Event-related Potentials Associated with Second Language Learning in Children

Objective: In this study, we investigated learning-related changes in auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) of Finnish-speaking 3-6-year-old children caused by learning French language.

Methods: Using an oddball paradigm, ERPs to sounds of French language were recorded in the two groups of healthy children: those who were learning French (experimental group) and those who were not learning any foreign language (control peers).

Results: When the children from the experimental group were exposed to the foreign language, they automatically developed French-specific memory traces that helped them to discriminate, categorize, and pronounce utterances of the new language as indicated by the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the ERPs in a previous study. We found that the learning process was also reflected by changes in P3a and late difference negativity (LDN) responses. Unlike MMN and P3a, the LDN has been discovered relatively recently and its functional role remains unclear. Similarly, as the MMN magnitude increased during the learning process, an increase of the P3a (known to reflect the involuntary attention switching toward deviant stimuli) and LDN amplitudes was observed. The ERPs of the control peers did not change significantly over the test period.

Conclusions: When phonemes of a foreign language are learned, this process is accompanied with the increase in the MMN, P3a, and LDN amplitudes in children. Though the functional significance of LDN remains to be further investigated, our results support its possible link to reorienting processes following distraction.