The development of tone discrimination in infancy: Evidence from a cross-linguistic, multi-lab report.

We report the findings of a multi-language and multi-lab investigation of young infants' ability to discriminate lexical tones as a function of their native language, age and language experience, as well as of tone properties. Given the high prevalence of lexical tones across human languages, understanding lexical tone acquisition is fundamental for comprehensive theories of language learning. While there are some similarities between the developmental course of lexical tone perception and that of vowels and consonants, findings for lexical tones tend to vary greatly across different laboratories. To reconcile these differences and to assess the developmental trajectory of native and non-native perception of tone contrasts, this study employed a single experimental paradigm with the same two pairs of Cantonese tone contrasts (perceptually similar vs. distinct) across 13 laboratories in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North-America testing 5-, 10- and 17-month-old monolingual (tone, pitch-accent, non-tone) and bilingual (tone/non-tone, non-tone/non-tone) infants. Across the age range and language backgrounds, infants who were not exposed to Cantonese showed robust discrimination of the two non-native lexical tone contrasts. Contrary to this overall finding, the statistical model assessing native discrimination by Cantonese-learning infants failed to yield significant effects. These findings indicate that lexical tone sensitivity is maintained from 5 to 17 months in infants acquiring tone and non-tone languages, challenging the generalisability of the existing theoretical accounts of perceptual narrowing in the first months of life. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: This is a multi-language and multi-lab investigation of young infants' ability to discriminate lexical tones. This study included data from 13 laboratories testing 5-, 10-, and 17-month-old monolingual (tone, pitch-accent, non-tone) and bilingual (tone/non-tone, non-tone/non-tone) infants. Overall, infants discriminated a perceptually similar and a distinct non-native tone contrast, although there was no evidence of a native tone-language advantage in discrimination. These results demonstrate maintenance of tone discrimination throughout development.

The Impact of Anxiety and Depression on the Outcomes of Chronic Low Back Pain Multidisciplinary Pain Management-A Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study in Pain Clinics with One-Year Follow-up.

OBJECTIVE: The psychological health of patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) influences their response to a number of conservative and invasive pain treatments. However, evidence is still scarce regarding the impact of anxiety and depression in the clinical outcomes of multidisciplinary pain management over time. This study, based on longitudinal data from a clinical practice setting, aimed to assess the effectiveness of the usual multidisciplinary approach provided to CLBP patients and to explore the impact of anxiety and depression symptoms and their interaction on clinical outcomes. METHODS: In this study, participants included were adult patients in their first consultation in a multidisciplinary chronic pain clinic. Anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the Shortened Treatment Outcomes in Pain Survey (S-TOPS) were used to assess outcomes. Linear mixed effects models were used to assess the impact of anxiety, depression, and their interaction on treatment outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 284 patients (age 60.4 ± 13.7 years, 74.6% female) with CLBP were included at baseline. The majority of patients had both anxiety and depression and experienced higher pain severity (P < 0.001) and higher pain-related disability (P < 0.001). Anxiety and depression mainly predicted changes in pain interference over time. Their interaction significantly predicted changes in pain interference. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety, depression, and their interaction are associated with changes in pain disability at one-year follow-up. These findings encourage the pretreatment screening of anxiety and depression as independent symptoms in patients with CLBP in order to design more tailored and effective multidisciplinary treatments.