Subjects: Other Disciplines >> Synthetic discipline submitted time 2023-10-09 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Language is the primary means of human communication. Understanding how it develops and which brain regions control it is a significant concern for psychologists and linguists. In early life, especially during the neonatal stage, infants possess strong perceptual abilities for speech sounds. Newborns can distinguish vowels and consonants from different languages. However, this sensitivity narrows as they are exposed to their native language, making it challenging to perceive non-native phonemes. Studying newborns' perception, discrimination, and learning of speech sounds provides insights into early cognitive mechanisms of language development and aids in understanding neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.Early studies on newborns and infants often use the “habituation-dishabituation paradigm” with “nipple sucking rate” as an indicator. Newborns exhibit perceptual preferences for speech sounds, their native language, and their mother's voice. Brain observation techniques like electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) are used to study speech perception in infants. EEG focuses on the mismatch response (MMR), while fNIRS reveals specific cortical regions involved in speech processing. Both techniques show left-hemisphere dominance in newborns' language processing, with left temporal and frontal lobes being more activated during language tasks. This leftward bias is evident in both functional and structural aspects of the brain. Understanding early language perception is crucial for developmental psychology and related clinical research.Newborns possess strong phoneme discrimination abilities, distinguishing vowels and consonants from different languages. They can also recognize syllables and syllable sequences. Studies using the habituation-dishabituation paradigm and brain observation techniques like EEG and fNIRS demonstrate newborns' unique language capabilities. They exhibit perceptual preferences for their native language and can differentiate it from other languages. Behaviorally, newborns can distinguish sentences and perceive accent patterns. EEG and fNIRS studies show newborns' ability to discriminate vowels, consonants, and syllables, with left hemisphere involvement. They also display sensitivity to syllable sequences, showing enhanced brain responses to certain sequence structures. These findings contribute to understanding language processing and statistical learning in early development.To date, research on newborns' speech perception and phoneme discrimination has primarily employed passive observation of language exposure in utero (e.g., Moon et al., 2013) or single-time-point assessments (excluding Moon's study). Only one study (Partanen et al., 2013) has examined fetal language learning by exposing fetuses to speech sounds prenatally. Few studies have directly observed changes in brain activity before and after speech learning in newborns. Studies using EEG and fNIRS found enhanced neural responses to learned vowels, demonstrating brain plasticity due to learning. Additionally, a study using fNIRS showed that sleep influenced the brain's response to learned vowels. However, the debate remains about whether newborns can differentiate vowels or if their sensitivity is related to prosody rather than phoneme discrimination. Future research should explore the effects of sleep on newborns' language learning and the broader range of phoneme learning in newborns.Autism is a major neurodevelopmental disorder in early childhood, characterized by social communication difficulties, language impairments, and repetitive behaviors, significantly impacting lifelong social functioning (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The global prevalence is 1-2% (Hirota & King, 2023; World Health Organization, 2023; Zeidan et al., 2022). Language issues are a primary concern, with affected children showing reduced language abilities and abnormal brain networks (Belteki et al., 2022; Tryfon et al., 2018). Early diagnosis and intervention can improve outcomes, but the link between newborn language development and autism needs further research. This review focuses on infant studies, particularly longitudinal research predicting autism in high-risk infants with genetic and brain risk factors (Hirota & King, 2023). Longitudinal studies suggest language behavioral indicators predict autism after one year, while brain indicators show predictive value as early as three months (Ayoub et al., 2022; Clairmont et al., 2022; Molnar-Szakacs et al., 2021). Three longitudinal studies indicate language brain indicators predict autism in high-risk infants. Language lateralization in the brain also has predictive implications for autism (Lindell, 2020; Herringshaw et al., 2016). Five longitudinal studies on high-risk infants show language lateralization indicators predict autism during infancy. Research on high-risk infants provides valuable insights into the predictive value of early language development in autism. Capturing language processing brain indicators in newborns may offer valuable personalized warning parameters for early autism diagnosis, taking advantage of the brain's greater plasticity at younger ages.In summary, current research on newborns' speech perception, discrimination, and learning indicates the following: 1) Newborns exhibit speech perception preferences, showing a preference for speech, their native language, and their mother's voice, with a leftward brain lateralization. 2) Newborns possess unique phoneme discrimination abilities, differentiating vowels, consonants of various languages, and complex syllables and sequences. 3) Early language learning in newborns leads to plasticity changes in the brain's language networks. Moreover, several studies suggest that early language development brain indicators have significant predictive value for autism. However, there are three critical issues in the foundational and translational research of newborn language processing. Firstly, the rhythmic features of speech materials have been overlooked, potentially interfering with newborns' phoneme discrimination. Secondly, the cognitive neural mechanisms of newborn speech learning remain unclear, particularly regarding consonant learning and the role of sleep in language learning. Lastly, there is a lack of clinical translational research on newborn language development, necessitating the exploration of early language-related brain markers to predict and warn against neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. Future research should address these gaps by rigorously controlling rhythmic factors in speech materials, investigating the neural mechanisms of consonant learning using EEG and fNIRS techniques, and exploring the role of sleep in memory consolidation during language learning. Additionally, longitudinal studies focusing on high-risk newborns can potentially establish a comprehensive risk assessment system for neurodevelopmental disorders based on multiple brain modalities and clinical evaluations. Addressing these challenges may pave the way for early intervention and prevention of language-related developmental disorders in infancy.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2023-07-26
Abstract： Newborns utilize their auditory system to process and learn the various elements of language from birth. Examining the characteristics of language processing in newborns not only reveals the neurocognitive mechanisms of language function in the earliest stages of human development, but also provides valuable clues for an early warning and clinical diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. This review article summarized the perception, discrimination, and learning of phonemes in newborns, as well as the potential role in predicting autism spectrum disorder. It was found that newborns have preferences for specific languages and possess unique phoneme discrimination abilities. Furthermore, brain functional and structural indices of language processing in infancy have predictive values for autism. Future research should focus on the following three issues: 1) Controlling the rhythm factors of materials, re-examining the characteristics of newborn language processing and brain lateralization issues; 2) Revealing the neurocognitive mechanisms of newborn language learning and the role of sleep in memory consolidation; 3) Tracking the language development of high-risk newborns with autism and establishing a disease risk assessment system so as to reveal the potential biomarkers for autism.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Emotion regulation is crucial to mental health and social life. Traditional view conceived emotion regulation as a deliberative process. However, there is growing evidence that emotion regulation can implement at an implicit level without or with limited involvement of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) that is responsible for cognitive control. Unlike explicit emotion regulation, we have few knowledge on the neural mechanisms underlying implicit emotion regulation. Here, we investigated the effect of excitatory the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to provide causal evidence for the key role of the vmPFC in implicit emotion regulation. This study had a mixed design, with group (anodal vs. sham) as the between-subject factor and priming type (reappraisal vs. baseline) as the within-subject factor. A total of 80 participants were recruited and randomly assigned to the anodal group and the sham tDCS group. The task was divided into two blocks, i.e., the implicit reappraisal block and the baseline block. The order of the two blocks was counterbalanced within the participants in each group. At the beginning of each block, participants were required to complete a tDCS session (1.5 mA; 10 min for the active group and 1 min for the sham group). The anodal electrode was placed in the middle of Fz and Fpz and the ground electrode was placed under the chin). Then, participants completed six sessions of sentence unscramble task (10 trials per session) to prime the emotion regulation goal. Each session of the sentence unscramble task was followed by a picture viewing task (5 trials) to evoke negative emotions. The self-reported emotion rating and EEG signals were recorded during the picture viewing task. Half an hour after the end of the picture viewing task, participants were asked to rate the valence (1 = very unpleasant; 9 = very pleasant) of all viewed images in the picture viewing task. The results showed that the experimental group (n = 40) reported lower negative emotional experience and showed lower LPP amplitudes (measured as the average amplitude of Pz P3, P4, CP1, CP2) when the vmPFC was activated in the cognitive reappraisal block compared to the control group (n = 40), indicating that excitatory vmPFC could effectively facilitate the ability of implicit emotion regulation. Furthermore, we also found that excitatory vmPFC can reduce the P1 amplitude (measured as the average amplitude of O1, O2) under both baseline and reappraisal conditions. The above results indicated that activating the vmPFC could not only facilitate implicit emotion regulation but also reduce early attention distribution to negative stimuli. This study is the first attempt to use the tDCS technique to investigate priming-induced implicit emotion regulation. The results directly reveal the causal relationship between the vmPFC and implicit cognitive reappraisal, suggesting this brain region as a potential target of neural modulation to enhance the ability of implicit emotion regulation in clinical populations.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Depression is a common mental disorder characterized by persistent low mood and anhedonia. While healthy people can voluntarily forget unpleasant events, depressed patients cannot or have difficulty in forgetting negative stimuli. Studies focused on healthy population have found that memory suppression is not only associated with decreased neural activation in the hippocampus, but also significantly activates a wide network in the prefrontal cortex, especially the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Meanwhile, studies have demonstrated that depressed participants could not effectively recruit their frontal brain network responsible for inhibition control of negative materials. Thus, the key question of this study is to examine whether an enhancement of the neural activation in DLPFC using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) could improve the ability of voluntary forgetting of negative information in depressed patients. We recruited a total of 123 participants. Among them, 31 healthy participants were stimulated by TMS at the right DLPFC (right DLPFC-activated controls), 32 patients and 30 patients were stimulated by TMS at the left and right DLPFC respectively (left and right DLPFC-activated patients). The other 30 patients were assigned into a sham TMS group. This study contained three independent variables. The two within-subject variables were TMS (baseline or TMS condition) and directed forgetting instruction (remember or forget), and the between-subject variable was group (left or right DLPFC-activated patient, or right DLPFC-activated control). We focused on the memory suppression of social feedbacks in this study, since social feedback processing plays a vital role in everyday interpersonal activities. Previous studies have found that depressed patients cannot perceive and evaluate social feedbacks accurately and adaptively, which makes negative social experiences being an important inducing factor of depression. Meanwhile, evidence indicates that depressed patients have more deficits in processing social relative to nonsocial information. Results of the explicit memory test showed that the recall accuracy of social rejection was higher in patients than healthy controls in baseline condition, suggesting that patients had difficulty in voluntarily forgetting negative social feedback. After we used the TMS to activate the left or right DLPFC of participants, we found no significant difference in the recall accuracy of social rejection between the three groups. This result suggested that the ability of memory suppression for negative social feedback was improved by TMS in patients. Moreover, it was also found that patients rated the feedback senders as being more attractive after they had forgotten negative social feedback provided by these feedback senders. The main contribution of this study is that we first attempt to improve the ability of memory suppression of negative information in depressed patients using the TMS technique. Still now, there have been only two neuroscience studies focusing on the deficits of directed forgetting in depression ( Xie, Jiang, & Zhang, 2018; Yang et al., 2016). Beyond these two studies, we demonstrated a causal relationship between the DLPFC and memory suppression impairment in depressed patients by employing TMS to facilitate the function of DLPFC. Thus, we provide a potential neural target for the clinical treatment of depressed patients with voluntary forgetting deficits. In addition to depression, difficulties in voluntary forgetting is a common problem found in patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder (including obsessive compulsive disorder), schizophrenia and many other mental disorders. Meanwhile, difficulties in forgetting the euphoria or enjoyment coming from drugs or high-calorie foods might be an important reason for the persistence and aggravation of drug addiction and bulimia. Our finding suggests that the right DLPFC may be a potential brain target for the treatment of memory suppression deficits in these disorders. Facilitating the cognitive control of this brain region using the TMS is expected to restore the inhibitory control function of patients and thus significantly improve their voluntary forgetting ability, helping them to relieve symptoms and recover from disorders.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2022-08-02
Abstract： Emotion regulation is crucial to mental health and social life. Traditional view conceived emotion regulation as a deliberative process. However, there is growing evidence that emotion regulation can implement at an implicit level without or with limited involvement of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) that is responsible for cognitive control. Unlike explicit emotion regulation, we have few knowledge on the neural mechanisms underlying implicit emotion regulation. Here, we investigated the effect of excitatory the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to provide causal evidence for the key role of the vmPFC in implicit emotion regulation. This study had a mixed design, with group (anodal vs. sham) as the between-subject factor and priming type (reappraisal vs. baseline) as the within-subject factor. A total of 80 participants were recruited and randomly assigned to the anodal group and the sham tDCS group. The task was divided into two blocks, i.e., the implicit reappraisal block and the baseline block. The order of the two blocks was counterbalanced within the participants in each group. At the beginning of each block, participants were required to complete a tDCS session (1.5 mA; 10 min for the active group and 1 min for the sham group). The anodal electrode was placed in the middle of Fz and Fpz and the ground electrode was placed under the chin). Then, participants completed six sessions of sentence unscramble task (10 trials per session) to prime the emotion regulation goal. Each session of the sentence unscramble task was followed by a picture viewing task (5 trials) to evoke negative emotions. The self-reported emotion rating and EEG signals were recorded during the picture viewing task. Half an hour after the end of the picture viewing task, participants were asked to rate the valence (1 = very unpleasant; 9 = very pleasant) of all viewed images in the picture viewing task. The results showed that the experimental group (n = 40) reported lower negative emotional experience and showed lower LPP amplitudes (measured as the average amplitude of Pz P3, P4, CP1, CP2) when the vmPFC was activated in the cognitive reappraisal block compared to the control group (n = 40), indicating that excitatory vmPFC could effectively facilitate the ability of implicit emotion regulation. Furthermore, we also found that excitatory vmPFC can reduce the P1 amplitude (measured as the average amplitude of O1, O2) under both baseline and reappraisal conditions. The above results indicated that activating the vmPFC could not only facilitate implicit emotion regulation but also reduce early attention distribution to negative stimuli. This study is the first attempt to use the tDCS technique to investigate priming-induced implicit emotion regulation. The results directly reveal the causal relationship between the vmPFC and implicit cognitive reappraisal, suggesting this brain region as a potential target of neural modulation to enhance the ability of implicit emotion regulation in clinical populations.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2021-07-23
Abstract： " "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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