Figure 5

ITPL effects to the /pt-pət/ and /st-sət/ contrasts, passive condition. (a) The top row depicts, for the Polish group in the passive condition, significantly different ITPL values to the /pt-pət/ comparison in the high-theta band (max 8 Hz, 0–350 ms, p = 0.004) and the low-theta band (3–6 Hz, max 4 Hz, 50–350 ms, p = 0.028), from the same ACP2-L source. On the far right (top row), red masking depicts larger ITPL values in response to /pt/ in high-theta and blue masking depicts larger ITPL in response to /pət/ in low-theta, reflecting phase locking in select time–frequency bands for different phonological sequences. The bottom row in (a) shows a similar ITPL pattern for the English group to each onset sequence, however, differences were not significant. (b) Images show the ITPL values to the /st-sət/ comparison from the ACP2-L source, for the Polish (top) and the English (bottom) groups, also for the passive condition. For each group, ITPL values differed, significantly, only in high-theta (Polish: max 8 Hz, 200–400 ms, p = 0.042; English: max 6, 6–10 Hz, 0–400 ms, p = 0.014). Notice in the difference images on the far right, that for both language groups, larger ITPL values in high-theta are in response to the /sət/ onset syllable (blue masking). This is a different pattern than for the /pt-pət/ contrast, which found larger ITPL values in high-theta to the consonant cluster /pt/. See text.