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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Lang. Sci.
Sec. Neurobiology of Language
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/flang.2024.1403080

No Clear Benefit of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation For Non-Native Speech Sound Learning

Provisionally accepted
Claire T. Honda Claire T. Honda 1,2*Neha Bhutani Neha Bhutani 3Meghan Clayards Meghan Clayards 1,2Shari R. Baum Shari R. Baum 1,2
  • 1 McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • 2 Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, Montreal, Canada
  • 3 Revai, Montreal, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Learning to understand and speak a new language can be challenging and discouraging for adults. One potential tool for improving learning is transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS), which modulates perception, memory, and attention systems. It has recently been reported that taVNS can improve English speakers' ability to perceive unfamiliar Mandarin tones. The current project explored the potential benefits of taVNS for language learning beyond tone perception. We studied adults' ability to perceive and produce unfamiliar speech sounds as well as any potential change in language learning motivation from pre-to post-training. Forty-five native English speakers were divided into three groups and were trained to perceive German sounds: one group received stimulation during easier-to-learn sounds (vowels), one group received stimulation during harder-to-learn sounds (fricatives), and a control group received no stimulation. We did not find evidence that taVNS improved perception or production of the German sounds, but there was evidence that it did improve some aspects of motivation. Specifically, the group that received taVNS during easier sounds showed a decrease in feelings of tension/pressure about language learning, while the other groups did not. Overall, the present study does not find that taVNS holds benefits for the acquisition of new speech sounds; however, the field is nascent, and so the potential applications of taVNS for language learning remain to be clarified.

    Keywords: Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation, phonetic perception, non-native perception, Speech perception training, phonetic production, language learning motivation

    Received: 18 Mar 2024; Accepted: 08 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Honda, Bhutani, Clayards and Baum. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Claire T. Honda, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.