Co-development of face and speech processing in infancy

婴儿期面部和语音处理的共同发展

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06452
• 负责人: Lee, Kang
• 金额: $ 4.01万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=738918
• 关键词: Co; development; face; speech; processing

The most important social stimuli infants encounter as soon as they are born are faces. Such faces not only move but also talk. The ability to process information from moving and talking faces lay the crucial foundation for typical development, whereas early inability to do so leads to cascading negative consequences (e.g., autism). Whereas researchers have extensively studied the development of face processing and that of speech processing in infancy, few have examined the interaction between the two. Building on our recent discoveries, the proposed program of research aims to bridge this significant gap in knowledge. We will examine systematically how infants' learning of face processing affects their learning of speech processing and vice versa, as well as the role of face and language experience in shaping such co-development. To this end, we will take a multi-method approach by using habituation-dishabituation, eye tracking, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy methodologies. We will assess the abilities to discriminate own- vs. other-race faces and native vs. non-native speech sounds in infants with differential exposures to the faces of different races and languages. This research will provide, for the first time, a systematic and multi-level set of data to link behavioural performance to visual scanning to neural activities in infants during face and speech processing. Our findings will bridge a significant gap in knowledge regarding the early co-development of face and speech perception at the behavioural and neural levels. They will elucidate the nature of developmental interaction between the two perceptual domains and the role of differential experiences in shaping early cross-modal development. Our research will also lay the foundation for future research to link early differential face and language experiences to later developments throughout childhood. Further, our research will provide normative data for understanding the atypical co-development of face and speech processing (e.g., autism).

婴儿出生后遇到的最重要的社交刺激就是面孔。这样的面孔不仅会动，还会说话。处理来自移动和说话的面孔的信息的能力为典型发展奠定了重要的基础，而早期无法做到这一点会导致一系列负面后果（例如自闭症）。尽管研究人员广泛研究了婴儿期面部处理和语音处理的发展，但很少有人研究两者之间的相互作用。基于我们最近的发现，拟议的研究计划旨在弥合这一巨大的知识差距。我们将系统地研究婴儿的面部处理学习如何影响他们的语音处理学习，反之亦然，以及面部和语言经验在塑造这种共同发展中的作用。为此，我们将采取多种方法，使用习惯化-去习惯化、眼球追踪和功能性近红外光谱方法。我们将评估婴儿区分自己与其他种族面孔以及本地与非本地语音的能力，这些婴儿对不同种族和语言的面孔有不同的接触。这项研究将首次提供系统的、多层次的数据集，将行为表现、视觉扫描与婴儿在面部和语音处理过程中的神经活动联系起来。我们的研究结果将弥合关于行为和神经水平上面部和言语感知的早期共同发展的巨大知识空白。他们将阐明两个感知领域之间发展相互作用的本质以及差异经验在塑造早期跨模式发展中的作用。我们的研究还将为未来的研究奠定基础，将早期差异化的面部和语言体验与整个童年的后期发展联系起来。此外，我们的研究将为理解面部和语音处理的非典型共同发展（例如自闭症）提供规范数据。