Recent studies demonstrated neural systems in bilateral fronto-temporal brain areas
in newborns specialized to extract linguistic structure from speech. We hypothesized
that these mechanisms show additional sensitivity when identically structured different
pseudowords are used communicatively in a turn-taking exchange by two speakers. In
an fNIRS experiment newborns heard pseudowords sharing ABB repetition structure in
three conditions: two voices turn-takingly exchanged different pseudowords (Communicative);
the different pseudowords were produced by a (Single Speaker); two voices turn-takingly
repeated identical pseudowords (Echoing). Here we show that left fronto-temporal regions
(including Broca’s area) responded more to the Communicative than the other conditions.
The results demonstrate that newborns’ left hemisphere brain areas show additional
activation when various pseudowords sharing identical structure are exchanged in turn-taking
alternation by two speakers. This indicates that language processing brain areas at
birth are not only sensitive to the structure but to the functional use of language:
communicative information transmission. Newborns appear to be equipped not only with
innate systems to identify the structural properties of language but to identify its
use, communication itself, that is, information exchange between third party social
agents—even outside of the mother–infant dyad.
