Mismatch negativity and late discriminative negativity in investigating speech perception and learning in children and infants

For decades, behavioral methods, such as the head-turning or sucking paradi gms, have been the primary tools to investigate speech perception and learn ing of a language in infancy. Recently, however, new methods provided by ev ent-related potentials have emerged. These are called mismatch negativity ( MMN) and late discriminative negativity (LDN). MMN, the brain's automatic c hange-detection response in audition, has been intensively used in adults i n both basic and clinical studies for longer than 20 years. LDN, on the oth er hand, was only recently discovered. There seem to be many differences be tween these two responses. MMN is developmentally quite stable and can be o btained even from preterm infants. LDN, however, can be obtained most relia bly from young children, and its amplitude decreases as a function of age. New data suggest that both of these responses have a special role in langua ge processing, although both of them can also be elicited by nonspeech stim uli. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.