Patricia K. Kuhl - US grants

Recent research in this laboratory has demonstrated that 4-month-old infants recognize the correspondence between auditorially and visually presented speech sounds. They recognize that particular sounds emanate from mouths moving in particular ways, thus demonstrating one of the components of "lip-reading" in adults. This ability has important implications for the development of sensory and perceptual processing, particularly of speech, in normal infants. The experiments proposed here extend our research on auditory-visual speech perception in infants in four ways. First, the research examines the extent of the effect, extending the experiments to more difficult examples. Second, it examines the development of the effect, extending the age range tested to under three weeks of age. Third, the proposal examines the basis of the effect, testing whether infants recognize auditory-visual correspondences when complex nonspeech sounds are used. Fourth, it examines the nature of the interaction in auditory-visual speech perception, using experiments that probe the nature of the metric by which optic and acoustic information for speech is equated. At a theoretical level, the experimental outcomes are directly relevant to models of speech perception and vocal learning in infancy and should also enrich our understanding of social and cognitive development in normal infants. The data may also impact our understanding and treatment strategies for infants born deaf or blind.

Research in this laboratory has demonstrated that 4-month-old infants recognize the correspondence between auditorially and visually presented speech sounds. They recognize that particular sounds emanate from mouths moving in particular ways, thus demonstrating one of the components of "lip-reading." Our current work shows that infants also relate nonspeech sounds to faces producing speech, and base this on their knowledge of speech. This finding led to the development of a hypothesis that accounts for our results of infants' cross-modal speech perception. The experiments proposed here extend our tests in four ways. First, following our new hypothesis, we continue studies on the basis of the effect, manipulating the visual stimuli (i.e., the faces) in these experiments. Second, we extend the studies on the development of the effect to include infants (1-14 months of age), children (3-year-olds), and adults. Third, we will initiate studies assessing the effects of visually presented rate-of-speech information. Fourth, using a new technique that isolates "parts" of faces, we explore auditory-visual "illusions" (the McGurk effect) in both adults and infants. The experimental outcomes are directly relevant to theories of speech perception and its development, as well as to theories of cognitive development. The data may also impact our understanding and treatment strategies for deaf of blind infants.

The perception of speech is typically considered a solely auditory phenomenon. However, research in this lab and others shows that the perception of speech does not lie solely in the province of audition. Visible speech information (the sight of a talker's mouth movements) strongly influences the perception of speech in adult listeners. Moreover, our work has shown that connections between the audible and visible products of articulation are present very early in life; infants only 18 weeks old can relate the auditory consequences of speech to the visible movements that cause it. During the last funding period our studies have focused on the form of the auditory and visual speech information at the point of cross-modal integration. We show that: (a) at the point of auditory-visual conflux speech information has not been phonetically classified; it is still in a precategorical form, (b) very discrepant auditory and visual speech information can be combined, such as when a male's face is combined with a female's voice, and (c) that attentional mechanisms influence auditory-visual speech perception. We also show that in order to link auditory and visual speech information, infants need, on the auditory side, the whole speech signal. The work has led to the formation of a new hypothesis that generates the programmatic series of studies proposed here. The hypothesis is that auditory-visual speech information is mapped on to language-specific stored representations of phonetic units ("prototypes") that instantiate both the auditory and visual concomitants of speech sounds. In the next funding period, we focus on three themes: (a) auditory-visual prototypes for speech - we will test the notion that speech prototypes include information about articulation that is visually specified, (b) cross-language studies of speech prototypes - we will investigate the influence of specific language experience on the representation of speech units by studying adults from two countries (America and Japan), and (c) development of speech prototypes in infants and young children - we will explore the formation and nature of speech representations in ontogeny. The proposed research has implications for theories of speech perception, more general theories of cognitive categorization, models of human development, and the clinical concerns of deaf and blind populations.

Duplex perception is a laboratory phenomenon where one stimulus or stimulus component simultaneously contributes to two distinct percepts in human listeners. The primary demonstrations of this phenomenon involve altering the quality of a critical component of a speech syllable (/da/ or /ga/) so that the component is heard as a separate, nonspeech event (a chirp) while also contributing to the perception of the syllable. The important question is whether this demonstration reflects a specialized mode for processing speech information, or a generalized perceptual tendency in the auditory system for attributing stimuli to a particular sound source. Many speech perception phenomena can be replicated in nonhuman primates. The perceptual abilities that monkeys demonstrate cannot be attributed to uniquely human speech processing mechanisms and may be due to more general auditory mechanisms. Conversely, perceptual tasks on which human listeners succeed and monkeys fail are good potential candidates for special-processing mechanisms in humans. Tests of duplex perception are valuable for theory construction because they provide a critical test of the two opposing models of the initial status of the mechanisms underlying speech processing in humans. In 1998 we conducted duplex perception tests with macaques, using synthetic /da/ and /ga/ syllables as stimuli. FUNDING NIH grants RR00166 and D C00520.

During the last 40 years, debate on the origins of language has featured two theoretically dichotomous positions, one that language is largely innately specified, and another, that language is explicitly learned. Recent advances in our understanding of language development take us beyond assertions that language is either instinctual or learned, and teach us something about the actual steps involved in infants' acquisition of a particular language. The data show that biological predispositions and the ability to acquire information through exposure to language are inextricably intertwined. More important than the "interactionist" view this reflects are the details of the findings themselves, revealing how infants move from one level to another, acquiring novel information from exposure to language, using strategies we had not predicted. Data from this laboratory show that in the earliest periods of development, infant perception is structured in a way that greatly assists speech perception, demonstrating a rich initial structure that supports language. Moreover, our cross-language studies show that once experience occurs, infants display an extraordinary ability to acquire the unique properties of a specific language. We show that exposure to a particular language alters infant perception early and in an interesting way. Perception is dynamically restructured as infants "map" the phonetic parameters of their native language. These new data prompted Kuhl to articulate a new theory called the Native Language Magnet theory. It has begun to have an impact within speech and language, as well as in broader areas, including child development, neuroscience, neurobiology, and computational modeling. The theory acts as the background framework for the studies in this proposal. Four converging lines of research are proposed to test the theory and further advance our knowledge of infant speech development: (a) developmental change in infant speech perception, examining the transition in speech perception that occurs between 6 and 12 months; (b) brain correlates (MMN) of speech perception in 6-12 month old infants, (c) analysis of language input to infants, examining the phonetic content of infant-directed speech in detail, and (d) plasticity for phonetic information in infancy, studies that examine the impact of exposure to a foreign-language to assess whether, when, and how infants' sensitivity to new phonetic information changes with age and linguistic experience. The four converging lines of research should produce data that not only address specific theories of speech and language development, but more general theories of the interface between biology and culture.

Language and communication impairments are key components of autism. Our laboratory has been conducting studies on preschool age children with autism examining early aspects of language processing. These studies have revealed critical differences in phonetic discrimination, social communication, and crossmodal processing between preschool age children with autism and mental-age and chronological-age matched groups of developmentally delayed (DD) and typically developing children. As these measures reflect abilities that emerge during infancy, these results signal the potential of early speech measures for identifying children with autism at a very young age. Furthermore, it is possible that these early measures of language and communication ability may prove to be very sensitive predictors of language outcome for children with autism. In the current proposal, we plan to examine these early speech measures - namely, (1) event-related brain potential measures of phonetic perception, (2) listening preference for speech versus mechanical-sounding auditory signals, and (3) vocal imitation abilities - in 18-24 month children with autism, and comparison groups of children with DD and typical development to determine whether such measures discriminate children with autism at an early age. Furthermore, we will assess their value in explaining individual differences and predicting language outcome at age 4 for children with autism.

LIFE abstract

The purpose of the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center it to understand and advance human learning through a simultaneous focus on implicit, informal, and formal learning, thereby cultivating generalizable interdisciplinary theories that guide the design of effective new learning technologies and environments. The investigators argue that, given the complexity of learning phenomena and the disparate levels of analysis that can be used to study learning, a transformed science of learning will not come about by proceeding with "research as usual." Their plan is to bring experts together from research traditions that have tended to work separately rather than collaboratively. The expertise in the Center spans neurobiological, psychological, and social/cultural approaches as well as pioneering work in augmenting human learning through innovative technology and new media tools. The investigators hope to encourage productive conceptual collisions by deliberately juxtaposing the different traditions' prevailing assumptions, theories, and methodologies. These collisions are designed to spark efforts toward creating a coherent, integrated perspective that is theoretically sound and has clear and far-reaching implications for improving people's abilities to learn.

A central premise of the LIFE Center is that successful efforts to understand and propel learning require a simultaneous emphasis on informal and formal (e.g., K-16) learning environments, and on the implicit ways in which people learn. The basic research will be conducted through three intersecting and multidisciplinary strands of inquiry. The first strand, Implicit Learning and the Brain, will document learning in the brain over the lifespan and discover from empirical and modeling work the underlying neural processes and principles associated with implicit forms of learning in the domains of cognitive, linguistic, and social learning. The second strand, Informal Learning, will conduct studies of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math learning in informal settings to develop comprehensive and coordinated accounts of the cognitive, social, affective, and cultural dimensions that propel learning and development outside of school. The third strand, Designs for Formal Learning and Beyond, will conduct experimental studies of theory-based principles for the design of high-quality learning environments. A major focus of the cognitive component of the strand will involve theories and measures of transfer -- the ability to enter an unanticipated setting with the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to make sense of the structure of a problem, to locate and use relevant resources, and to reflect on one's efforts so as to learn to "work smarter." The investigators also propose to initiate a line of technology projects that would proceed in concert with the theoretical work on transfer. This strand will place special emphasis on studying powerful roles for new technologies.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Language is a hallmark of human beings. In the last 50 years, debates on language have given way to a new view of the process by which humans acquire language. One catalyst for theoretical change has been empirical studies on infants. In the last decade, researchers have not only charted when infants acquire knowledge about the properties of their native language, but how they do so, and this has caused a revision in linguistic and psychological theories. New research focuses on the phonetic units of speech, the consonants and vowels that form building blocks for words. Key advances from this laboratory are cross- language data showing that infants learn from exposure to language in the earliest periods of development and that this alters speech perception to assist language learning. Moreover, our studies show that early speech predicts later language, and that the clarity of mothers' infant-directed speech is linked to infants' speech perception abilities. Finally, brain measures on infants and adults listening to language suggest that, during early development, the infant brain "neurally commits" to the patterns of native language speech and that this both promotes future language learning as well as the decline in nonnative speech perception that occurs at the end of the first year of life. This work on early speech perception is impacting child development, neuroscience, neurobiology, and computational modeling. The early speech measures developed as a part of this project are being used in the study of developmental disabilities including autism, and may provide an early marker of the disability. The data prompted an extension of the Native Language Magnet model to incorporate neural commitment as the mechanism for developmental change. This theoretical position provides the background and framework for the studies in this proposal. Four converging lines of research are proposed to test the theory and further advance our knowledge of infant speech development: (a) speech perception development and its impact on language; (b) the brain correlates of early speech and language development, (c) the role of language input to children, and (d) brain plasticity and the "critical period" for language acquisition. The research will produce data that address theories of speech and language development and more general theories of the interface between biology and culture. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

The overall UW ACE proposal is centered on a comprehensive developmental model of risk, risk processes, symptom emergence, and adaptation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). According to this model, early autism risk factors (genetic/familial and environmental) lead to risk processes, namely altered patterns of interaction between the child and his/her environment, which contribute to the abnormal development of neural circuitry and atypical behaviors. Project III has two broad goals: in a study of infant siblings of children with autism, we will (1) determine the predictive validity of measures of early prelinguistic abilities as risk indices for language impairment and ASD, and (2) examine the influence of early intervention on the development of speech perception, speech preferences, and acquisition of speech in infants at risk for ASD. Our studies of early speech perception have demonstrated predictive relationships between the proposed measures of basic language perception/production and later measures of language and vocabulary in typically developing (TD) infants. In addition, our studies of preschool age children found critical differences in measures of phonetic discrimination and social communication between children with ASD and children with typical development and developmental delay. Based on converging lines of research with TD children and children with ASD, the proposed measures of speech production and linguistic and social responsiveness to speech are hypothesized to be extremely sensitive to the degree of risk for autism. This project directly addresses goals outlined in the NIH Autism Research Matrix: (1) Identification of the biological and/or behavioral risk indices in infancy for the development of autism and autism-related symptoms, such as language and social impairments;(2) identification of individual characteristics that predict response to behavioral treatment;and (3) provision of evidence that cases of autism might be secondarily prevented through early identification and early treatment. It will also impact theories of speech and language development, and general theories of developmental neuroscience. The methods available to this laboratory, and the set of questions posed to examine infant speech development, form a broad and very powerful set of tools to advance our knowledge in these fields.

This is a proposal to advance interdisciplinary work in cognitive psychology and neuroscience by providing funds for travel and a workshop to train investigators and graduate students in the use of MEG (Magnetoencephalography) technology prior to the delivery and installation of new MEG equipment at the LIFE center at the University of Washington in Seattle. Travel will be to the Low Temperature and BioMag Laboratories at the Helsinki University of Technology, centers of MEG expertise in Helsinki, Finland.

Investigators at the labs in Helsinki and in Seattle have collaborated to develop novel uses of MEG applicable to the study of learning, and appropriate head-tracking techniques to allow whole-brain imaging studies in awake infants who are engaged in cognitive tasks such as learning. MEG is the only currently available whole-brain imaging technology that is appropriate for use with awake infants.

The primary area of study is first and second language learning in infants. Behavioral studies have established that the brains of very young babies begin to specialize in the ambient language between 6 and 12 months of age. The purpose of the MEG studies will be to track exactly what is going on in the brains of infants undergoing this specialization process, as either monolinguals or bilinguals.

The request of $45,000 for one year is to support travel to Helsinki by investigators from six Science of Learning Centers, plus two graduate students from the University of Washington, and to support an international workshop in Helsinki on MEG technology to be called "MEG as a Tool for the Learning Sciences." The workshop is to be organized by the PI and associates from the LIFE Center at the University of Washington.

Proposal NSF 0835854: The LIFE Center
ABSTRACT

This is a proposal to renew the LIFE Center, situated at the University of Washington in Seattle, a multi-university, multi-year, interdisciplinary project devoted to the study of social factors in learning, an underappreciated element of the science of learning. Now concluding its 5th year of support, the center proposes to continue its efforts "to develop and test principles about the social foundations of human learning in informal and formal environments, including how people learn to innovate in contemporary society, with the goal of enhancing human learning from infancy to adulthood."

Among the research projects to be pursued during the next phase of investigation are (1) social factors in language learning--especially in infants, (2) new designs to enhance learning via media and technology by identifying and utilizing social interaction and "social belief", the perception that one is interacting with a human being, whether or not this is true, (3) effects on learning of social identity and stereotyping, (4) social practices in science learning, including an anthropological study of informal science learning in social settings, (5) new views of and efforts to enhance expertise, transfer and assessment, (6) social practices in the workplace that foster learning, and (7) the importance of informal teaching by parents, peers and mentors.

In addition to demonstrating strong effects of social factors on learning, the researchers in LIFE will pursue answers to the overall theoretical question: "What is it about the social that powerfully enhances learning?"

More than just a research center, LIFE participants are also committed to the education of undergraduates, graduate students and post-docs; to increasing diversity among faculty, students and future scientists; and to the transfer of research results to practice in education and workplaces.

As societies become progressively knowledge-intensive, they increasingly rely on human capabilities to learn and innovate. How each nation's education system prepares or fails to prepare its citizenry to meet these challenges are topics of global interest. A primary driver of educational innovation is basic research focused on how humans learn. The challenge is how to more effectively use research about how people learn to inform educational practice, and conversely, how to use knowledge and experience gained from educational practice to raise questions that test and refine research being conducted on learning.
This award will enable US researchers to participate in the OECD conference on Innovation in Education: Connecting how we learn to educational practice and policy research evidence and implications. In addition, these researchers will be able to participate in a scientific symposium on Neuroimaging and advances in Learning research, to be held just prior to the OECD conference.
The Intellectual merit and broader impacts of the two separate, but related activities include the following: 1) it will bring together an international group of researchers, practitioners and policymakers for discussions about key scientific findings that have implications for educational practice and policy creating an understanding of the value of learning research and its impacts on social and economic priorities; 2) It will foster the development of an international network of researchers, practitioners and policy makers to continue the dialogue after the meeting. Continued engagement will enable US researchers and educators to examine models of learning and teaching that have proven successful in other countries. An understanding of the essential elements that can be tested, developed and adapted for use will be of benefit to US researchers and educators; 3) enable the US researchers attending the scientific symposium to develop new collaborations with European leaders in neuroimaging and learning research, and to create international opportunities for training of US students.

This proposal supports the participation of US researchers in an international gathering of scientists, educational practitioners and policy makers. This award supports a series of 3 international meetings of scientists that are jointly sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The set of planned conferences include: (a) a Science of Learning Symposium hosted by Shanghai Institute of Neuroscience that will highlight research from the US Science of Learning Centers to explore areas of common or complementary interests with other participants from Asia and Europe, (b) a day for informal interactive activities among researchers and UNESCO representatives to discuss specific case studies and their links to relevant research; (c) the OECD/UNESCO/NSF meeting which is centered around discussion of advances in research about learning and their implications for educational practice and policy; and (d) a Learning Symposium hosted by East China Normal University (ECNU), Shanghai Normal University, and the University of Hong Kong which will provide an even broader presentation of work by Chinese researchers.

Learning is an important research topic with broad societal impacts. The proposed activities promote advances in research and researchers' ability to address educational challenges by: 1) bringing together an international group of researchers to integrate their understanding of learning across disciplinary boundaries; (2) to discuss and to disseminate scientific knowledge about learning in ways that are accessible and meaningful to educational practitioners and policy makers; and (3) promote collaborations among these disparate communities that would lead to more effective integration of scientific findings to future innovations in education and policy. The opportunity for sharing ideas, successes and failures across countries will facilitate new thinking and new partnerships to better address the challenges faced in education. Broader impacts of the proposed activities include: (1) the development, adoption and adaptation of effective models of learning and/or teaching that have proven successful in various countries, (2) establishment of new international research collaborations on learning that integrate knowledge across disciplinary perspectives to advance methods and theory, (3) create a better understanding of the value of learning research among policymakers, practitioners, and broader audiences across countries, and (4) promote more stable partnerships to facilitate reciprocal exchanges between research and practice.

As societies become progressively knowledge-intensive, they increasingly rely on human capabilities to learn and innovate. How each nation's education system succeeds or fails to prepare its citizenry to meet these challenges are topics of domestic and global interest. Learning and innovation are critical to the broader concerns of human and national development and the capacity of a nation to compete in a world of globalized economies and labor markets. A primary driver of educational innovation is basic research focused on how humans learn. The challenge is: how to more effectively use research about how people learn to inform educational policy and practice, and conversely, how to use knowledge and experience gained from educational practice to raise questions that test and refine research being conducted on learning. Dr. Patricia Kuhl proposes an international meeting on July 5-6, 2015 as a two-day Satellite Symposium to the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) 2015 World Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This meeting is expected to (1) foster the development, adoption. and adaptation of effective models of teaching that have proven successful in various countries, (2) establish new international research collaborations on learning that are interdisciplinary to advance methods and theory, (3) create an understanding of the value of learning research among policymakers and broader audiences across countries, and (4) create an understanding of the two-way street that exists between research and practice in the learning sciences. Sharing ideas and successes across countries offers the rare opportunity for a global community to be exposed to entirely new ways of thinking about the future of education.

The objective of the meeting is to connect more deeply research studies on learning to educational policies and practice, in the belief that interactions and long-term partnerships between neuroscientists and educators (a "network of networks") will promote work that will alter educational practices worldwide. Specifically, this meeting will: (1) bring together an international group of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to deepen the connections between scientific research and policy and practice in education; (2) promote exchanges between neuroscientists and educators to foster action and work that will alter educational practices worldwide; and, (3) ignite interactions that lead to new research collaborations and opportunities to connect research to educational outcomes. The symposium is expected to facilitate interactivity among the U.S. researchers, researchers from South America and around the world, and education practitioners and policymakers, to stimulate the development of next generation instrumentation in multi-user facilities that will improve the measurement of brain responses during learning, and to develop theories with interdisciplinary input that will explain why particular approaches to learning are successful and promote an understanding of the basic brain mechanisms that underlie learning.

With support from the NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program to the University of Washington (UW), Drs. Geoffrey M. Boynton in the Psychology Department and Patricia K. Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, will purchase a Siemens MAGNETOM Prisma 3-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner for human neuroimaging research. MRI is the primary tool for investigating the human brain. This instrument will be shared and available for scientists from a wide range of departments including Psychology, Speech and Hearing, Radiology, Psychiatry and Computer Science. This state-of-the-art device has four functions for studying the human brain: structural imaging, functional imaging, diffusion weighted imaging and magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy. Structural imaging is using the MRI scanner to acquire images of brain structure which can be used to study, for example, how the brain structure differs across different populations, or how age and experience affect the growth of the human brain. Functional imaging, or "functional magnetic resonance imaging, (fMRI)" is used to measure where and when brain activity occurs as human subjects perform a task or experience sensory stimulation. fMRI relies on the MRI scanner's ability to measure changes in the level of oxygenated vs. deoxygenated blood that are caused by changes in brain activity. Diffusion weighted imaging can detect the major neuronal pathways in the brain by measuring the way in which water molecules naturally diffuse along these pathways. Finally, MR spectroscopy measures the levels of neurotransmitter concentration, such as the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA throughout the brain. Different levels of GABA have been found to vary, for example, between subjects with autism and neurotypical subjects.

This new MRI scanner will be the primary device for studying a wide range of human neuroscience problems. These include studies of linguistic function and dysfunction, cognition, developmental cognitive neuroscience, sensory neuroscience, neurological disorders, and studies of social cognition including autism. The four functions described above will be used to study a wide variety of subjects including children, adolescents, subjects with autism, attention deficit disorder (ADD), Alzheimer's, blindness, dyslexia, and Parkinson's disease. For example, fMRI will be used to study the brain's response while subjects with ADD attempt to ignore a visual stimulus. In another example, diffusion MRI will be used to study changes in prefrontal executive function networks in children during language development. The new scanner will form the centerpiece of a thriving and growing human interdisciplinary neuroscience community and will further strengthen an existing culture of training in neuroimaging data acquisition and analysis methods. Through a program of courses and hands-on training, we will provide the training that is needed for students and postdocs across all disciplines to master the advanced imaging techniques necessary to launch successful independent careers in the human neurosciences.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.