Thermodynamic Observation

The two studies by Dehaene-Lambertz, Dehaene, and Hertz-Pannier (2002), as well as, Homae, Watanabe, and Taga (2014) will be compared. The studies measure the perception of speech sounds in the infant brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Each set of researchers collected data from young infants around 3 months. Different qualities of sound were presented to the infants in order to measure the activation of certain structures in the brain. The hemodynamic responses to different qualities of sound allowed the two sets of researchers to determine the general functions of the different areas of the infant brain while perceiving speech. The presentation of speech sounds activated the left temporal lobe and the frontal regions.
Homae et al. (2014) looked at the second step in linguistic processing in the developing infant brain. Their study is important because they prove that infants take in more information than is generally
Most of the structures in the infant brain correspond in the adult brain. This alludes that, the infant brain, while it is still growing and changing, is already starting to specialize at just 3 months. A network is starting to form in order to perceive the speech information. In the future, there needs to be more research done on what each of these parts of the brain specifically do to function in perceiving speech. This will help to understand how the infant brain starts to understand speech and