Áine Ní Choisdealbha, Adam Attaheri, Sinead Rocha, Natasha Mead, Helen Olawole-Scott, Maria Alfaro E Oliveira, Carmel Brough, Perrine Brusini, Samuel Gibbon, Panagiotis Boutris, Christina Grey, Isabel Williams, Sheila Flanagan, Usha Goswami
It is known that the rhythms of speech are visible on the face, accurately mirroring changes in the vocal tract. These low-frequency visual temporal movements are tightly correlated with speech output, and both visual speech (e.g., mouth motion) and the acoustic speech amplitude envelope entrain neural oscillations. Low-frequency visual temporal information ('visual prosody') is known from behavioural studies to be perceived by infants, but oscillatory studies are currently lacking. Here we measure cortical tracking of low-frequency visual temporal information by 5- and 8-month-old infants using a rhythmic speech paradigm (repetition of the syllable 'ta' at 2 Hz)...
March 14, 2024: Developmental Science