Previously, scientists assumed that babies process words with an entirely separate learning mechanism, and that learning begins in a certain way early on and later evolves into the “adult way.” Despite lesions in Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are known to be linked to language skills loss in adults, not much had been known or researched on such impact in childhood.
For some reason, this does not seem too surprising- that the same mechanisms are used in both early childhood and in adulthood, but that obviously the mechanism is developed and updated through time. It doesn’t seem particularly parsimonious for there to be an altogether different mechanism. Regardless, I think this research could help in predicting or diagnosing autism or language disabilities, as well as in opening doors for more discoveries with language.
As you stated above, these results are both interesting and not too surprising in what they say about human speech processing in babies and in adults. This idea that all ages have the same mechanisms for learning speech is one which I read about recently when doing research for another class regarding the development of stuttering in early childhood and adulthood. The predominant research in this area has shown the same results-- notably that all people are born with the same mechanisms for speech and that the rate of learning moves at different rates depending on the individual.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that similar research could eventually lead to a mechanistic explanation for language disabilities in children. It would be interesting to see how lesions to the main speech centers of the brain, especially the Broca's and Wernicke's areas, affect speech development in young children. Neuroplasticity is higher during the critical period for language acquisition. Would damage to these areas inhibit language acquisition in children or would children develop normal speech but instead rely on a separate neural pathway?
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