Language experience during the sensitive period narrows infants’ sensory encoding of lexical tones—Music intervention reverses it
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Abstract
The sensitive period for phonetic learning (6∼12 months), evidenced by improved native speech processing and declined non-native speech processing, represents an early milestone in language acquisition. We examined the extent that sensory encoding of speech is altered by experience during this period by testing two hypotheses: (1) early sensory encoding of non-native speech declines as infants gain native-language experience, and (2) music intervention reverses this decline. We longitudinally measured the frequency-following response (FFR), a robust indicator of early sensory encoding along the auditory pathway, to a Mandarin lexical tone in 7- and 11-months-old monolingual English-learning infants. Infants received either no intervention (language-experience group) or music intervention (music-intervention group) randomly between FFR recordings. The language-experience group exhibited the expected decline in FFR pitch-tracking accuracy to the Mandarin tone, while the music-intervention group did not. Our results support both hypotheses and demonstrate that both language and music experiences alter infants’ speech encoding.
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In 7- and 11-month-old infants, both language and music experience affected the frequency-following response (FFR), a component of cABR.
“Critically, our most recent study examined the frequency-following response (FFR), a component of cABR that tracks the periodic portion of the sound, in 7- and 11-month-old infants and found that both language and music experience affected the FFR [45].”
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Goble, G., Hennessy, V., Cheng, T.-H. Z., Rodda, A., Taulu, S., Gordon, R. L., & Zhao, T. C. (2026) · PLOS One · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0335596
“Critically, our most recent study examined the frequency-following response (FFR), a component of cABR that tracks the periodic portion of the sound, in 7-and 11-month-old infants and found that both language and music experience affected the FFR [45].”
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- Authors
- Zhao, T. C., Llanos, F., Chandrasekaran, B., & Kuhl, P. K.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zhao, Tian Christina
- Venue
- Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2022-07-09
- Volume
- 16
- Pages
- 941853-941853
- ISSN
- 1662-5161 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9398460
- OpenAlex
- W4294354303
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (R21NS114343)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Keywords
- sensitive period, lexical tone, Mandarin tones, frequency-following response, non-native speech, music intervention, pitch tracking, language experience, speech perception development
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