Newborns habituate to repeated auditory stimuli, and discriminate syllables, generating opportunities for early language learning. This study investigated trial-by-trial changes in newborn electrophysiological responses to auditory speech syllables as an index of habituation and novelty detection. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 16 term newborn infants, aged 1-3 days, in response to monosyllabic speech syllables presented during habituation and novelty detection tasks. Multilevel models demonstrated that newborns habituated to repeated auditory syllables, as ERP amplitude attenuated for a late-latency component over successive trials. Subsequently, during the novelty detection task, early- and late-latency component amplitudes decreased over successive trials for novel syllables only, indicating encoding of the novel speech syllable. We conclude that newborns dynamically encoded novel syllables over relatively short time periods, as indicated by a systematic change in response patterns with increased exposure. These results have important implications for understanding early precursors of learning and memory in newborns.

中文翻译：

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习惯和新奇检测对新生儿事件相关电位的动态影响

新生儿习惯于重复的听觉刺激，并区分音节，为早期语言学习创造机会。这项研究调查了新生儿对听觉语音音节电生理反应的逐次试验变化，作为习惯和新奇检测的指标。记录了 16 名 1-3 天大的足月新生儿的听觉事件相关电位 (ERP)，以响应习惯化和新奇检测任务中出现的单音节语音音节。多级模型表明新生儿习惯于重复的听觉音节，因为 ERP 振幅在连续试验中因延迟延迟成分而衰减。随后，在新颖性检测任务期间，仅针对新音节的连续试验，早期和晚期延迟分量幅度下降，指示新语音音节的编码。我们得出的结论是，新生儿在相对较短的时间内动态编码新的音节，正如随着暴露增加反应模式的系统变化所表明的那样。这些结果对于理解新生儿学习和记忆的早期前兆具有重要意义。