Neural mechanisms of early speech perception and language acquisition

Hearing is operational from 24-28 weeks of gestation. Infants thus first encounter language already in the womb. This talk will present a series of brain imaging experiments (NIRS and EEG) providing evidence that early experience with speech, including speech heard in the womb, already shapes young infants’ speech processing abilities and their neural correlates. The talk will also discuss how this may lay the foundations for subsequent language acquisition, i.e. learning not only about the sound patterns of the native language(s), but also about its grammar and lexicon.