Development of the N1-P2 auditory evoked response to amplitude rise time and rate of formant transition of speech sounds.

ABSTRACT: We investigated the development of weighting strategies for acoustic cues by examining the morphology of the N1-P2 auditory evoked potential (AEP) to changes in amplitude rise time (ART) and rate of formant transition (RFT) of consonant-vowel (CV) pairs in 4-6-year olds and adults. In the AEP session, individuals listened passively to the CVs /ba/, /wa/, and a /ba/ with a superimposed slower-rising /wa/ envelope (/ba/(wa)). In the behavioral session, individuals listened to the same stimuli and judged whether they heard a /ba/ or /wa/. We hypothesized that a developmental shift in weighting strategies should be reflected in a change in the morphology of the N1-P2 AEP. In 6-year olds and adults, the N1-P2 amplitude at the vertex reflected a change in RFT but not in ART. In contrast, in the 4-5-year olds, the vertex N1-P2 did not show specificity to changes in ART or RFT. In all groups, the N1-P2 amplitude at channel C4 (right hemisphere) reflected a change in ART but not in RFT. Behaviorally, 6-year olds and adults predominately utilized RFT cues (classified /ba/(wa) as /ba/) during phonetic judgments, as opposed to 4-5-year olds which utilized both cues equally. Our findings suggest that both ART and RFT are encoded in the auditory cortex, but an N1-P2 shift toward the vertex following age 4-5 indicates a shift toward an adult-like weighting strategy, such that, to utilize RFT to a greater extent.

SUBMITTER: Carpenter AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3756151 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature