Name:Lorena Morcone

School/Affiliation:McMaster University

Co-Authors:Rafael Román-Caballero, Maya Psaris, Betania Y. Georlette, Mohammadreza Edalati, Barbara Tillmann, Sahar Moghimi, Naiqi G. Xiao, Juan Lupiáñez, & Laurel J. Trainor

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Short Bio:

My name is Lorena Morcone, and I am a fourth-year student at McMaster University studying Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (Mental Health Specialization). I am currently doing my honour thesis under the supervision of Prof. Laurel Trainor. This past Summer, I spent two months in Italy conducting research at the University of Pavia, where I explored topics in cognitive and affective neuroscience with Prof. Laura Ferreri. My research interests include concussion and recovery, developmental psychology, music cognition, and understanding how the brain and behaviour interact. I am also a varsity athlete on the McMaster Women's Soccer Team, and I am passionate about combining my experiences in sport and science to better support mental health and performance in athletes.

Abstract:

Given the immature cognitive development of newborns, caregivers naturally engage with them in distinctive ways, using modified acoustic characteristics in their speech and singing compared to adult-directed productions. These early interactions play a crucial role in building emotional and social connections and language development, although the core aspects of such interactions between infants and caregivers remain understudied. Recent evidence suggests that the rhythm of infant-directed (ID) songs helps guide infants’ attention to emotionally and socially relevant facial regions. In fact, infants are more likely to look at the caregiver's eyes at the time of the strong beats of the song. In the present longitudinal study, we examined the extension of this phenomenon to ID speech, and also compared responses to ID speech and song in native and non-native languages with different rhythmic patterns (stress-timed vs. syllable-timed languages; i.e., English and Spanish) throughout the first year of life (at 4, 6, and 12 months of age). Eye tracking while infants watched videos of ID speaking and singing revealed that four-month-olds’ eye movements were entrained to temporal regularities in both ID songs and ID speech, in native and non-native languages. Time histograms showed that infants were more likely to look at the eyes during strong beats/stressed vowels. In addition, we observed oculomotor tracking of the ID productions with temporal response function (TRF) models (using envelope, spectral flux, and beat/stressed syllables as predictors in separate models). Interestingly, eye-looking entrainment and TRF accuracy became more pronounced with ID songs at 6 months, but less so with ID speech. Finally, eye-tracker measures at 6 months were assessed in relation to electroencephalography measures of meter perception at that age. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of auditory and visual rhythmic entrainment in early language acquisition and social-affective skills.