Magnetic mismatch fields elicited by vowel duration and pitch changes in Japanese words in humans: comparison between native- and non-speakers of Japanese

Previous event-related brain potential research showed that mismatch negativity was elicited by phoneme contrasts in fluent second language (L2) learners, but not in non-speakers of L2. The present study tested whether the magnetic mismatch field (MMF) would be elicited in response to temporal and spectral changes in three Japanese synthesized words for both native- and non-speakers of Japanese. Magnetoencephalography responses were recorded with a dual 37-channel gradiometer. Unlike short-to-long vowel duration and falling-to-level pitch changes, long-to-short duration and level-to-falling pitch changes elicited a prominent MMF bilaterally for both groups, peaking at around 100 ms after change onset for duration and 200 ms for pitch. The MMF component is sensitive to vowel shortening rather than lengthening and to pitch falling rather than leveling. Automatic detection of changes in vowel shortening and pitch falling is a useful index of language-non-specific auditory memory traces. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.