PSYC 208 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Silbo Gomero, Lateralization Of Brain Function, Habituation
Document Summary
Language in newborns, evidence for hemispheric dominance is mixed in adults, language processing occurs primarily in the left hemisphere. By 3 months,seems to be more brain activation in left hemisphere when listening to. Plasticity = the ability of parts of the brain to take over functions they ordinarily would not. Prefer to listen to speech vs non-speech > determined by sucking - if interested they: prefer speech than non-speech. Near-infrared spectroscopy > the light travels pass the hair and then through the skull. Measures the blood flow of the brain native language (english) non-native language (spanish) whistled surrogate language (silbo gomero) result: the newborn brain responds to both familiar language and unfamiliar language. But, these language areas of the brain do not respond to whistled surrogate language. This demonstrates that a newborn"s brain is tuned specifically for speech age language discrimination is there a time in which language learning must occur? is language uniquely human? reach the level of humans.
