Non-adjacent dependencies (NADs) are important building blocks for language and extracting them from the input is a fundamental part of language acquisition. Prior event-related potential (ERP) studies revealed changes in the neural signature of NAD learning between infancy and adulthood, suggesting a developmental shift in the learning route for NADs. The present study aimed to specify which brain regions are involved in this developmental shift and whether this shift extends to NAD learning in the non-linguistic domain. In two experiments, 2- and 3-year-old German-learning children were familiarized with either Italian sentences or tone sequences containing NADs and subsequently tested with NAD violations, while functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data were recorded. Results showed increased hemodynamic responses related to the detection of linguistic NAD violations in the left temporal, inferior frontal, and parietal regions in 2-year-old children, but not in 3-year-old children. A different developmental trajectory was found for non-linguistic NADs, where 3-year-old, but not 2-year-old children showed evidence for the detection of non-linguistic NAD violations. These results confirm a developmental shift in the NAD learning route and point to distinct mechanisms underlying NAD learning in the linguistic and the non-linguistic domain.

非相邻依赖关系（NAD）是语言的重要构建块，从输入中提取它们是语言习得的基本部分。先前的事件相关电位（ERP）研究表明，婴儿和成人之间NAD学习的神经特征发生了变化，这表明NADs学习途径的发展转移。本研究旨在确定哪些大脑区域参与了这种发展转变，以及这种转变是否扩展到了非语言领域的NAD学习。在两个实验中，学习德语的2岁和3岁儿童熟悉包含NAD的意大利语句子或语调序列，并随后进行了违反NAD的测试，同时记录了功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）数据。结果显示，在2岁儿童中，左颞，下额叶和顶叶区域检测到语言上的NAD违规相关的血液动力学反应增加，但在3岁儿童中则没有。对于非语言的NAD，发现了不同的发展轨迹，其中3岁而不是2岁的儿童显示出检测到非语言NAD违规的证据。这些结果证实了NAD学习途径的发展变化，并指出了NAD学习在语言和非语言领域所依据的不同机制。但2岁的儿童没有证据表明发现了非语言的NAD违规行为。这些结果证实了NAD学习途径的发展变化，并指出了在语言和非语言领域中NAD学习基础的不同机制。但2岁的儿童没有证据表明发现了非语言的NAD违规行为。这些结果证实了NAD学习途径的发展变化，并指出了在语言和非语言领域中NAD学习基础的不同机制。