Name:Maya Psaris

School/Affiliation:McMaster University

Co-Authors:Rafael Roman-Caballero, Mohammadreza Edalati, Bétania Georlette, Barbara Tillmann, Sahar Moghimi, Laurel Trainor

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Short Bio:

Phd student in Psychology at McMaster University

Abstract:

The ability to process auditory rhythms is fundamentally important for developing language, music and social skills. Previous EEG studies have shown that infants already exhibit neural tracking of the beat in auditory rhythms and display responses to deviants in regular auditory stimuli. Moreover, recent findings indicate that infants are more likely to look at a singer’s eyes at the times of strong beats of a song, enhancing social communication. Given the importance of rhythm in early development, we are comparing rhythm processing at 6 months of age in full-term born infants and in prematurely-born infants (age corrected), who experienced impoverished auditory environments in the NICU. Using EEG, we are measuring (1) infants’ neural tracking of two repeating rhythm patterns and (2) neural evidence of word segmentation based on statistical learning. Using eye-tracking, we are presenting infants with videos of infant-directed singing and speaking and measuring their looking to the eyes in relation to the strong beat of the songs and speech. We are collecting parent report questionnaires on language and social development. We predict differences in premature and full-term infants’ neural rhythm processing will be associated with how infants rhythmically synchronize their attention to faces of individuals singing and speaking, and that prematurely born infants will show worse neural rhythm tracking and rhythmic facial attention. Preliminary results show that full-term infants demonstrate stronger neural responses at beat and beat-related frequencies, and event-related responses to deviations in the rhythm. Findings will highlight the role of rhythm in early development.