2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Acoustic and Physiological Study on the Sound Processing by Different Language Speakers
| Project/Area Number |
16520265
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Linguistics
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Nagoya University of Foreign Studies |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
OIWA Shoko Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, School of Foreign Languages, Assisted professor, 外国語学部, 助教授 (50340360)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
GUNJI Atsuko National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Researcher, 精神保健研究所・知的障害部・治療研究室, 研究員 (70392446)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2006
|
| Keywords | Speech sound / Phoneme discrimination / Auditory modality / Visual modality / Long vowel / French / MEG / MMN |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
In this study, we investigated acoustically and physiologically influences of mother languages effected upon the auditory processing of language sound. Firstly, we examined the perception of Japanese learners of French phonemes from the point of view of the visual as well as auditory modality, while listening to speech sounds. We founded that Japanese learners who were capable of discriminating betweens French vowels showed the similar tendency for visual modality. This result seems to be related to the frequency of second formant (F2) of each vowel. Secondly, to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying in speech perception, we examined the magnetic counterpart of mismatch negativity (MMNm) elicited by short and long vowels in Japanese and French speakers. MMNm was recorded from seven right-handed Japanese subjects (four male) and six right-handed French subjects (four male) by a helmet-shaped 306-channel detector array. Stimuli were Japanese nonword-sounds [erepe] and [ere:pe] (vo
… More
wel length contrast) vocalized by a Japanese male. Clear MMNm responses were observed bilaterally in the all subjects in all conditions. In the Short condition where the averaged responses to [erepe] as standard stimuli were subtracted from those to [erepe] as deviant ones, the MMNm strength of French subjects did not differ significantly between the both hemispheres. The MMNm responses of Japanese subjects were stronger significantly in the left than in the right hemisphere (p<0.02). In the Long condition where the averaged responses to [ere:pe] as standard stimuli from those to [ere:pe] as deviant ones, the MMNm of French subjects was elicited stronger in the left than in the right hemisphere, while Japanese subjects did not show significant difference between the both hemispheres. The pattern of cortical magnetic responses was different between Japanese and French speakers. It is thus shown that the cortical activities to speech sounds might be influenced by one's native speech sounds. Less
|
Research Products
(12 results)
