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Grammar learning requires memory for dependencies between nonadjacent elements in speech. Immediate learning of nonadjacent dependencies has been observed in very young infants, but their memory of such dependencies has remained unexplored. Here we used event-related potentials to investigate whether 6- to 8-month-olds retain nonadjacent dependencies and if sleep after learning affects this memory. Infants were familiarised with two rule-based morphosyntactic dependencies, presented in sentences of an unknown language. Brain responses after a retention period reveal memory of the nonadjacent dependencies, independent of whether infants napped or stayed awake. Napping, however, altered a specific processing stage, suggesting that memory evolves during sleep. Infants with high left frontal spindle activity show an additional brain response indicating memory of individual speech phrases. Results imply that infants as young as 6 months are equipped with memory mechanisms relevant to grammar learning. They also suggest that during sleep, consolidation of highly specific information can co-occur with changes in the nature of generalised memory.

Any experienced event may be encoded and retained in detail as part of our episodic memory, and may also refer and contribute to our generalized knowledge stored in semantic memory. The beginnings of this declarative memory formation are only poorly understood. Even less is known about the interrelation between episodic and semantic memory during the earliest developmental stages. Here, we show that the formation of episodic memories in 14- to 17-month-old infants depends on sleep, subsequent to exposure to novel events. Infant brain responses reveal that, after sleep-dependent consolidation, the newly stored events are not processed semantically, although appropriate lexical-semantic memories are present and accessible by similar events that were not experienced before the nap. We propose that temporarily disabled semantic processing protects precise episodic memories from interference with generalized semantic memories. Selectively restricted semantic access could also trigger semantic refinement, and thus, might even improve semantic memory., In infants, superiority of semantic over episodic memory formation has been postulated. Here, authors show that both types of memory coexist in one-year-olds, with consolidation during sleep affecting whether an experienced event is recognized as a detailed episode or as general semantic knowledge.

Sleep spindle activity in infants supports their formation of generalized memories during sleep, indicating that specific sleep processes affect the consolidation of memories early in life. Characteristics of sleep spindles depend on the infant's developmental state and are known to be associated with trait‐like factors such as intelligence. It is, however, largely unknown which state‐like factors affect sleep spindles in infancy. By varying infants’ wake experience in a within‐subject design, here we provide evidence for a learning‐ and memory‐dependent modulation of infant spindle activity. In a lexical‐semantic learning session before a nap, 14‐ to 16‐month‐old infants were exposed to unknown words as labels for exemplars of unknown object categories. In a memory test on the next day, generalization to novel category exemplars was tested. In a nonlearning control session preceding a nap on another day, the same infants heard known words as labels for exemplars of already known categories. Central–parietal fast sleep spindles increased after the encoding of unknown object–word pairings compared to known pairings, evidencing that an infant's spindle activity varies depending on its prior knowledge for newly encoded information. Correlations suggest that enhanced spindle activity was particularly triggered, when similar unknown pairings were not generalized immediately during encoding. The spindle increase triggered by previously not generalized object–word pairings, moreover, boosted the formation of generalized memories for these pairings. Overall, the results provide first evidence for a fine‐tuned regulation of infant sleep quality according to current consolidation requirements, which improves the infant long‐term memory for new experiences.

The early acquisition of native language prosody is assumed to ease infants' language development. In a longitudinal setting we investigated whether the early processing of native and non-native language word stress patterns is associated with children's subsequent language skills. ERP data of 71 four- and five-month-old infants were retrospectively grouped according to children's verbal performance in a language test at 2.5 years. Children who displayed age-adequate expressive language skills later in development showed both an early and a late negative mismatch response (MMR) when processing the native language stress pattern as deviant in a passive oddball design. Children with poor language skills later in development did not show these negativities. Both groups displayed an infant-specific positive MMR to the non-native language deviant. This positivity was enhanced and prolonged in children who showed poor language skills later in development as compared to children who showed normal language skills. The results indicate that variability in expressive language development has precursors in infants' ERP correlates of word stress processing.

Between 12 and 14 months infants switch from slow to fast word learning mode. The neural processes involved in this development are largely unknown. This study explored the brain activity related to the fast learning of object-word mappings in 14-month-old infants. After four repetitions of eight object-word pairs, two priming effects known from earlier infant event-related potential studies were observed: word form priming indexed by the fronto-lateral negativity in the 200-500 ms range and semantic priming indexed by the parietal N400. These neurophysiological correlates suggest that infants have learned object-word mappings by four presentations. In a test phase applied at least 1 day later, the N400 differentiated between trained congruous and incongruous pairings, which indicates that this newly established referential knowledge has been consolidated in memory.

The present study explored the origins of word learning in early infancy. Using event-related potentials (ERP) we monitored the brain activity of 3-month-old infants when they were repeatedly exposed to several initially novel words paired consistently with each the same initially novel objects or inconsistently with different objects. Our results provide strong evidence that these young infants extract statistic regularities in the distribution of the co-occurrences of objects and words extremely quickly. The data suggest that this ability is based on the rapid formation of associations between the neural representations of objects and words, but that the new associations are not retained in long-term memory until the next day. The type of brain response moreover indicates that, unlike in older infants, in 3-month-olds a semantic processing stage is not involved. Their ability to combine words with meaningful information is caused by a primary learning mechanism that enables the formation of proto-words and acts as a precursor for the acquisition of genuine words.

Sleep consolidates memory and promotes generalization in adults, but it is still unknown to what extent the rapidly growing infant memory benefits from sleep. Here we show that during sleep the infant brain reorganizes recent memories and creates semantic knowledge from individual episodic experiences. Infants aged between 9 and 16 months were given the opportunity to encode both objects as specific word meanings and categories as general word meanings. Event-related potentials indicate that, initially, infants acquire only the specific but not the general word meanings. About 1.5 h later, infants who napped during the retention period, but not infants who stayed awake, remember the specific word meanings and, moreover, successfully generalize words to novel category exemplars. Independently of age, the semantic generalization effect is correlated with sleep spindle activity during the nap, suggesting that sleep spindles are involved in infant sleep-dependent brain plasticity., In adults, oscillatory brain activity during sleep is related to memory consolidation. Here, the authors measure brain activity from infants who are exposed to novel word meanings, and show that infant sleep results in the retention and reorganization of recently encoded memories.

Recent developmental research on word processing has shown that mechanisms of lexical priming are already present in 12-month-olds whereas mechanisms of semantic integration indexed by the N400 mature a few months later. In a longitudinal setting we investigated whether the occurrence of an N400 at 19 months is associated with the children's language skills later on. To this end children were retrospectively grouped according to their verbal performance in a language test at 30 months. Children with later age-adequate expressive language skills already displayed an N400 at 19 months. In contrast, children with later poor expressive language skills who have an enhanced risk for the development of specific language impairment (SLI) did not show an early N400. The results imply that children who have deficits in their expressive language at the age of 30 months are already impaired in their semantic development about one year earlier.

During their first year of life, infants not only acquire probabilistic knowledge about the phonetic, prosodic, and phonotactic organization of their native language, but also begin to establish first lexical-semantic representations. The present study investigated the sensitivity to phonotactic regularities and its impact on semantic processing in 1-year-olds. We applied the method of event-related brain potentials to 12-and 19-month-old children and to an adult control group. While looking at pictures of known objects, subjects listened to spoken nonsense words that were phonotactically legal (pseudowords) or had phonotactically illegal word onsets (nonwords), or to real words that were either congruous or incongruous to the picture contents. In 19-month-olds and in adults, incongruous words and pseudowords, but not non-words, elicited an N400 known to reflect mechanisms of semantic integration. For congruous words, the N400 was attenuated by semantic priming. In contrast, 12-month-olds did not show an N400 difference, neither between pseudo-and nonwords nor between incongruous and congruous words. Both 1-year-old groups and adults additionally displayed a lexical priming effect for congruous words, that is, a negativity starting around 100 msec after words onset. One-year-olds, moreover, displayed a phonotactic familiarity effect, that is, a widely distributed negativity starting around 250 msec in 19-month-olds but occurring later in 12-month-olds. The results imply that both lexical priming and phonotactic familiarity already affect the processing of acoustic stimuli in children at 12 months of age. In 19-month-olds, adult-like mechanisms of semantic integration are present in response to phonotactically legal, but not to phonotactically illegal, nonsense words, indicating that children at this age treat pseudo-words, but not nonwords, as potential word candidates.

Event-related brain potential (ERP) studies of sentence processing in adults have shown that phrase-structure violations are associated with two ERP components: an early left anterior negativity (ELAN) and a late, centro-parietal positivity (P600). Although the ELAN reflects highly automatic first-pass sentence parsing, the P600 has been interpreted to reflect later, more controlled processes. The present ERP study investigates the processing of phrase-structure violations in children below three years of age. Both children (mean age of 2.8 years) and adults passively listened to short active sentences that were either correct or syntactically incorrect. Adults displayed an ELAN that was followed by a P600 to the syntactic violation. Children also demonstrated a biphasic ERP pattern consisting of an early left hemispheric negativity and a late positivity. Both components, however, started later and persisted longer than those observed in adults. The left lateralization of the children's negativity suggests that this component can be interpreted as a child-specific precursor to the ELAN observed in adults. The appearance of the early negativity indicates that the neural mechanisms of syntactic parsing are present, in principle, during early language development.

To understand mechanisms of early language acquisition, it is important to know whether the child's brain acts in an adult-like manner when processing words in meaningful contexts. The N400, a negative component in the event-related potential (ERP) of adults, is a sensitive index of semantic processing reflecting neural mechanisms of semantic integration into context. In the present study, we investigated whether the mechanisms indexed by the N400 are already working during early language acquisition. While 19-month-olds were looking at sequentially presented pictures, they were acoustically presented with words that were either congruous or incongruous to the picture content. The ERP averaged across the group of 55 children revealed an N400-like semantic incongruity effect in addition to an early phonological–lexical priming effect. The results suggest that both lexical expectations facilitating early phonological processing and mechanisms of semantic priming facilitating integration into semantic context are already present in 19-month-olds. The child's specific comprehension abilities are reflected in strength, latency, and hemispheric differences of the semantic incongruity effect. Spatio-temporal differences in that effect, thus, indicate changes in the organization of brain activity correlated with the child's behavioral development.

Language acquisition crucially depends on the ability of the child to segment the incoming speech stream. Behavioral evidence supports the hypothesis that infants are sensitive to the rhythmic properties of the language input. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to varying stress patterns of two syllable items in adults as well as in 4- and 5-month-old infants using a mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm. Adult controls displayed a typical MMN to the trochaic item (stress on the first syllable) as well as to the iambic (stress on the second syllable) item. At the age of 4 months, no reliable discrimination response was seen. However, at the age of 5 months, a significant mismatch response (MMR) was observed for the trochaic item, indicating that the trochee, i.e. the most common stress pattern in German, was separated consistently from the iambic item. Hence, the present data demonstrate a clear development between 4 and 5 months with respect to the processing of different stress patterns relevant for word recognition. Moreover, possible contributions of different filter settings to the morphology of the mismatch response in infants are discussed.

The influence of levels of abstraction in picture-word matching was examined. The items each consisted of one picture and three successively presented words. Hierarchies with words for superordinate, basic, and subordinate level concepts were used (e.g., plant, flower, rose). The picture-word condition (congruent, incongruent), the word position (first, second, third), and the level of categorization (subordinate, basic, superordinate) were manipulated. Reaction times, error rates, and pupillary responses were recorded. Pupillary responses coincided with behavioral data. In general, there was an advantage for subordinate and basic level processing compared to superordinate level processing. However, switches to words for superordinate concepts were most facilitated. These findings support a two-step account of picture-word matching. First, the picture is categorized according to its concrete features. Second, amodal features are processed.

We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in 2-month-old infants in two different states of alertness: awake and asleep. Syllables varying in vowel duration (long vs short) were presented in an oddball paradigm, known to elicit a mismatch brain response. ERPs of both groups showed a mismatch response reflected in a positivity followed by a frontal negativity. While the positivity was present as a function of the stimulus type (present for long deviants only), the negativity varied as a function of the state of alertness (present for awake infants only). These data indicate a functional separation between precognitive and cognitive aspects of duration mismatch essential for the distinction between long and short vowels during early infancy.

Summary From the age of 3 months, infants learn relations between objects and co-occurring words [1]. These very first representations of object-word pairings in infant memory are considered as non-symbolic proto-words comprising specific visual-auditory associations that can already be formed in the first months of life [2–5]. Genuine words that refer to semantic long-term memory have not been evidenced prior to 9 months of age [6–9]. Sleep is known to facilitate the reorganization of memories [9–14], but its impact on the perceptual-to-semantic trend in early development is unknown. Here we explored the formation of word meanings in 6- to 8-month-old infants and its reorganization during the course of sleep. Infants were exposed to new words as labels for new object categories. In the memory test about an hour later, generalization to novel category exemplars was tested. In infants who took a short nap during the retention period, a brain response of 3-month-olds [1] was observed, indicating generalizations based on early developing perceptual-associative memory. In those infants who napped longer, a semantic priming effect [15, 16] usually found later in development [17–19] revealed the formation of genuine words. The perceptual-to-semantic shift in memory was related to the duration of sleep stage 2 and to locally increased sleep spindle activity. The finding that, after the massed presentation of several labeled category exemplars, sleep enabled even 6-month-olds to create semantic long-term memory clearly challenges the notion that immature brain structures are responsible for the typically slower lexical development.

The relation between the maturation of brain mechanisms responsible for the N400 elicitation in the event-related brain potential (ERP) and the development of behavioral language skills was investigated in 12-month-old infants. ERPs to words presented in a picture-word priming paradigm were analyzed according to the infants' production and comprehension skills as rated by their parents. Infants with high early word production displayed an N400 semantic priming effect already at 12 months. Infants with low early word production did not show this effect, not even for those words that parents rated to be comprehended by their child. The results suggest that the very early functioning of the neural mechanisms underlying N400 generation is related to the infants' state of behavioral language development. The possible functional relation of the N400 neural mechanisms and the infant's word learning ability is discussed.

Summary Language is the most important faculty that distinguishes humans from other animals. Infants learn their native language fast and effortlessly during the first years of life, as a function of the linguistic input in their environment. Behavioral studies reported the discrimination of melodic contours [1] and stress patterns [2, 3] in 1–4-month-olds. Behavioral [4, 5] and brain measures [6–8] have shown language-independent discrimination of phonetic contrasts at that age. Language-specific discrimination, however, has been reported for phonetic contrasts only for 6–12-month-olds [9–12]. Here we demonstrate language-specific discrimination of stress patterns in 4-month-old German and French infants by using electrophysiological brain measures. We compare the processing of disyllabic words differing in their rhythmic structure, mimicking German words being stressed on the first syllable, e.g., papa/daddy [13], and French ones being stressed on the second syllable, e.g., papa/daddy . Event-related brain potentials reveal that experience with German and French differentially affects the brain responses of 4-month-old infants, with each language group displaying a processing advantage for the rhythmic structure typical in its native language. These data indicate language-specific neural representations of word forms in the infant brain as early as 4 months of age.

Beyond its multiple functions in language comprehension and emotional shaping, prosodic cues play a pivotal role for the infant's amazingly rapid acquisition of language. However, cortical correlates of prosodic processing are largely controversial, even in adults, and functional imaging data in children are sparse. We here use an approach which allows to experimentally determine brain activations correlating to the perception and processing of sentence prosody during childhood. In 4-year-olds, we measured focal brain activation using near-infrared spectroscopy and demonstrate that processing prosody in isolation elicits a larger right fronto-temporal activation whereas a larger left hemispheric activation is elicited by the perception of normal language with full linguistic content. Hypothesized by the dual-pathway-model, the present data provide experimental evidence that in children specific language processes rely on interhemispheric specialization with a left hemispheric dominance for processing segmental (i.e. phonological) and a right hemispheric dominance for processing suprasegmental (i.e. prosodic) information. Generally in accordance with the imaging data reported in adults, our finding underlines the notion that interhemispheric specialization is a continuous process during the development of language.

This study investigates by means of the event-related brain potential whether mechanisms of lexical priming and semantic integration are already developed in 14-month-olds. While looking at coloured pictures of known objects children were presented with basic-level words that were either congruous or incongruous to the pictures. The event-related potential of 14-month-olds revealed an early negativity in the lateral frontal brain region for congruous words, and a later N400-like negativity for incongruous words. These results indicate that both lexical priming and semantic integration are already present as early as 14 months.

The study at hand investigates prosodic abilities of infants as early predictors of Specific Language Impairment (SLI), which is commonly diagnosed at a later age. The study is based on the hypothesis that the prosodic abilities of infants at risk for SLI are less elaborated than those of controls due to less efficient processing of the relevant acoustic cues. One of the most critical prosodic cues for word segmentation is stress pattern. In German as well as in English, the most frequent stress pattern of bisyllabics is the trochee, in which stress is placed on the first syllable. Using a passive oddball design, German 5-month-olds were examined with respect to their ability to discriminate different stress patterns of bisyllabics. Infants were grouped retrospectively based on their production performance at the ages of 12 and 24 months. In contrast to matched controls, infants with very low word production displayed event-related brain potentials with a significantly reduced amplitude of the discrimination response, i.e. a Mismatch Negativity (MMN), to the trochaic stress pattern. This amplitude difference indicates impaired prosodic processing of word stress during early development and may thus be taken as an early marker of risk for SLI.

The present study used the N400, an electrophysiological correlate of semantic processing, to investigate 19- and 24-month-old children's ability to integrate the meaning of words in a sentential context. Children listened passively to semantically appropriate sentences and to sentences in which the object noun violates the selection restriction of the verb. The event-related potentials of both age groups revealed an N400 on inappropriate object nouns. This indicates that the children are able to semantically integrate words into sentence contexts. Furthermore, the result implies that selection restrictions are part of the children's first verb representations.

The present study investigated whether delayed auditory processing typically found in children with specific language impairment (SLI) can already be observed in the event-related potentials of 2-month-old infants. Infants with and without a family history of SLI were tested in a passive auditory oddball paradigm with CV-syllables differing in vowel duration. For the long syllable, a positive mismatch response occurred in the difference wave between deviant and standard. Its amplitude was higher in infants during quiet sleep than in awake infants, although its peak latency remained unaffected by alertness. Awake infants showed an adultlike mismatch negativity preceding the positivity. Risk for SLI was reflected in the latency of the positive mismatch response, which was delayed in infants with risk compared to infants without risk. This latency difference suggests that 2-month-old infants at risk for SLI are already affected in processing an auditory stimulus change of duration.