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Science 6 December 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5600, pp. 2013 - 2015
DOI: 10.1126/science.1077066
Prev | Table of Contents

Reports

Functional Neuroimaging of Speech Perception in Infants

Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz,1* Stanislas Dehaene,2 Lucie Hertz-Pannier34

Human infants begin to acquire their native language in the first months of life. To determine which brain regions support language processing at this young age, we measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging the brain activity evoked by normal and reversed speech in awake and sleeping 3-month-old infants. Left-lateralized brain regions similar to those of adults, including the superior temporal and angular gyri, were already active in infants. Additional activation in right prefrontal cortex was seen only in awake infants processing normal speech. Thus, precursors of adult cortical language areas are already active in infants, well before the onset of speech production.

1 Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, CNRS & Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 54 Boulevard Raspail, 75270 Paris Cedex 06, France.
2 Unité INSERM 562,
3 Unité de Neuroanatomie Fonctionnelle, Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, 91401 Orsay Cedex, France.
4 Service de Radiologie Pédiatrique, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75015 Paris, France.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ghis{at}lscp.ehess.fr

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