Near-infrared-spectroscopic study on processing of sounds in the brain; a comparison between native and non-native speakers of Japanese

Abstract

Conclusions The result suggested that mother tongue Japanese and non- mother tongue Japanese differ in their pattern of brain dominance when listening to sounds from the natural world—in particular, insect sounds. These results reveal significant support for previous findings from Tsunoda (in 1970).

Objectives This study concentrates on listeners who show clear evidence of a ‘speech’ brain vs a ‘music’ brain and determines which side is most active in the processing of insect sounds, using with near-infrared spectroscopy.

Methods The present study uses 2-channel Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to provide a more direct measure of left- and right-brain activity while participants listen to each of three types of sounds: Japanese speech, Western violin music, or insect sounds. Data were obtained from 33 participants who showed laterality on opposite sides for Japanese speech and Western music.

Results Results showed that a majority (80%) of the MJ participants exhibited dominance for insect sounds on the side that was dominant for language, while a majority (62%) of the non-MJ participants exhibited dominance for insect sounds on the side that was dominant for music.

Keywords:

• Brain dominance
• speech and hearing
• Japanese language
• mother tongue
• Tsunoda’s Theory
• Japanese brain
• near-infrared spectroscopy

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Funding information

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 21650145 and Grant in-aid from the National Hospital Organization, Japan.