Children’s brain responses to sound changes in pseudo words in a multifeature paradigm

ObjectiveThe multifeature mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm has previously been used to study MMN responses to changes in tones or isolated syllables. We tested 4–12 year old children’s MMNs to changes in a naturally produced pseudo word context.MethodsWe studied preschoolers’ (under the age of 7 years, N = 15, mean age 5 years 4 months) and school childrens’ (over the age of 7 years, N = 15, mean age 9 years 3 months) MMNs to five types of changes (vowel duration, fundamental frequency, gap, intensity, vowel identity) in the middle syllable of a pseudo word [tɑtɑtɑ] using a multifeature paradigm.ResultsVowel duration and gap changes elicited larger frontocentral MMN responses than other change types and the vowel identity change also produced an early positive p-MMR. The presence of the MMN was also determined at the individual level, and it was found that vowel duration and gap deviants produced MMNs in most of the participants.ConclusionsThe current study shows that children’s neural speech sound discrimination can be assessed in a word context in a short recording time (30 min) by using the multifeature paradigm.SignificanceA paradigm which can be used to investigate the discrimination of several change types of speech-sounds in a natural context can be useful for investigating speech development and deficits.

► Children’s neural speech sound discrimination in word context can be studied using a fast multifeature paradigm and the pattern of responses resembles that of adults.
► The duration, gap, and large frequency changes reliably elicit MMNs in individual children.
► Incidence of the p-MMR response was associated with children having smaller Verbal IQ scores 14–17 months after the recording.