Over recent decades, much has been learned about the perceptual capacity that
enables infants to recognize and understand language. However, not until very recently
have the neural mechanisms that are the substance of language learning been
investigated. A recently developed optical imaging technique called near-infrared
spectroscopy (NIRS) shows promise for being an acceptable alternative to invasive
imaging techniques. NIRS measures correlates of neural activity by assessing
hemoglobin concentration changes in the infant brain. The research presented here
investigates neural activation in the left temporal and occipital cortex regions during
exposure to speech and visual stimuli. As hypothesized, hemodynamic reaction was
observed in both areas. Results indicate a significant activation in response to speech in
the left temporal region, and an intriguing difference between uni- and bi-modally
presented speech stimuli. These results have interesting implications for future multimodal
studies of infant speech perception.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2386 |
| Date | 29 August 2005 |
| Creators | Wruck, Eric Michael |
| Contributors | Bortfeld, Heather |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 1243811 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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