TY - JOUR
T1 - Context and perceptual asymmetry effects on the mismatch negativity (MMNm) to speech sounds
T2 - an MEG study
AU - Højlund, Andreas
AU - Gebauer, Line
AU - McGregor, William B.
AU - Wallentin, Mikkel
PY - 2019/5/28
Y1 - 2019/5/28
N2 - The mismatch negativity (MMN) of the auditory ERP/ERF has been shown to be sensitive to both phonetic and phonological contrasts. However, potential asymmetry effects and effects of the immediate phonetic contexts on this neural sensitivity are understudied phenomena. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we attempted to address this lacuna by investigating native Danish listeners’ MMNm to the phonological contrast between the consonants /t/ and /d/ in two different phonetic contexts in Danish: one word-initial, preserving the contrast’s phonemic status, and another word-final, neutralising it. We found no support for effects of the immediate phonetic context on the MMNm. However, we observed an asymmetry effect for the phonological contrast: Hearing [t] among [d]s elicited a significantly stronger MMNm than hearing [d] among [t]s. This asymmetry effect was mirrored in a behavioural oddball-detection task showing reduced sensitivity for hearing [d] among [t]s. We discuss both psychoacoustic aspects and phonological underspecification as potential explanations.
AB - The mismatch negativity (MMN) of the auditory ERP/ERF has been shown to be sensitive to both phonetic and phonological contrasts. However, potential asymmetry effects and effects of the immediate phonetic contexts on this neural sensitivity are understudied phenomena. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we attempted to address this lacuna by investigating native Danish listeners’ MMNm to the phonological contrast between the consonants /t/ and /d/ in two different phonetic contexts in Danish: one word-initial, preserving the contrast’s phonemic status, and another word-final, neutralising it. We found no support for effects of the immediate phonetic context on the MMNm. However, we observed an asymmetry effect for the phonological contrast: Hearing [t] among [d]s elicited a significantly stronger MMNm than hearing [d] among [t]s. This asymmetry effect was mirrored in a behavioural oddball-detection task showing reduced sensitivity for hearing [d] among [t]s. We discuss both psychoacoustic aspects and phonological underspecification as potential explanations.
KW - allophone
KW - MEG
KW - Mismatch negativity (MMN)
KW - perceptual asymmetry
KW - phoneme
KW - phonetic context
KW - underspecification
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060784801&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/23273798.2019.1572204
DO - 10.1080/23273798.2019.1572204
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85060784801
SN - 2327-3798
VL - 34
SP - 545
EP - 560
JO - Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
JF - Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
IS - 5
ER -