Cortical plasticity induced by rapid Hebbian learning of novel tonal word-forms: Evidence from mismatch negativity
- Although several experiments reported rapid cortical plasticity induced by passive exposure to novel segmental patterns, few studies have devoted attention to the neural dynamics during the rapid learning of novel tonal word-forms in tonal languages, such as Chinese. In the current study, native speakers of Mandarin Chinese were exposed to acoustically matched real and novel segment-tone patterns. By recording their Mismatch Negativity (MMN) responses (an ERP indicator of long-term memory traces for spoken words), we found enhanced MMNs to the novel word-forms over the left-hemispheric region in the late exposure phase relative to the early exposure phase. In contrast, no significant changes were identified in MMN responses to the real word during familiarisation. Our results suggest a rapid Hebbian learning mechanism in the human neocortex which develops long-term memory traces for a novel segment-tone pattern by establishing new associations between the segmental and tonal representations. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Although several experiments reported rapid cortical plasticity induced by passive exposure to novel segmental patterns, few studies have devoted attention to the neural dynamics during the rapid learning of novel tonal word-forms in tonal languages, such as Chinese. In the current study, native speakers of Mandarin Chinese were exposed to acoustically matched real and novel segment-tone patterns. By recording their Mismatch Negativity (MMN) responses (an ERP indicator of long-term memory traces for spoken words), we found enhanced MMNs to the novel word-forms over the left-hemispheric region in the late exposure phase relative to the early exposure phase. In contrast, no significant changes were identified in MMN responses to the real word during familiarisation. Our results suggest a rapid Hebbian learning mechanism in the human neocortex which develops long-term memory traces for a novel segment-tone pattern by establishing new associations between the segmental and tonal representations. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.…
Author details: | Jinxing Yue, Roelien BastiaanseORCiDGND, Kai Alter |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2014.09.007 |
ISSN: | 0093-934X |
ISSN: | 1090-2155 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25463813 |
Title of parent work (English): | Brain & language : a journal of the neurobiology of language |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Place of publishing: | San Diego |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2014 |
Publication year: | 2014 |
Release date: | 2017/03/26 |
Tag: | Event-related potential; Hebbian learning; Language; Lexical tone; Mandarin Chinese; Mismatch Negativity (MMN); Novel word; Oddball paradigm; Rapid learning |
Volume: | 139 |
Number of pages: | 13 |
First page: | 10 |
Last Page: | 22 |
Funding institution: | Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate (EMJD) Fellowship, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University; Ministry of Education of P. R. China [12YJCZH262] |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Institution name at the time of the publication: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Linguistik / Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft |