Neural phase angle from two months when tracking speech and non-speech rhythm linked to language performance from 12 to 24  months

Brain Lang. 2023 Jul 1;243:105301. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105301. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTAtypical phase alignment of low-frequency neural oscillations to speech rhythm has been implicated in phonological deficits in developmental dyslexia. Atypical phase alignment to rhythm could thus also characterize infants at risk for later language difficulties. Here, we investigate phase-language mechanisms in a neurotypical infant sample. 122 two-, six- and nine-month-old infants were played speech and non-speech rhythms while EEG was recorded in a longitudinal design. The phase of infants' neural oscillations aligned consistently to the stimuli, with group-level convergence towards a common phase. Individual low-frequency phase alignment related to subsequent measures of language acquisition up to 24 months of age. Accordingly, individual differences in language acquisition are related to the phase alignment of cortical tracking of auditory and audiovisual rhythms in infancy, an automatic neural mechanism. Automatic rhythmic phase-language mechanisms could eventually serve as biomarkers, identifying at-risk infants and enabling intervention at the earliest stages of development.PMID:37399686 | DOI:10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105301

Source: Brain and Language - July 3, 2023 Category: Neurology Authors: Áine Ní Choisdealbha Adam Attaheri Sinead Rocha Natasha Mead Helen Olawole-Scott Perrine Brusini Samuel Gibbon Panagiotis Boutris Christina Grey Declan Hines Isabel Williams Sheila A Flanagan Usha Goswami Source Type: research