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Segmenting nonsense: an event-related potential index of perceived onsets in continuous speech

Nature Neuroscience volume 5, pages 700–703 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Speech segmentation, determining where one word ends and the next begins in continuous speech, is necessary for auditory language processing. However, because there are few direct indices of this fast, automatic process, it has been difficult to study. We recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while adult humans listened to six pronounceable nonwords presented as continuous speech and compared the responses to nonword onsets before and after participants learned the nonsense words. In subjects showing the greatest behavioral evidence of word learning, word onsets elicited a larger N100 after than before training. Thus N100 amplitude indexes speech segmentation even for recently learned words without any acoustic segmentation cues. The timing and distribution of these results suggest specific processes that may be central to speech segmentation.

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Figure 1: Performance on behavioral tests after training (percent correct) plotted against difference in N100 amplitude before and after training (before training minus after training).
Figure 2: ERPs averaged to word onsets before and after training for the subjects showing the largest behavioral learning effects (high learners).
Figure 3: ERPs averaged to word onsets before and after training for the subjects showing the smallest behavioral learning effects (low learners).

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. N. Aslin for help with the stimuli, Y. Yamada for help with data acquisition, P. Compton and R. Vukcevich for technical support, and D. Coch, S. Guion, D. Poeppel, M. Posner, M. Spezio and D. Tucker for comments on previous drafts. Supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH grants DC00128, DC00481 and DC00167) and by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (Institutional NRSA 5-T32-GM07257).

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  1. Lisa D. Sanders

    Present address: Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland, 3416 Marie Mount Hall, College Park, Maryland, 20742-7505, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, 1227 University of Oregon, Eugene, 97403-1227, Oregon, USA

    Lisa D. Sanders & Helen J. Neville

  2. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Meliora 414, Rochester, 14627-0268, New York, USA

    Elissa L. Newport

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  1. Lisa D. Sanders
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Correspondence to Lisa D. Sanders.

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Sanders, L., Newport, E. & Neville, H. Segmenting nonsense: an event-related potential index of perceived onsets in continuous speech. Nat Neurosci 5, 700–703 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn873

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