Publications

I. Updates

• Sharon Miller & Yang Zhang will present two EEG/ERP study posters at the ASA Meeting (April 19-23, 2010 in Baltimore, MD).
• Yang Zhang gave two invited seminar talks at the Center for Clinical Movement Science (Jan. 25, 2010) and the MRI user group meeting (Feb. 2, 2010).
• Sharon Miller, Aparna Rao & Yang Zhang presented three posters at the CNS2009 meeting.
• Tess presented a poster on April 8, 2009 at the University of Minnesota Undergraduate Symposium.
• Jason and Kayla did a poster presentation as CLA honors scholars in May, 2009.
• Zhang presented two posters at the ASA Meeting in Portland (May 18-23, 2009).
• Zhang Lab received CLA Brain Imaging Research Project Awards in 2008 and 2009.
• Zhang was one of the invited speakers for the International Conference on the Processing of East Asian Languages held in Beijing, October 9-11, 2009. For more information about the conference, click here.

For downloading a paper in pdf, please click on the citation in blue. Thank you!

II. Selected Publications

Keywords: Magnetoencephalography (MEG); functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI); event-related potential (ERP); electroencephalography (EEG); Native Language Neural Commitment Theory; speech perception; Language acquisition; neural sensitivity; neural efficiency; neural specificity; neural connectivity; MMF (Mismatch Field); Mismatch Negativity (MMN); MCE (Minimum Current Estimate); MNE (Minimum Norm Estimate); Equivalent Current Dipole (ECD)

Xi, J., Zhang, L.J., Shu, H., Zhang, Y., & Li, P. (Submitted). Neurophysiological indices of categorical perception of lexical tones in Chinese.

Rao, A., Zhang, Y., & Miller, S. (Submitted). Dimensional processing of auditory nonspeech stimuli: An Event-Related Potential study.

Zhang, Y., Miller, S., Koerner, T., Grice-Patil, Z., Svec, A., Akbari, D., Tusler, L., & Carney, E. (Submitted). Neural coding of formant-exaggerated speech in the infant brain.

Jiang, Y., Zhang, Y., & He, S. (Submitted). Automatic attention to local life motion signals. Abstract

Phonetic Training

Zhang, Y., Kuhl, P. K., Imada, T., Iverson, P., Pruitt, J., Stevens, E., Kawakatsu, M., Tohkura, Y., & Nemoto, I. (2009). Neural signatures of phonetic learning in adulthood: A magnetoencephalography study. Neuroimage, 46, 226-240.
Abstract: The present study used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine perceptual learning of American English /r/ and /l/ categories by Japanese adults who had limited English exposure. A training software program was developed based on the principles of infant phonetic learning, featuring systematic acoustic exaggeration, multi-talker variability, visible articulation, and adaptive listening. The program was designed to help Japanese listeners utilize an acoustic dimension relevant for phonemic categorization of /r–l/ in English. Although training did not produce native-like phonetic boundary along the /r–l/ synthetic continuum in the second language learners, success was seen in highly significant identification improvement over twelve training sessions and transfer of learning to novel stimuli. Consistent with behavioral results, pre–post MEG measures showed not only enhanced neural sensitivity to the /r–l/ distinction in the left-hemisphere mismatch field (MMF) response but also bilateral decreases in equivalent current dipole (ECD) cluster and duration measures for stimulus coding in the inferior parietal region. The learning-induced increases in neural sensitivity and efficiency were also found in distributed source analysis using Minimum Current Estimates (MCE). Furthermore, the pre–post changes exhibited significant brain-behavior correlations between speech discrimination scores and MMF amplitudes as well as between the behavioral scores and ECD measures of neural efficiency. Together, the data provide corroborating evidence that substantial neural plasticity for second-language learning in adulthood can be induced with adaptive and enriched linguistic exposure. Like the MMF, the ECD cluster and duration measures are sensitive neural markers of phonetic learning.

Brain Plasticity

Zhang, Y., & Wang, Y. (2007). Neural plasticity in speech learning and acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 10(2), 147-160.
Abstract: Neural plasticity in speech acquisition and learning is concerned with the timeline trajectory and the mechanisms of experience-driven changes in the neural circuits that support or disrupt linguistic function. In this selective review, we discuss the role of phonetic learning in language acquisition, the “critical period” of learning, the agents of neural plasticity, and the distinctiveness of linguistic systems in the brain. In particular, we argue for the necessity to look at brain–behavior connections using modern brain imaging techniques, seek explanations based on measures of neural sensitivity, neural efficiency, neural specificity and neural connectivity at the cortical level, and point out some key factors that may facilitate or limit second language learning. We conclude by highlighting the theoretical and practical issues for future studies and suggest ways to optimize language learning and treatment.

Infant MEG

Imada, T., Zhang, Y., Cheour, M., Taulu, S., Ahonen, A., & Kuhl, P. K. (2006). Infant speech perception activates Broca's area: a developmental magnetoencephalography study. Neuroreport, 17, 957-962.
Abstract: Discriminative responses to tones, harmonics, and syllables in the left hemisphere were measured with magnetoencephalography in neonates, 6-month-old infants, and12-month-old infants using the oddball paradigm. Real-time head position tracking, signal space separation, and head position standardization were applied to secure quality data for source localization. Minimum current estimates were calculated to characterize infants’ cortical activities for detecting sound changes. The activation patterns observed in the superior temporal and inferior frontal regions provide initial evidence for the developmental emergence early in life of a perceptual-motor link for speech perception that may depend on experience.

Note: This is the first MEG study on speech perception in infants at 6 and 12 months of age.

Neural Commitment

Zhang, Y., Kuhl, P. K., Imada, T., Kotani, M., & Tohkura, Y. (2005). Effects of language experience: neural commitment to language-specific auditory patterns. Neuroimage, 26(3), 703-720.
Abstract: Linguistic experience alters an individual’s perception of speech. We here provide evidence of the effects of language experience at the neural level from two magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies that compare adult American and Japanese listeners’ phonetic processing. The experimental stimuli were American English /ra/ and /la/ syllables, phonemic in English but not in Japanese. In Experiment 1, the control stimuli were /ba/ and /wa/ syllables, phonemic in both languages; in Experiment 2, they were non-speech replicas of /ra/ and /la/. The behavioral and neuromagnetic results showed that Japanese listeners were less sensitive to the phonemic /r–l/ difference than American listeners. Furthermore, processing non-native speech sounds recruited significantly greater brain resources in both hemispheres and required a significantly longer period of brain activation in two regions, the superior temporal area and the inferior parietal area. The control stimuli showed no significant differences except that the duration effect in the superior temporal cortex also applied to the non-speech replicas. We argue that early exposure to a particular language produces a neural commitment to the acoustic properties of that language and that this neural commitment interferes with foreign language processing, making it less efficient.

III. Selected Talks & Conference Presentations

Zhang, Y. (2009). Neuroimaging studies of speech and voice perception: A cross-language perspective. Invited Symposium Speaker at The 13th International Conference on the Processing of East Asian Languages, Beijing, China.

Zhang, Y., Cheng, B., Zhang, J. (2009). Towards optimization of phonetic training for second language acquisition. The 13th International Conference on the Processing of East Asian Languages, Beijing, China.

Zhang, Y., Zhang, W. & Landsteiner, J. (2009). Towards productive language mapping: A magnetoencephalography (MEG) study of letter naming. Acoustical Society of America 2009 Meeting, Portland, Oregon.

Cheng, B. & Zhang, Y. (2009). The relationship between speech perception and production in second language learners. Acoustical Society of America 2009 Meeting, Portland, Oregon.

Koerner, T. & Zhang, Y. (2009). The effects of language experience on duration perception in speech. University of Minnesota Undergraduate Symposium. April 8, 2009, Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota.

Zhang, Y., Imada, T., Kawakatsu, M., Tanaka, K., Aoyama, A., Miller, S., & Nemoto, I. (2009). Speech, gender and emotion processing in spoken words. Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2009 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Rao, A., Zhang, Y. & Miller, S. The influence of competing stimuli on auditory selective attention: A behavioral and electrophysiogical study (2009) . Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2009 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Miller, S. & Zhang, Y. (2009). Neural Coding of Fricative Speech Sounds With and Without Hearing Aids. Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2009 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Zhang, Y. (2008). Plurality and plasticity of neural representation for speech sounds. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123, p. 3880 [abstract]. Paris, France.

Zhang, Y., Nie, Y., Imada, T., Tanaka, K. & Kawakatsu, M. (2008). MEG recordings of amplitude-modulated noise and tonal stimuli in healthy adult listeners. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123, 3718 [abstract]. Paris, France.

Zhang, Y., Imada, T., Lin, J.-f. L., Tanaka, K. & Kawakatsu, M. (2008). Neural coding of subjective duration for sounds with rising and falling temporal envelopes. Biomag 2008, Sapporo, Japan.

Zhang, Y., Imada, T., Tanaka, K. & Kawakatsu, M. (2008). Neural processing of exaggerated vowels: A Magnetoencephalography (MEG) study. Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Chicago, IL.

Zhang, Y. & Miller, S. (2008). Effects of Vowel Formant Exaggeration on Event-Related Potential Measures of Speech Perception. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Miller, S. & Zhang, Y. (2008). An Event-Related Potential Study of the Perceptual Magnet Effect in Speech Perception. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.