Date of Graduation
5-2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science Education
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Health, Human Performance and Recreation
Advisor/Mentor
Bowers, Andrew
Committee Member/Reader
Hagstrom, Fran
Committee Member/Second Reader
Aslin, Larry W.
Abstract
The comprehension and understanding of language depends upon two critical things: first, the acoustic integrity of the linguistic signal that is sent and received as well as the knowledge of the phonology and meaning that is in a given language. However, little is known about how brain rhythms that track these properties involved in comprehension and understanding. A 14 channel telemetric headset measuring electroencephalography (EEG) was used in this study to track the brain’s response at both high (30-50Hz) and low frequencies (3-30Hz) while language samples at varying levels of intelligibility were presented to a native Spanish speaker under the following listening conditions: Arabic forward, Arabic reversed, Portuguese forward, Portuguese reversed, Spanish forward and Spanish reversed. Results showed that conditions in which language was comprehended were associated with differences at both high and low frequencies in left and right hemisphere electrodes. A condition in which participants partially understood the intended message (i.e., Portuguese) showed differences from native language listening at high frequencies. Findings are discussed with respect to current theoretical accounts of oscillatory function in speech and language processing along with recent findings.
Citation
Stewart, L. N. (2014). EEG measurement of neural oscillations at high and low frequencies across languages. Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/hhpruht/6
