},
  doi       = {10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00062},
  pages     = {14},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Speech perception requires rapid extraction of the linguistic content from the acoustic signal. The ability to efficiently process rapid changes in auditory information is important for decoding speech and thereby crucial during language acquisition. Investigating functional networks of speech perception in infancy might elucidate neuronal ensembles supporting perceptual abilities that gate language acquisition. Interhemispheric specializations for language have been demonstrated in infants. How these asymmetries are shaped by basic temporal acoustic properties is under debate. We recently provided evidence that newborns process non-linguistic sounds sharing temporal features with language in a differential and lateralized fashion. The present study used the same material while measuring brain responses of 6 and 3 month old infants using simultaneous recordings of electroencephalography (EEG) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). NIRS reveals that the lateralization observed in newborns remains constant over the first months of life. While fast acoustic modulations elicit bilateral neuronal activations, slow modulations lead to right-lateralized responses. Additionally, auditory-evoked potentials and oscillatory EEG responses show differential responses for fast and slow modulations indicating a sensitivity for temporal acoustic variations. Oscillatory responses reveal an effect of development, that is, 6 but not 3 month old infants show stronger theta-band desynchronization for slowly modulated sounds. Whether this developmental effect is due to increasing fine-grained perception for spectrotemporal sounds in general remains speculative. Our findings support the notion that a more general specialization for acoustic properties can be considered the basis for lateralization of speech perception. The results show that concurrent assessment of vascular based imaging and electrophysiological responses have great potential in the research on language acquisition.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Herold2011,
  author    = {Herold, Birgit},
  title     = {Prosodische Verarbeitung und lexikalische Entwicklung sehr untergewichtiger Fr{\"u}hgeborener w{\"a}hrend des ersten Lebensjahres},
  publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam},
  address   = {Potsdam},
  isbn      = {978-3-86956-107-3},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-48517},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xv, 244},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Die vorliegende Arbeit besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit der Fragestellung, ob die Fr{\"u}hgeburtlichkeit eine Auswirkung auf den Spracherwerb im ersten Lebensjahr hat. Insbesondere wurde der Frage nachgegangen, ob sich die Verarbeitung der rhythmisch-prosodischen Eigenschaften von Sprache im ersten Lebensjahr und deren weitere Ausnutzung f{\"u}r die Entwicklung des Lexikons bei sehr untergewichtigen Deutsch lernenden Fr{\"u}hgeborenen im Vergleich zu Reifgeborenen unterscheidet. Die besondere Spracherwerbssituation Fr{\"u}hgeborener liefert weitere Erkenntnisse bez{\"u}glich der Frage, inwieweit der fr{\"u}he Spracherwerb durch pr{\"a}determinierte reifungsbedingte Mechanismen und Abl{\"a}ufe bestimmt wird und inwieweit dessen Verlauf und die relevanten Erwerbsmechanismen durch individuelle erfahrungsabh{\"a}ngige Faktoren beeinflusst werden. Damit liefern die Ergebnisse auch einen weiteren Beitrag zur Nature-Nurture-Diskussion.},
  language  = {de}
}