Limited but specific engagement of the mature language network during linguistic statistical learning.

Statistical learning (SL) is the ability to detect and learn regularities from input and is foundational to language acquisition. Despite the dominant role of SL as a theoretical construct for language development, there is a lack of direct evidence supporting the shared neural substrates underlying language processing and SL. It is also not clear whether the similarities, if any, are related to linguistic processing, or statistical regularities in general. The current study tests whether the brain regions involved in natural language processing are similarly recruited during auditory, linguistic SL. Twenty-two adults performed an auditory linguistic SL task, an auditory nonlinguistic SL task, and a passive story listening task as their neural activation was monitored. Within the language network, the left posterior temporal gyrus showed sensitivity to embedded speech regularities during auditory, linguistic SL, but not auditory, nonlinguistic SL. Using a multivoxel pattern similarity analysis, we uncovered similarities between the neural representation of auditory, linguistic SL, and language processing within the left posterior temporal gyrus. No other brain regions showed similarities between linguistic SL and language comprehension, suggesting that a shared neurocomputational process for auditory SL and natural language processing within the left posterior temporal gyrus is specific to linguistic stimuli.

Executive function skills account for a bilingual advantage in English novel word learning among low-income preschoolers.

The current study compared economically disadvantaged bilingual and monolingual preschoolers' performance on an English novel word learning task and examined whether children's executive function (EF) skills account for differences in novel word learning performance across groups. In total, 39 English monolinguals and 35 Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers from low-income homes completed a battery of EF measures and the Quick Interactive Language Screener to gauge English novel word learning ability. Within a poverty context, bilingual preschoolers performed significantly better on measures of English novel word learning as compared with their monolingual peers. This bilingual advantage in novel word learning ability was mediated by short-term memory, but not inhibition or attention shifting, which indicates that gains in short-term memory may facilitate word learning in English for bilingual preschoolers from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. These findings have important practical implications for interventions designed to promote English vocabulary growth for low-income bilingual children.

Mapping brain mechanical property maturation from childhood to adulthood.

Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is a phase contrast MRI technique which uses external palpation to create maps of brain mechanical properties noninvasively and in vivo. These mechanical properties are sensitive to tissue microstructure and reflect tissue integrity. MRE has been used extensively to study aging and neurodegeneration, and to assess individual cognitive differences in adults, but little is known about mechanical properties of the pediatric brain. Here we use high-resolution MRE imaging in participants of ages ranging from childhood to adulthood to understand brain mechanical properties across brain maturation. We find that brain mechanical properties differ considerably between childhood and adulthood, and that neuroanatomical subregions have differing maturational trajectories. Overall, we observe lower brain stiffness and greater brain damping ratio with increasing age from 5 to 35 years. Gray and white matter change differently during maturation, with larger changes occurring in gray matter for both stiffness and damping ratio. We also found that subregions of cortical and subcortical gray matter change differently, with the caudate and thalamus changing the most with age in both stiffness and damping ratio, while cortical subregions have different relationships with age, even between neighboring regions. Understanding how brain mechanical properties mature using high-resolution MRE will allow for a deeper understanding of the neural substrates supporting brain function at this age and can inform future studies of atypical maturation.

An evaluation of manual tidal volume and respiratory rate delivery during simulated resuscitation.

INTRODUCTION: Excessive minute ventilation during cardiac arrest may cause lung injury and decrease the effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). However, little is known about how clinicians deliver tidal volumes and respiratory rates during CPR. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, licensed practitioners attending an American Heart Association (AHA) Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) course performed CPR and manual ventilation on a high-fidelity simulator during the megacode portion of the course. Delivered tidal volumes and respiratory rates were measured on a monitor. During the first scenario, results were not displayed to participants, but were displayed during the second scenario. RESULTS: Fifty-two clinicians participated in this study. Average height was 169 (157,178) cm. Pre-monitor display tidal volumes delivered were larger in male participants compared to female participants (684.6 ± 134.4 vs 586.7 ± 167.6 ml, P = 0.05). Those using medium-sized gloves delivered smaller tidal volumes than those using small or large gloves. Twenty-two (42.3%) delivered tidal volume in the range of 5-8 ml/kg of predicted body weight for the simulation manikin, and 35 (67.3%) delivered tidal volumes with >20% variability among breaths. All participants met the target respiratory rate around 10 breaths/min. CONCLUSION: Tidal volume delivery varied greatly during manual ventilation and fewer than half participants delivered tidal volume at 5-8 ml/kg to the manikin. Sex and glove size appeared to impact tidal volume delivery when the participants were unaware of what they were delivering. Participants were able to meet the target respiratory rate around 10 without audio or visual feedback.

Using the N400 event-related potential to study word learning from context in children from low- and higher-socioeconomic status homes.

Children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) homes have significantly smaller vocabularies than their higher-SES peers, a gap that increases over the course of the school years. One reason for the increase in this vocabulary gap during the school years is that children from low-SES homes learn fewer words from context than their higher-SES peers. To better understand how the process of word learning from context might differ in children related to SES, we investigated changes in the N400 event-related potential (ERP) as children from low- and higher-SES homes learned new words using only the surrounding linguistic context. There were no differences in the N400 response to known words related to SES. In response to the target word being learned, children from higher-SES homes, like adults in previous studies, exhibited an attenuation of the N400 across exposures as they attached meaning to it. Children from low-SES homes did not show this same attenuation. These findings support previous work showing that children from low-SES homes may have differences or more variability in the neural components supporting language processing, and they extend previous work to illustrate how this variability may relate to word learning and, ultimately, vocabulary growth.

Developmental differences in the neural correlates supporting semantics and syntax during sentence processing.

School-aged and adolescent children continue to demonstrate improvements in how they integrate and comprehend real-time, auditory language over this developmental time period, which can have important implications for academic and social success. To better understand developmental changes in the neural processes engaged during language comprehension in this age group, we use electroencephalography to investigate how 8-9 year old, 12-13 year olds, and adults process semantics and syntax in naturally paced, auditory sentences. Participants listened to semantically and syntactically correct and incorrect sentences and were asked to complete an acceptability judgment task. When processing a semantic error, developmental differences were observed in theta, but not the N400, suggesting that the N400 may be too gross a measure to identify more subtle aspects of semantic development that occur in the school years. For the syntactic task, errors resulted in a larger P600 and greater beta decrease than correct sentences, but the amplitude and location of the P600 and amplitude of beta decreases differed as a function of age, suggesting specialization of syntactic skills is ongoing through adolescence. The current findings shed new light on the development of the neural oscillations supporting language comprehension and suggest that the neural substrates underlying semantic processing reach adult-like levels at a younger age than those underlying syntactic processing.

Socioeconomic status related differences in resting state EEG activity correspond to differences in vocabulary and working memory in grade school.

There is increasing evidence that children from low income homes exhibit differences in brain, language and cognitive development. To better understand these differences and how they relate to one another, we compared the resting state EEG of forty-five 8-15-year-olds from low-income homes and 45 age and sex matched children from higher income homes who completed a battery of language and cognitive assessments. Children from low income homes performed worse on language tasks and exhibited differences in resting state EEG including more theta and less alpha power. To investigate the relationship between language, cognition and resting state EEG we performed multiple regression analyses. Better working memory was related to lower resting state theta power. There was an interaction between alpha and vocabulary, such that only for children from low income homes, greater resting state alpha was related to higher vocabulary scores. Both relationships held when controlling for resting state changes in the other frequency band, indicating they are somewhat independent effects. These findings shed new light on SES, neural development and cognitive and language outcomes in school-aged children.

Vocabulary knowledge mediates the link between socioeconomic status and word learning in grade school.

The relationship between children's slow vocabulary growth and the family's low socioeconomic status (SES) has been well documented. However, previous studies have often focused on infants or preschoolers and primarily used static measures of vocabulary at multiple time points. To date, there is no research investigating whether SES predicts a child's word learning abilities in grade school and, if so, what mediates this relationship. In this study, 68 children aged 8-15 years performed a written word learning from context task that required using the surrounding text to identify the meaning of an unknown word. Results revealed that vocabulary knowledge significantly mediated the relationship between SES (as measured by maternal education) and word learning. This was true despite the fact that the words in the linguistic context surrounding the target word are typically acquired well before 8 years of age. When controlling for vocabulary, word learning from written context was not predicted by differences in reading comprehension, decoding, or working memory. These findings reveal that differences in vocabulary growth between grade school children from low and higher SES homes are likely related to differences in the process of word learning more than knowledge of surrounding words or reading skills. Specifically, children from lower SES homes are not as effective at using known vocabulary to build a robust semantic representation of incoming text to identify the meaning of an unknown word.

Social interactions offset the detrimental effects of digital media use on children's vocabulary.

Young children's rapid vocabulary growth during the first few years is supported by input during social interactions with caregivers and, increasingly, from digital media. However, the amount of exposure to both sources can vary substantially across socioeconomic classes, and little is known about how social interactions and digital media use together predict vocabulary in the first few years of life. The current study takes a first step toward examining whether increased social interactions with other individuals may buffer the potentially detrimental effects of digital media use on language among a socioeconomically diverse sample. 305 caregivers of children between 17 and 30-months completed questionnaires about their family demographics, their child's technology use, and the child's daily routines and social interactions. Findings suggest children who experience fewer human interactions and greater technology exposure have smaller vocabularies than their peers who socialize more and use less technology, and this disparity becomes greater as children get older. Moreover, the number of social interactions moderates the link between SES, digital media, and vocabulary such that the negative impact of digital media on vocabulary for children from low SES households can be offset with increased social interactions. Together, this suggests that increasing the amount of human interactions may serve as a protective factor for vocabulary outcomes in a world where digital media use is prominent.

The Necessity of Taking Culture and Context into Account When Studying the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Brain Development.

Decades of research has revealed a relationship between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and brain development at the structural and functional levels. Of particular note is the distinction between income and maternal education, two highly correlated factors which seem to influence brain development through distinct pathways. Specifically, while a families' income-to-needs ratio is linked with physiological stress and household chaos, caregiver education influences the day-to-day language environment a child is exposed to. Variability in either one of these environmental experiences is related to subsequent brain development. While this work has the potential to inform public policies in a way that benefits children, it can also oversimplify complex factors, unjustly blame low-SES parents, and perpetuate a harmful deficit perspective. To counteract these shortcomings, researchers must consider sociodemographic differences in the broader cultural context that underlie SES-based differences in brain development. This review aims to address these issues by (a) identifying how sociodemographic mechanisms associated with SES influence the day-to-day experiences of children, in turn, impacting brain development, while (b) considering the broader cultural contexts that may differentially impact this relationship.

Maternal Question Use Relates to Syntactic Skills in 5- to 7-Year-Old Children.

PURPOSE: This study examined how mothers' question-asking behavior relates to their child's syntactic skills. One important aspect of maternal question-asking behavior is the use of complex questions when speaking with children. These questions can differ based on both their purpose and structure. The purpose may be to seek out information, to teach, or to get a simple yes/no response. Questions may even be rhetorical, with no answer intended at all. Structurally, questions can include a wh-word (who, what, when, where, why, and how) or not; however, these wh-questions are important because they elicit utterances from the child and support vocabulary development. Despite wh-questions eliciting a response from children, it remains unknown how these questions relate to children's syntactic skills. METHOD: Thirty-four mother-child dyads participated in a 15-min seminaturalistic play session. Children were between the ages of 5 and 7 years (M = 6.26 years, SD = 1.04 years; 20 girls/14 boys). The Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation (DELV) assessment was used to measure syntactic skills in children. Using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts, questions were categorized based on structure (wh-questions vs. non-wh-questions) and purpose (information-seeking, pedagogical, or yes/no and rhetorical questions). A repeated-measures analysis of covariance and a linear regression model were implemented to address the frequency of different questions asked by mothers, as well as what types of questions are most related to children's concurrent syntactic skills. RESULTS: When controlling for total maternal utterances, results revealed that non-wh-questions and rhetorical/yes and no questions were the most frequent types of questions produced by mothers, in terms of structure and purpose, respectively. However, wh-questions were predominantly information-seeking questions. This is important, as the use of information-seeking wh-questions was positively associated with children's syntactic skills, as measured by the DELV, and resulted in children producing longer utterances in response to these questions, as determined by child mean length of utterance in words. CONCLUSION: Taken together, these findings suggest maternal use of wh-questions aids syntactic skills in children ages 5-7 years, likely because they require a more syntactically complex response on the child's behalf. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27276891.

Socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive outcomes are predicted by resting-state EEG in school-aged children.

Children's socioeconomic status (SES) is related to patterns of intrinsic resting-state brain function that subserve relevant cognitive processes over the course of development. Although infant research has demonstrated the association between children's environments, cognitive outcomes, and resting-state electroencephalography (rsEEG), it remains unknown how these aspects of their environment, tied to SES, impact neural and cognitive development throughout the school years. To address this gap, we applied a multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to rsEEG data to identify which neural frequencies at rest are differentially associated with unique aspects of socioeconomic status (SES; income and maternal education) and cognitive (vocabulary, working memory) outcomes among school-aged children (8-15 years). We find that the alpha frequency is associated with both income and maternal education, while lower gamma and theta fluctuations are tied to dissociable aspects of SES and cognitive outcomes. Specifically, changes in the gamma frequency are predictive of both maternal education and vocabulary outcome, while changes in the theta frequency are related to both income and working memory ability. The current findings extend our understanding of unique pathways by which SES influences cognitive and neural development in school-aged children.

Age and vocabulary knowledge differentially influence the N400 and theta responses during semantic retrieval.

Using electroencephalography (EEG) to study the neural oscillations supporting language development is increasingly common; however, a clear understanding of the relationship between neural oscillations and traditional Event Related Potentials (ERPs) is needed to disentangle how maturation of language-related neural networks supports semantic processing throughout grade school. Theta and the N400 are both thought to index semantic retrieval but, in adults, are only weakly correlated with one another indicating they may measure somewhat unique aspects of retrieval. Here, we studied the relationship between the N400 amplitude and theta power during semantic retrieval with key indicators of language abilities including age, vocabulary, reading comprehension and phonological memory in 226 children ages 8-15 years. The N400 and theta responses were positively correlated over posterior areas, but negatively correlated over frontal areas. When controlling for the N400 amplitude, the amplitude of the theta response was predicted by age, but not by language measures. On the other hand, when controlling theta amplitude, the amplitude of the N400 was predicted by both vocabulary knowledge and age. These findings indicate that while there is a clear relationship between the N400 and theta responses, they may each index unique aspects of development related to semantic retrieval.

Mechanical Properties of the Developing Brain are Associated with Language Input and Vocabulary Outcome.

The quality of language that children hear in their environment is associated with the development of language-related brain regions, in turn promoting vocabulary knowledge. Although informative, it remains unknown how these environmental influences alter the structure of neural tissue and subsequent vocabulary outcomes. The current study uses magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) to examine how children's language environments underlie brain tissue mechanical properties, characterized as brain tissue stiffness and damping ratio, and promote vocabulary knowledge. Twenty-five children, ages 5-7, had their audio and video recorded while engaging in a play session with their parents. Children also completed the Picture Vocabulary Task (from NIH Toolbox) and participated in an MRI, where MRE and anatomical images were acquired. Higher quality input was associated with greater stiffness in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and right superior temporal gyrus, whereas greater vocabulary knowledge was associated with lower damping ratio in the right inferior frontal gyrus. These findings suggest changes in neural tissue composition are sensitive to malleable aspects of the environment, whereas tissue organization is more strongly associated with vocabulary outcome. Notably, these associations were independent of maternal education, suggesting more proximal measures of a child's environment may be the source of differences in neural tissue structure underlying variability in vocabulary outcomes.

Developmental differences in EEG oscillations supporting the identification of novel word meaning from context.

Implicit learning about new words by picking up on associative information in the contexts they appear in is an important aspect of vocabulary growth. The current study investigated the neural correlates that underlie how school-aged children and adolescents identify the meaning of novel words embedded within sentence contexts. Importantly, we examine how differences in the brain response to novel words and their context differ as a function of 1) explicit learning success, i.e., whether novel word meanings can be correctly estimated in isolation after a learning opportunity, and 2) individual differences in offline language aptitude as well as age across our cohort (N = 82; 8-16 years). Using a regression-based analysis, we identified the unique influence of these individuals difference metrics by using both measures within the same series of models. The most notable finding from our analysis was a frequency-specific dissociation between the way age and language abilities held relationships with task-relevant oscillatory activity during the novel word meaning task: language abilities associated with task-relevant changes in beta band activity during sentence processing, while age associated with task-relevant changes in theta band activity during pseudoword processing. These effects reflect the how the neural correlates of mapping semantic meaning from sentence contexts-an important skill for word learning-is uniquely influenced by the maturity of language abilities as well as age.

Linking the neural basis of distributional statistical learning with transitional statistical learning: The paradox of attention.

Statistical learning, the process of tracking distributional information and discovering embedded patterns, is traditionally regarded as a form of implicit learning. However, recent studies proposed that both implicit (attention-independent) and explicit (attention-dependent) learning systems are involved in statistical learning. To understand the role of attention in statistical learning, the current study investigates the cortical processing of distributional patterns in speech across local and global contexts. We then ask how these cortical responses relate to statistical learning behavior in a word segmentation task. We found Event-Related Potential (ERP) evidence of pre-attentive processing of both the local (mismatching negativity) and global distributional information (late discriminative negativity). However, as speech elements became less frequent and more surprising, some participants showed an involuntary attentional shift, reflected in a P3a response. Individuals who displayed attentive neural tracking of distributional information showed faster learning in a speech statistical learning task. These results suggest that an involuntary attentional shift might play a facilitatory, but not essential, role in statistical learning.

Temporal and topographical changes in theta power between middle childhood and adolescence during sentence comprehension.

Time frequency analysis of the EEG is increasingly used to study the neural oscillations supporting language comprehension. Although this method holds promise for developmental research, most existing work focuses on adults. Theta power (4-8 Hz) in particular often corresponds to semantic processing of words in isolation and in ongoing text. Here we investigated how the timing and topography of theta engagement to individual words during written sentence processing changes between childhood and adolescence (8-15 years). Results show that topographically, the theta response is broadly distributed in children, occurring over left and right central-posterior and midline frontal areas, and localizes to left central-posterior areas by adolescence. There were two notable developmental shifts. First, in response to each word, early (150-300 msec) theta engagement over frontal areas significantly decreases between 8 and 9 years and 10-11 years. Second, throughout the sentence, theta engagement over the right parietal areas significantly decreases between 10 and 11 years and 12-13 years with younger children's theta response remaining significantly elevated between words compared to adolescents'. We found no significant differences between 12 and 13 years and 14-15 years. These findings indicate that children's engagement of the language network during sentence processing continues to change through middle childhood but stabilizes into adolescence.

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques.

Statistical learning, a fundamental skill to extract regularities in the environment, is often considered a core supporting mechanism of the first language development. While many studies of statistical learning are conducted within a single domain or modality, recent evidence suggests that this skill may differ based on the context in which the stimuli are presented. In addition, few studies investigate learning as it unfolds in real-time, rather focusing on the outcome of learning. In this protocol, we describe an approach for identifying the cognitive and neural basis of statistical learning, within an individual, across domains (linguistic vs. non-linguistic) and sensory modalities (visual and auditory). The tasks are designed to cast as little cognitive demand as possible on participants, making it ideal for young school-aged children and special populations. The web-based nature of the behavioral tasks offers a unique opportunity for us to reach more representative populations nationwide, to estimate effect sizes with greater precision, and to contribute to open and reproducible research. The neural measures provided by the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task can inform researchers about the neural mechanisms engaged during statistical learning, and how these may differ across individuals on the basis of domain or modality. Finally, both tasks allow for the measurement of real-time learning, as changes in reaction time to a target stimulus is tracked across the exposure period. The main limitation of using this protocol relates to the hour-long duration of the experiment. Children might need to complete all four statistical learning tasks in multiple sittings. Therefore, the web-based platform is designed with this limitation in mind so that tasks may be disseminated individually. This methodology will allow users to investigate how the process of statistical learning unfolds across and within domains and modalities in children from different developmental backgrounds.

Identifying the relationship between oscillatory dynamics and event-related responses.

Event related potentials (ERPs) and time frequency analysis of the EEG can identify the temporally distinct coordination of groups of neurons across brain regions during sentence processing. Although there are strong arguments that ERP components and neural oscillations are driven by the same changes in the neural signal, others argue that the lack of clear associations between the two suggests oscillatory dynamics are more than just time frequency representations of ERP components, making it unclear how the two are related. The current study seeks to examine the neural activity underlying auditory sentence processing of both semantic and syntactic errors to clarify if ERP and time frequency analyses identify the same or unique neural responses. Thirty-nine adults completed an auditory semantic judgment task and a grammaticality judgment task. As expected, the semantic judgment task elicited a larger N400 and greater increase in theta power for semantic errors compared to correct sentences and the syntactic judgment task elicited a greater P600 and beta power decrease for both grammatical error types compared to syntactically correct sentences. Importantly, we identified a significant relationship between the N400 and P600 ERPs and theta and beta oscillatory dynamics during semantic and syntactic processing. These findings suggest that ERPs and neural oscillations measure similar neural processes; however, unaccounted for variance may indicate that neural oscillations provide additional information regarding fluctuations in power within a given frequency band. Future studies that vary semantic and syntactic complexity are necessary to understand the cognitive processes that are indexed by these oscillations.

Developmental differences in the neural oscillations underlying auditory sentence processing in children and adults.

Although very young children seem to process ongoing language quickly and effortlessly, neuroimaging and behavioral studies reveal that children continue to mature in their language skills through adolescence. During this prolonged development, children likely engage the same basic cognitive processes and neural mechanisms to perform language tasks as adults, but in somewhat different ways. In this study we used time frequency analysis of EEG to identify developmental differences in the engagement of neural oscillations between children (ages 10-12) and adults while listening to naturally-paced sentences. Adults displayed consistent beta changes throughout the sentence compared to children, thought to be related to efficient syntactic integration, and children displayed more broadly distributed theta changes than adults, thought to be related to more effortful semantic integration. Few differences in alpha, related to verbal working memory, existed between groups. These findings shed new light on developmental changes in the neuronal processes underlying language comprehension.